The Spirit Academy

Chapter 16 - The Necklace

Lynn

Lynn knew what had happened a beat before Mishal and two beats before everyone else. She felt the blast immediately, leaving her feeling drowsy and weary. It had also left her weak, the fire was zapping away her strength, but there was also a sort of itch to let her powers run free, flooding the hall. Ignoring that, she pushed Dahlia out of the way, and jumped on Mishal, tackling her to the ground.

Mishal was hard to push at first, because of her connection to the element, which was like a rope that bound her to where she stood. But Lynn felt that rope snap and they both fell to the ground. The burning light in Mishal's striking blue eyes had faded, and Lynn exhaled a breath of relief.

The spirits sitting down start to shout, standing on their chairs, clambering over each other, running around in circles.

Kenna sat down next to Mishal; her dark red lips parted in horror. "No," She whispered, "No."

"It's fine. The fires out." Lynn hissed back as the principal began to talk loudly over the cacophony of students. Mishal sat up, her eyes darting around in confusion. Lynn stood up to her feet and pulled Mishal up.

"All students please take their seats, All students please be silent."

Lynn returned to her seat gripped her knees with her hands to stop them from shaking. The noise in the hall only got louder, students yelling, demanding to know what happened, some spirits at the back were screaming.

"Enough!"

The room was silent, everyone looked up to see principal Cedar's fuming face looking down at them. "As I was saying before, the academy is now safe, classes are to be returned to normal, all spirits will attend all classes and the lockdown has been lifted." He paused, looking around the hall before continuing again, "And we have also decided to move graduation up to next week."

There were a few shocked gasps at this, but they were quickly replaced by cheers as people started talking again in hushed whispers. This time though, the principal just smiled tightly and left the stage. 

Lynn stood up and looked at Dahlia who was the only one who wasn't cheering. 

"What's wrong?" She whispered.

"I uh, I don't know, it's just seems weird don't you think?"

"Stop stressing."

"Yeah. I know, anyway I just wanted to ask you something," Dahlia said as they started walking out of the hall. "I have a necklace and it's just been fading recently, I don't know why, it's never been like this before."

"Let me guess, Guthrie said I could help you out with this didn't she?"

"Yeah, she did," Dahlia said with a laugh, "You can, can't you?"

"Not really... I mean it could be a certain number of factors. It's hard to know for sure and it could be fading because of the age, but you said it hasn't before. So it could be because you came here. Well, we'll start with this," Lynn said pursing her lips. "Do you remember exactly when this started?"

"I don't know exactly, I noticed it when I came out of the shower,"

"The shower? As far as I know water shouldn't have had such a drastic effect on this. It seems like it's pure gold and ruby, but the water here in the academy contains two minerals Gythel which is used to clean the water, and Morile which is good for spirits. Is it native?"

"What?"

"Is it spirit-made?"

"I don't know," Dahlia groaned in frustration as they turned the hallway and she leaned in, "It was my grandmother's so it could be."

"Hmm," Lynn muttered to herself, "Your grandmother was a life spirit, most life spirits keep flower pendants or feather earrings, or shell bracelets, not rubies and gold, that's what would earth spirits wear. It helps direct our power."

Dahlia shook her head, "Okay. Thanks anyway."

Dahlia smiled but it didn't reach her eyes and then walked off.

Lynn contemplated following her, but decided against it and turned in the other direction.

Dahlia

Dahlia touched the necklace around her neck as if to make sure it was still there. She felt the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks as she slammed the door behind her and curled up into a ball on her bed. Sobs wrecked her body and she willed herself to stop crying. She didn't even know why she was crying. It was like everything was finally catching up to her. She was hanging on to her sanity by a thread, and that thread was about to break. She was stuck in this world with no way to get back home, she had been kidnapped, almost drowned, almost died in a fire, and now she was losing the only thing left to remind herself of her grandmother. She saw her now, when Dahlia was only ten years old, it was her birthday.

I wore a plain dress that day with a purple bow in the middle. My parents were outside greeting the parents and children that had come today. I was trying to eat some of the cake before everyone came in. I heard a noise and jumped. The sleeve of my dress smeared the top of the cake. I turned around looking at my Grandma, Avi, everyone called her. "Oh my dear little Deedee," She said crouching down and holding both my hands in hers. My Grandma was young, fifty-two, and she had kind green eyes, just like hers, while both my parents had dark brown eyes. My grandma smiled and her eyes crinkled, the only indicator of her age. She pulled a small black box out of her pocket and said. "I got you something," I had opened it and inside was a necklace, it had a gold chain, and a small gold circle pendant at the end with a ruby centre. I had looked into her eyes and noticed that she looked sad, so I had asked her why. She only shook her head and then said, "Stay true to yourself my little girl. I will always be watching over you." She had then kissed my forehead and then left. She had never come back again. The next day my parents called the police but no-one could find her. She was gone. She has been gone for almost four years.

She relived the moment again and again. Her grandmothers last words sounded so much like a goodbye but at that time Dahlia had been too blind to see it, she had thought her grandmother was telling her off about eating the cake. When the police searched her grandmother's house, they had found nothing. Nothing of hers. All that Dahlia had was the one necklace. Now, the necklace was fading away, just like her hope that she would ever see her Grandma again.

The door creaked open and Dahlia stood up, wiping her tears. Bryony walked in, Dahlia hoped her eyes weren't red and puffy. Thankfully, Bryony didn't say anything and sat down on her bed. 

"Wasn't that crazy?"

Dahlia just nodded.

"Well anyway because graduations moved up a few of the girls are doing a celebratory feast-"

"A feast?" Dahlia asked. "I didn't know there was a feast."

"Well not officially anyway, everyone's just bringing food and we're meeting up at the Earth's Basement."

"Tonight?"

"Yeah, you in?"

Dahlia shrugged, "Why not?"

Bryony smiled as she sat down on her bed.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you," Dahlia started, "Who was here, you know before me."

"Makani," She sucked in a deep breath. "Used to be great friends, me, Makani and Guthrie. Even though I was a life, and they were both airs. Makani was in my dorm, even though she was an air. It's not like they take ten girls from each element. We are special, showed the aptitude at an early age. See there were five life spirits before you. Life spirits usually have the least and the others have around the same. There are three campuses, one for first years, one for second years, and one for third years. We all came here at ten, once we graduate, they pick other gifted spirits, to be first years. It goes around and round in a circle."

"Uh-uh. Yeah." Dahlia stared at Bryony, stumbling over her words. She didn't know why Bryony was telling her all of this, though she suspected it was so Bryony didn't have to talk about Makani anymore.