“Tell me again, exactly what she said to you.” Parker repeated her words to Master Sora, making sure not to forget any details. Master Sora sat silently, pondering over her words.

“I wonder what she means by a true master. Does she mean one of us? If so, why not just say a master? And I wonder where this chamber could be.”

Parker and Alexis looked back and forth from each other to Master Sora and back. “Are there any books that would have details in them about secrets of the castle?” Master Sora shrugged his shoulders, not positive as to whether or not such a book existed.

“Your best bet is to look in the library. It starts on the fifth floor. Maybe you can go and start looking between your first two classes.”

They left his chambers and made it to history a few minutes late. The class was split into multiple groups of a few students each. They were reading about the founders of Lancastre. “Welcome, we thought we’d lost you somewhere this morning. Glad you could make it.” Master Keegan was sounding rather cheery this morning. “May I ask where the two of you have been?”

Alexis’s heart started to race. She hadn't been late for a class since the first day and again, it was because she was with Master Sora. “We were with Master Sora. We can fill you in on the details at the end of class.” He nodded his head and gestured for them to join Caleb’s group.

“Where were you guys? I was so worried that something happened!” Caleb was speaking fast, not realizing that they could barely understand what he was saying.

“What did we miss? Catch us up quickly and then we can move on,” Alexis said. She hated missing out on information, especially information about the school itself.

The book began by talking about two brothers and two sisters, each able to control one of the four elements.

They lived in a small village where the people looked at them as though they were monsters. It was uncommon for someone to be able to control the elements. Very few wanted to be involved with it at all.

The Lancastre family then moved away, and began living miles from any village. Their house sat on a hillside, surrounded by tall cliffs. Leith could retrieve the water from the top of the cliffs using her Water Imperial. Kenna kept the family warm using her Fire Imperial. Gia helped prepare the ground with her Earth Imperial in order to help plant crops for them to eat. Erion taught himself how to fly in order to travel to villages to trade for goods.

One day, some travelers were passing by and stopped to ask for help. They had run out of water and could not climb the cliff behind their house in order to drink from the stream. Leith stood below the cliffs and raised his hands in the air. A trail of water began snaking its way through the air and into a bucket at his feet. The travelers stared in awe at the sight before their eyes.

Kenna stacked some wood to burn so the travelers could stay warm during their time there. She created a flame in her palm and started the fire. It roared under the night sky filling the air with heat.

The travelers were in awe of all that they witnessed. They asked if these skills could be taught. The siblings did their best to help the travelers but found that it would not work.

After a few a days, the travelers went on their way, but not without inspiring the siblings to try something grand. They wanted to help others harness their abilities.

Erion soared through the sky, looking for the proper place to start. They agreed it should be far away from the rest of society, for they would not understand what was happening. Many lived in fear that the elements would be used against them.

He found a large island in the middle of a lake high up in the mountains, completely secluded from the rest of the world. Months of traveling led the siblings to the island. Together, they built the first castle that stood on these grounds. Over the years, the castle has grown larger through the help of those that came to learn how to harness their abilities.

“Whoa… That’s amazing,” Alexis said. “I can’t believe that just four siblings were the ones who started the school. I mean, they were no different than us. To think that we could do something equally as amazing.”

Parker and Caleb stared at her. When she got excited about something she began talking fast. “I doubt we’ll do anything like that while we’re here. They started something and because of that we’re here to learn this amazing stuff. I don’t see us starting anything amazing while we’re here.”

“Not with that attitude we won’t,” she said.

Parker closed his book and sat it down. Caleb noticed and looked at him, his face looking dreary. “Parker, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t say anything for a few moments. “Here we are, talking about doing something amazing, like the Lancastre siblings, and there’s students who were taken and are hidden somewhere in this castle.”

“How do you know they’re in the castle?” Caleb asked. They filled him in on all of the details while the rest of the groups continued to work, completely ignoring their conversation.

“We’ve got to find a way to locate the hidden chamber she mentioned. It could be anywhere.” Parker already sounded defeated at the monumental task ahead of them.

“Close your books and return your seats to where you found them. We will continue this tomorrow.” The students filed out of the room, Caleb leaving to go to his Omni class where he would be learning to control water in order to create ice.

“It’s time for you to fill me in. You looked very bothered when the two of you arrived.” Master Keegan, who had been in such a happy mood, now looked very serious.

They filled Master Keegan in on everything that had happened. “I’ve heard rumors over the decades about secret chambers around the castle, but having never found any, I have grown skeptical of their existence.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Do you think there might be a book in the library that could help us find it? And what do you think she meant by a true master?” He couldn’t answer either of their questions.

Alexis led them to the fifth floor where they saw the entrance to the library. Two large wooden doors sat in an arched doorway. Carved in the stone above them read, “Library”. Next to the door was a sign that sat inside the stone, wall. “You are to remain near silent while in the library. If you cannot, you will be asked to leave.”

Parker opened the door so they could walk in, but they were greeted not with what they expected. He imagined rows of books, similar to Master Sora’s chambers.

The floor was made of white marble and pillars lined the entryway. At the end, the room opened up. The ceiling was five stories high and shelves reached from floor to ceiling, completely filled. The main room to the library was circular with more rooms sticking off the sides, all completely filled with books. You could see students from The House of Erion flying and selecting books, high, off of the shelves. Students, from The House of Gia, made chunks of stone float in the air that they could stand on. The other houses used large ladders connected to the shelves.

“Where do we even begin?” Parker couldn’t get over how many books he was seeing before him. Alexis couldn’t believe she hadn’t been here yet. It’d been an entire term; she hadn't even notice that she never went.

“I guess we should ask the librarian. She would know wouldn’t she?” Alexis was sure that the librarian would know.

“Where is she though?” Parker asked. They looked all around for a librarian’s desk but couldn’t find one.

Caleb walked up to a very small girl in glimmering blue robes. She was shorter than him, with extremely long black hair that fell in a braid below her waist. She wore round glasses and had rosy cheeks.

“Hi… do you know… where we could find... the librarian?” Caleb stuttered. The small girl turned around to answer him and his face immediately blushed.

She smiled at him and said, “Yeah, if you go down that aisle,” she said pointing down an aisle to her left. “Then turn left at the very end, you’ll see a desk a little ways ahead. That’s where Madame Dubois hides most of the time.” Caleb said thank you and walked back to Parker and Alexis.

“Everything okay, Caleb?” Alexis asked. Caleb’s focus was not on Parker and Alexis at the moment. Alexis poked him in the shoulder, “Are you okay?”

Caleb jumped, “What? Yeah! I’m fine!”

“You certainly don’t look fine. Your face is red and you’re sweating.” She looked past him at the girl he had talked to and saw how pretty she was. “Ah… Now I see why you’re blushing. What’s her name?” He shrugged his shoulders. “You didn’t ask her what her name was?” He shook his head, not making eye contact with her. She laughed at him and asked where the librarian would be.

Caleb led the way down the aisle the small girl had directed him. Once they arrived at the desk, they saw a very old woman sitting with her back to them, filing some books on a shelf.

Parker coughed as a subtle cue that they were standing there waiting. Madame Dubois turned around in her seat to face them. “May I help you dears?” Her voice was gentle, like the way a grandmother would talk to her favorite grandchild.

“Yes ma’am. We’re looking for books that are about when the school was built. One that would talk about how they built the castle itself, maybe even having some pictures of how the rooms were built. Are there any books like that here?” Alexis was trying to describe the book they needed in order to find the hidden chamber. However, she was doing her best to not mention a hidden chamber so she wouldn’t have to explain why they were looking for hidden chambers in the school.

Madame Dubois sat there, pondering, trying to recall whether or not such a book existed. After several moments she said, “Well, I don’t know for a fact, but your best bet will be in the history section. You’ll be looking, obviously, for books about the construction and renovations of the school.”

They thanked her and turned to go to the history section. Alexis stopped and turned back around. “Um… sorry to bother you again. But, where is the history section?” Madame Dubois gave off a quiet little laugh and stood up.

“No worries dear, I’ll walk you there myself. I’m heading that way anyway.”

Parker walked next to Alexis, while Caleb walked just behind Madame Dubois as she led the way. They turned down aisle after aisle, everything blurring together. Parker wasn’t sure where they were anymore. He could no longer see the main entrance of the library.

To their left, stood aisle upon aisle of books from floor to ceiling. To their right was a wall with windows that peered out over the waterfall. “We’re passing through the sports section right now. These are all of the books you would use if you wanted to research Aether, or any other sport there is in the world. If I’m not mistaken, we have at least one book on almost each sport in existence.”

They crossed into a much brighter section of the library. The outside wall opened onto a large balcony that also looked out over the waterfall. Parker stepped out to catch a breath of fresh air. Before he realized it, the rest of the group had disappeared. He was standing on the balcony by himself, staring out over the falls when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

He jumped, his heart pounding in his chest. When he turned around, he saw that it was Hailee. “What are you doing here? I’ve never seen you here before.”

Slowly, he calmed down. “I’m surprised you would ever see anyone in here. I feel like I could spend hours and not see anyone I knew. This place is enormous.”

Parker explained why they were in the library and filled her in on everything that had happened. “Wow… I wonder where the chamber could be. And do you have any idea what she meant by a ‘true master’?” He shrugged his shoulders, still not sure where it could be or what a true master was.

“Master Sora thought maybe it just meant that we needed to have one of the masters with us, but I don’t think that’s right. Why would she only let students see her then?”

“Good point. You said she was an Omni like Caleb right?” He nodded his head. “Maybe a true master is someone that can control the four elements then.” Parker thought about what Hailee had just said. A true master being someone who can control all of the elements. That would make sense, especially since she can. But that also meant that Caleb was now in trouble as well. Especially since he was just getting used to not expelling all of his energy when using his Imperial.

“We need to find the others and let them know.”

Hailee led Parker to the history section. Having been the only person in her classes for the past year and a half she had spent ample amounts of time wandering around the library and learning a lot about a variety of topics. As she led Parker to the history section, she gave him a brief tour and talked about all of the sections that they past, and would talk about the books she had used from that section.

After what felt like hours to Parker, they finally found Alexis and Caleb sitting at a table with a stack of books as tall as Hailee sitting on the floor. “We think the answer is going to be in one of these books,” Alexis said without lifting her eyes from the pages of a very thick book.

“That is quite a book!” Hailee said. Alexis’s head shot up, realizing that Parker wasn’t alone.

“Hailee! What are you doing here?” Alexis sounded excited, but her face was saying otherwise. She did not look happy about Parker showing up with Hailee after disappearing from their side.

“I’ve filled her in on everything,” Parker said. “She may have figured out what Lara meant by a ‘true master’.” The two of them filled Alexis and Caleb in on their theories. Alexis really liked their theory, but was still stumped on where the chamber might be.

“Is there any way we can save these books? We’re about to be late to our next class!” Forgetting that it was a library, Alexis figured out after a second of Hailee staring at her confused. “Oh, duh. It’s a library, we can just check them out can’t we?” Hailee smiled and nodded her head up and down.

The rest of the day was spent either in class, eating, or researching about the castle. Hours after the sun had gone down, the moon was high in the sky. Alexis and Caleb sat on the couch in front of the fire. Hailee sat at a high table in the corner and Parker sat on the balcony. He found it to be one of his favorite places in the school; always feeling relaxed when he was there. He dozed off, reading about the construction of the dining hall and the secret corridor that ran alongside it, with his face pressed against the railing of the balcony.