Brunhilde's mind was still set on the copies, so she made one last, very important point before she forgot completely. She didn't really care if it made her sound paranoid - she'd been doing this long enough to know on some level that it'd be absolutely catastrophic if she lost every single piece of information she had.



Emi was a little bit distracted at that moment, though. She was looking out the window for inspiration, and was surprised by something-or-other, which worried Brunhilde a little bit. Not much, though. Emi seemed to be the sort to be surprised by pretty much anything unexpected at all.



Brunhilde went ever-so-slightly red for a few moments. Emi was obviously a tiiiiny bit stressed when she checked the time, so that meant they were late. Being late was rather embarrassing, even if she did have an excuse - and a rather good one, at that. It wasn't a terribly far walk, thankfully. Still, more important things to worry about at that second - like the copies she was handing over. She very lightly prodded Emi with the papers in offering.



She took Emi's hand obediently, then not-so-obediently dragged Emi along behind her on the way to where she instinctively knew the lesson was. She felt she'd walked that path at some point, so she didn't really question where her feet were taking her, and Emi would probably correct her if she took a wrong turn. A couple minutes of walking across campus brought them back to the courtyard, where Avarius and Vallen were waiting, and she had no recollection of having been late in the first place, or even what they had been learning in class. They were five minutes late.

@liferusher@Dark Light

When Brunhilde handed her the copies she made sure to put them into her duffel bag and gave an understanding nod at the girl. It looked like the girl was pretty damn sure about this, well it was to be expected. What would Emi do if she suddenly lost all her knowledge of her past. She would freak out too. Still losing an entire book out of nowhere was not something that would happen just like that. The library had been here for some time too and they contained even older books that survived wind and the likes.

Brunhilde didn't take Emi her information that wel. Or so to say she didn't like what Emi said at all. Clearly she wasn't the one to be late at all even though she memmory loss. Emi awkwardly laughed while hastingly taking off with Brunhilde behind her. Even though Emi was gonna lead the girl didn't seem to take her that serious. Brunhilde was walking in front of her most of the time more dragging Emi with her then elsewise. She clearly forgot the part that she had memory loss, it must have been like 3 times that she tried to walk a different way and Emi had to correct her off course.



Luckily for them it was close by the library so it didn't take long for them to get there. On arrival she noted that there was a person close by that she knew. Well let's say the only student she had met apart from brunhilde. She drastically stopped her pace and let go off brunhilde while she slowed down to a stop before him.



She gave a kind smile towards him and made sure Brunhilde wasn't running elsewhere. A worried look struck her face when she saw the two teachers behind Luke though. She quietly stepped behind Luke but it was clear she was there by her hair puffing out from his sides just slightly. Still it was better than being scolded at for now.

@liferusher@Azereiah

---

"Where ever you are is the right place."
Avarius politely corrects Emi.
"We can not always control our path in this life and must learn to accept where we land.
You have landed here so stay and see what you can learn."
Despite already looking to Luke when talking to Emi poorly hidden behind him it was clear Avarius was addressing Luke at the end.

"Alright, well my teaching is done for the day, I will be joining you as the pupils while Vallen leads us in the early phases of what will eventually lead to combat training."
Avarius smiles as he takes his place beside Brunhilde.

Vallen, he who had seemed a stone statue of a sitting monk since meeting, smoothly came to stand before the class.
Having been given and selflessly demanding the students attention Vallen brings himself closer to the class. Continuing his silence he locates them about six feet apart from each other and ten foot away from himself with a series of firm finger pointing.
After a lengthy deep respectful bow he finally parts his lips and speaks in a deep stern, almost dreamy voice.

It was a dirty move, one taking advantage of the situation at hand. Vallen raises his hand to silent and still Emi as he talks to Brunhilde.
His voice as casual as ever.
"Brunhilde, enjoy your break? Here at the academy, while we are a school, we consider ourself above and more free from the standard structure they impose. For example punishment and reward.
Free from restraints, how would you discipline tardiness and reward attentiveness in your class?

Brunhilde took Vallen's bow as a cue to do the same. It was the same as it had been in her old martial arts lessons, and that was rather comforting to her. It was a sort of structure that she was very familiar with, and acted as a constant reminder to do exactly as instructed. No more, no less. She stood in the Ready stance as she had been taught in her childhood.



The question came as a bit of a surprise to Brunhilde. She was completely unaware that they had been learning administrative and disciplinary techniques. She was, of course, aware (judging from the immediately prior conversation) that they were in some sort of class, and she was definitely supposed to be present - and the man six feet away next to her was both her teacher and a fellow student at the same time. Whatever-this-guy's-name-was, standing at the front of the class, reminded her of Master Pete Dyer in how he carried himself.



The question was somewhat of a landmine. She knew fully well that were she to encounter a student similar to herself under that system, then they would likely end up spending many hours longer than intended together. A student with effectively inexhaustible mental fortitude and no concept of time would be a nightmare as a teacher, and she couldn't very well think of a way around that problem short of using an egg timer with a sticky note on it. And the issue of attentiveness wasn't one that she had ever given thought to - and even if she had, she wouldn't know that she had. Paying attention was the only thing that permitted her to not be completely lost and useless, and she could genuinely not comprehend not doing so at this point.

@Dark Light
@liferusher
@Inertia

Eric was late, several hours late, but there just been no other way to go about it. From what Eric's mother had told him, he had gathered that most of the people that went to the academy lived in the area nearby and that getting to school would be no problem, but that wasn't the case for Eric. It had taken him two planes, one train, two buses, and about thirty-five minutes on foot to get to the school, so as he walked the few last steps across the campus ground he felt relieved. He was relieved that he had finally made it, and he was relieved that what had been almost a 24-hour journey had come to an end.

"Hey there!" Eric groaned as he walked up to someone that could hopefully give him some directions. The fact that Eric was apparent in his voice, and if you took a moment to look at him you would quickly notice the two large bags under his eyes, it was clear that he hadn't slept for a while. "So my parents notified the school a few days ago and said that I would be arriving a bit late, but I guess a few hours is more than just a bit," Eric paused for a moment and laughed nervously as he ran a hand through his hair. "So... umm... I have no clue where I should be going or what I'm supposed to do. Think you could help me?"

@Dark Light@Azereiah@liferusher

---

Looking all around the class, Luke noted the unique gardening. It was eyecatching to say the least, while admiring the exotic trees some voices entered the room. For some odd, unexplained reason, Luke instinctively hid;





Confusion rested on Luke's face, he had heard some rumours about Air users, something about being hippies but he took no heed. Luke had absolute no context about their conversation so he had no idea what to do. Although, he actually caught himself hiding. He popped up, similar to the whack-a-mole game's you find in an arcade, with his hands up, he spoke up in a low voice;

"... Uhh hello!" he greeted rather nonchalantly, with hints of nervousness and uncertainty laced in his voice, "I seem to have gotten lost in this maze of a school... Where exactly am I and... what day and year is it?"

Brunhilde

Brunhilde's head turned towards the new person. She didn't know him yet, she didn't think. His face was a complete unknown to her. At least with the others, she knew that she had seen them before, but he didn't quite fit the same mould. The others surely had noticed him, but Brunhilde was by far the first to act.



She turned her head back to Vallen and gave a short bow of apology. "If you'll excuse the assumption and the language, sir."

@Inertia
@Dark Light

@Azereiah@Inertia@liferusher

As Brunhilde spoke Avarius saw what was coming. He rolled his eyes and let out a deflated disappointed sigh. Meanwhile Vallen revealed a slight smirk. He wouldn't announce it but had just added an extra 10 minutes to each set.
Avarius had invited Luke to join class so Vallen said no more on the subject. He had already indicated where he expected each student to stand.

"Miss Vigmundsdottir, Miss Akemi, and guest, welcome. For this lesson listen to my words and follow my movements exactly. Try mirror me as I go through our form. Focus and memorise as this will become daily routine."
Vallen begins with a series of light full body warm-up stretches as he continues to talk.

" Of the six core elements
Earth, Water, Air, Lightning, Fire, Light.
We consider three as constants and three to be energies. "Each constant has an energy counterpart, lightning is the solidarity of the energies, as firm and stubborn as earth. Fire is the flowing energy of its watery constant counterpart. Lastly air is to the other constants as light is to the other energies!" Avarius briskly buts in while mimicking Vallen's stretches.
Vallen's following pause of still silence spoke volumes of his disproval. Avarius bites his lip and sinks into himself like a puppy that just got told off. Vallen's steely stoic gaze passes over each student as if checking for approval to proceed.

@KuramaaaZ

"I'm not gonna back down, Vlad." Gus mumbled.

Putting his foot beneath him the boy rose back to his full height and kept a close eye as his opponent kept himself in the water to conceal his true intentions. Lot of swimming, lots of cursing Gus assumed, and the boy finally emerged after putting some distance between the two of them. The bigger of the two, Gus let Vlad scrounge for his next tactical idea instead of simply running over and crushing the boy into the dirt. Lot of power but the upstairs department on his opponent was lacking in a big way.
Having finally found a suitable stick he liked, Vlad turned and began to shake as he held it firmly. After a short time it began to vibrate and not just shake, and Gus knew the ploy. He'd seen it occur more than once and heard stories from his father of fire elementalists super charging something with their energy only to have it explode. Vlad tossed the stick like a Javelin and Gus crossed both his arms, focusing on both of them with the full force of energy he could muster to harden the tissue as much as possible. The moment the stick exploded, Gus was forced to take several steps back to avoid falling onto his back. Both arms blackened and now bleeding, Gus continued to smile.

"Gonna be a wuss and throw more sticks or do you feel like settling this like a man?"

A rhetorical question, really. Gus took off in a charge, ignoring his stomach and the pain in his arms as he focused more adrenaline to block out the hurt and bring back fighting function. Already he was well past his experience but the idea of a fight was to always push yourself over your limit and achieve new heights of prowess. As he closed the distance with thunderous foot falls, Gus grabbed a rock half the size of Vlad and hoisted in it one hand over his head and let fly. The red hue still in his arms he raced forward and threw another heavy punch, following it with another, and another, a barrage of heavy punches. His blood was boiling now. The pain, the pleasure, the adrenaline, it made the boy drunk on his own potential as he swung like an animal. One such attack connected solidly with a boulder as he wildly swung at his opponent, shattering it into broken chunks of stone without sign of slowing down.

???

The man under the mountain watched the fight impassively, only wincing when the larger student came close to destroying something in the grove by accident. What monstrous power that frame held as he watched the hurl a boulder one handed. It's trajectory would send it into a tree trunk with enough force to shatter it, which would not do, but rather than interfere as he had done to the fire student, the man simply walked into the fight. The world slowed down to a crawl, as it had so many times before, as he approached the fighting boys now locked in place for a mere instant of time, for them, but what could be an eternity for himself. The boulder was large, a stunning throw, but one of senseless destruction.
The man touched the boulder as it sat in the air and gently pushed it ever so slightly to alter the aim to land in the dirt near the tree it would have crashed into otherwise. Satisfied, he returned to the here and now and felt the air of the boulder pass and smash into the ground as he intended. Sitting atop the fallen rock, the man waited with anticipation to see how the fight would end. The boy called Vlad with the fiery temper was going to run out of energy soon. Recklessly using his stored energy without ever trying to charge himself up. But Gus had not bothered to make an attempt to dodge the explosions or fists of his opponent, relying on his resilience and bulk to keep him in the fight.

Youths always surprised him with how stubborn they could be.

@KuramaaaZ

???

Tossed bodily away with nothing left in him, and the big man was losing himself to his element with every swing. Every crunch of his fist on flesh only seemed to drive the behemoth on further and further until he was stopped. The man under the mountain had not intervened and let them both learn a lesson. Vlad had been overpowered by a bigger opponent and learned what it meant to be challenged. To grasp at fleeting straws and learn, if only a little, to think his attacks in advance instead of mindlessly attacking. Gus had to see what he was capable of and see where his element could take him if ever the giant lost control. Bloody and burned, both students were now at wits end. The fight was over but still Gus raged on.

Gus roared as he rushed in to finish what he had started, to end the source of his pain, his mind on instinct even as he smiled. It was not rage that made him aggressive, it was his boiling blood. You could only block out so much pain before even the strongest mind lost itself.

The master under the mountain approached casually as the world simply.. stopped. His was not the power to stop time but to move at a rate so quick it might as well have. A gift he had mastered over thousands of lifetimes. The soft sound of steel sliding on oiled leather filled his ears as he drew out the dagger. The blade had been made by his own hands deep below the mountain when it was a tenth the size it was today. The wooden handle was a branch from the tree of his home that had survived the centuries. Even without maintaining it, the blade was as sharp as the day it had been created.

Vlad was on the ground now, eyes lost to the sky. It was likely that the boy felt ashamed of his defeat. How wrong he could be.

The nameless master sat upon the ground next to him with the blade resting across his own lap, hand on the blades edge and the other resting on the hilt.

"So you have been challenged. In defeat, you learn. In victory you stagnate. Learn from this moment and better yourself for the next obstacle."

The masters voice was a soothing summer breeze and carried the weight of centuries. Though the boy would not hear him speak it, those words would be in his head now. Interpreted as his own or not, he hoped this one would listen. Grasping the blade, the master stood and turned to the lumbering monster that was Augustus.

"All you wanted was to prove yourself. To show him you were strong enough to help. If only you could see yourself."

The cut was precise and shallow as the nameless master went to work. The first two cuts severed the boys hamstring, two more cut the muscle function from his thighs. Not a drop of blood spilled at the blades passing. One more slash, this one deeper, took the strength from the boys arms. The master positioned himself to stare into the boys eyes even as time began to return to normal around him. Blade still in hand it would seem to both boys as if he had simply appeared. Simultaneously the wounds he had inflicted burst into a light dribble of blood and Gus collapsed like a falling tree into the dirt with a stifled scream of agony. The red hue draining from his body as his energy faded and the pain returned.

The master only stared down at him before returning to Vlads side. Gus would regenerate, his body was already trying to heal the burn wounds. But Vlad would have no such luck or aid. Not by the time he needed it. The masters hand laid upon Vlads chest. Upon contact it seemed he was merely measuring the boys heartbeat. No effects occured. But as the minutes rolled on he would feel new life sprouting inside of his body, a fire inside his soul that that burned like the sun. It was a feeling of power as the calming waves of the masters energy channeled into a new host, revitalizing him and mending his pain. The broken bones mended back to the way they had been before the fight, his bruises disappeared along with the soreness of his arms. New fire sprouted over every inch of his body but did not burn, but instead they seemed to cool him down.

The nameless returned to his seated position and closed his eyes, the blade again resting across his lap with both hands to either side, and focused his energies into the ground. The flames died down in the grove in an instant and the birds returned to their happy chirping. The land would heal from this and return to normal with time and a little guidance.

Avarius told them some wise words Emi hadn't thought about that and wanted to comment but decided not to since he was probably mad at her that she was late for his lesson. Although she thought. He was going to be replaced with Vallen who she couldn't find out of what kind of element he controlled. She peered a little from behind her cover to see this Vallen person. The expression on her face seemed to keep getting nervous as she looked at him. He smile had faded as she muttered a word.



Emi was gestured to keep quiet. His voice was even scarier than his appearance, he had a deep calm voice. It was matching his appearance, he was the kind to blow something up and calmly walk away from it again. He was calmly speaking to Brunhilde asking how her day was bassicly. He didn't seem mad and Emi was about to come out from her cover but as he mentioned tardiness she jumped just slightly and ducked behind Luke again. He was talking about her! He was talking about her for sure! She had to get out, this was gonna be bad. Why wasn't she crying yet.

Brunhilde had answered the man, she probably didn't know at this point since she likely forgot but she had been giving Emi a punishment. At least they weren't hits on the head to how many minutes she was late, that would be the worst. She had experienced that before and after 30 minutes of coming late she had learned her lesson well. Still it wasn't something fun that she had to stay longer at the end.

Brunhilde looked rather puzzled at the new boy, but of course Emi had completely forgotten she was the only one that had met Luke before. Emi now knowing she would get her punishment at the end of the lesson acted normal again. She jumped out from behind Luke and took some distance. She raised her pencil in front of her closed one of her eyes and poked out her tongue at the corner of her mouth like a real artisan.

She stepped a few steps backwards while she slowly got the journal from under her journal. When she was at a good distance she dropped her butt onto the grass. Her feet almost instantly crossed as she dropped the journal on her legs. Her tongue poked out the whole time while she had started making a nice drawing of Luke on a new page. It looked rather silly, she only wore a bikini and the word Emi was still written on her forehead.

After a few minutes a nicely drawn chibi of Luke was on the paper with his name above it. Emi's expression brightened as she looked at the finished package. It had worked out well what made her pretty happy. She quickly showed Brunhilde and sat down a small distance away from the small girl and Vallen as the lesson began.


They were told to do stretch exercises while the calm yoga teacher told his story. Avarius butted in for a moment but was quickly told off by Vallen which she thought was quite funny. It showed a little who was stronger qua image that was.

---

The formal attire donned upon him felt unbearably constricting. It was almost as if an impregnable barrier had been placed between his skin and the earth. He did have to wear a uniform of such a caliber when he was employed as a waiter, though that job was short-lived. The stoic had reached the point of no return when freshly brewed coffee met that man of exactly forty-five years’ face. At least the guy got the hot surprise he was hoping for. As Murphy’s Quantum Law states, if something can go wrong, scorching hot coffee is the most likely perpetrator. Zephyr tugged the tie away from his throat, knowing full well that it would somehow return to the same position on its own. At least the wear had its own redeeming qualities.

It took his sight a few moments to focus after his lids had eased open. The sun’s reach was making an active attempt to permeate the thick treeline. Rays cascaded downwards through passages of leaves and rested on the forest floor, with the only obstruction being the adolescent resting on the grassy bed. He had woken up to this tranquil scene many times and always found it entertaining to note the subtle differences every time he greeted the world once more. Almost mechanically, the boy sat up from the viridescent ground. As blades of grass fell from Zephyr’s hair, his vacuous eyes absorbed his surroundings. While his sight was engrossed in the act of digesting environment, his hearing picked up a faint commotion. It wasn’t too far off, and whatever the source of the thrashing was, it was evidently a turmoil of mayhem.

Zephyr found himself at a crossroads. He had parted with his friends earlier since the two had class, which left him to his own devices. The boy decided to fill his time with a pacifying slumber that definitely worked as expected. He felt revitalized, despite the blank expression on his face. The urge to convene with them and listen about how their first day of classes went was present, yet his head was currently fixated in the direction of the noise. His conscious only dwelled on the prospect for a brief moment before the student got to his feet and absentmindedly paced his way forward.

The Darkness user arrived at the tail end of the brawl, just in time to witness the barrage of punches launched by the burlier figure, who he presumed to be a student. He silently watched from the treeline ultimately unnoticed. This was his first time bearing witness to other elementalists, and to be frank, it was an eye-opening experience. Well only in a metaphorical sense, since the boy’s eyes still maintained their vacant form. The tables appeared to have been turned on the other party, who now resorted to last-ditch effort tactics. His composure remained unchanged as both individuals continued to display their prowess. That was until a third individual entered the fray. But rather than adding even more fuel to the fire, he turned a piece of artillery into his personal chair. At least that was the conclusion Zephyr drew, for the man had acted in the blink of an eye. After the losing student collapsed to the ground, all of a sudden the victor was on his back with meticulously made cuts dug deep into specific regions.

Zephyr watched the spectacle before him at an utter loss for words. It was as if the man had forcefully taken ahold of the hands of time and dragged them counterly. The scene which had staved off the effects of the conflict began to repair itself. The boy stepped into the grove as the ground below his feet tended to itself. The fires that had burned vibrantly a moment ago had now been quelled. He scrutinized the two students from a few feet away. Based upon their features, they were most likely his seniors by far. In comparison, he was a lanky kid just four inches short of six feet. Before he spoke out, he glanced up at the man posted on his pedestal. The master currently was engrossed in making amends to Mother Nature. Zephyr returned his gaze to the two and questioned in an impassive yet mildly cautious voice , ”Nurse’s office?”

The question wasn't directed to either individual in particular, though the boy felt the underlying fact that he wouldn't be able to haul the larger student back on his own. Though his wounds already seemed to be mending themselves.

Elementalists were truly unique individuals.

@Zelosse@KuramaaaZ

Headmaster opened the door to his office and sat down at the desk, pouring himself a cup of tea, offering another one to Rinna. "So child, I assume you must have many questions. I will answers the one that I am able to." He unbuckled his tome and set it down on the desk, watching it pulse ever so gently almost as if it was content with it's descendants rejoining the school. He chuckled inwardly as he imagined the look on his face if he ever found out that one of his descendants had become a water student under Kano's tutelage. The poor man might die of shock.

Madison

She was a total mess when she opened her eyes. Tear stains and sweat covered her face as Madison tried to make sense of the terrible nightmare she'd just had. She looked down to notice both of her hands gripping the covers, and she let go right away before getting off the bed. Madison started to pace around the room for a little bit, but that didn't help her as much as she would have liked, so she grabbed her keys and headed out as she decided that it was time to get some fresh air in order to clear her head.

Once outside, Madison walked in no particular direction, so it was just her and her thoughts. She was enjoying the solidarity before someone walked up to her asking for directions.

"Oh, I should be able to at least guide you to the right person," she replied as she led the boy to the main entrance. "My name's Madison, by the way. And is your element fire, by any chance? Because I know exactly who you need to talk to if that's the case."

@Arakadin

@Dark Light@Azereiah@liferusher

---

"That I am." Luke replied.



A maelstrom of expressions seeped into Luke's face, confusion, disarray and perplexity. What exactly was going on, and what was so mean to join. He looked behind him, Emi hid her face, wearing only a bikini and her name written on her forehead. Normally he'd try to keep an expressionless face but everything was just so... puzzling. He coughed, trying to regain what little re-composure he had left. Looking towards Emi once more, she was now sat down, her tongue slightly sticking out, and she was quite obviously staring at Luke. With her scribbling away, Luke concluded that she was probably drawing him;

"Dinner and movie first Emi." Luke joked in his wild stupor, as he pretended to hide, and make himself scarce in jest.

Adjusting his glasses back onto its rightful place, he was invited to join their stretches while they chanted a mantra. Luke really did enter something weird, or atleast something he never actually did back home. All he did was train, nothing at all like they were doing. From what Luke could gather, there appeared to be some discord of sorts, but seeing as he doesn't have any context chose to ignore it. It almost seemed the Emi was a bit afraid of them.

Before he followed any of their... movements, he walked up to Emi and sat next to her for a bit;

"... Please tell me where on earth am I right now, I'm very confused at the moment." Luke said, taking a small peek at her drawings.

---

Brunhilde tilted her head in confusion for a moment at the pink-haired girl's drawing. This was new. Some sort of diary, like her own? Just a couple seconds before, the girl had seemed absolutely terrified by something-or-other, and she'd clearly been watching Brunhilde. The name tag on her forehead, the drawing of the other student, and her choice of outfit made her seem like she was completely out of it. It was clearly someone she knew, though, so... Questions. Lots of questions. But they would have to wait for later. She was sure she would get the chance to think of them again in the future. A short, calming breeze blew across Emi's face as Brunhilde gave the girl a reassuring smile. You're fine.

The strange (and very, very confused) boy who had appeared earlier seemed to know 'Emi' (assuming that was the girl's name). He seemed a bit on the lazy side - and perhaps as rude as she herself could be. She had no doubt that she'd get to know him at some point, and she had the feeling that she wouldn't like properly meeting him for the first time. Or meeting him for the first time for the second time. Or the third. But maybe he'd get the hang of it at some point and get it right. Jury was still out on that one, though. He was strolling into a lesson with very, very little thought as to what the result would be for the other students, and not giving so much as an apology and introduction, after all. She eyed him irritably, wondering and worrying what his next move would be.

Her thoughts then turned to the teachers, who were going on about some nonsense regarding Constants and Energies. Brunhilde only knew of matter and energy, and the various forms that each could take. As far as she could tell, the Constants were simply different methods of manipulating material, whereas the Energies (as their name implied) were simply different methods of manipulating energy. Fire - thermal or kinetic energy. Lightning - electrical energy. Light - radiation. All were really just the same thing, as far as she could tell. But they felt different. She remembered having tried to manipulate water once during her earlier childhood, under the assumption that it was just much heavier air - it almost worked, but it felt as though it was speaking a different language to her. And they mentioned that these were the 'core' elements - which implied there were others. Bizarre. Pointless rumination, though. The timer was running out on those thoughts, and she banished them from her mind before they distracted her further from the lesson.

Vallen was doing simple stretches and warmups. Brunhilde had seen most of them before, but there were a few unusual positions scattered throughout that she was completely unfamiliar with. Perhaps something spiritual or professional elementalist related. She followed along to the best of her abilities, but for the most part, she relied upon muscle memory for the exercises, and the unusual ones threw her for a bit of a loop and ruined the rhythm she had been trying to build up.

She didn't bother saying a single word. The monk acting as their teacher seemed to be the sort to take offense at even minimally interrupted lessons.

@Dark Light
@liferusher
@Inertia

Rinna sat down quietly, accepting the offered cup and playing with it idly. She watched the pulsing book with a troubled expression, obviously going over the flood of questions in her head, deciding which one made the most sense first.

"Why now, after so long? The power in my family died out so long ago, it was assumed to be a myth, so why has it suddenly come back?" She paused for a moment, but it wasn't long before all the rest of her questions came tumbling out as well.

"What is this place? Where did that letter come from? Why me? Why now? Why don't I have the same element as my ancestors?" Tears began to fall as Rinna voiced her final question, the one that had been plauging her nonstop since the moment she had read the letter for the first time.

"Why wasn't I able to protect them too?"