Parker dragged himself out of their room and into the common room where Alexis and Hailee were waiting on them. When he saw Alexis, he immediately blushed, memories from the night before racing back to him.
“Oh Parker, you look like you slept on a pile of rocks!” Hailee said. She subtly looked back and forth from Alexis to Parker, realizing that they both were wearing the same, exhausted looks on their faces. She smiled to herself and said, “Well, time for breakfast!”
They made their way down to the dining hall and found an empty table. A pile of Element Bars stood in the middle of the white stone table. They each took two bars, and started to eat. No one said anything, knowing exactly what was on everyone’s mind. They didn’t want to discuss Lara any more. She had taken the majority of their brain power over the past few weeks.
As they ate their breakfast, the dining hall quickly began to fill. Everyone around them seemed to be in high spirits after the match from the day before, except for The House of Kenna, they didn’t look too pleased. No one else had the look of fear on their face like the four of them had. They were dreading what was coming, because they had no clue what would happen.
Breakfast ended with everyone heading to their first class. As Caleb stood up to leave, the room froze. He turned his head to the others at his table, but no one moved. Quickly, he looked around at everyone else in the room, but he was the only one not frozen. “What’s happening?” he yelled.
“Caleb Prescott,” a voice said from behind him. Caleb jumped out of fright and spun around. Dread washed over his face as Lara stood in front of him.
“What have you done to everyone?” he asked forcibly. “Why am I the only one not frozen?”
“Caleb, I wanted to talk to you, no one else. You are an Omni, like myself. You are one of the few, true masters of our time.” She spoke in a very monotone voice, giving no inflection as to how she felt about Caleb also being an Omni.
“You and your little group of friends will be responsible for the safe return of your classmates. Do not, I repeat, do not involve the masters any more than you already have. They attempted to stop me and will be punished.”
Caleb’s eyes went wide, “What do you mean they tried to stop you and are going to be punished?” She could hear the panic in his voice.
“They attempted to gain entrance to my chambers. For that, I’m removing the Space Imperial from around the school. I hope you all enjoy the cold.”
Before Caleb could say anything else, she disappeared. Her image shimmered in front of him and vanished as though she had been a mirage the whole time.
The chatter of the dining hall resumed and everyone moved about their business as though nothing had happened. He stared around at everyone, and then turned to Parker. “We need to talk now, and with the masters if possible.”
After running to the head table to get the masters, they all met in the room at the end of the hidden corridor next to the dining hall.
Caleb explained everything that just happened. The masters did not look pleased at the fact that Lara had called Caleb out directly and that she wanted the masters to have absolutely nothing to do with it.
“What Imperial did she do to the castle?” Alexis asked.
“Well, that’s actually how we learned that she had started to control other things than elements. She controlled the space around the school itself, creating a sort of bubble that we exist in. Lara made it so that the only way in and out of the castle was through the way in which you got here. That’s why the bridge is ‘endless’. At the ‘end’ of it, you reach the bubble and it turns you around.” Master Sora explained all of this and the four of them found it very hard to believe.
“I thought you said she hadn’t mastered it,” Hailee said. Master Sora looked down with a glum expression, “I assumed so because when she stopped the time in the dining hall, she didn’t stop the four of you. But I guess that was on purpose.”
Master Keegan spoke up, “Thelonius.” The kids looked back and forth at each other at the sound of Master Sora’s first name. “We said this the last time that Lara had called the four of them out. Why did you assume that she hadn’t mastered her Imperial yet? Look at what she did in just the time she was here.”
Master Sora slowly looked at Master Keegan, “I guess I was just hoping.” This was the first time that they had heard Master Sora sound so down and defeated.
After a few moments of complete silence, Master Kingston spoke, “I guess, since we are not to be involved, we will just have to do our best to train you to the best of our abilities in the short amount of time that we have.” The other masters agreed with her and then ushered the kids to leave and head to class.
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When they appeared in the main corridor outside of the dining hall, they heard a lot of muttering coming from inside. Parker walked around the corner to see what all of the commotion was about.
As he looked in, he didn’t understand what he was happening. The walls were lined with students staring out of the closest window to them. Alexis asked, “What’s going on?” No one could answer her though, so they made their way to the closest group to find out what was happening.
“Look at it!” one student yelled.
“I’ve never seen any before!” a short red-haired boy yelled, sounding extremely happy.
Parker looked over the shoulder of a brunette girl in red robes. What he saw outside was not what he expected. Snow fell from the sky so thick you could barely see. The ground and roofs were already completely covered. “Guys! You have to see this!” he shouted to the other three who couldn’t see.
He moved out of the way so they could each get a turn looking at what was happening outside. “We need to go talk to the masters immediately,” Hailee said.
The four of them rushed out of the dining hall, colliding with the masters as they turned the corner. “What’s the hurry?” Master Terra laughed.
“You have to see what is happening outside!” Hailee’s voice was filled with panic. The masters rushed into the dining hall, ushering students out of their way. Fright washed over their faces, one-by-one as they saw the snow falling from the sky.
“Wait, what month is it?” Parker asked. “I’ve lost track of time since I got here.” The look on Caleb, Alexis and Hailee’s face said that they didn’t know what month it was either. They figured based on the snow it had to be some time in the winter or at least close to it.
“Today is October 25th,” said Master Terra.
“But it never snows this much in October,” responded Caleb.
“Think about where we are. In the middle of an enormous lake. Weather here is way different than that of the mainland. The way the wind travels across the water whips up some nasty weather that Lara’s Imperial helped protect us from. Without it, we need to be ready for some really wicked weather to come our way.” Master Kingston sounded terrified about the weather that would be coming.
Alexis didn’t understand why they were so afraid. If they didn’t have protection from the weather until Lara was here, it couldn’t be too bad or they would’ve just moved locations.
The castle quickly began to disappear among the snow on the ground. As the days passed, the snow piled higher and higher, covering part of the windows in the dining hall.
Alexis was staring out of the windows at lunch, mesmerized by the raging snowstorm outside. “Earth to Alexis,” Parker said. “Hey, we need you here with us. We’re down to only eight days before it’s too late to stop Lara from whatever she has planned.”
She snapped out of her daze and joined back in the discussion at the table. “So, do you think we should ask the masters about what we should do to try and stop Lara?” Hailee asked. Alexis and Caleb were both shaking their heads.
“I think that would be a bad idea at this point. Last time we asked for their advice, they ended up trying to do it themselves and now look what’s happened.”
“Alexis is right, I think we should try to figure this out for ourselves now,” Parker said.
Caleb responded, “But we’ve been trying for weeks and we’ve come up with nothing. We don’t even know what all we need to do to make it to the chamber. Who knows what could be down those stairs.”
Everyone sat quiet after Caleb’s comment. Students in the dining hall began leaving and heading to their next classes. Parker began looking around, from table to table, watching students get up and push their chairs in.
Their discussion continued for a while before they decided to get up and head to class. Hailee stopped off a few floors below them as they continued to their Air Imperial class.
Class was as normal as it ever was. Everyone was practicing the current Imperial technique that Master Sora and Master Allgood were instructing.
They were learning to control air that was further away from them. Parker found it very easy, however, the others did not. He spent the majority of the class helping those around him figure out the right way to do it
Alexis caught on quickly after a few failed attempts. Caleb took his time trying to do it, afraid that he might slip in front of the other students and show that he is not simply an Air Imperial.
They found themselves loving this classroom more and more over the past week, ever since the snow started coming down. It was the only place they knew of that still had a summery feel to it. More and more, they were finding themselves in this room during their free time, at least when they weren’t in the library researching.
Caleb led Parker and Alexis behind a grouping of trees, which hid them from the rest of the class. “We’ve got like no time left. Are we actually going to be able to improve any more before our time has run out?” Parker and Alexis could hear the fear in his voice; he was starting to panic like he did at the beginning of the first term.
“I understand what you mean, Caleb,” Parker said.
Caleb’s head hung low as they talked. “I just don’t know what else we can do. I mean, there’s no way that we’re going to be able to actually fight her, she would destroy us without breaking a sweat.”
Parker and Alexis knew that he was right, but also knew that it wasn’t an option to not do anything about it. They had to go and try their best. Was it fair? No, they knew it wasn’t, but how could they let students from their school be taken and done who-knows-what with.
“Let’s just do it,” Parker said.
Alexis and Caleb just stared at him, trying to determine if he actually meant what he had just said. “What do you mean, ‘Let’s just do it’,” Alexis asked. “You mean you just want us to go in, now, with no plan?” The way she was saying this, told Parker that she thought it was the dumbest thing they could possibly do.
“I mean exactly what I said. Like Caleb said a minute ago, we’re not going to improve any more than we already have. No matter how much more training we do from now, until the twentieth, she’s still leaps and bounds stronger than us. There’s nothing more we can do, so, let’s just do it.”