October 4, 2004
Coralis arrived at the Shadow Elementals compound in the middle of the night.
"Blue Thunder! I haven't seen you in a very long time!" said someone behind her when her feet touched the ground.
"Agent Matasia Sarali?" said Coralis as she turned around to see who was talking to her.
"Nuh-uh! I'm no EBEE agent no more, no, but yes, I'm that French agent you met… 10 years ago?"
"Not an EBEE agent anymore? You too? Damn, what happened after I got away from them?"
"We have a lot of catching up to do! I deserted, along with some others. Zaria is still there, she feeds us with information when she has something. You didn't get to work with us on our cases, but we follow flyball, we recognized you, and the Fullemon brothers confirmed to us the name you go by when they called us to inquire about the Silverling Heart. I was so glad to hear you were standing against the radicalized nasties, unlike your father," said Matasia as a male mage and a female fay approached them.
"Blue Thunder! I'm glad you decided to join us. I'm Whazk," said the male mage.
"Whazk? The Whazk we learned about in our elemental history classes?" said Coralis.
"Yes, that one," he said with a wide smile, "but I believe that the younger generation of elementals now learns about you too at school."
In the corner of her eyes, she saw Alejandro approaching. Coralis couldn't believe she just met Whazk, who was ranked 3rd as a most wanted witch.
"I'm Milkya," said the female fay next to him. "It will be a pleasure training you on stealthy combat."
"The honour to be trained by you is mine," said Coralis.
"Didn't I tell you the current top 3 was with us? You'll meet with Riwik tomorrow. He will be the one to give you your branding, black light tattoo and mind-link," said Alejandro before pointing at the branding inside of Coralis's left arm. "This branding on your arm, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm sure Matasia will agree, represents why we're here. We've been betrayed by our people, not by humans."
"Riwik, the elf listed globally as 1st most wanted?" said Coralis, focusing on the name without registering what Alejandro said past that.
"Yes!" said Whazk.
They took her to a small cabin consisting of one large room and a bunk bed in the corner the furthest from the entry door.
"You will share the cabin with me when we're at that compound if it's okay with you," said Matasia.
At dawn, Alejandro knocked at their door. It was time for Coralis to meet with Riwik and the other members. She didn't sleep as she spent the remainder of the night chatting with Matasia.
Alejandro and Matasia led her to the central point of the compound. Riwik stood in the middle. Behind him, was a fountain spewing lava instead of water.
"Blue Thunder, I heard so much about you. More than I should have, considering how young you are. You are making many people angry," said Riwik, closing his eyes for a moment. "I sensed someone like you before, but I can't remember from where. Your scent is a lot more potent than the one I remember. Glad to see you standing with us."
"You knew my birth father?"
"I don't believe so, but who knows. If I ever remember the name, I will let you know, and you could then tell me your relation to him. Ready to receive your branding that will make you officially a member of the Shadow Elementals?" said Riwik, preparing the branding over the lava fountain.
She received a branding representing her affiliation to the Shadow Elementals on her right foot arch. Once he was done with the branding, Riwik shaved the hair at the back of her neck to tattoo, with spelled black light ink, the symbol used to identify themselves to contacts when collecting information.
"One last thing, your mind-link. We all live in different parts of the world and coordination is key to the success of our operations. We are all connected through mind-link and only use the hologram to send important documents. I will create your mind-link connecting you to us, and then we will go eat."
"After breakfast, you and I will spar. I want to test your skills in combat," said Whazk as Riwik created her mind-link.
She was now officially a member of the Shadow Elementals. She was happy about that and felt she belonged, that she was where she was supposed to be at that moment while a civil war infiltrated their kinds.
"We will all spar. Today we train and tomorrow we plan our next operation," said Riwik.
"Get used to tight coordination. These guys are a lot more efficient than EBEE ever was in my years with them," said Alejandro to Coralis through mind-link.
"I supposed they need to be if they want to stay alive. We may be hunted by human governments, but they aren't the people who want us dead. It's self-preservation."
She heard a lot of people chuckling in mind-links.
"The fact alone that you aren't used to mind-links is proof that the EBEE merely gave the illusion of efficiency but had their interest in the wrong places," said Alejandro through mind-link, but to everyone.
"I was technically an apprentice with them. I did create a mind-link through blood imprint with my protegee but never had a group one. I'll figure out how to compartmentalize links so I won't broadcast to everyone," said Coralis, knowing that she was broadcasting to everyone once again.
Once Riwik was done with her initial introduction and formalities, they went to eat. She followed Alejandro and the others to the dining area, which was in a partially open space, without paying attention to their conversation. She was lost in her thoughts. She was looking forward to the training sessions. She enjoyed training with Panjik, but in her eyes, Whazk, a mage originally from Zimbabwe, was a legend. She also wondered which of her relatives Riwik knew, if not her birth father, and if he was still alive.
She considered calling Frank before sitting down to eat but decided against it, figuring it was best to wait until she had a better idea of when she'd return home.
Across the dining area, she spotted Jourmol Pinq, a CMMA agent under General Tobly she had seen a few times when going to their headquarters. She also saw a few AEEA agents sitting with him. She recognized some of the people as names listed on the Most Wanted Witches list.
"You were not joking," said Coralis to Alejandro as she sat at a table. "I'm recognizing people I met through I don't know how many institutions, and I spotted about twelve people listed on global lists as to be killed on sight."
"The way I look at it, us being listed high on their list means we've done something right. You're top 10, and I'm right behind you. You now know who's top 3. With the Shadow Elementals, we'll give the lunatics more reasons to fear us."
"A CMMA elder told me once the EBEE was right to fear me. That elder was the one to tip me off about people planning something against me the night of the flyball final and even provided agents to help me. I know people fear us, but it's nice knowing not everyone wants to take us down out of fear."
When breakfast time was over, they headed back to the central point of the compound for training. As expected, she was outmatched when sparring against Whazk. She felt exhausted when their fight ended as he didn't want her to use her wand.
"Impressive. If you can fight like this at your age, then you never were one to be underestimated. You mainly need to work on your endurance and stealth. I like your versatility and the potency of your spells, which will only get stronger as you get stronger yourself. You're already a force to be reckoned with."
"You should have seen how quickly she took down Critilla Manana. Her coven was all dead before they could process what was happening," said Alejandro.
In a remote area of the compound stood a small open-air temple. Milkya sat in the middle of it, her legs folded under her and her eyes shut. Cushions were spread around her on the ground along the low wall. Riwik told her to sit on one of the cushions and left.
She sat on the nearest one from her entry point and stayed silent. She was about to drift in her thoughts when suddenly, Milkya stood and was on her feet in less than a second, which startled Coralis.
"Always expect the unexpected and do not trust anything seemingly dormant. In our reality, nothing is as it seems. Today, you and I will spar, but without using elemental energies and with your eyes shut. Hand combats the human way. You won't see me, so you will need to rely on your other senses."
Milkya sealed Coralis's eyes shut using a spell. Coralis took a deep breath and released some energy to sense her surroundings. She could feel and tell where Milkya was. Before she could decide on how to proceed with her attack, she was lying on the ground on her back.
She knew Milkya was standing next to her left hand. She flipped herself on her stomach, and she pushed herself up, placing her right foot below her chest to make her think she was getting up, but rolled herself to her right, her left hand snatching Milkya's right ankle in a quick movement, making her lose her balance. She jumped on her feet and pushed her right hand on Milkya's chest to make her fall on the ground on her back.
"Very well. You caught on quick," said Milkya.
Thirty minutes later, Milkya unsealed Coralis's eyes.
"You will go home tomorrow after the meeting, and we will meet again next week at our Japan's compound. When off mission, you need to get into any activities a human would do. Observe everything and everyone in your surroundings. They won't see you, but you will see them. You will come to a point where even if you're inner elemental energy is entirely constrained and caged within yourself, you'll be able to sense those of us who are up to no good. You'll know where to look."