Thankfully, Savannah didn’t present me with a contract to sign with my own blood right then and there; I only had to sign a lengthy non-disclosure agreement before leaving, essentially swearing that I wouldn’t speak of the Order or about my abilities with anyone who wasn’t an Asterian member. She then asked me to come back Sunday morning at promptly 8:00 a.m. for the assessment – to determine my membership rank and likely have my dues waived, she’d explained, though she provided no further information or details on the assessment itself. I stiffly tolerated her giving me a brief hug in the elegant marble lobby, then I left as quickly as I could while trying to avoid the appearance of fleeing for my life.
As I strapped on my helmet and approached my motorcycle on the sidewalk, I took one last look at the unassuming brick building from the outside as I grasped the handles and hoisted my leg to straddle the bike. With a start, I realized that while I was holed up inside with Savannah, my makeshift MacGyver side-view mirror had been stealthily replaced with the bike’s original mirror, the one I’d left behind at the accident.
“What the hell?” I muttered aloud, thoroughly creeped out by what I’m sure they assumed was a thoughtful act of charity. The mirror had been meticulously buffed, repainted, and looked good as new. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Still shuddering as I kicked the bike into gear, I headed for the university, my head swimming. By the time I got to class, Aiden had already begun his lecture. I quietly slipped inside the side door to the auditorium, managing to avoid banging it shut. I took a seat on the right side of the room, close to the front this time. Aiden was in the middle of speaking, but his eyes went straight to mine the moment I sat down. This time, instead of glaring at me, he smiled, quite amiably, in fact. I returned the smile and gave him the tiniest of awkward waves, my heart racing slightly.
“Right,” he said to the class, faltering only slightly as he glanced back to his notes on the podium, “So, it’s important to remember that there was no firm distinction between the kingdoms of Eastern Francia and Germany at the time. While some primary sources tried to discern the two names categorically, Eastern Francia actually remained in use long after the Kingdom of Germany was introduced.” He looked up at the class. “To reward you dedicated students who managed to make it to class on a Friday night, I can tell you with certainty that this trick question will be on next week’s exam.”
A flurry of pencils in the room noted this.
“Speaking of Friday night,” he added, “How about we keep tonight’s lecture short? We’re slightly ahead of Professor Borstein’s schedule, so let’s just do a quick overview of the first German kings and then break early for the weekend, shall we?”
A few cheers sounded from the back of the class.
Quickly wrapping up the lecture with the introduction of Henry I and Otto I, Aiden dismissed the class, wishing them a good weekend. His eyes went straight to mine once he finished speaking, and I could tell he wanted me to wait for him. That was already the plan, I thought with a smirk, steadfastly lingering in my seat.
A pretty blonde girl approached him at the front of the class, twirling her hair around her finger in a rather transparent fashion. I rolled my eyes, an atypical reaction coming from me, as I impatiently waited for her to leave before I approached him.
When I did, he spoke my name like a relieved sigh. “Aspen… I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you. I wanted to come talk to you yesterday after what happened. I have to admit, I drove halfway to your house before I realized what a creep I was being.” He ran a hand through his hair nervously. “I honestly thought I wasn’t going to see you again. I felt terrible for that.”
“I was pretty freaked out the other day,” I admitted. “It was so overwhelming to try and take in everything that you were telling me.” I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I ran off like that.”
His warm brown eyes took in mine as he smiled. “Can I take you to dinner?” he asked, somewhat shyly. “I know a place near here, always really crowded and extremely well-lit.”
I laughed at his self-deprecating comment. “Dinner would be great,” I answered truthfully.
***
Twenty minutes later, I met him outside a cozy French restaurant in town, which was indeed busy, just as he promised it would be. The hostess led us to the back and we took a seat at a small table in the corner of the restaurant. As I took off my leather jacket, the piece of paper with the symbol Savannah had color-coded for me fell out of the pocket. Aiden bent over to pick it up for me. Upon seeing the tri-colored star, his face blanched.
“You didn’t!” he accused, half-angrily, half-fearfully.
“I had to,” I explained quickly, taking the square back from him. He stared at me, unmoving. “I already came here tonight with the intention of telling you everything… Please sit?”
Frowning, he took the chair across from me, his back to the wall. I leaned forward, my voice nearly a whisper.
“After the incident with the truck, I started to think someone was following me. Then, yesterday, a man named Strauss came to my house looking for me when you and I were together. When I didn’t answer the door, he… he went to my neighbor’s house.” My eyes stung with tears then, and I quickly blinked them away.
“What?”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. “He didn’t hurt her, but he lied his way in and gave me this smug look when I entered – like there was nothing I could do to stop him. When he finally left, he handed me a card, saying someone named Savannah Clarke wanted to meet me. I suspected they were from the same organization you had mentioned, but I knew I had to go. I couldn’t let them try to intimidate me by going anywhere near Evelyn again. She wouldn’t be able to defend herself if they… if they did anything to her.”
Aiden raised his eyebrows sharply as he opened his mouth to reply, but we were interrupted by the waitress, a young dark-haired woman in her late twenties.
“Hello! My name is Megan, I’ll be your server tonight. Can I get either of you a drink? Red or white wine, perhaps?”
“Would you like to split a bottle of wine?” Aiden asked me.
I shook my head. “I’ll just have a lemonade, please,” I told the waitress. Aiden ordered a glass of red zinfandel. She smiled at him warmly as she jotted down his selection.
When she had walked away and was fully out of earshot, I explained, “I don’t have an ID, and they almost always ask for one, especially near the university.”
“How old are you?” he asked, looking somewhat uncomfortable. “Do you even know?”
I shook my head again. “I would guess somewhere in my early- or mid-twenties. The birthday I randomly picked for myself is in three days – April 16th. I, uh, speculate that I’m turning twenty-three.” I waved my hand nonchalantly and forced a smile at him, trying to ignore the twinge of dejection I felt. My own words sounded fairly pitiful, even to me.
He reached forward as if to touch my hand, then stopped. It was then that I saw his red Pyromancer’s tattoo peeking out from under his partially-rolled up blue sleeve. Just below the crimson triangle, there was also a Roman numeral “III” etched in black. He saw me looking at it, then leaned back in his seat, tugging his sleeve down self-consciously.
“We’ll have to celebrate Monday night then,” he said, also appearing to force a smile in my direction. “I’m just… I’m sorry for your situation, Aspen. I wish I knew how to help you.”
“It’s okay,” I said, quickly brushing off his sympathy. “That’s one of the things they said they’d help me with, though; getting me identification, a passport, a way to work legally. They even offered me a job and said they’d likely waive my membership fees. Savannah seemed really eager to have me join. But when I asked her if she knew anything about who my family might be, she said she had no idea. And I can’t explain why, but I think she was lying to me.”
Aiden nodded thoughtfully. “Based on your abilities, I would bet almost anything that both your parents were Elementalists, and powerful ones at that. It would make sense that they were part of the Order.”
Megan returned then with our drinks, setting them in front of us. “Have you decided what you’d like to eat?” she asked, directing her question to Aiden with a wide smile. He looked at me.
“Aspen?”
“Uh, I’ll just have the… chicken, please. The um – this one.” I pointed to the French line that read Coq au vin. She nodded primly, then quickly turned back to Aiden.
“And what can I get for you?” she asked, her dazzling smile quickly returning.
“I’ll have the steak au poivre,” he answered self-assuredly, eyes on me as he spoke.
“Of course,” she replied, collecting our menus. “I’ll be back with your dinners shortly.” She smiled again in his direction as she left. Thinking back to the blonde student in the lecture hall, I idly wondered how many times a day that happened to him. Despite her obviousness, he didn’t seem to notice the waitress’ interest in him. Further proving my point, Aiden went on as if we hadn’t been interrupted.
“I assume they’ve asked you to join already?” He asked dryly. Suddenly, he stiffened, his eyes widening. “Oh god – you didn’t tell her that you’re a Pentamancer, did you?” he asked in a hushed voice.
“No,” I said. “She knew that I could affect Wind, Earth, and Electricity though. She was pretty excited about that fact. I guess I had witnesses. Well…” I amended, “I guess I set off some sort of Elemental alarm, since I didn’t ask their permission first.”
He rolled his eyes. “Did she give you the ‘Great Chicago Fire’ lecture?”
I nodded bleakly. “Did that really happen like she said? Some angry Pyromancer caused it?”
“The story is true,” Aiden said. “A side branch of my own personal research is tracing Elementalists and their activity throughout the ages. It’s why I chose to specialize in Medieval literature and history. The Order began around that time, though records of Elementalism trace all the way back to Empedocles in the fifth century BCE.”
I nodded slowly, absorbing this new information.
“Anyway,” he continued, “while the story itself might be factual, her reasons for sharing it are not what she represents them to be.”
“She said something like, ‘safety and secrecy are our utmost priorities.’”
He snorted. “Sure, safety is important, and secrecy, for them, is even more important. But order and control – power – those are their real priorities. Their goal is to seek out and find all the Elementalists in the world and have them join their society, so they can pledge their unwavering allegiance and practice only under the Asterian Order’s supreme guidance and authority.” I could hear the obvious indignance in his voice.
“But what’s their end game?” I asked, taking a sip of lemonade. My throat was getting very dry.
“I have my theories,” he replied darkly. “But for now, let’s just say that they obviously aim to gather and regulate as many Elementalists as possible worldwide, while also isolating us from the rest of the world, whom the Order claims will expose, and even exploit us, since they vastly outnumber us. They clearly want to make their members as powerful as possible, though for what purpose, I’m not entirely sure. And they do all of this while parading around under some artificial contrivance that the Chapters’ primary function is to act as some sort of Community Center.”
“Like Tuesday Night Trivia,” I mused to myself aloud. “Oh, that reminds me, Savannah wants me to take my ‘assessment’ this Sunday morning.”
Aiden arched an eyebrow. “Aspen, returning to the subject of Pentamancy…” He trailed off and sighed, rubbing his forehead tiredly.
“Look, I know we’ve only just met. I know you have no reason to believe me, but… if you trust only one thing that comes out of my mouth, please believe me when I say that you can never let them find out about your full abilities. If they find out… If they discover the full range of what you can do, the potential you have…” he leaned towards me, his dark eyes burning into mine, “Aspen, they’d never let you taste freedom again. The fact that they’re aware of your Electromantic ability…” His unfinished sentence hung ominously in the air as our dinners arrived at that moment.
After the waitress set our plates in front of us and walked away, we sat there in silence, picking sullenly at our dinners for what were probably different reasons.
“Aiden,” I started, unsure how to phrase my next words. “What… happened to you, exactly? What made you realize the Order wasn’t what they said they were?”
He kept his eyes glued to his dinner, setting his fork down on the table before he spoke.
“I’ll tell you some other time,” he said finally, and I could see by his dark expression that it would serve me no purpose to pry.
***
After dinner, the mood picked up somewhat after we moved the subject away from the Asterian Order. We decided to head back to the university, where we strolled and made small talk until we came to a large pond on the far side of campus. We stood side by side on an old wooden footbridge that crossed a narrower section of the water. Street lamps on either side of the bridge bathed us in warm yellow light. Across the pond, a frog croaked from somewhere beneath the garden of pink-blossomed lily pads floating on the surface.
“How do they detect outside Elementalism?” I asked suddenly, leaning on the wooden banister of the bridge and staring into the smooth, dark water. I was thinking back to our conversation in the restaurant.
“They have a group within the Security and Containment Division that is dedicated to detecting and controlling unauthorized Elemental activity… Strauss was likely part of that team,” he added. “The activity has to be quite strong for them to sense it at a distance. Otherwise they really can’t detect anything, though they like to try to make members believe that they can.
“Anyway, you have the ability to sense it as well. We all do, to some extent. Most of us can sense nearby manipulation of our own primary Element much better than the others. Me, for example, I can sense the use of Fire in smaller forces and at greater distances, far better than I can sense the other four Elements. I imagine you would be able to clearly sense when someone wields any one of the five Elements, even relatively weakly, within a mile or so of wherever you are. If it’s a very strong show of force, such as your tornado, a trained Auromancer might sense it within a ten-mile radius.”
Captivated, I took in his words while continuing to stare at the quiet pond beneath us, concentrating on the still, glassy surface of the water. Knitting my brow, I managed to create little ripples on the surface of the pond. As I focused on them, they expanded across the surface; blossoming, multiplying circles that overlapped one another as they grew in radius, resulting in lovely concentric patterns. Aiden noticed after a moment, smiling widely at the water, and then at me. When our eyes met, though, his expression faded slightly.
“Aspen,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to join these people. You can leave, start over again, somewhere where they won’t look for you. I can try and help you. I’m sure that together we could figure something out to keep you off their radar.”
“I do have to do this,” I replied, releasing my influence on the ripples to look at him. “Something happened to me, Aiden. My memories are gone, but the more I learn about this part of myself, the more I feel like it all has to be connected, somehow.”
He was quiet for a moment, as though he were deliberating something.
“What if we could get you answers without you having to go through the formal initiation?” he asked suddenly.
I looked at him, confused. “How do you mean?”
“I mean… what if I told you that the Order keeps detailed files on every single one of its members, past and present, within every Chapter?” Immediately I remembered the black folder Savannah had in her hand when I entered her office.
Aiden was looking at me, genuine concern clearly written across his face. “I wouldn’t be able to come with you, because they know my face and frankly I’m already waiting for the day to come when they drag me back there against my will… But I know where you can access the information you’re looking for, and I think I can help you get to it.”
I regarded Aiden closely then, his face illuminated by the soft light of the lamps above. His strong jaw, shrouded by the thin shadow of a beard, was tightly clenched, and I could see obvious worry etched into his otherwise smooth face.
“Why would you offer to help me?” I asked, carefully watching his face, waiting to see if it exposed any kind of betrayal. “We barely know each other.”
He looked away then, across the dark pond to a faraway place only he could see.
“I’ve made mistakes, Aspen.” He answered, softly. “And I’d like to start atoning for them.” Turning to look at me again, he took a step in my direction and my heart began to beat faster. His face was only inches from mine. I looked up at him warily. “Furthermore, and I realize this may sound strange because I certainly can’t explain it… I have this strong, overwhelming desire to protect you.”
“I don’t need protecting.” The words slipped out, sounding harsher than I would have liked. I bit my lip nervously, hoping that hadn’t sounded too callous.
Aiden chuckled softly. “You do seem quite clever and resourceful, I will certainly give you that.” He regarded the glassy surface of the pond once more, smiling wistfully. “…But even the best of us can use a friend’s help from time to time, right?”
A friend.
The word itself was foreign to me, even frightening, but in the last three lamentable years that I could recall of my life, I had never felt as ready or as in need of a friend as I did in that moment.
“Tell me your idea,” I said, my voice sounding far more confident than I felt.