The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023

17| Conquering The Flame

Sky focuses her gaze on the exterior walls of South Silver Oak Academy, blinking away the tears welling in her eye as she stares up at her immediate future.

The castle on the hill, as it is often referred to, is exactly as it sounds. An old palace that retained much of its original bones, grand in scale, built asymmetrically with tall towers, sharp spires, and an enormous system of pebbled walkways with brick walls stained black with age, sticking out like a sore thumb against the forest backdrop.

Nature, however, did find a way to get retribution, growing thick vines of draping ivy and moss sprouting in-between cracks and nicks

The Academy remains one of the longest standing buildings in the entire forest, having once been the home of a king before being renovated and turned into the Academy for gifted students.

The general population believe the students who attend are gifted because of their skills and intelligence, but really it has always been code for the children of the Celestium, and Channelers of the five elements, the Initials.

Sky peers down at her phone for what feels like the thousandth time since Cloud and the Jeffersons went missing, nibbling on a sweet from the bag in her left hand as she scans through their private messages.

After a month of radio silence, and an even longer month of waiting for him to reply, it has been almost impossible for her to not take it personally.

There's no doubt in her mind that he could have at least let her know that he's alive, even just an emoji, so that she can finally release herself from her paranoid spiral.

It's been a month of nothing, and nothing is worse than something, even if that means her worst fears could come true.

The last time Sky saw him, he channelled enough power to create a spirit bomb. If he were any other Acolyte then he'd have already been dead but she knew from their very first encounter that his potential for magic was beyond reasonable.

Three times she’d seen him channel before and every single time it became clearer as to why someone had placed a Snare over him.

If she hadn't been there to counter his flames with her own power then a lot of people would have died.

But whilst thinking back on that day, she reminds herself of the relief she felt upon seeing his glowing eyes, vividly remembers the one thing running through her mind at the time.

‘One of us!’

Soon enough she’ll have to leave Earthrealm behind but with him being an Initial, there is always the possibility that he could come with her to Sirenia.

"Are you ready?" Neith calls, skipping down the steps to Sky wearing a green and off white striped v-neck jumper and a pair of high waisted blue jeans.

She usually wears her hair down, letting her jet black hair curl freely at shoulder length, but in preparation for the Olympia she has her hair pulled back into a tight bun.

“Ready as I'll ever be.”

Neith eyes her best friend up and down, noticing the death grip she has on her phone and the bag of sweets. “Still nothing?” She asks, doing her a favour by removing both items from her possession.

Sky’s hair falls in her face as she shakes her head, brushing it out of the way to look around at the faces of the students walking up to the building, recognising a few but not all.

“I thought he'd be here.”

Neith rolls her eyes, nabbing a few sweets for herself before Sky can protest. “Just give it a minute, you know he's always late. Plus, there's no way they haven't tried to recruit him.”