“Neera, are you listening?” Andrea prodded her.
Neera had been training for nearly four weeks. She had taken sabbatical leave from work and had a neighbour look after her house abroad, so as to focus all her energies on mastering her element, and learning about the other worlds and what inhabited them. She practiced the former with Theo in the morning, while the latter came in the form of lectures from Andrea in the afternoons.
She had learned a lot from the lectures, in their brief time together, especially in regard to other worlds and other types of wielders; Andrea could be an engaging teacher, when in the right mood.
Today, however, something weighing on her mind distracted her. Sitting across the table, Andrea was trying to get her attention back by creating a gush of wind to mess up her hair do, having failed to do so with words.
“Hey!” Neera protested. Andrea lifted an eyebrow at her, and she apologised. “Sorry Andrea, I didn’t mean to get distracted.” She pulled at the dead skin of her fingers.
“You have nothing to worry about tonight, if that’s what’s taking your mind off the lecture,” Andrea told her with a reassuring smile. They had become much gentler with her since she had started training. Neera wondered why: were they just impressed by her apparently ‘unheard of’ magical potential, or was she just a good student, eager to learn? That had always seemed to please teachers. Of course, she was not exactly behaving like a model student today, but that was excusable, given the circumstances.
“What if they don’t like me?” She whined with a frown.
“We’re not in high school anymore, they don’t need to like you Nyr, they need to respect you,” Andrea pointed out.
She was going to attend her first meeting of the Order of Light, as a member in training, that day. Andrea had explained, one afternoon, that the Order of Light was a secret group of wielders guarding earth from the Dark King and his reign of terror. Though only formed by five members, they had a variety of abilities to their advantage, making the Order a worthy opponent, all together. She knew everyone already, more or less, as they were either from the same high school she had attended, or were friends of friends; she hardly recognised them from Andrea’s brief descriptions, however. Apart from Theo and Andrea, who she had the chance to spend time and reacquaint with, the other members were Rufus, whom she had briefly met during her potential assessment a few weeks before, and Melissa and Eliza, whom she would see again tonight for the first time in years.
Rufus was a teleporter, as she had already found out; he could teleport from place to place within the same world, or between worlds when uniting forces with Andrea. His role, then, was mainly transportation. He rarely took active part of the Order’s meetings, finding them boring.
Melissa was a healer; she could manipulate bodily fluids to the point of being able to heal someone injured. She was useful to the Order for obvious reasons. She was also counsellor to Eliza; just like she used to follow her around in school, Neera had thought ironically, when Andrea had told her.
Finally, Eliza was an earth manipulator, and self-proclaimed Queen of the order. She self-proclaimed Queen and you were all okay with that?, Neera had asked Andrea. Well, she is the most powerful among us – that is, until you arrived – and we needed a leader, so we thought, why not let her take the reins?, Andrea had shrugged in response. Neera had cringed at the memory of her bossy ex-classmate. Imagine just how much bossier she must be now.
“I know what you mean, but I don’t really want to stomp on anyone’s feet,” she said with a sigh.
Andrea nodded in understanding. After all, that had been their signature move in school: standing out of everyone’s way and mind their own business. “Though I know how you feel, Nyr, remember that you are not a scared high school girl anymore. It’s time to take responsibility for your powers and stand your ground.”
Just as they finished the sentence, the bell went off and Andrea buzzed Theo in.
“Hey, Andrea. Nyr,” he nodded in her direction with a wink.
She smiled back. They had grown a bit closer during the past four weeks. They were at ease around each other, joked around... Morning training with Theo had become her favourite part of her new routine.
Theo took a seat beside her and scrutinised her face. “You worried, Nyr?” he asked her, brow knitted.
“Just a bit,” she said, pressing her lips together.
“Don’t be, I’ll be here by your side,” he winked at her again.
A sudden whoosh had the two of them spin on their chairs. They stood up to welcome the newcomers.
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