Like Fire And Ice

The world is not what you think it is. For the longest time, I believed it was just about ordinary people, dealing with ordinary feelings, and struggling with antagonist principles such as good and bad. Yes, for the longest time, I was just like you: wrong.

There is a vast theory among my kind, according to which we all have the possibility to access to specific abilities, encoded in our brains. I do not know for sure if this is true. It is a little like saying that everyone is born bisexual. Maybe it is true, maybe it is not... And we have no way to know for sure.

But my story begins with this. Our abilities. There are so many different skills that it is very hard for me to list them for you. But I guess you already heard about most of them. Here is a very brief list (but there are so much more).
Some of us have narrowed powers. We can refer to pyrokinesy, empathy, telekinesis, and so on. These are the "taleners". Those who possess more than one "gift", are called the "great-taleners".
Others can access their powers through a wand. I guess you know them as wizards (like Harry Potter and stuff). But we prefer the term "wanderers". Do not ask me why. I guess it has to do with wands, although it is quite strange. They are not really admired, to be honest, and there are often fights between them and the taleners: the wanderers saying that they are more powerful (because their powers are not limited) and the taleners saying that they are on the contrary very limited, since without their wands, they are powerless. But it is not yet relevant to speak further about this.
We also have the "shape-swingers". They can basically change their appearances. There are many categories... Those who swing into a particular animal, those who change in more than one animal, those who can become mystical creatures, those who can modify their faces, those who can only change into persons they already saw.. Yeah, there are many categories. It is very rare to meet a shape-swinger who can change into an animal, or any kind of hybrid or change any feature of his/her personality, all at the same time. But those who can are among the most powerful of all.
Of course, there are also the vampires. I have had such a hard time with them. But we shall talk about this later.
And finally, there are the werewolves. I love them. They often have a hard time accepting themselves, and the Deorums help them so much.

You must wonder what I am talking about. Well, it is quite simple. Once one acknowledges and accepts that he has some talents (that are not considered as ordinary), they know it. I do not know who they are exactly. Maybe it is just a database that sends notifications to the Deorums. Or maybe it is a power they have. I really do not know how this works. But once we know who we are, it means that they know. And when they know, they come and teach us. They guide us. They protect us from ourselves. They prevent us from hurting other normal people.

To help us, they take us to special places (constructed underground, very far far away). It is a little like going back to college. Except that there are people from all ages and places. It is very rare to discover powers in an early age. In fact, most of the time, people are in their thirties when they acknowledge it... It can happen sooner or later. When it happens sooner, these people are often considered as the most powerful ones. The geniuses. You shall keep this in mind, for it will be of some relevance later.

I was talking about college... Well, there are the first years, the second ones, up until the fifth ones. We are called "Okopela" up until graduation. And once we are done, then we can choose what we want to do. Continue and help new Okopelas or go back to the normal world and get busy. Many choose to go back, and you would be surprised to know that many famous people are gifted.

But anyway. Even in our world, some very extraordinary events take place. And my story is about the most extraordinary of them all. It is known by all magic people I know, but I know some things that they do not. I happen to personally know the heroes. In fact, one of them is me. And I know all the crazy, naughty, disturbing details of the legend. So... Yes, I think I might be quite a good narrator to you. I will try not to omit anything. And explain to you everything you might not be familiar with.

So here it goes.

By the way... My name is Emma.

Chapter 1. The arrival.

The arrivals are always messy. The new Okopelas are often lost and do not exactly understand what is happening to them: so many things to learn and so many facts to gossip about. Personally, I miss it very much. I am not allowed to explain the exact location of our headquarters, but let me try to describe it to you. As I said, it is underground. It is quite big. There are five floors (for each year of studies), and each floor is like a little city, really - with trains to connect buildings. The first years are on the deepest floor, and the more we graduate, the closest we get to the ground. It must be symbolic.

And so, we all were transported to the deepest floor of Lahejeleo. It is the name of the "school" (if I can qualify it as such). We all found out that we had our own rooms (with a little bathroom and toilets), but there were many common places to share (such as kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms, etc.). There were dozens of buildings -linked by horizontal elevators, or streets if we preferred to walk-, to welcome the students. And the most magnificent building was the school per se, at the exact center of all the accommodation buildings. It was huge, a little like a castle. Only bigger. The walls were red, and the doors and the windows were gold. Our accommodation buildings had only six floors, but this building was reuniting all the floors of all the students in Lahejeleo. It had, at least, 25 floors, but I honestly never counted. I do not need to tell you that we were very impressed by all this (even though most of us were already adults).

When we all arrived, nobody knew anybody. We were all by ourselves, measuring each other, trying to discover if we shared the same abilities or not. Among them was my future best friend. She was 27. And she was a werewolf.

I was a cryokinesist (and though I didn't know it yet, a very powerful one). If you do not know what it is, cryokinesis is the ability to slow down the vibrations of the atoms, in order to alter temperature. The most gifted ones could even completely freeze an object. This is why we were often considered as the masters of ice. I also had the power of self healing, levitation and transportation (I could pop from a place to another one instantly, which is very cool). This is the first power I experienced: I was pursued by my adoptive father when suddenly I was not running in my street anymore, but in the hallway of my school. It was the place I was planning on hiding while I was trying to escape the man. I was so shocked that I went back to my house immediately. My "caretaker", who did not understand what had happened, hit me. And he hit me hard. So hard, he broke my nose. This is when I discovered my second power: the self healing thing. Long story short, when he started to scream because the bleeding had stopped, I yelled back at him. And while he tried to hit me again, I freezed him. And then I passed out. The Deorums found me, explained what was happening, examined me, and found out that I had one more power (not yet experienced): the levitation.

And here I was, alone, in the hall of Lahejeleo, with the rest of us. Contrary to everyone else, I had my eyes lowered, and was trying hard not to look at anyone. But I saw her, without even wanting to. And something moved inside of me. I did not know why but I felt like I could trust this woman. Her hair was long, a mix of brown and red, she had beautiful brown eyes, and a huge smile on her face. I couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Hi", I said. Yes. Lame.

She looked at me like no one had looked at me before. Her eyes brightened, and she smiled again. It just felt right. For both of us.

"Hi", she answered me.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"Ruby. But call me Red. Ruby is stupid and I don't like it", she replied. It made me laugh. It was the first of the multiple times she made me laugh. But neither of us knew why, since it was not really funny. She felt reassured by me. Something was telling me that I could trust her. Just like that. I had never trusted anyone before, but I knew I could rely on her, just like she knew she could trust me.

"Ok Red. I'm Emma. Do you have an idea of where we should go, now?" I asked.

"Yes. I spoke with the two guys over there, and it seems that we will soon be directed in the lecture room. Something about an introduction. I didn't get everything, but I guess, they'll just explain that we're all special and that kinda stuff. Did they tell you that we were here for five years? I'm 27! I would have preferred to remain a waitress. Far less scary… how old are you?"

Her little speech made me laugh again. It was the first time I had heard someone talk so much, and so openly. I was not used to it… yet. Usually, people were afraid of me, and they tended to just avoid me. She did not. And she never did. She had been my friend right away.

"I'm 24. And I wasn't doing anything special before, so…"

It was not true. I had been working as a bounty hunter for two years. I was trying to get rid of my adoptive father, and I saw it as an escape plan. But he had adopted me when I was 14, and he had always terrified me. When I was standing before him, I was a little helpless girl all over again. And he took advantage of it. But another thing with me is that I always had been very secretive. And I sure was not confiding this kind of details to Ruby right away, even though I felt like I could trust her.

While we were talking about some random things (which unconsciously reassured both of us), a little group of persons walked to us. There was a guy and two girls.

"Hey!" said the guy. "Sorry to interrupt, but we are a little lost and since you seem to be just as lost as us, we were wondering if we could crash", he smiled.

He was not bad looking, yet not my type. Kind of the ordinary guy, with ordinary brown hair, and ordinary brown eyes. But he also seemed very kind. I looked at Red. She seemed to be fine with it, so I told him that they could stay with us, and spill what they had heard so far.

"I'm Emma, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Emma. I'm Neal, and this is Aurore and Belle".

We turned to look at the girls, who smiled at us. Aurore was a petite blonde, who seemed very sweet. And Belle was a very attractive woman… Ruby seemed very moved by her. Blue eyes, red lips, auburn hair… she lost her voice for the first time when Aurore asked for her name. I noticed her confusion, and stepped in.

"This is Red."

"Do you know who will lecture us?" Belle asked, oblivious to Ruby's confusion.

Ruby's mouth fell open at the sound of Belle's voice. And this made me laugh. Nobody but Red got why, though. She knew I had noticed. We already shared a sort of connection that I had never thought imaginable. She gave me a knowing smile and a playful tap on the elbow and I just laughed harder.

"Yes, Mr Gold and Miss Mills will lecture us" Aurore said.

Neal frowned, but did not say anything.

"Miss Mills?" Ruby exclaimed.

"Yes. Why?" asked Aurore.

"I just heard something about her, earlier" Red answered. "It seems that she is the youngest woman who has graduated from Lahejeleo. She will be our teacher this year, but I never thought she would lecture us, today!"

"Well, you seem so enthusiastic, that we only can cheer with you, Red", I said.

"How long have you known each other, girls?" Neal asked.

"Years, actually" I answered. She looked at me, and I looked at her. Our gazes locked and we smiled at each other. Not like polite smiles, you know? A genuine, "talk-to-my-soul" smile. A smile that said "I know you, do you think about what I think?" Everybody is so on edge about love at first sight. But what about friendship at first sight? Because, it sure as hell what happened to us, and it never felt so right to be with someone.

"Yes, years I endured her. It has been quite difficult, believe me" Ruby laughed. And while I was about to answer, a male voice sourly echoed in the vast hall, silencing everyone.

"You shall enter amphitheater, now."

Everybody started to walk in the same motion, and we just followed. Neal was leading the way. He sat in the middle of the last row, even if Belle did not seem quite happy with the location. While everyone sat, Ruby and I looked around. She seemed very much more at-ease and confident.

Once everyone had a seat, a group of persons entered the lecture room behind us. They directed toward us, walking just next our bench, before going down the stairs, to join the stage at the center of the amphitheater. The first person was an old man, who did not seem very accommodating. His brown hair was quite long for a man, and he walked with a stick, limping. The second one was a petite pixie-haired brunette, with a goofy smile on her face; the third one was a charming young man, blonde with blue eyes (and I could not help noticing all the women of the room looking at him); and finally my eyes fell on the most breathtaking woman I had ever seen. And I never stopped looking at her.

She was quite small, but had such a regal posture, that no one could have wanted to mess with her. Her dark hair was short, and her black eyes were weirdly shining. I had never seen someone like her, and I could not say that it was just about her incredible resplendence, or her very sexy outfit (a short and tight black skirt, a red shirt and a black blazer who shaped her perfectly). There was something more about her. Something that I had never witnessed before: inherent strength, and self-confidence; the predictability of unimaginable powers and utter intelligence. I could not take my eyes off of her. And while the woman approached me to take the stairs, our eyes locked. I saw a spark in the dark woman stare. In this moment, I swear my heart stopped beating. And when the woman looked away, I felt so alone that I wanted to cry. My heart began to beat so loud, that I looked at Red to see if she could hear it. She first smiled at me, knowingly, and then winked, smirking. And we laughed.

I bit my lower lip and went back to the woman. Through the entire lecture, I never averted my eyes from the brunette teacher. We learned that her name was Regina, and that she would teach us our most important subject: the control of our powers. The other woman was Mary, and she was teaching the behavior to adopt with "normal human beings". The younger man was David, and he teached "normal" jobs for those who had an idea of what they wanted to become later. For the others (such as me), he was willing to help us find out. The last man was the headmaster, and had a role of supervisor if we happened to need something.

Then they spoke further about our year, what we would do, where we would sleep, the places where we could find useful things (maps, pools, books, etc.). But honestly, I did not really hear all of this. Ruby filled me in later. In that moment, I just admired Regina, wondering what kind of powers she could have. I was convinced that the woman Ruby mentioned earlier was her. She must have been the youngest graduated woman of Lahejeleo; which meant that her powers were surely phenomenal. And while I was forgetting everything else, and drowned into her eyes, she looked at me. I saw that little spark again. And she smiled at me. I don't know if I answered the smile. I was lost in ecstasy, and I just wished to see her smile every day of my life. We stared at each other for what seemed years to me (but probably just seconds), and Ruby punched me, making me realize that the lecture was over. When I looked back at Regina, she was not looking at me anymore. And for the second time, it made me want to cry.