Chapter 19

**Merianna**

"You want me to do what?" I asked incredulously.

"Draw. Out. Your. E-le-ment." Noch said annunciating each word and syllable as if I were a toddler.

A muscle under my eye twitched in irritation as I glared at him without saying anything.

I would love to stab his eyes out right now. Stab them out, toss him in a black pit for a while and watch him struggle in pain. That is if he doesn't heal his eyes in the first 5 minutes of said stabbing. I could tie him up and toss him into the river that leads to the waterfall. The sharp rocks at the bottom should cure my predicament. If he doesn't burn off the bindings with fire first of course. I could maybe sneak into his room in the middle of the night and slide a blood rot bomb under his pillow that would explode the moment he moved... that is, if the wards he set up didn't let him know that his room was being invaded. Or I could-

"Are you even listening?" Noch asked exasperatedly.

I raised my eyebrows in question with an innocent expression plastered on my face. "No, I was actually methodically plotting your demise." I replied honestly.

Noch sighed as if I were the most troublesome creature to work with on the face of this planet. "You can tell me your ideas for my demise later and I'll tell you if you'll fail miserably or fail stupendously. But right now, we need to get your element under control so you don't burn yourself out by accident."

I drew myself up to my full height which was at present an impressive 5 feet and 3 inches already seeing as I was only 15, and gave him my full unwanted attention. "You were saying?"

Noch groaned slightly and rubbed his hands vigorously over his face. "Why, oh why did I decide to be your mentor?"

"Because you had a blast from the past and decided that this would be a good opportunity to spread your maniacal teachings of old?" I explained in question as I kept looking at him.

He peered un-amusedly back at me through a gap between his fingers. "You really aren't cute."

"You are the only person here who thinks so." I said giving him my best innocent expression that Ara, Fog and Jasnine could never seem to say no to.

He gave me a withering look and sighed heavily. "Okay, so you know how you usually draw out the usual elements?"

"Yeeees?"

"Well, now I want you to do the same, but this time with your lightning element. I need you to pull it out to the surface. It'll be a tiny bit different since you are drawing it out from within yourself and not really "pulling" or "manipulating" it from the environment. With your alignment element you have the ability to pull it from both inside of yourself and from the surroundings, but I need you to draw it from yourself right now." He explained.

"Oooh." I said as I now understood. I didn't know what it was with Noch that he always expected you to do or understand something you have never done or heard of before, and then expects you to know exactly what it was he was talking about.

"You understand it now?" He asked hopefully.

"Perfectly." I beamed at him.

I twirled around on the grass by the river and plopped down cross legged on the ground. With a frown I looked up at him.

"What is it now?" He asked worriedly as if his hopes were just dashed.

"How exactly do I know that I'm drawing out the element and not just my normal energy?" I asked in puzzlement.

"Ah." He said in exasperation. "When you reach into yourself you'll notice that the element energy feels different compared to the energy you are used to drawing out. For some it feels bigger than their own, more volatile, and for others it feels calmer like a river where the top can be as smooth as glass, but the bottom is a raging current that catches you up in the moment. For you, I think the element is tightly linked to your emotions. You've always been a spitfire to get along with."

I gave him a dry stare. "You haven't been a bundle of wool either you know."

"That's beside the point." He shot back. "I'm always like this, you just have to get used to my way of doing things."

"Riiiight..." I drolled out.

"Quit staring at me and start focusing. We need to see how much work is needed with you." He said decisively.

"Alright, alright. Hold your bloomers up, no one else needs to see them." I waved him off.

He snorted with a grin. "Oh my dear, you only wish that you could have seen my bloomers."

I nearly choked on my own spit as I glared up at him. He just laughed right in my face. "Get to it child. We don't have all day, I still have to make some preparations for the celebration."

Grumbling under my breath I huffed out a sigh and closed my eyes. I started focusing in on my surroundings at first with my hands hanging close together over my lap.

The sound of the river flowing a few feet behind me calmed my nerves, the birds in the trees sang melodic tunes as the wind gently caressed the leaves, causing them to rustle together in their own form of music. As I felt myself starting to accept the energies that flowed around me, I turned my attention inward. 

I could feel my own power vibrating in its own unique frequency within me. My energy fully back again from yesterday's wine and rest. I could feel it practically blanketing me from the tips of my hairs to the tips of my toes. The feeling was comforting and fulfilling as I traced it.

I dove a little deeper this time, moving closer to my energy's core. This was something that I haven't done in the past, because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to find my way back if I dove in too deeply, but with Noch around – as much as I despise him – it would be fine. He knew what to do if anything were to go wrong. And hopefully he wasn't sadistic enough to leave me to die, get sucked in too deeply or go insane.

All thoughts of Noch leaving me to my fate if I got stuck within myself stopped abruptly as I mentally brushed up against something. If I had physical eyes within my mind, they would have popped open with surprise.

What rested within me... what I had within myself... was enormous.

The energy I was up against was crackling in shades of white, purple, pink and sometimes red, but the white was outshining them all. When I rested my "palm" lightly on its surface, it snapped and roared to life, shooting up my arm only to leave a tingle behind on the base of my neck. I drew back my hand and gaped at the sensation, it didn't hurt at all...

I awed at this discovery. Why hadn't I felt this before? Why hadn't I drawn on it before the battle? All these years I had been struggling to adjust myself to the elements we know now, while all along, I had an alignment with this one...

I stretched my hand out to this volatile part of myself again, and when my palm touched it again, I did not pull back.

I traced my fingers along its border, feeling it calming under my touch. This felt so surreal, it was much more than I thought it would be.

Taking a cleansing breath, I started pulling a small part of it into my astral form and spreading it throughout my body. I then started to raise back to the surface with it clinging to me like a comforting blanket. I could feel myself setting back into my physical form, with the energy making itself comfortable under my skin.

As I opened my eyes again, I saw sparks of light flying across my vision in the shade of the trees we were under. I could feel the energy jumping across my skin and settling back in a constant loop.

I gaped at the sight of the white-purple strings of lightning freely dancing across my skin. I still found it bizarre that it didn't hurt, it didn't feel uncomfortable. It was truly a part of me.

I heard a chuckle in front of me, and Noch was standing over me with a smile on his face. A smile of pride that made my stomach flutter with a sense of home.

"There, now was that so hard?" He asked in a mocking tone.

Yep, all the flutters were gone now. He was still the same.

I looked at him dryly. "Thank you for teaching me this new trick. Now I can try it out on you next time you annoy me." I said with a sweet smile.

He scoffed at that and a flash of infuriation zapped through me at his smugness. Before I knew it, a spark of the lightning jumped off from my skin and went straight for his arm.

He yelped at the quick sting and pouted down at me while he rubbed the spot. "You don't have to be so sensitive all the time."

I scoffed right back at him. "You don't have to be such an ass all the time." I replied.

He gave me a glare and I couldn't help myself. I started laughing. The giggle bubbled its way up from my stomach and just erupted into laughter which made the lightning across my skin crackle and pop excitedly.

It look me a few moments to notice that Noch was laughing too.

"You are slowly getting my sense of humour demon child." He said as he chuckled.

I harrumphed between my giggles. "If I stay around you for too long I fear I might end up a soulless creep like you."

He laughed so hard at that that he nearly fell onto the floor. "You sure are a nasty hag, just like your Nana!"

At that, all I could picture was the time when Nana Ara was in her potions room the other day and her experiment exploded. She really did look like a nasty demented Hag that day.

"Gods no!" I exploded "I'm far too young to become that senile!"

Noch finally collapsed to the ground in a fit of laughter, he laughed so hard that he snorted.

"You sound like a bloody pig you know that?!" I laughed and snorted myself which only sent Noch into an even bigger tizzy.

"Noooooo-oo-o, I want to stooo-o-p." I groaned out as I tried to keep the laughter in. I didn't want to be laughing at Noch's insults! Or his stupid face!

He finally seemed to gain a bit of control as he took big whoops of air into his lungs. "Yes, you are definitely catching on now." He said as he chuckled while he rocked himself up into a sitting position in front of me with a huge grin spreading over his face.

He looked like an evil boyish version of himself as his eyes sparkled with humor and his face was flushed from the mirth. "Just imagine what tonight's celebrations would be like." He said wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"With you there? It's bound to be chaos." I said with a bit of trepidation replacing the humor that was left.

"No my dear, with you there, it will be mayhem." He said with an evil grin.

I knew that I should have stayed in bed this morning...


***


I blinked at the commotion in the Hall.

Then I blinked some more.

And, took another second to blink again.

On the far left of the hall all along the stone wall, there were barrels of wine propped up on top of each other practically all the way up to the impossibly high ceiling. Or was that just my imagination?

People were already bustling all about the place, barely leaving any space for someone to walk through as they had already grabbed some food from the tables strewn all around the place. Clearly Doris had been very busy today, and she had still decided to wake me up and draw me a bath this afternoon.

My heart melted a little bit when I saw what was in front of me and thought of Doris this afternoon when she came to kick me out of bed. I really did love her.

The Hall was definitely a sight to see, the sunset was already beginning to stream in through the tall windows that lined the far side in neat measured rows. It almost made the Hall seem like a gate to faery that Doris had once described to us.

"Meri!" Nelia rushed in with Fog trailing behind her. She ran over to me and caught me in another high hug again, which meant that my face was planted straight into her voluptuous gifts once more. I held back a groan and just let my sister hug me till she was satisfied, I didn't mind dying of suffocation as long as she was happy.

"Hi Nelia." I mumbled out.

She finally let me go and had a look into the hall herself. "This is, incredible." She breathed in awe.

The two of us had been in the Order now for 3 years, and yet, we had never seen a gathering in the hall this big before. Usually most of the members would still be out on bounties or harvests if there were new blood celebrations, but I only knew of the two of us that were joining today, and new bloods in training weren't really invited to membership celebrations. That could only mean...

"Is there anyone still out on Bounties?" I turned and asked Noch who was standing to my right and looking as smug as ever.

"No, they all came in when we alerted them through burner notes last night." He chuckled when he saw my gaping face. "You'll catch a toad that way if you aren't careful Merianna." He said as he lifted his left hand and used his fingers to push underneath my chin and close my mouth again.

I turned back to the gathering. "This is unbelievable." I muttered to myself.

"Is the Hall even big enough?" Nelia murmured herself.

We heard Fog and Noch chuckle together. Then we felt ourselves being pushed forward into the Hall with their hands at the smalls of our backs. The ruckus got even louder when we stepped onto the first step leading 5 steps down onto the Hall's stoned floors.

"Welcome! TO OUR NEW MEMBERS!" Fog bellowed out with a hint of magic tinging his words to amplify the sound while raising a glass of wine into the air.

A cheer rang through the throng with such force that I thought I might have gotten blown over as hands were raised in a show of comradery. Then before we knew it music started playing from a far corner in the throng. Drums were being thumped in a jovial tune, two flutes joined in with the drum and a pair of bagpipes were also pulled out into the band.

Hands started to clap to the beat and a part of the Hall closest to the musicians started gaining more space for the people that started dancing and tapping their boots to the rhythm of a folk song, a dancing ring started forming and partners were being exchanged with every twirl the ladies made with their skirts.

Light flooded the hall as the sunset was immediately replaced by millions of candles lighting up in the middle of the ceiling on the chandelier high above our heads. Fog's energy flashed across the room and the light from the candles high above started reflecting in all directions, only to make the hall look like the sun had never set in the first place.

Others started tapping into some of the barrels of wine and laughed whenever they accidentally got splashed in the process.

Seeing all of this made my eyes prick. All the members were here to welcome us into the Order. Granted some might also just be here for the Order's wine, but what mattered was that they were here...

I turned to look at Nelia and saw that tears were already brimming in the corners of her eyes, and a brilliant smile lit her face up like I had never seen before.

"We're home." She choked out, and this time, I was the one to hug her tightly to me.

"We're home Nelia. Let's go dance." I said and practically sprinted down the few steps into the throng, tugging her along by the hand and laughing with so much joy in my veins that I felt like I could barely contain it.