Emilia and Eddie sat by themselves at breakfast. Emilia knew sitting together wouldn’t help convince anyone she and Eddie weren’t dating, but she decided she didn’t much care. Let them think what they wanted. She had bigger things to worry about.
When Maria came into the Main Hall, Emilia thought she might join them as she paused to look around, but then she joined the other girls of cabin 12. Emilia caught her gaze, but Maria shook her head and put her attention on her food. Emilia noted the four fiends, Keegan, Vernon, Bryce, and Aaron sat together near the middle of the cafeteria, boisterous as usual, accompanied by a group of lesser toadies.
“I don’t feel like I was very heroic,” Emilia said quietly. “I barely did anything. Maria hit him with more arrows than I did and it was the stag that took him out.”
“But you saved the stag,” said Eddie. “I have to think being a hero is about more than just shooting arrows at bad guys. Remember our conversation about what it means to be a hero? You helped the stag and the stag helped you.”
“You and Maria also helped.”
Eddie blushed. “I just held the light.”
Emilia was ravenous and had scooped up a bigger than normal pile of eggs for herself. She worked through them methodically, reveling in the salty, creamy, firmness of the soft scrambled eggs.
“I’ve been thinking,” said Eddie. “You feel like you weren’t ready for facing the last two fiends. So, we could try to figure out what comes next and get ready for it.”
Emilia nodded. “What do you think?”
“It’ll be Vernon Fieldstone. It will take place last spring on the soccerfields as they’re south from the stone box.”
Vernon Fieldstone was the broadest of the bunch. He was barrel chested and well-muscled, easily outweighing Emilia several times over. She wasn’t looking forward to facing him in a confrontation of any kind.
“What do you suppose the trial will be?”
“No idea.”
“Awesome.”
“Also, that means my cousin, Keegan, will be the Fiend of Fire. Likely to take place at the forge, which is east of the stone box. I imagine that one will just take place now as it’s already summer. In fact… hmm, no I guess not.”
Eddie fell silent without explaining himself, so Emilia nudged him.
“What?” Eddie looked at her.
“You trailed off in the middle of your sentence.”
“Oh. Well, it’s just that today is the solstice, longest day of the year. That would have lined up perfectly with taking on the Fiend of Fire, but I guess not. You have to deal with the Fiend of Earth first.”
Emilia couldn’t help feeling like a pawn on a chessboard. It all fit neatly, too neatly, too planned out.
“I don’t like it,” Emilia said.
“You handled the previous two fiends just fine.”
Emilia thought that was debatable, but pressed on. “I don’t mean that. I mean, as I’ve said, it seems convoluted. We don’t know who put the box there or what’s inside. We don’t know why there’s a poem that tells a hero to fight elemental fiends. And then there’s the names. They all fit their element. Is that a coincidence?”
Eddie shrugged. “That’s what coincidence means.”
“What if this is a set up?”
Eddie nodded thoughtfully, his eyes going far away. Emilia let him be and focused on finishing her breakfast. When they were taking their trays to the kitchen, Eddie spoke up.
“Even if this is an elaborate ruse, I think you should keep going. We’ve gone back in time with each encounter. And each time you’ve managed to subvert a minor tragedy. In the grand scheme of things, some trees falling down and a dead stag aren’t earth shattering, but they’re not nothing. And what if, on the next one, or the one after, something worse happens and you can avert it. I’m also worried about what would happen if we let an elemental fiend go unchecked.”
“Fair enough. But if we’re worried about what happens when elemental fiends run wild, we should tell someone who’s actually trained to handle that kind of thing.”
“Who would we tell?” Eddie asked.
“The Union? I’m sure Mrs. Fir has a phone in case of emergency.”
Eddie shrugged. “You’re the one who wanted to be circumspect, but I agree calling The Union would be prudent. Do you think Mrs. Fir would believe us?”
Emilia considered. She took a swallow iced tea. She’d always liked Mrs. Fir. The owner of Camp Arrowhead was a solid, dependable sort of person. “She seems to think the stories around the stone box are real. I trust her.”
Eddie nodded. “Me too, but I think we should wait until we’ve got the next key. Then we can show her physical evidence to back up our story and she’ll have no reason to doubt us.”
The finished breakfast under the quiet morning hubbub of the Main Hall and were off to the library by unspoken agreement. They were only just on their way when Emilia stopped at the sense something was wrong. She shivered just before she noticed Keegan Brand approaching them. She felt a hint of a headache at her shoulders, creeping up the right side of her neck and wondered if it had anything to do with her burgeoning parahuman powers, or if she just didn’t like the other boy and got tense with his eyes on them.
Keegan ignored Emilia and grinned at Eddie. “Hey there, Teddybear. Got a message from home. Need to talk to you for a bit.”
Keegan wasn’t as broad as Vernon Fieldstone, but he was tall and handsome. But his chiseled good looks and his thick wavy hair and his disingenuous smile put Emilia on edge. He worried her in a way neither fiend had. The fiends had felt surreal where as Keegan Brand was very much real. It made sense to Emilia that he would be fourth and final fiend described in the poem and it worried her.
Keegan turned his smile on Emilia. “This is family business, no girlfriends allowed. But don’t worry, honey, I’ll return him the same way I found him.”
Emilia shivered to be called ‘honey’. She didn’t like the way the word sounded in his mouth or the way his eyes lingered upon her.
“Fine,” said Eddie. He sounded reluctant and small. “See you later, Emilia?”
She nodded.
Emilia did not trust Keegan’s claim that there’d been a message from home. It felt like an excuse. Not that she thought he was going full fiend, there’d been no glowing eyes or out of place scents, but he was still a notorious bully and Emilia hated to see him walking off with her friend. Keegan put his arm around Eddie’s shoulder, emphasizing their size difference and pulled the smaller boy close as they walked away.
Emilia stood halfway between the doors to the Main Hall and the stone box, watching them go. She realized her hands were clenched to fists, her jaw tight. The boys walked from the courtyard to the side of the Gymnasium, leading to the boys’ cabins. Keegan squeezed Eddie’s shoulders. It was probably supposed to be a friendly, big-brother gesture, but Emilia winced.
For several moments, Emilia tried to talk herself out of following them. She took a careful breath and unclenched hands and jaw. After several moments more, she changed her mind.
She walked followed casually, not quite looking at Eddie and Keegan. She watched from her periphery as they went around the side of the large building toward the boys’ cabins then hurried to follow. She kept an eye out for the other of the four fiends but didn’t see them. She slowed when she came to the back corner of the Gymnasium and peered around toward the half circle of cabins.
Strictly speaking, girls weren’t supposed to be on the boys’ side of camp without a councilor, but so long as she wasn’t doing anything inappropriate or being suspicious, no one minded too much. There were a few boys scattered here and there, some sitting around the empty campfire, some emerging sleepy-eyed from their cabins, some roughhousing in that way boys so often did, and she scanned them all for Eddie and Keegan. She was beginning to think she’d lost them when she caught a flicker of movement beyond the boys’ cabin at the edge of the wood, on the path to the forge.
Worse, Vernon Fieldstone was there, his bulk leaning against a tree, Eddie’s backpack dangling from one meaty hand.
Keegan’s arm tightened around Eddie’s shoulders and propelled him forward. Vernon laughed. She could hear his high-pitched guffaw even across the distance. They all disappeared into the wood.
Heart hammering, Emilia sprinted after them, not caring who saw her or what they might think. She slowed at the edge of the wood so she wouldn’t risk slamming into a tree trunk. She was fairly certain they were headed to the forge. Though there was a well-worn path to the forge, the boys hadn’t taken it. Still, she was confident she could get there by cutting through the way they had. She hurried through the trees as quickly as she could, hoping she was on the right heading.
After several minutes, she broke through into a clearing, off the mark from the forge by a few degrees to the left. The forge was a largely open building, only one back wall of brick and a quartet of stone-based columns supporting a roof. The forge was against that back wall and where she’d emerged into the clearing, it was about all she could see. There was also a locked shed full of tools and plenty of counterspace. A large anvil stood in the center of the space; a second anvil was set several feet away.
Emilia crept carefully around the backside of the forge, staying just inside the treeline, until she saw Eddie and the four fiends. Eddie’s backpack had been dropped to the forest floor just outside the building. Eddie himself was held between Aaron Drake and Bryce Stillwater, each with a hand on his shoulder. Eddie squirmed but didn’t try to break free. Vernon leaned against one of the counters, malevolent grin on his thick face. For a moment, his eyes flickered green. Emilia felt herself tense.
Keegan held a can of lighter fluid she could smell even at this distance. The forge was a brick cavern with a lip at the entrance to keep heated metal on the brick surface.
Emilia acted before she could think on it, before she could convince herself not to. She strode forward, willing herself to fake confidence. “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded, voice taking on the strong, deep tones of Mr. Northam.
The boys started, but when they found it was only Emilia, the relaced.
Keegan’s oily smile spread across his face. He clicked his tongue at her. “Naughty, naughty, little girl. You shouldn’t poke your nose into family business.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Emilia bit her tongue on her fear, pushing herself forward with far more confidence than she felt. She walked into the shade of the roof over the forge.
“I asked you a question,” she said. Her voice had reverted to her own, but she filled it with as much strength as she could.
“I guess you can stay and find out,” Keegan said. “Vern.” Keegan snapped his fingers.
Vernon Fieldstone stood up and grabbed a stack of books from the counter where he’d leaned. He walked to the forge and tossed them in just as Keegan withdrew a matchbook and lit a match. For a moment, it was as though everything was in slow motion and Emilia could clearly see the contents of Eddie’s backpack: the old journal, the textbook, and his binder of trading cards. They dropped onto the oil-soaked bricks just as a bit of wind kicked up, dust scattering about, but it wasn’t enough to put out the flame of Keegan’s match as it dropped to the oil-soaked bricks. The whole stack caught fire with a womph, blasting all of them with the smell of lighter fluid and sulpher.
Emilia was stunned. Eddie had told her Keegan had threatened to burn the trading cards, but she hadn’t expected he’d actually do it. She knew Keegan was a bully, but this was more than that. This was crossing from bully to abuser, from hazing to villainy.
Eddie cried out but strangled his voice. His jaw clenched and tears streamed down his face. Emilia wanted to do something but knew she couldn’t stop what had already happened. But, she told herself, that didn’t mean there was nothing she could do. She turned to leave, intending to go straight to Mrs. Fir and tell her what’d happened. But as she turned, she found Vernon Fieldstone blocking her way, thick arms crossed over his barrel chest. His eyes glowed pale, sickly green.
“Where are you off to? Ready to play the valiant knight again?”
She moved to go around him, but he moved to block her path.
“Get out of my way,” Emilia said, and her voice shook, just a touch.
“Not until we’re done with the show,” Keegan said. “It’s a very pretty fire if I do say so myself.”
Emilia looked over her shoulder to glare at him, then moved to go around Vernon. The large boy reached out and shoved her back toward the forge. Emilia reacted. She didn’t have to summon her mnemonic trading cards. She simply changed, growing taller, wider, stronger, faster. Vernon’s eyes went wide, the light fading from them, and Emilia shoved him back. The boy staggered as he backpedaled and landed hard on his backside.
Emilia spun, fists raised. She didn’t know the first thing about hand-to-hand fighting, but in this shape she was tall and strong and in this mood she was ready to punch some bullies.
“Holy shit,” Aaron said, backing up several steps.
“You’re a fuckin’ freak,” Keegan said, eyebrows raised in surprise.
Eddie shook Bryce’s hand off his shoulder and turned to face the bullies backing toward Emilia.
“Yeah, that’s right!” Eddie’s voice was high and desperate. “How did it feel, huh? How did it feel to get blasted apart by guitar solo?”
Aaron backed several paces more, leaving the forge.
“How did it feel to get stabbed by a stag?”
Bryce put a hand to his chest and rubbed gingerly. “How did you…”
“She’s coming for you next,” Eddie said, pointing at Vernon still sprawled on the ground. “And you.” He pointed at Keegan.
Vernon scrambled to his feet, and both he and Bryce joined Aaron in backing away from the two of them.
But Keegan laughed.
“Of course you’d date a freak, you’re obsessed with them,” he gestured at the burning books. “But your freaky boyfriend wasn’t good enough, was he?” Keegan looked at the fire a moment, still burning hungrily, still stinking of lighter fluid. Then he sauntered to the other three, giving them a pitying look, and into the woods. The other three followed after, only Bryce looking over his shoulder still rubbing at his chest.
Emilia watched them go. When they were at the trees, she heard Eddie sniffle though he was trying to be quiet about it. She turned to him.
Eddie stood at the brick forge staring at the smoldering ruin of his books and trading cards. The books were bricks of ash. The plastic binder was melted and twisted. The pile was hardly recognizable.
Emilia felt herself shrinking back to her default form as she approached. Her clothes felt loose on her and she realized they must have stretched when she’d grown. She didn’t know what to say, what to do, so she stood next to Eddie while he cried.
When the fire was burned down to embers, Eddie took off his glasses and wiped the heel of his hand across his eyes and cheeks. He took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh. He looked at her, eyes puffy and red-rimmed, his voice was thick.
“I guess we should head back?”
Emilia nodded. “We should go straight to Mrs. Fir.”
Eddie shook his head frantically. “No. I don’t want anyone else to know about this, and I don’t want to be a tattletale.”
“A tattletale? Eddie, there’s nothing for you to be ashamed of. Those thugs assaulted you. We need to tell someone so do they don’t think they can get away with it.”
“No. Emilia, just let it go.”
“I can’t do that. What they did was wrong. They need to be told they crossed a line. This wasn’t a prank. This wasn’t joking around.”
“I just want to forget it happened,” Eddie said, making for the path that led from the forge, a winding route cleared of trees, rocks, and ruts that would lead them to the backside of the Main Hall, near the archery range. Emilia followed in silence. She could understand where Eddie was coming from. She didn’t want to tell on her peers at school for every snide remark, dirty look, or exclusion. She understood wanting to handle the problem herself, of not being seen as weak, but she did not understand letting them get away with what they’d done. It was easy to ignore verbal taunts or give as good as she got, but burning Eddie’s books was more than bullying.
As they emerged from the trail she resolved to tell Mrs. Fir what happened, whether or not Eddie joined her.
“I’m going to go lay down,” Eddie said, voice thick.
Emilia nodded, but he didn’t look at her, just trudged off to cabin 4.
“Sorry, Eddie,” Emilia whispered, as she made her way to the Commons.
• • •
Mrs. Fir had an office on the second floor of the Main Hall, but she rarely used it, so instead Emilia went to the second floor of the Commons where she found Mrs. Fir leading a crafting class through the steps of folding an origami frog. She slipped quietly into the room and an empty seat, patiently waiting for Mrs. Fir to finish, thinking about what to say, how much of the story to tell.
When Mrs. Fir was done with the demonstration and began to help individuals, Emilia stood to meet her.
“Could I talk to you in private for a bit?”
Mrs. Fir looked surprised then nodded. “Jo, take over for a bit, would you?”
One of the junior councilors gave a thumbs up.
They went into the hallway.
“I’m sorry to bother you, and if this were just name-calling or something I wouldn’t come to you.”
Mrs. Fir frowned. “What happened?”
Emilia quickly outlined following Keegan and Eddie to the forge where Keegan and his friends burned Eddie’s books. Mrs. Fir’s frown deepened throughout the story. Emilia left off the parts about glowing eyes and changing shape for the moment.
“Come with me to my office, please. I’ll need to write this up.”
Emilia knew it looked bad walking with the head councilor to the Main Hall. She knew some in the courtyard would notice and wonder why, assuming she in some kind of trouble, so to avoid the embarrassment of the assumption, Emilia kept herself focused on following Mrs. Fir.
Mrs. Fir’s office included a couple bookshelves, some of which held books, but most of which held knickknacks and pictures. There was a desk with a telephone, stacks of paper, cups of pens, and an old computer currently powered down. Mrs. Fir went to a filing cabinet in one corner, opened it and withdrew a form. She sat at her desk and picked up a pen. Finally, she motioned for Emilia to sit in the chair across from the desk.
“Tell me again. In detail.”
Emilia sat and told the story, and including every detail she could think of, from Keegan calling Eddie ‘Teddybear’, to Bryce and Aaron holding Eddie in front of the forge, to Vernon dropping the stack of books on the oil-soaked forge. When she finished describing the fire, Emilia cleared her throat awkwardly.
“There’s more,” she said past the lump of nervousness. “Some related to this, some not.”
Mrs. Fir put her pen down, steepled her fingers, and looked over them at Emilia. “Is it a personal issue?”
Emilia nodded. “Sort of. See, Eddie has been helping me. He’s become my friend. And he asked me not to tell you about any of this. And I get that, because no one wants to run to adults with every little problem.” Emilia shrugged. “I feel bad I’ve ignored what he asked of me.”
Mrs. Fir nodded. “But that’s not really the thing, is it?”
Emilia looked at Mrs. Fir in surprised. “How…”
“I’ve been doing this a long time, Ms. McIntyre. What else is going on?”
“I…” Emilia’s voice caught and she bit her tongue. She trusted Mrs. Fir, but even now she found she couldn’t say it easily. She closed her eyes and took a breath. The mnemonic trading cards flickered to mind, but she ignored them.
“I have parahuman powers,” Emilia said. She tensed, but when Mrs. Fir didn’t say anything, Emilia pushed herself to continue. “I can change shape and learn skills. Free throws, for examples. If you talk to Keegan and his friends… they saw it. Vernon, the big one, he got in my way when I tried to leave and then he shoved me. And Eddie and I… he’s been helping me practice. He taught me about mnemonics. And when Vernon shoved me, I shifted. I got bigger. And I shoved him back. And they all saw it. They know.”
Emilia opened her eyes, and when she looked at Mrs. Fir. She saw no judgment in the other woman’s expression.
“I appreciate you trusting me with this.” Mrs. Fir said, tone careful.
Emilia swallowed hard. “There’s more. It’s about the box.”
Mrs. Fir waved her hand. “We already know Maria Jordan is the one who spray-painted it.”
Emilia felt her jaw drop.
“I take it you didn’t know that. In that case, I would appreciate if you didn’t let that get around.”
Emilia nodded.
There were interrupted by a careful footfall outside the door. The floorboards creaked gently. Someone tapped at the dooframe. Emilia turned as Mrs. Fir looked up. Eddie stood there, looking especially small and vulnerable and betrayed.
“You told her?” Eddie said. He said it like it was a question, but they both knew it wasn’t.
Emilia tried to say something, to explain, but she felt her chest tighten and her scalp tingle and her thoughts go just a bit fuzzy. Instead, she kept quiet.
“I asked you not to say anything,” Eddie said. “I asked you not to and you did it anyway. Why? You think you know better than me? You think you have to protect me?” Eddie rubbed the tears from his cheeks. “You asked me not to say anything about your…” He bit his tongue. “Well, I didn’t. And I never will.”
Emilia didn’t know what to say. She waited for Mrs. Fir to say something, but as the older woman took a breath, Eddie turned and hurried away. Emilia took a careful breath, but a few tears spilled down her cheeks nonetheless.
Mrs. Fir cleared her throat. “For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing. If there’s anything else, now’s the time…”
“Yes, actually.” Emilia wiped at her cheeks and took a long, slow breath. She spoke through the tight buzzing at her chest. “I was hoping I could talk to you about the stone box. And the keys.” Emilia was holding back tears by a thread. She cleared her throat roughly, took a deep breath, and tried to think only about the box.
“You’ve found the keys?”
Emilia nodded and looked up at Mrs. Fir who, despite the deluge of revelation Emilia had poured upon her, looked just a calm and poised as ever.
“Two of them,” Emilia said. She cleared her throat again and explained about the poem, the sixteen-point start, the four fours: season, element, direction, and fiend. She explained about Zenith Niall’s guitar pick and the Fiend of Air. She described the stag on the lake and the Fined of Water. “Eddie and I decided to show you once we had the third key. We thought you might be able to, call someone?”
Mrs. Fir’s expression turned speculative. “When I first took over, I called The Union. They sent a guy out here, twenty-some years ago. Odd Fellow. That was his name. Or at least, that was how he introduced himself. He said if there was anything magical about the box, he couldn’t detect it. But he did say we should call if it starting doing anything overtly supernatural.”
Emilia sniffled and nodded. She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She wished she could, because if she could keep talking, maybe she wouldn’t have a total breakdown right there in Mrs. Fir’s office. As it was, she bit her tongue again and cleared her throat.
“Well, that’s, um, everything. I guess… I guess I should… I’m going to…”
She hurried from the office and out of the building. She arrived at cabin 12 before she knew it, but once she was in the small, cramped building, all she wanted was to be out. To be away. Before she could run off without thinking, she pulled on her hiking boots and backpack. She’d swiped a few granola bars and bottles of water and stuck them in her pack just in case. She was out the door and headed for the lake when she was stopped.
“Hey, Emilia!”
Emilia wiped away tears before turning to find Nadia and Alexandria approaching her.
“Fran’s opening the range if you want to come by,” Alexandria said.
Emilia shook her head and cleared her throat. “No. Um, no thanks. I’m gonna take a hike.” She turned again before they could see her crying.
“Oh. Okay.” Nadia said, but Emilia was already off.
She pushed herself into the woods and when she was sure no one was around, let herself cry as she blindly threaded through trees, avoiding undergrowth, tripping over rocks
• • •
That night, the night of the solstice, Mrs. Fir and Mr. Northam organized a fireworks show. Everyone gathered in the courtyard before the stone box and stared at the clear night sky on the shortest night of the year. Everyone except Emilia. She slipped off to the far side of the lake and the flat rock she liked. It was peculiar, she thought, that though every fireworks show she every saw was basically the same, she still enjoyed them.
Emilia spent much of the next several days alone. She threw free throws by herself, went fishing by herself, and took hikes by herself. Even when she was in a group, felt alone: crafting with Mrs. Fir, firing arrows at the archery range, kicking a soccer ball around. She took her meals with the girls of cabin 12 though just as often she’d find a spot off by herself. She saw Eddie, of course, but whenever he saw her looking at him, he’d quickly look away and vice versa.
Frankie tried to ask her if something had happened, if she wanted to talk about it, but Emilia insisted she was fine.
Emilia had no problem being alone. She often preferred it. But never before had she had a friend like Eddie. She’d begun to count on him to talk with, to eat with, just to be with. And it hurt every time she looked around to share a thought or ask a question and he wasn’t there.