INSOMNIAC

Chapter 12:a

Verity waited rather impatiently outside Tamara's office. She had been talking with Tyson for over half an hour, and Verity wanted to know what was so important about their conversation that she couldn't be present. For what seemed like the millionth time, Verity shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Footsteps started coming towards her, and after a minute, the new boy came around a corner.

"Oh, hi," he greeted. "I'm looking for Tamara, they said that she should be here?" Verity nodded.

"She's still busy though. I'm waiting for her too."

"Oh," Loki seemed a little crestfallen, but his mood brightened almost straight away. "Well, in that case, I'm Loki!"

"I know," Verity said while putting out her hand for him to shake, slightly amused. "I'm Verity. Pleasure to meet you, Loki." Loki smiled and grabbed her hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," he said. The door opened behind the two, and Tamara stepped out with Tyson.

"Loki, Verity," She greeted. "Tyson here was just leaving. Do you mind escorting him to the exit while I talk with Loki, Verity? Come here straight after though." Verity nodded and beckoned for Tyson to follow. They walked in tense silence for a few minutes, but Tyson broke it.

"Whatever I did, I'm sorry Verity. I know what I did now was out of hand, because you trusted me not to come. But I just had to try." Verity nodded, still looking forward without looking at Tyson. Another few minutes went by with silence, so Tyson tried again.

"When did you get time to draw all those drawings?" He asked. Verity stopped walking.

"I do them when I can't sleep." She looked at him, and Tyson saw for the first time since he was there what she looked like. Her face was quite normal, but probably to the makeup that was plastered on to hide it. In her eyes, he could see exhaustion and strain from sleeplessness and training. Tyson examined her in worry.

"You don't look quite well, Verity. Do they have a doctor here by any chance?" Verity nodded and started walking towards the gate again.

"I've been given medication. But thanks for the concern."

-

Verity bid farewell to Tyson and made her way back to Tamara's office. When she got there, Loki was long gone, and only a slightly bored Tamara sat at the desk. Verity closed the door behind her when she went in and took a seat at her desk.

"I have to admit to you Verity, I haven't told you everything about our powers," Tamara said, her demeanor changing from board to serious. "There are different classifications on the lists. Your most common people with powers are called the sub-elementals. They are generally the ones who develop their powers later in life, the ones experimented on, like you, and the offspring of the greater ones with power, which are the elemental powers. The elemental powers are the most powerful people with powers, and they have the full power of an element and can sometimes have the sub-powers of another element. Now if you wanted to know, I only know of two elemental powers, which are Tyson and myself. Tyson being fire and me being earth. Now as you've probably seen, there are even more classes within the sub-elemental class. You get the more powerful ones like Alvin, which usually can manipulate many different elements and do things unrelated to the elemental powers. You get people in the middle class which can usually manipulate or create certain parts of an element, like you. You can manipulate and create electricity, which is part of the sky element. You can also do things unrelated to the elemental powers, so, therefore, you are placed in the middle, because the least powerful sub-elementals can only manipulate or create a part of an element. You also get other categories like the non-elemental, which is like the new recruit, Loki. He can heal and run fast, which has nothing to do with the elemental powers."

Tamara stopped speaking for a brief second and took a sip of her tea.

"You also get the non-powers, which are children with no power even though their parents had power. The last type in the corrupted powers, which are the people who have developed a darkness within their power or powers, and they are dangerous and very rare. What happens when they use their powers is that instead of doing what the wielder wants it either does the opposite. In the extremely rare cases, some corrupted powers have been known to harness their power, but instead of effecting their power it then affects their souls, and they generally turn evil. The last thing that you need to know is that once the elemental power dies, the title of elemental power goes to the strongest sub-elemental with part of that element's powers."

Verity and Tamara sat in silence for a few minutes, Verity organizing the information in her head.

"So I'm a middle-class sub-elemental?" Verity asked.

"Yes," Tamara confirmed.

"Thank goodness!" Verity exclaimed. "I would never be able to harness that much power, no matter how hard I try." Tamara laughed a little before dismissing her.

"I'm glad that you're not as ambitious as some of the children, because they're going to be a handful. Now go have some coffee and sleep off the information, okay?" Verity nodded and headed for the door.

"Wait!" Tamara exclaimed suddenly. "I forgot to give you this." Verity took the envelope that Tamara had. "It's everything I just told you, just with more detail," Tamara explained. "Now shoo, I have work." Verity quickly left and made her way through the crowded streets to her house.

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Thanks for reading!