Over a hundred people were already packed inside, crammed together in tight rows. No one spoke louder than a whisper. Every eye was trained on a low stage in front, where seven individuals stood apart from everyone else.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Loken out of the corner of my mouth.
He jerked his head toward the rows of people and joined the seven others on the stage. Rey grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the back of the room. At over six feet tall, Rey had no trouble seeing over the crowd. At five foot four, I had to stand on tiptoes and still couldn’t see much.
With a sharp clap of hands from someone in front, everyone went silent.
“Welcome back,” said a solemn female voice. I couldn’t locate the speaker through the crowd of people. “You all know the rewinds have begun. This is the fifth timeline.” The voice paused as whispers raced through the crowd. “The weight is great on the shoulders of all elemental practitioners—on all of you. I appreciate those who registered for this duty when we asked you to come forward and volunteer. Thanks to you, we now number over two hundred. We believe we’ve given you the best and broadest range of training available in the last few months.”
She cleared her throat. The next words came out in a rush. “But things have gone a little differently than we expected in the previous timelines. We’ll need to give you all additional . . . more focused training.”
As the woman spoke, I inched my way between two people who blocked my view, trying to see her face. The voice belonged to a woman in all black. Her dark-brown hair was twisted back into a tight bun. From the fine lines on her forehead and around her mouth, and her confident tone, I guessed she was elder.
A glance at her waist showed a miniature flame-thrower hooked to her belt. That would make her a Burner, a fire manipulator. The flame-thrower was just for convenience, of course. If she was an elder, she’d be able to generate fire from heat in the air.
The woman continued. “In the original timeline, we suspected the cause of the world’s end would be experiments conducted by our own scientists or scientists abroad. Specifically, we suspected that efforts to simulate the Big Bang would be at fault. Although we were able to stop these dangerous experiments, Elder Seer and his associates assured us that we were still on our way toward the end.”
She paused and scanned the room, letting her words sink in. A low murmur grew into confused questions, indecipherable with so many people chattering at once.
The speaker waited for the noise to quiet down. “So we performed our first ever rewind ritual. We used all the power we could gather, but we were only able to send us back ten days. And we could only preserve the consciousnesses and memories of the eight elders—the six elder practitioner specialists, Elder Kohler, and Elder Seer. If you have any questions about specific events in prior timelines, please come to one of us. Time travel can have interesting results . . .”
As the woman covered the nuances of time travel, I let my gaze wander, taking in these people I’d work with for the next ten days.
A gangly man next to the female speaker carried several vials of water attached to loops on his belt. A Flooder, no doubt. Behind him stood a petite blonde who also had vials on her belt, except they were filled with dirt. That would make her a Mover, someone who controlled earth. I’d love to be a Mover—to control the ground beneath our feet. That was something I could understand.
As usual, Loken wore his weapons belt slung around his waist. It carried a shortsword on one side and a dagger on the other. The belt was standard issue for a Bender.
As the woman at center stage spoke, Loken unsheathed his dagger. He turned it over and over in his hands. The blade repeatedly lengthened and shortened, and lengthened again. I’d seen him manipulate metal before, but this looked like a nervous habit. Loken didn’t watch his hands as he toyed with the weapon; his eyes stayed pinned on the speaker.
Next to Loken stood another Bender, a tall, bulky man whose small eyes stared straight ahead. Like Loken, he too had a weapons belt slung across his hips.
Three people on the stage carried no tools representing their elements. One of them I identified as Elder Seer. The traditional black Seer hood hung over his forehead, hiding his face and expression. Although they carried the elemental practice gene, Seers weren’t technically practitioners.
I guessed another man on the stage was a Breather. An air-manipulator wouldn’t need any tools, since his element floated all around us. Unlike the others, his face carried a soft, reassuring smile. Rey would be lucky if this man was his task force leader.
Occupying a back corner of the stage, and scanning the room with narrowed eyes, stood Elder Kohler, head of all the Council. I couldn’t remember what his element was. His thick gray hair held only a sprinkle of remaining dark strands. It gave him more of a distinguished look than he had several years ago, when he first became the head elder. He’d been in the public eye a lot lately, ever since publicity of the Vision had started.
I couldn’t figure out why my mother despised Elder Kohler so much. He seemed polite enough when he spoke to the press. But she couldn’t hear his name without scowling or stomping from the room in a huff. My stepfather, Talin, wasn’t much better. He went quiet whenever Rey brought him up in conversation.
I wondered if Elder Kohler was an Ethereal, and what tools of the trade Ethereals carried with them. What would someone need to manipulate ether? I wasn’t entirely sure what ether even was—yet somehow I was on the task force.
When the woman’s speech on time travel ended, I focused on her words again.
“In the second timeline,” she said, “fights broke out among the practitioners in our ranks. As you all know, we originally planned to have the elders advise the task forces but not be a part of them. In theory, this left the elders free for management duties.”
I glanced around the room, trying to determine if anyone else looked as confused as I felt. They all stared straight ahead, nodding along with the speaker’s words. How could the practitioners have fought with one another in the second timeline but not the first? They should have behaved exactly as they had before. Right?
“But the task forces needed strong leadership. We assigned the elders to be their leaders halfway through the second timeline. That calmed the infighting. Unfortunately, by the time we had everything under control, it was too late to search out the cause of the end. In the third timeline, we spent the entire ten days researching possible end-of-the-world scenarios.”
The woman speaking mopped her forehead with a handkerchief before proceeding. “In the fourth timeline, the elders disagreed about what threatened us most. As a result, we were disorganized, split into factions. It was only toward the end of the fourth timeline that we noticed the Mage migration.”
The tension in the room shot upward. Hardly anyone remained still. Feet tapped nervously on the bare white floor. Fingers threaded and unthreaded together. Hands raked through hair. Whispers skittered through the crowd.
I gulped down the lump in my throat. When Rey’s arm snaked around my waist, I leaned my head back against his chest and let his familiar smell—like fresh air and soap—comfort me. Still, fear clawed at my insides, threatening to consume me.
The woman gestured toward Elder Kohler and stepped back to let him take center stage. At seeing his impeccable posture, I couldn’t help but straighten up and lift my head from Rey’s chest.
“As most of you know already, I am Elder Kohler.” The head elder’s voice came out raspy, thanks to an accident that had burned his neck, right shoulder, and arm years ago. His throat bore a path of scarred skin that dipped into his collar. A miniature microphone clipped to his shirt amplified his gruff voice through the room.
I moved my attention from his throat back to his face. Elder Kohler was staring at something in my direction. I turned to see who stood behind me—a middle-aged man who leaned forward slightly on his toes, anticipating Kohler’s next words. I turned back to Elder Kohler. Our eyes met and held. I dropped my gaze to the back of the person in front of me, but couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.
“As we’ve discussed over the past months,” Elder Kohler continued, “you’ll be on the front lines when it comes to avoiding this . . . thing.”
I itched to raise my hand and ask a question—a hundred questions. But everyone else, including Rey, nodded quietly. They seemed to understand what he was talking about. I, on the other hand, hadn’t a clue what had been discussed over the past months.
Elder Kohler pressed a coin-sized device between his fingers, and the wall to our left dissolved into an image of a list. “Here’s how the next ten days will go.” A red line underscored the first item on the wall, which read, “Break into groups.”
“We’ll break out into our individual task forces, led by these fine people.” He gestured to the people with him onstage. “Besides me and Elder Seer, each elder will lead the task force associated with his element. With one exception.” His gaze shifted to me for a split second, and then went back to sweeping the room. I squirmed. “The Ethereals will no longer be led by Elder Ethereal. Loken will be their task force leader.”
The red line on the wall moved downward to the second item on the list: “Training.”
Elder Kohler said, “For the next few days, we will be training.”
“We’ve been training,” Rey muttered at my side.
“I haven’t,” I hissed. “So shush.”
“The training we’ve done so far,” Elder Kohler continued, “has been pretty basic compared to the crash course you’ll receive over the next few days. Ever since the Vision, we’ve planned for many potential circumstances.” His face went grave. “We did not, however, plan for your having to fight Mages. You’ll all need to learn some new skills.”
Mages.
He said more words after that, but their meaning didn’t register. The walls crept in around me. My eyes darted about the room, searching for an escape route. My chest felt empty except for the rapid breaths vibrating through it.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but the images invaded my thoughts anyway. For my brother Pace’s twelfth birthday, I’d taken him to the community garden just east of town. He loved to play in the fountains, where the water spurted in shapes of birds and geometric patterns. That was the only time in my life I’d seen a Mage.
Tears pooled inside my eyelids. I clenched my eyes shut tighter, refusing to let them fall. Mom and my stepfather chose to cremate Pace. There hadn’t been much left to bury.
Rey patted my hand, which was clutched around his arm. I jerked it back. It left white marks where my fingers had pressed into his skin. I swatted him away when he tried to put an arm around me; I didn’t want his pity.
I’d had seven months of pity from my teachers and friends already, as they’d tiptoed around poor, traumatized Ashara, who couldn’t save her little brother. Poor Ashara, who was unconscious while Council officials dispatched the Mage. Poor Ashara, who was sleeping on the job while her brother was murdered. I hadn’t even seen him die.
The Mage had been a Mover, an earth manipulator. Like human practitioners, Mages specialized in particular elements—just like they had when they were human, before they lost control of their energy and became monsters. The ground had rumbled beneath our feet as Pace and I ran through the market, trying to escape. Other people scattered around us, but the Mage stayed locked on Pace and me. I stumbled, slammed my head, and everything went black. When I awoke, my brother was gone.
I gritted my teeth and forced my eyes back toward the front of the room. My fingernails grated against my palms inside clenched fists. The pain helped me focus on the present.
“Depending on how you do during training,” said Elder Kohler, “you will be regrouped into action teams, each consisting of practitioners with different elemental abilities. Despite the regrouping, you will continue to answer to your task force leaders.” He gestured at Loken and the others standing around him. “They will continue to train you and will assign you to certain action teams as necessary. In your action teams, you’ll most likely be securing areas where Mage activity is suspected, or you’ll track down and kill Mages.”
Words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. “We’re going to hunt Mages?” My voice squeaked at the last word. Warmth flushed over my cheeks. I was just as eager as the next guy—more eager, really—to have all Mages extinguished from our planet. But that didn’t mean I was fit to hunt them. I pressed my fingernails harder into my palms to keep my hands from trembling.
Elder Kohler glared at me. For a moment, I thought he would ignore the question. Then he answered, “Yes. Mages are dangerous, energy-hungry beasts. If they come out in public, and we leave them to their own devices, they will slaughter people in the streets. I’m sure you understand this.” He paused, then added, “If too many of them gather in one place, we have no idea what will happen. Does that answer your question, or would you like to waste more of our time?”
Two hundred faces turned to look at me.
“Yes,” I squeaked. “I mean no. I mean . . . that answered it.” My voice trailed off to a whisper.
Elder Kohler continued, without sparing me another glance, “We must keep the Mages from converging here in Vallara. We have too many practitioners and too much technology at the Council and at the nearby University. If the Mages were to tap into that energy, the result could indeed change the world we know.”
He paused and peered around the room, as if waiting for his words to sink in. “We have some idea of the routes the Mages will take, based on their movements in the prior timeline. Unfortunately, those routes will likely vary from the previous timeline, so we’ll have to stay vigilant. Listen to your leaders. Do as they ask.”
The practitioners nodded their heads, their faces serious.
Elder Kohler gestured toward the only other man, besides himself and Elder Seer, without an obvious elemental tool on his person. “Elder Breather will lead the Breather task force. Breathers, please follow him out when I dismiss you.” Elder Kohler pointed at the others on stage, one-by-one as he introduced them. “Elder Mover, Elder Burner, Elder Bender, and Elder Flooder will lead their respective task forces.”
Last, he waved Loken forward. “For those of you who don’t know him, this is Loken. He will replace Elder Ethereal as leader of the Ethereal task force.” The whispers rose up again. Elder Kohler held up a hand to quiet them. “If you’re in that group, Loken will explain the new . . . developments.”
Developments? Am I a new development?
“Remember, anything we do here is for the greater good.”
Every person in the room, except me, joined together and repeated, “For the greater good.”
Elder Kohler nodded. “Dismissed.”