Master Sora and Parker were waiting for the rest of the group to leave the room. When the last person left, closing the door behind him, a huge burst of wind knocked Parker off his feet. “Get up. I want you to try to defend yourself from anything I send at you.”
Parker couldn’t figure out what was happening, it was like a repeat of his dream about his dad. He ran into the trees to give himself a minute to figure out what was going on.
The leaves over his head began to rustle and fall from their branches. “Parker, do exactly what you did earlier and you will be fine.” He could hear Master Sora getting closer.
Crouching, he started to walk around the tress looking for a spot where he could sneak up on Master Sora. After moving around for a few minutes he couldn’t find where Master Sora was.
Parker made his way to the clearing in the room, which wasn’t the smartest thing he could’ve done. As soon as he was in the open, he could feel a surge of wind coming at him.
Just before it made contact with his body, he raised his hand in front of him and pushed it forward. The wind coming at him seemed to split around him.
He saw Master Sora directly in front of him making a motion with his hands. Parker could tell that this next blast was coming at his legs. He thought about a burst of air from under his feet to help him jump to dodge the next burst.
Parker jumped in the air, imagining air surging from his feet pushing him into the air as if he was on a trampoline. He shot ten feet into the air and started to panic. “How do I land this?” he shouted. Just as he was about to hit the ground, a swirl of air caught him and gently let him touch down.
Master Sora clapped as Parker landed on the ground. “That was very impressive Parker. How did you manage the jump?” The way he asked, Parker could tell that he was genuinely shocked that he had been able to do that.
“I just thought about jumping really high and then I did it. I imagined air surging out of my feet and then I jumped. Is it really that impressive?” Parker was trying to figure out what the point of that was.
Looking down at Parker, Master Sora motioned for him to walk with him. They headed out of the room and began making their way down to The Regale.
“That was merely a test Parker. I wanted to see what you would do in a pressure situation based on what you demonstrated during the lessons today. You are achieving very advanced things for your first day. Those are typically things you don’t learn until the middle of your first year.” Parker was shocked. He hadn’t exactly tried really hard to do those things. He just thought about what he wanted to happen in that moment and then did it.
“Parker, have you had previous training? Did your parents work with you before you came here?”
He shook his head. “Honestly Master, I’m still having a hard time believing that all of this is real. There was nothing like this at my house. I lived a very normal life at home.”
They were so engrossed in their discussion that they hadn’t realized they’d been walking down the spiral stairs instead of descending through the air.
Master Sora continued to ask Parker about his home life and what he was interested in. “I am going to introduce you to Master Keegan later. He has something that he would like to talk to you about.” Parker didn’t know what The House of Kenna master could want to talk to him about.
Halfway down the stairs, Parker’s memories started flashing through his mind at the speed of light. He remembered everything that had happened before he came to Lancastre. The dreams, burning his hand on the doorknob, and the creepy robed figure that he had seen. “Wait, does the ability to control the elements run in the family? Is it something that is passed down through the generations?”
A smile crept across Master Sora’s face letting Parker know that he was on the right track. He’d forgotten about everything from home that had happened because he was so distracted by everything around him. He was so focused on the fact that all of this was real and being able to control an element that he’d blocked everything else out.
“Master, I have a question.” The master gestured for Parker to continue. “I could be wrong, but I think that something is different about me. I don’t think that I should even be able to command the air.”
Parker could see the surprised look on the master’s face. “Why do you think that you shouldn’t be able to command the air?” Parker didn’t respond right away. He was thinking about all of the things that had happened at home. Some of it reassured the fact that he belonged to The House of Erion, like the wind snaking its way around him, the way he felt calm in the tunnels. However, the dreams about his dad and the heat in his house made him think that he should’ve belonged to The House of Kenna. Then, on top of that, Master Sora said that Master Keegan wanted to talk to him.
They arrived at the bottom of the staircase and walked into the dining hall. “We can talk about all of this later Parker. Right now, you need to get some food in your body. You’ve worked very hard today.” Master Sora walked straight to the head table and took his seat. Parker found an open seat between Alexis and Caleb at one of the white tables. The Power Bar looking food was piled high in the middle and Parker felt like he hadn’t eaten in days.
Caleb asked Parker where he had been and Parker explained everything that had happened. “So you think that you don’t actually belong in our house?” Alexis asked, a little worried that she might lose her knew friend. “You have to be one of us. Look at how amazing you are at your Imperial! None of us even come close to you.”
He thought about that for a moment and realized that if he didn’t belong in this house, then he wouldn’t be able to command the air at all. “I mean, I know that I belong in The House of Erion, or I wouldn’t be able to do any of this. But, I feel like I’m supposed to be in The House of Kenna.”
He explained why he was thinking that he belonged there. Alexis’s eyes showed that she was worried about what had happened at Parker’s home, even though it was no fault of her own. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. Do you think your parents were Fire Imperials?”
Parker nodded, then told them that Master Keegan wanted to have a word with him. Caleb looked more flustered about that than Parker did. “What does he want to talk to you about?”
Parker shrugged his shoulders, having no clue what it was that he wanted to talk about. “I don’t know. Maybe he knew my parents or something.”
They finished their lunch, each eating two of the bars on the table. “What are these things even called?” Alexis asked. No one at her table knew but a student from a green table next to them overheard her question.
“Those are Element Bars, the school makes them. Aren’t they amazing? I find it really hard to keep from eating all of them.”
Alexis smiled and thanked her for letting her know what they were called. “Did Master Sora mention what we were doing after lunch?”
Everyone shook their heads. “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough but I sure hope I can figure out how to create a stronger gust of wind. I don't feel like I'm even close to flying yet. The air circulating in my palm feels so weak,” Caleb said.
The group sat at their table and talked for a while, learning new things about each other. After a while, The Regale started to empty. Other students were heading out to their classes. A faint whisper rang in their ears, “Meet back in room 23-D in fifteen minutes.” They all jumped, not prepared for that to happen again.
“Man, I want to learn how to do that!” Alexis said. “Well, let’s start making our way back up there.”
They all got up and pushed their seats back in. As they got to the spiral stairs, they looked up, dreading the climb.
“Do you think I could make it?” Parker asked.
Caleb looked at him like he was crazy. “There’s no way! You only made it like five feet into the air earlier!”
Parker walked to the center of the staircase and looked up. He thought about what he had done after everyone left earlier. Imagining air surging out from his feet, flinging him into the air, Parker jumped with all his might.
He shot into the air. About twenty feet up, he could feel that his momentum was slowing. He then spun himself in a circle using his arms to rotate him. This created a swirling wind around him that kept him in the air. He focused on it spinning around him, moving him up from floor to floor.
Back down on the main floor, Alexis and Caleb stared up in awe. “But… how…” they both didn't understand how he was able to do this. Together, they started running up the stairs to try and catch up with him. Clearly, flying up the middle was the best way to travel up to their floor.
Parker was sitting on the landing to the eighth floor when Alexis and Caleb arrived, wheezing, out of breath. “How… did you… do that…?” Caleb could barely get the words out he was breathing so hard. Alexis lay down, taking in huge breaths trying to regain her composure.
“Well, remember what I told you about after you guys left earlier? I tried combining that with the flying we learned earlier. That way, I didn’t have to fly that extra amount.” Their looks were a combination of impressed and really mad.
After Alexis and Caleb gathered their breath, they began making their way up the rest of the stairs to room 23-D. The door was closed when they approached. Parker reached forward and knocked on the door. It opened with no one on the other side.
“Hello?” Parker called out.
A soft voice echoed in the room. “Come in. Join me.” They walked to the clearing in the room and sitting there by herself was Hailee. She threw her body back and was now lying down on the ground looking like a starfish.
They all sat in the room and talked about random things until everyone arrived. “Master Sora isn’t going to be here for a while but he told me that he wants you to keep trying to control the air and work on the things we focused on earlier. Once you’ve managed to fly up five feet, you get the rest of the time until he arrives to yourself.”
Just as she said that, Parker did exactly that. He made a circular motion with his hands creating the familiar swirl of wind, lifting him high into the air and then back down gently.
Everyone stared at him, both impressed and angry, because that meant he got the whole time to do whatever he wanted.
“Well, I guess you’re good to go then. All right everyone that is exactly what you need to accomplish. It’s just as important to be able to land gently as it is to be able to simply fly. So, stay focused the whole time or you’ll fall out of the air.” She motioned for everyone to begin, and started to walk around seeing if anyone needed help.
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Alexis and Caleb found a smaller clearing in a patch of trees near the edge of the room. They were focusing really hard and were able to only make it another foot off of the ground. They were working so hard on clearing their minds and keeping them empty that they didn’t notice Parker join them.
“Hey!” Both Alexis and Caleb jumped, clearly unaware that he had shown up.
“Don’t do that! We’re trying to focus!” They seemed a little bitter that this was coming so easily to him.
“Do you guys want some help? I’m happy to try.” Reluctantly, they accepted his help.
He asked them about what they were currently doing that wasn’t working. Each shared the memory they had focused on to help get them airborne. “Well, I think that’s the problem. You need to think of the happiest memory you can. Not just a happy memory, the happiest one. I chose the memory of my parents dropping me off at the abandoned subway station.”
They looked at him like he was crazy. Alexis spoke up first, “But you were so upset about that earlier!”
Parker looked at her and said, “I know. I was really upset at the time, but looking at it now, how could I be? I mean, yeah, they didn’t tell me about all of this, but look at what they have introduced me to. They knew they would have to say goodbye to me for a long time but with the knowledge that I was going to be doing and learning amazing things. I wish that I could get ahold of them and let them know how grateful I am that they let me come here.”
Alexis looked at Parker, amazed that he had taken a memory that upset him and turned it into something that could push him to do his best and learn all that he could while he was here. After hearing about his memory, both Alexis and Caleb closed their eyes, ready to try again.
Parker watched as they stood there, focusing on a new memory. Then, in unison, they both raised their arms and made their circular motions. At the same time, wind swirled around them, lifting them into the air. Alexis was rising quicker than Caleb, as his wind was dying out around him. He fell from two feet up, the highest he had made it so far. Alexis made it to the five feet and slowly lowered herself to the ground.
“That was amazing!” Parker said, clapping his hands. They were so excited they started jumping in the air. Caleb was excited for Alexis but also frustrated at the same time.
The three of them made their way to the central clearing in the room. All of the others were still trying their hardest to make it up over a foot off the ground. In the clearing were a bunch of different things for them to do once they had finished. Frisbees lay around, footballs, soccer balls, etc. Alexis walked right up and grabbed a soccer ball and walked back over to the guys.
“I used to play soccer all of the time! I can’t believe they have it here.” She started kicking the ball around, bouncing it up and down on her foot. She ran around with it like it was a part of her body. It was so amazing; the guys didn’t know what to say to her.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Parker asked.
She laughed a little, not thinking about what all she was doing, because it felt so natural for her. “My dad and I used to play all of the time. I’ve been playing since I could walk. He taught me all types of things to do with a soccer ball. It’s like an extension of me now.”
Alexis was playing around with the soccer ball, passing it back and forth with the guys. Parker kept trying to do different things with the ball using his Imperial and only succeeded at first by moving the ball a little. He asked Alexis to kick it up into the air. When she did, he thought about catching the ball with the air and he spun his hands like he was catching the ball with a small tornado. The air spun around the ball quickly, holding it in the air for a brief second. Alexis couldn’t believe what she saw. Caleb looked at Parker jealously. He was still trying just to make it past a foot or two and here they were goofing around.
“Ahem,” Master Sora coughed into his fist. “I would like to talk to the two of you, Alexis and Parker, privately.” Caleb took the hint and let them be.
“Are we in trouble?” Alexis said, shaking a little out of fear.
Master Sora laughed, “Oh, heaven’s no! It’s actually the opposite! I would like to ask the two of you to join our house team.”
The two of them looked at each other confused. “What house team? For what?”
Master Sora took the two of them off to the side of the room. “Well, there is a sport that we play here called Aether, which is a sport that is similar to soccer but uses the elements as well. Would you be interested in that? Alexis, I saw you handling the soccer ball earlier and it was amazing, I think you would make a phenomenal shooter. And Parker, I think with the way you already control the air could make you a great blocker or attacker with a little more practice.”
“Can you give us a minute to decide?” Alexis asked. The master nodded his head and walked away. “This sounds awesome! I would love to get involved in something.” She was so excited that she barely let Parker speak before she had made up her mind.
“Do you think we’d really be that good? I mean this is our first day here. How could he know that we would make good players?”
Alexis gave him a look that said, “I’m doing this with or without you”. Then she told him to at least give it a try before saying no. They both walked back to the main clearing and found everyone listening to Master Sora give some directions.
When they joined the group, his directions were done and the group dispersed to different parts of the room. Master Sora walked up to them, a look on his face, trying to figure out what they had decided on.
“We’re in!” shouted Alexis. “When do we start? What’s the name of our team? Is there a captain? How many teams are there? Where will we practice?” Question after question poured from her mouth. Master Sora held his hand up, signaling for her to take a breath.
“Everything will be explained to you. I’ll find a time for you to meet with Evelyn Quinn, our team captain.” Parker still seemed a little unsure of this whole thing but figured, why not give it a try.
They spent the rest of the day helping others fly the five feet they needed to. By the time they left for dinner, only Parker and Alexis had been able to fly five feet into the air. Caleb was struggling with making it over two feet and the rest of the class was around three feet
Everyone started to leave the room, heading down for dinner. When Parker, Alexis and Caleb made it to the staircase, they looked at each other. Parker was the first to give it a try. He spun his arms creating the swirl of wind around him lifting him over the railing.
Parker focused on the air slowly lowering him all the way down to the main floor. Above him, Alexis did the same. When he landed on the floor, he looked up again and noticed that Alexis must have chickened out because he could see her head running down the stairs from around the fifteenth floor. Caleb never even attempted. He had started running down the stairs as they descended the middle.
The three of them made their way into The Regale and took their seats. Element Bars awaited them in the center of the table.
Dinner went by rather quickly. They were starting to feel tired, all of the work they’d done that day catching up to them. A voice boomed from the front of the dining room.
“You have all done a splendid job today! Be proud of all that you have accomplished. After dinner, the rest of the night is yours and we will see you tomorrow.”
With that, they finished their dinner and decided to turn in for the night. They walked to the staircase and began making their way up. It was a long and grueling hike up the stairs but Parker decided to walk it since the other two couldn't quite make it as high as he could.
When they finally arrived at the entrance to The House of Erion, they were drenched in sweat. Master Sora was waiting there for them, to help those who needed it up into the common room. Parker didn’t realize as he landed in the common room how much he had missed the night before. He didn’t notice how amazing and beautiful it was.
A long couch sat in front of a roaring fire. The fire sat inside a large stone hearth. On the mantle over the fire, sat what looked like memorabilia from The House of Erion's past. In the middle of the wall over the mantel, was an empty cubbyhole. On either side of it, there was the house symbol etched into the stone. Parker thought it looked familiar, but couldn’t figure out where he had seen it before. After examining it for a minute, he thought it had to be the symbol carved into the wall in the subway tunnel. The triangle with a line going through it.
Along with the long couch in front of the fire, there were two more couches in the room along with many armchairs. Everything looked comfortable enough to sleep in.
On the wall opposite of the entrance to the common room was a set of large French doors that opened up to a balcony that looked over the castle grounds. From the balcony, you could see most of the castle. Towers shooting into the sky all around them. Courtyards with trees one hundred feet tall. Fountains and ponds surrounded by benches and picnic tables. Beyond everything they could see around the castle, was the lake.
Parker made his way back into their bedroom. When he walked through the door, he headed straight to his bed. Next to his bed was a window that had the same view as the balcony. He thought how lucky he was to have such an amazing view all the time.
“Today was amazing! Is every day going to be like this?” Caleb asked. Parker jumped a little, not aware that Caleb had followed him in. Caleb started getting ready to go to sleep. The moon shown through the window, lighting up their room.
There were eight beds in this room and six other rooms. Each bed had a thick, fluffy comforter and two fluffy white pillows. Everyone could fit the luggage they brought under their bed. Next to each bed stood a four-drawer dresser that doubled as a nightstand.
The drawers were filled with their school uniforms, supplied by the school. The House of Erion had shimmering white robes and dress clothes to wear underneath. The robes had a large, black symbol on the back of them that matched that of the symbol over the fireplace. The dress clothes had the same symbol, but much smaller. The small triangle sat right over their heart.
On top of the dresser was a stack of books, each one bigger than the one above it. Parker began looking at the stack of books on his dresser. There were four books. The smallest book in the stack had three hundred sixty two pages and was titled Aether: A Beginner’s Guide. Under the Aether book was a book titled Behind the Imperials: A Quick Breakdown. Second from the bottom was The History of Lancastre. And the thickest of the four books, a book that seemed to be tailored specifically for The House of Erion, Air Imperials.
After looking at each of his books, Parker looked around the room at everyone else dressers and noticed that they each only had three books. They were missing the top book, Aether: A Beginner’s Guide. He thought that Master Sora must’ve dropped it off for him since he was going to try out for the team.
“Caleb, have you ever heard of Aether?”
He shook his head and said, “No, what’s that?” Parker explained everything Master Sora told him about how he wanted both Parker and Alexis to try out for the team. Caleb was both excited and annoyed at the news. He was happy for his new friend to have this opportunity but annoyed that their Imperial seemed to come so easily to him when he had to work so hard at it.
As Caleb was trying to decide what to say back to him, the rest of the guys who shared their room came walking through the door. They both recognized everyone from their trip to the castle, but didn’t know any of their names.
The first boy to walk through the door was really tall and lanky with long black hair. The next was another really tall boy, but unlike the first, he was much fuller. After him, two boys tried to squeeze through the door at the same time. “Hey! I get to go first!” one yelled.
“No you don’t, I do! I’m older!”
The first yelled back at him, “Only by like two minutes!”
“And don’t you forget it!”
They could both tell immediately that these two were twins. They were the exact same. If you turned your head and looked back you would never know if they had switched spots or not. They weren’t very tall, or skinny or heavy. Their short, wavy blonde, almost white, hair and piercing blue eyes were the only things that would make you notice these two. Parker thought that, being twins, they could at least have a little different hairstyle or something to help tell them apart. Finally, an average sized kid walked through the door and immediately crawled into bed without saying a word. Parker and Caleb barely got a chance to look at him.
The twins spoke in unison at Parker and Caleb, “Hi! Are you our roommates?” Speaking in unison caught Parker a little off-guard and he responded, sounding unsure of his answer.
“Yeah…” They both looked at him, waiting to see if he was positive that he was, in fact, their roommate.
The twin on the left spoke next, “Well hi roomy, my name is Oliver and this is my brother Dexter.” Parker hadn’t noticed that there had been twins when he arrived to the platform.
He looked at both of them; still trying to figure out a way to determine which was which when he would see them apart from each other. “My name is Parker and this is Caleb.” Caleb gave a little, timid wave to the new group.
The tall, lanky boy, who was now sitting on his bed, next to Parker’s, said his name was Gerald. And the other tall boy said his name was Sam.
“I think we’re supposed to find out in the morning what our normal schedule is going to look like. But, I asked an upperclassman earlier and they said that there are only a few classes for first years. He said we just learn a lot about those specific classes and then later we start taking more of a variety of classes.” Gerald gave them more details that he had learned from others throughout the day. He was a very nice guy and Parker liked the way that he was more than willing to share all of this new information. He hadn’t thought to ask around and find out what the others knew.
Dexter was yawning in his bed as they talked. It was easy for everyone to talk while lying in bed. With a room that was circular, which Parker noticed seemed to be the theme of the castle. Having everyone’s beds facing the center of the room, they could just lie in bed and hold conversations without having to all sit right next to each other. “We should probably hit the hay so that we can actually wake up in the morning. I’m terrible at getting up on my own, so I would really appreciate it if you guys could help get me moving in the mornings so I don’t miss any classes.”
Everyone agreed that it was getting really late. Caleb pointed out that he hadn’t seen any clocks in the rooms or anywhere in the castle for that matter. He wondered how they were supposed to know when to get up the next day.
Gerald turned off the lights in the room after everyone had climbed into bed and was ready to sleep. Parker curled up in his bed, the feeling of floating in the air filling his mind. He loved the way this felt. Completely at peace, he passed out as though he had been working for days straight with no sleep.