The Wastelands

Half a Year Later.

Lilia was fighting with Bryson. It was just training, but she felt that Bryson was taking it too seriously. It didn't help that his thoughts were filled with winning, winning with any means possible.

The training began shortly after her arrival; they didn't even give her time to process everything. At first, it was frustrating and exhausting. She didn't know how her body worked anymore. It felt like she was crawling when everyone else was running, but she slowly got used to it. Now she thinks that the training was helping her work out how her abilities work. Now it was less frustrating, still exhausting.

Though she hadn't won a sparring match yet.

She spotted on the corner of her eye. Druid and Shadow were fighting in the next area. With fire surrounding her, Druid kept Shadow at a distance with her snake-like whip, while Shadow had gathered the shadows around him, making human shaped-shadows to distract her while he moved around her with his knives.

She shook her head. 'What am I doing? I need to concentrate on my own match.'

Bryson was using his medium, a sword hilt, to its full advantage, and he had a couple of years' more experience. Lilia didn't have her medium and wasn't used to her abilities, but she was stronger than him, and she got a feel of his movements.

Bryson used his water magic with precise movements, but they were too perfect. She could see a pattern, and that was his weakness. Being a Life Elemental meant that her magic was more intoned with her body, so all she needed to do was to bide her time, and dodge until the right moment.

'There!' Lilia dodged at the last minute, moving forward and tackling him, her claws at his throat.

Heather, who was the referee for Bryson and Lilia while Terran refereed Sean and Druid's match, yelled in excitement, "Lilia wins!"

Bryson scrambled away. "That's not true! She cheated, she had too." Trying to convince himself more than anyone else. "I want a second opinion."

"Don't know, looked fair to me," Terran soft voice answered, while Heather just giggled.

Excited, Lilia turned her back. She wanted to celebrate with the others.

Instead, she felt something cold pierce through her shoulder.

'In the shoulder, again,' she thought with numbing calm.

When she turned around, she saw Byson's gleeful smile …then she spotted Shadow behind him with his dagger raised… before she blacked out.

***

Lilia came too, numb on pain killers. She felt the other five were occupying the beds around her. That confused her. She and Bryson should be the only ones injured, why did everyone else look so sick?

"I hope you learned your lesson," a voice came out of nowhere. Lilia looked up to see the mean lady, no Headmistress Weatherly, standing over them. She looked furious. "You all share the same fate for the rest of your lives, like it or not. You foolish kids, you nearly died. I am not going to stand by to see my investment going down the drain…at least not before I have any use for you." Headmistress Weatherly turned. "Now, if you excuse me, I have a school to run." She left the room, furious steps echoing down the hallway.

'Died? All of us would die if one of us died. Is that she what trying to say?' Lilia's mind raced.

Even with only Lilia and Bryson injured, it was not hard to see the truth in Headmistress Weatherly's words.

Her thoughts were interrupted by one of the white coats who came by her bedside. "Your sister is waiting for you." Stella walked in with crutches, in with tears streaming down her face, and Lilia felt her sister's small form curl into her side. She sobbed and said, "You almost died! I was so scared. Don't leave me!"

Lilia wrapped her uninjured hand around her sister's small body.

"I won't."

***

Present Day.

Lilia flopped onto the mat, exhausted. Her energy level was at an all-time low. "That was so close," she g.r.o.a.n.e.d. Lilia lost, but it was a good fight.

Druid was nearby, wiping her face with a towel. She studied Lilia with a thoughtful look on her face. "You should have won."

"No," Lilia denied. "We were pretty close. I just can't beat your foresight." Going against someone who knows what going to happen ten seconds in the future was hard to fight against.

Druid just sighed, shaking her head. "Even with my foresight, you should have won." She paced a little before kneeling next to Lilia. "Honestly, fighting you was painful."

Lilia sat up abruptly. "What do you mean?"

"Your fighting skills plus your control over your speed and your strength are superb. But your overall power is lacking." Druid gentle voice spilled out.

"Were you testing me?" Lilia tensed up. "Was this Headmistress's Weatherly's idea?"

"Partly," she admitted. "Look, pretty soon, you and the twins will be going on more dangerous missions, and I'm afraid that you will get yourself and us killed."

Lilia moved away, crossing her arms, defensive. "Like your perfect, I heard that sometimes you do your own thing despite the mission."

"Yes, I do my own thing, and I have my own reasons for that." Druid looked annoyed. "But at least I am not deliberately handicapping myself. I use my abilities to the fullest wherever they might lead me."

"I don't want to hear this anymore." Pissed off, she got up and head towards the door.

Druid called out to her. "Please go clean up and come back. Headmistress Weatherly is arriving soon." The door closed behind her, and Lilia leaned against it, closing her eyes. "Well, that could have gone better." Lilia heard Druid's whisper.

Lilia's hands were shaking. She felt them both, her medium, just on the tip of her fingernails. It would be so easy to call them back to absorb their energy. To become stronger.

Suddenly, she closed her hands. 'No!'

She felt eyes on her when she looked up to see Shadow staring right back at her. There was something in his eyes that she can't read.

"The door."

It took a second to register. "Oh, yes." She moved away from the door so he could brush pass.