Julia’s p.o.v

“Well, Klaus,” I said. “Luckily mother is not home or else I’d have to hide you in the stable.”

            Beside me was a bucket of pure water I had just obtained from the well in our backyard. I filled it in a bamboo cup and add a few drops of ‘life liquid’ that I had taken from the grand cubbyhole which was where we keep all the herbs, potions and the like. With a few more slices of Mesona leaves, the ingredients were ready to be diluted. I hovered a hand over the bamboo cup and uttered a spell. 

            “Dysuria!” and for an instance, the content glowed a bright cyan before settling into a deep tone of green. As a priestess, I have to be well-versed in herbs, medicine and enchantment so this is nothing. 

            “Here, drink this!” I ordered Klaus, holding the freshly made medicine towards him. He obeyed by reaching out his hand, but just to make sure he takes it in full, I thrust the mouth of the cup right on his lips and the content shot into his mouth and streamed down his throat on my will as I have seen enough to know what’ll happen next. The only thing that tastes better than it was a bitter gourd. For a while, he looked taken aback. I guess it takes time for his taste buds to reciprocate to the horrible stimuli as he stuck out his tongue in a very extreme way, showing pure disgust.

            “What was that?!” he protested.

            “So,” I began, trying to ignore him, “That lightning outside. It was you, wasn’t it? You did it?”

            “Are you trying to kill me or something?! That was the most horrid—“

            Ignoring what he was trying to say, again I asked him.

            “Do you have the mark?” and I pulled down my left sleeve, exposing my forearm. On it, two code-bar-like patterns were tattooed. One red and the other blue.

            The sight silenced Klaus so abruptly that I could have sworn that I was in a movie and someone just pressed the pause button. Without his consent, I took his hand and pulled down his sleeve. First, his right hand, and then his left. He bore no marks.

            “This is weird,” I muttered softly.

            “What is?” Klaus finally asked.

            I looked at him, puzzled. He must either be from somewhere far enough to not know the rules or my suspicion was on the verge to be proven wrong. Still, I was quite convinced that he was indeed one of us.

            “I am asking you again, Klaus. That lightning when we were outside, was it you?” I asked rather impatiently. For a second he looked doubtful, but finally he answered.

            “I didn’t." 'But some part of me did. So I can’t say for sure,' Klaus did not said a few words in between. "Is it not supposed to be normal to have lightning during rain anyways?” he said.

            “That is true, but that lightning was beyond natural. Just admit that you caused it,” I insisted. I could see that he sighed quite heavily.

            “Think whatever you want,” he finally said.

            “Well, Klaus,” I began again, “You must be from another country because here, the government mark people like you and me.”

Klaus looked at me with a very curious expression that I could not help but to carry on.

            “The mark,” I showed him my forearm again, pointing to the blue one, shows that you are an elemental. And then the red above the blue indicates that you have complete control over your powers. It is like a license. You have to be tested to get it. Without it, severe punishment will you get should you used your powers without permission.

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            Klaus seemed totally offended by my explanation. I was not surprised.

            “Why—,” he asked.

            “—it’s obvious is it not?” I said even before he could complete his question, “The government does not trust us,” I said darkly.

            And then the fragrance of sweet baby carrot stew filled the air.

            “Ah, the stew’s ready!” I commented.

Klaus’s p.o.v

            The taste of the medicine was awful. I never tasted anything like it. But then, Julia had been ignoring me. She kept talking about lightning, elemental and stuff concerning the rules and regulations in her country. 

Well, true enough. I was not from this country. In addition to that, I’ll be leaving soon too if ‘he’ was not found in this country. So I really don’t care whatever subjects she was talking about. It doesn’t concern me after all. 

Actually, this elemental thing which she had been blabbering about since beginning had nothing to do with me as I am not an elemental. Elementals were people who have been bestowed a special gift since birth to control elements such as air, water, earth and fire. 

In fact, people who were born with such gifts do not appear very commonly from where I came from. It was just a small village after all. Free of government intervention. We lived in peace and harmony with no such feud over political power unlike other countries. 

From the way she spoke, she was undoubtedly suspected me as one of her kind. An elemental, who apparently not very trusted by the government in this country to the extent that they had to bare a mark as a license to use their powers and I know exactly why. In actuality, I knew more than she ever did. But since she seemed so worked out that I pretended to be clueless. 

I have been to many places for the last five years. Even to the darkest and violent organization in the world. I have uncovered many secrets that a nation holds at each one I traveled to. Well it was not like I had a choice. I had to, in order to find even a tiniest bit of information regarding ‘him’. 

Naturally, when I arrived in this country I hacked the intelligence regarding this country as well. It appeared that there quite a number of people who were branded as elemental. ¾ of them were not exactly the ‘good’ kind of people as they constantly wreaked havoc all over the place. Thus, even the ‘actual good’ elementals have small trust by the government. 

Strangely though, there had been a few cases of missing elementals. I didn’t think it had anything to do with ‘him’ so I did not look deeper into it. However, it would seem that I’d be proven wrong in the future. Julia on the other hand kept on persisting me that I caused the lightning and one of her kind, the elementals. I got tired and just let her think however she wants. 

But her theory was not entirely true. First, it was not me who caused the lightning. It was ‘that’ person inside of me who happened to be intimidated by the fact that I was hurt. There were many forces in this world that were unknown to people. Elemental was just one of them. 

As for me, I was not an elemental, but a contractor. They were people who were naturally born with their powers. In my case, it was entirely different. I was a normal human with no powers or whatsoever. That was, until I made a contract with Whaitiri the God of Lightning, or Wayne or so he called himself. 

An elemental and a contractor have a huge gap of difference. I do not require bearing a mark (at least not in other countries that I have been), but a sacred seal will appear at the back of my palm each time I used my power which heralded that I am a contractor with any of the gods or goddesses concerned. 

For Julia to think that I am an elemental offended me more as I was not naturally gifted as her. Still, I was granted power to achieve my goal. I wanted to inquire her why would she regard me as one of her kind but I guess she thought I was offended about the government. I stayed in silence. Then suddenly, there was a sweet smell in the air. It was Julia’s stew. My stomach growls hungrily and my mouth began to water with saliva. I have not had a decent meal for awhile so I am not going to miss this one! My eyes flashed with determination.