Once upon a time, Sethbe, the son of a spirit god, had an affair with Mathilda, a Light Priestess, which resulted in a child. War was raging between the children of the gods: between those of darkness and those of light. Sethbe and his brothers, Liedte and Zienkhe, were overseers in the darkness. They could not have people know about the child. Mirrhia, a loyal servant of the brothers, took the child and disappeared before anyone realized birth happened. She made a quick stop to the family temple in the middle of the Egyptian desert, to present the child officially to Ghar, the brothers’ creator, protected by the watchful eyes of the temple guardians. With the baby tucked in her arms, she then left into the night, without a trace.August 8, 1980 Anita picked up Coralis in her arms and climbed up the stairs to take her to bed. In her eyes, Coralis was the best thing that ever happened to her, better than the night she accepted Donny as her husband and mate. She dropped her in her sma
October 1st, 1989 Coralis and Nadilla sat quietly in Ms. Wagner’s office. Head looking down, sometime shooting furtive glances at each other. They thought they were in trouble, once again. Coralis closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of what could have possibly led them to the administrator’s office this time. Maybe they were going to move them again, even if their social workers said that they would have to stay there until the trial was over, at minimum. They arrived to this group home about a month ago, along with some other children. She didn’t punch a kid nor instigated any sort of conflict. She kept to herself, barely talking to anyone. She couldn’t think of any reason that would explain why she and Nadilla had to sit at the administrator’s office, on a Sunday morning. “You think they want to punish us because we are not talking to the social workers here?” said Nadilla in a low voice, just loud enough for Coralis to hear it. Ms. Wagner’s office wasn’t small. In one of th
July 15, 1990 Coralis and Nadilla were excited. They were getting ready to go shopping for their school supplies. The previous month, they had received by mail the list of what they would need for school. The list wasn’t long, but there were so many books listed on it, that they were hoping that none of them were heavy: they had no one to help carry them to school or across the mall. As promised, Vallia met with them a few times during the year. Coralis wasn’t sure if that really helped, because she simply ignored the other kids to avoid getting into conflicts. The trial and the weeks prior to it were a little more challenging, but Roberto gave her something to suppress her emotions during that month: it wasn’t healthy, but they couldn’t risk any accident at the courthouse or with the authorities. He made sure that Vallia met with Coralis when the potion wore off. Ms. Wagner wasn’t too keen about letting a 10-year-old girl go shopping alone with a 9-year-old, but Roberto had filed
August 26, 1990 It was 5:00 when Coralis’ alarm went off, but she was already awake. She barely slept. She was as excited as she was anxious about where she would be ending the day. Nadilla had already left for her school. She hadn’t been able to call her, so she had no idea how she was doing, if she liked it. She was hoping that she would be able to write to her. They had realized that even if Nadilla was able to send her a letter as soon as she arrived, odds are that Coralis would already be gone by the time it gets to their group home, so they decided to check if it would be possible to send letters to someone in another school. They had been apart a few times in the past, but not for the last couple years, so it felt odd to be without her cousin. She missed her. Martha said that she would pick her up at 6:00. Coralis was ready and waiting at 5:40. All of her belongings were with her. She didn’t know if she was going to come back or stay on the school ground for Christmas holiday
October 3, 1990 It was 20 minutes past curfew. Coralis, Victoria and Maribel felt antsy and restless. They sat in class for the entire day, studying various theories and histories, but no practice of any kind. Moreover, Coralis and Maribel had to stay in detention for an hour after classes ended for the day: at lunch, they decided to race each other on their flying stick and lost track of time, arriving late for their elemental history class. Their roommates were doing their homework, but they were done with theirs, so they decided to sneak outside and go for a walk around the building, just to stretch out a little bit. They figured if they stayed within the shadows, they wouldn’t be seen by anyone, and they wanted to try out a night vision spell. It didn’t take them long to reach one of the backdoors. Coralis was about to pull a piece of paper to jam between the ledge and the lock, so that the door wouldn’t lock behind them and they could go back in using the same door, when she no
May 15, 1991 The school was hosting the European Elemental Tournament. The EET was a competition between twelve elemental schools located across Europe: Scotland, England, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Ukraine and Romania. There were more elemental schools located in Europe, but smaller or considered not prestigious enough, so they weren’t officially included in the EET. These other schools had the option to sign up eligible students to the EET, but would never be hosting it. To be eligible to participate, students had to be an elemental aged between 15 and 20-years-old. They could be living outside of Europe, but had to officially be attending full-time an elemental school located in Europe. The tournament lasted 10 days. Participants would compete in various events and disciplines, depending on their subspecies: potions, flying, combat, history, etc. The best 3 competitors of each discipline would then compete at the World Elemental Tournament
August 25, 1991Erik, Henry and Coralis were getting ready to head back to school. “Coralis,” said Kief, “I don’t know how I missed that detail when we were filing the paperwork for you, but was your birthday really on August 1st?” “Hmm yeah, it was, I am now 11,” said Coralis. “Why does it matter?” “Wait wait, DID WE REALLY MISS YOUR BIRTHDAY?” said Erik and Henry at the same time. “Had we known, we would have done something to celebrate it. Why didn’t you tell us?” said Kief. “Because I don’t think it matters. I never done anything for my birthday. Sometimes a social worker would give us a cupcake, but I never cared about it.” The Fullemons didn’t like that answer. They decided that if Coralis came to their house again the next summer, they would do something to celebrate her birthday. Meanwhile, they would try to see if she could come to their family for the End-of-Year holidays: the boys started to see her like a sister. Coralis was happy to see her friends again, but the u
February 6, 1993 Unable to sleep, Coralis and Victoria decided to go for a walk. It was cold outside, so they stayed inside the school building. The school had so many hallways and staircases, that they could easily walk for an hour without seeing the same wall painting twice. Moreover, less risk of getting into trouble if they weren’t caught outside past curfew. As they approached a staircase, they heard some whimpers coming from behind a wall. They stopped walking and tried to figure where the sounds were coming from. “You heard that, right?” said Coralis. “Yeah, I’m not sure is the person if crying or in pain, or both… but where is it coming from? Sounds like it’s coming from behind that wall.” The girls stood between an outside window to their left, and a wall to their right. They started to closely inspect the wall to their right, in case there was a secret lever or a hidden lock. Both of them were convinced that the whimpers were coming from right behind it. They patted the
December 23, 2003 – 22:15“LIEUTENANT YOUMIS?” said Sebastian, looking at him. “Wasn’t he supposed to replace High Fay Zaaro?”“Yes. These abominations reek of his essence.”A few minutes later, Coralis got back on her feet and stepped out of the circle.“Lieutenant Youmis is exhausted. I don’t think he will regain control anytime soon,” said Coralis.“And you said vampire essence was in the mix?” said Eva.“The second time was already worse than the first time. And now this? Why here? Why our pack?” said Emma, as Emery walked back through the portal, followed by High Fay Ellya.“I don’t know why, but we will find out. That’s also why I didn’t want to kill the wolves. We know we can reverse it. Once the connection to their human counterpart is restored, we can question them,” said Coralis, looking at the time on her phone. “I should call my mate before he gets home and worries if I’m not there.”“Ellya, we need to send a unit to capture Lieutenant Youmis. Blue Thunder said he was exha
December 23, 2003 – 21:00 The Northerners were playing at home that night. When the game was over and she and Sebastian were about to take off to go home, Coralis received a call from Emma. She signalled Sebastian to wait and put the call on speakerphone. Emma was in a panic.“BLUE, can you come RIGHT NOW?”Sebastian suddenly got worried.“Where? What’s going on?”“Is Stephanie okay?”“Here at Red Crescent pack. Yes, Stephanie is fine. She left Healing Moon at 9 to go home. She’s not here.”Sebastian was relieved to hear that and swore that if Stephanie still wanted it, he’d complete their bond when he got home, even if he knew Coralis was probably right: the mark was a seal.“I’ll be on my way. I’m close by,” said Coralis, ending the call, and took off, Sebastian following her.“What do you think happens this time?” said Sebastian, as he was trying to keep up with her.“I don’t know, but I’m guessing she couldn’t reach out to anyone at the CMMA. Remember the last time they got a hol
December 20, 2003 – 00:15 (Scotland Time)Coralis closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She wanted to rip their eyes out and strangle them, but she knew these girls were humans, most likely heading to the same destination as she. She believed Frank when he said nothing ever happened with that actress, but she didn’t like these girls talking that way about her man.She was thankful to have her wrist binds so she wouldn’t break storefront windows by accident. Her eyeglasses only prevented her from using her eyes to direct her elemental energy and to camouflage their elemental colour but without her wrist binds, her elemental energy still leaked through her pores and she could still use her hands to direct it. She walked away and headed to the bar before she did anything to these girls and ended up in jail.Her flight landed in Montreal early morning. She had a game in Mexico in the evening but decided to skip practice time just so she could spend more time with Frank before she had to
December 19, 2003 – noon“There is still a hold on your name, right?” said Erik.“In Scotland? Why not in London?” said Henry.“Yes, but considering Blue Thunder is technically a citizen of England, she doesn’t have jurisdiction over me. I could still be walking into a trap, however, so I still made sure of that. Not sure why she wants to meet there, but I think it’s better there than in London. Even with a hold on my name, I’m not too keen on walking around the SIS headquarters. Taking my flight from Scotland instead sounds like a better idea anyway.”She tried to call Frank on her way to Scotland but got no response. She hoped he was still asleep and tried not to overthink it, but she was worried. As she was hovering above the meeting spot, Frank called her back.“That was you trying to call, right?” said Frank as soon as she answered.“Yeah, everything okay?”“Yes. I was in the shower. Wanted to take my phone in the bathroom just in case you’d call, but my scattered brain forgot it
December 19, 2003 – 09:00Coralis and Andrew entered the meeting room, dragging a restrained Xanita with them.“What is this?” said Alfredino.“Xanita Aza is the one who killed Minister Luke Massina and we sent a copy of our evidence to British authorities,” said Andrew as he played the video timeline assembled by Erik and Henry. “Do you want to handle her yourself, or shall I hand her to the authorities?”“It seems we owe you an apology, Blue Thunder,” said Rolland, watching the video.“The warehouse we searched never had any cursed weapons. It was merely a ruse Xanita used to get Blue and me away from the hotel. Want to tell me again how in gods worlds Massina’s murder got pinned on my apprentice when we were nowhere near the vicinity of his hotel?”Phraton tried to say something but Alfredino quieted him, using magic to shut him up.“JORGIE! Jorgie Fluk gave me that tip about that warehouse!” said Xanita, panicked.“Oh, we know about that, don’t you worry. Unlike you, he’s been mak
December 11, 2003“WHAT?”“I still need to find evidence to prove it or force her to confess, but I was right. Blum was protecting someone. Xanita never received a tip about that damn warehouse.”“That explains why Gus could never find anything relevant or suspicious about it, besides someone tampering with their security cameras.”“Basic human material wasn’t difficult to tamper with. We probably were the only two elementals to have ever set foot in there. Do you know if Sebastian is available tomorrow?”“I don’t know. We don’t have a game tomorrow, but lately, I talk to him only when I’m in my London flat. Only place I can talk safely.”“I’ll check with him then. Remember when Xanita said she had a call to take and came back with that so-called tip?”“Yeah, and thinking of it, she was also the one who sent us to that warehouse.”“She had been talking to Jorgie. Erik and Henry are on their way back to where you guys live, they’ve been a great help.”“Jorgie? The same Jorgie who’s bee
December 9, 2003Early in the morning, while Frank was busy preparing coffee, the doorbell rang. He stopped what he was doing and frowned, wondering who could it be.The bell rang again and again. Coralis came to his mind and he dropped the spoon of coffee grind that he was holding to rush to the buzzer. He pressed to unlock the door below and opened his entry door to find out who it was. Down the stairs, he saw Samantha, panting. She looked up toward him.“Hey, M. Blue! Sorry to show up at this time; I didn’t know where else to go.”“Uh, it’s fine. Come in,” he said as he let her in. “What happened?”“My mom just found out about me. She wasn’t supposed to be home, or I would have gone to Tom’s aunt probably, I don’t know. During the full moon, I can’t control my shift, but I can usually shift back just before dawn.”Samantha paused. She stood, her legs slightly apart and leaning over, her hand resting on her knees.“Your mother came back while you were still in panther form?” said Fr
November 23, 2003“If you must know,” she said, forcing herself to speak sweetly, “he does not reside in London. He is busy with work and I am obviously occupied away from him.”Behind her calm demeanour, she was raging. She knew that Rolland had something up his sleeves by letting her stay at her London flat instead of locking her up in a cell. She wanted to kill the guard and fly to Frank, but she knew doing that would make it worse for them. She had to let them think she was playing their hand, no matter how hard it was. She missed him.He let go of her cloak and she jumped down on her back porch. Once back inside, she activated a custom mute-ball before calling Frank. Her pager went off as soon as she put her hand on her phone. It was her contact from MI6.“Blue Thunder on the line.”“It’s been a while since we talked, you and I.”“Given the recent events, can’t say I missed you, no offence.”“Can’t say I blame you. A report recently came to us from Clear Valley, which contradicts
November 14, 2003Before she could leave the meeting room, a furnace appeared behind the elders. Rolland stood and grabbed the casting iron lying on top of it. Its tip was shaped like a small straight line. With his other hand, he took the can of silver that was next to it and sprayed silver on the casting iron tip.Watching Rolland make the preparations to bar her EBEE tattoo, she felt relieved. She would no longer be attached to the EBEE. She would be free.“It has been brought to our attention that you recently took a mate. Do you understand that mates are a distraction in our line of work and a potential weapon to be used against us?” said Rolland as he approached her with the casting iron.“I understand,” she said, looking at him as she wondered if he meant it as a threat.Rolland pressed the casting iron three times on Coralis’ skin, where her EBEE tattoo was. The three burned lines formed what looked like a triangle. Lines all intersected with each other, except that a line wou