Chapter 13 Combat Class
The Fifth Element⛰️
~Madeleine’s POV~
Before Cassie arrived, my mom always told me that there was someone born with a fifth element not known. And when I heard she was coming here, I was delighted.
My mom instructed that I always be ready to look out for her and be her friend.
She said, me being close to her would benefit me in the near future. Even though I didn’t know how it would.
I always did everything my mother asked of me just to get her to appreciate me more. And maybe even love me the way I wanted to be loved by a mother.
But I’ve come to accept the fact that I can never be enough for her. No matter how hard I try.
I’ve been trying to be a good friend to Cassie for my mom, but when I saw my mom hugging her, some part of me felt jealous.
My mom had never hugged me before.
Cassie seemed to notice my mood change because she kept giving me side eyes the whole way back to our dorm.
“Hey, I noticed you’ve been quiet. Is everything okay?” she asked me when we got to our room.
I was getting ready for bed and I really didn’t want to talk to her at the moment.
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Are you sure? If something is bothering you, you can tell me,” she said.
“I said I’m fine, okay? So just let it go.” I said and put my earphones on. I didn’t want to say anything else before I ended up being rude to her.
~~
Once it was morning, I got up and got myself ready for school.
I looked over to Cassie’s bed and saw her still sleeping soundly, blanket kicked to the foot of the bed, hair a mess.
Does she really not know it’s morning, I thought.
I went over to the curtain and yanked it open, hoping the bright light would wake her up. And successfully, it did.
“Good morning, sleepyhead. Glad you finally decided to wake up. It’s almost 8 o’clock, so you better get ready for class. Otherwise both of us would run late. And that would stain my reputation of being a punctual student,” I said and gave her a fake smile. Too wide. Too tight.
“Oh. Right. Sorry. I don’t want to be a bad influence or anything like that,” she said while rubbing her eyes.
“Good. Now get up and go get dressed,” I told her.
“Alright, alright. But we're good now right? You were kinda ignoring me last night,” she said.
“We are great, dear Cassie. Whatever I was feeling last night is all over now,” I said and smiled genuinely this time. Or tried to.
“Great. Since you’re fine now, I’ll go get ready,” she said and went to the bathroom to freshen up.
🌪️
~CASSIE’S POV~
I was glad Madeline was speaking to me normally again. I don’t know what happened to her last night, but I’m glad she’s over it now.
Last thing I want is my roommate hating me.
When we got to today’s class, I was surprised because the venue was a large field.
Everyone was already gathered there, split by color like paint swatches on grass.
The students in blue were standing together at one corner, chatting with each other, laughing. Easy.
The ones in gray were also together, but they were oddly quiet. None of them were talking loudly. But their eyes tracked everyone else. Watching.
The ones in red were also together at a corner. They were talking to each other and some were giving the stink eye to the water students. I also noticed that I’ve never seen any fire student talk to a water student. And I wondered why.
Then lastly, the students in green — which Madeline and I joined — were also lined up.
I felt like a stranger because of the normal, mufti clothes I was wearing compared to them in uniform. I felt left out in some way. Exposed.
The teacher joined us in the field after a few minutes. He was with two other people. Both wearing all black with leather jackets. They didn’t smile. They scanned.
“Welcome, students. I’m sure you all know what we’ll be doing today,” he said loudly, and everyone started murmuring.
“Combat. You’ll be learning how to use your elements to conjure up any weapon of your choice. And also learn how to use it for defense against your opponent,” the teacher said.
The crowd seemed happy about it. Rumbles of excitement rolled through each group, like thunder before a storm.
“Hey, why does everyone seem so happy about fighting?” I asked Madeline over the noise.
“We’ve all been waiting for a while to start combat skills. Previously they said we were too young, but now we’re older and need to learn how to defend ourselves,” Madeline yelled back so I could hear over the noise.
“Oh. But what exactly are you guys defending yourselves from? You all seem pretty powerful to me already,” I said to her.
“Trust me, Cassie, there is evil and danger outside the walls of this school. And there are also forces dangerous to us all. We need to be able to defend ourselves whenever we find ourselves caught up with those forces,” Madeline said, sounding serious. Her voice lost its usual cheer.
A part of me got scared hearing what she’d just said. My stomach dropped.
“Oh,” was all I could reply.
“Now, students, I’ll randomly pick people from each faction of elements for demonstration… Let’s start with the water element and the air element. You over there, come up here. And you as well. Come up to the center of the field,” the teacher said and picked one person from the water side and one person from the air side.
The two students — a boy from the water element, and a girl from the air element — stood at the center of the field with the teacher. The grass was already trampled flat there. A makeshift arena.
“Now tell me, what are your names?” the teacher asked them both.
“I’m Theo,” the water boy said.
“And I’m Phoebe,” the air girl said.
“Okay. Theo and Phoebe. I want you both to conjure up a weapon. Any weapon of your choice. Just the first weapon that comes to your mind,” the teacher told them.
The two students held up their hands in midair, and an image of an axe shimmered into Theo’s hand — made of water, but holding shape, edges sharp and clear. While a spear appeared in Phoebe’s hand — air condensed so tight it looked like glass, shining faintly. But these were only mere images. For now.
I was in awe of the beautiful and terrifying magic I was witnessing.
~