Chapter 13: Casting Back To The Past

Here I now sat; sat down in my aunt's living area with the blanket now wrapped around my lap with hands clasped round it tightly making sure it was held against my body protectively. With my father's presence now gone, I felt that much calmer with the atmosphere and more ready to finally hear the truth. The truth which Yvette wanted to spill all along, the truth she was dying to let escape her lips. But most of all, I was ready to hear it. I was ready to step out from the darkness and finally learn the truth; the truth about who I am and what's inside of me. The sound of Yvette's footsteps entering the room interrupted my thoughts and my gaze focused away from the crackling fire to meet her instead. She took her place next to and handed over a glass of water which I held in my hands but never pressed against my lips. "How long was I asleep for?" I couldn't understand how and why that was the first question that came out of my mouth; maybe I just wanted to settle into everything slowly, maybe that way it wouldn't be so hard to take it all in. "Well you came here at about five or six yesterday evening and it's around eight in the morning now," she didn't need to carry on because I knew the math. "Okay so how should I start all this..." Yvette spoke up again and took her hand within mine as she lightly pulled it away from the glass "Just...start from the beginning. That's usually a good place." Both our voices were soft with each other and we both shared the same weak smile just before she took a deep breath and began her story from the beginning.

What you don't know about the world Willow is its division. For as long as we can remember, the world was divided between four elements, Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Now these four elements kept the balance in the world and they all had a role to play. To make sure that the balance was kept in place, four kingdoms were created to protect these elements. Valhurst for Earth, Ivna for Water, Shadowwyn for Fire and Oro Encantandor for Air; against all other kingdoms in the world, these four were the only protectors. The elements weren't just a tool that were made to keep the balance in check, they also had special gifts and these gifts they beheld had to be kept safe and the only way for that to be possible was for it to be part of someone or other words inside of someone. Each one is different, it gave different abilities to each of the kingdoms and this power was transferred from each heir of the family line. For a very long time this created peace within all lands and everything was calm. Though where there's magic, something else always follows closely behind it; with these elements came a prophecy, a prophecy which claimed a luring craving of power would come and infect the four elements and only one with the ability of all would be able to defeat the threat. No one took any notice to this prophecy as there were no indications it would come true but also because no one understood what it meant.

For year's peace swept over the four kingdoms as did it with the alliance of other kingdoms in the world. Then your father and I were born. We were incredibly great friends with all the heirs in each kingdom; the prince in Shadowwyn, his name was Alesandro, Yeneve the prince of Oro Encantandor, Elyria princess of Valhurst and her twin brother Joseph. As well as this Yeneve had a close connection with a woman named Xira from Los Royaux. Each of us had a close bond with each other that was known to never be broken. In the family line, my brother was known to have the gift of the Water element, Alesandro was Fire, Yeneve was Air and Elyria was Earth. Though as generations changed and you, Corinne and Nathan were born, the kingdoms' became paranoid due to a...rumour of a growing power within them. In a time like this, we all went to the only solution we could think of and that was the prophecy. It was believed that the answers would be there and the only answer found was "the one with the ability of all would be able to defeat the threat". The only thing which confused us all was there was no one in the kingdoms which had an ability of the sort. We all wondered that if this was true and there was a power rising how would it be defeated and how would we keep you children safe alongside it.

For a time the paranoia started to die down, at least that's what we thought. Xira and myself decided to take it upon ourselves to follow the rumour and find information or clues to stop the prophecy from coming true and we did everything we could to prevent it. As we did so, James and Alesandro had other ideas to how to solve the solution. They concluded that maybe the one with the ability of all wasn't something which would just appear or something that already existed; but instead something that had to be made. It was clear that the world already existed of four powers, the elements so what crossed James's mind was the connection of all these elements brought into one. Of course Alesandro agreed and they both believed that this would work; the only problem with this was putting you children in danger. I say this because; the power of the four elements had already passed down to new heirs of each kingdom. It passed down to Elyria's son, Alesandro's son, Yeneve's daughter and your brother Nathan. These four people were now the beholders of the four elements, they were its protectors. I know what you must be thinking, why did the power of the element pass onto Nathan the youngest when it always passed down to the oldest heir? That would have been you Willow; we all assumed it would be you so we didn't understand why it wasn't.

So the only way to make a connection of these elements would be endangering each of them but also they needed a new beholder to hold the power of this connection. I knew all this was too dangerous, it wasn't right and there was no clear evidence that this growing power was close or even existed yet and sooner than later your father also saw the truth and didn't want to proceed with the task. Especially considering the subject for the task was...you. Alesandro believed that because you didn't behold the water element you had to be the beholder with the ability of all. He said that it was your choice; he wouldn't do it if you didn't want to hurt your friends just so that this new power could be created and you could wield it. I refused, James refused, and Xira refused...you refused. So it was decided that we wouldn't go through with it, you would be safe and all your friends would be safe. But obviously to your eyes you can see that was not the case. The power did in fact grow and we still didn't have someone with the ability of all and the plan still ran through Alesandro's mind. He took it upon himself to go forwards with it. He was my best friend and went against my wishes when I begged him to stop. I was unsure how he did it, he had a sample of each of the elements, he had Earth, he had Water, he had Fire and he had Air. With all of it ready and that he needed was you. One night we found you missing from your room and it was clear we all knew where you were. We travelled to Shadowwyn and found you there with Alesandro already half way through completing his experiment with you. You had no recollection of the events taken place because he'd drugged you to make the pain less unbearable for you.

It was working, that part was evident. Whatever he was doing was working, but in the process it was affecting the ability of the four elements in the process. Alesandro was going insane, saying he needed more of them but as he kept adding more and more everything exploded around him. Even doing do, the job was complete and he created the weapon the prophecy claimed. He made sure that you had the ability of each of the elements, but as well as this something else. Whatever he did, he made sure that you were some sort of weapon; the power you contain isn't something from this world you can practically control and destroy possibly anything. He called it chaos magic. Though from his creation a consequence come with it. He may have created the weapon which was said to destroy the growing power, the explosion which clouded the room that night came from you and it subsided that growing power sent it away, weakened it. But as well as that it destroyed one of the elements; the water element had been destroyed and in its place some sort of curse as a consequence for messing with the balance. Nathan could no longer control what the water element needed him to control but instead had a new power altogether, he grew black wings that looked like an angel and had dark magic within him. Though as he lived with it, it was clear that it never really was dark magic, it was normal magic but with a colour that made you believe it was evil. After what happened that night, after everyone witnessed the ability that came from you we saw how dangerous the power inside you was.

We took you back to Oro Encantandor that night so Xira could check up on you make sure that you were alright. That night your father made the decision to make sure that you forgot everything that ever happened because, he didn't want you to find out who you truly are and the power that lives inside you. I didn't think it was right, I didn't want you to live with a hidden burden but he saw that it was best especially since the growing power in the kingdoms' had weakened but we all knew that it would be back one day. That didn't matter to him; he still didn't want you to remember. To keep you safe we had to keep the others safe as well, so it wasn't just your mind that was wiped, you and your friends had their minds wiped so that you wouldn't remember each other and you wouldn't remember anything about the elements so that when you all found out the truth, you would remember each other as well. You would help each other.

I sat there staring down at the still water in the glass I was holding. Everything that I believed in my life had turned out to be a lie. Every memory that I had how could I believe that to be the truth? "Willow, I am so sorry that we never told you the truth," the sorrow in Yvette's voice was true and meaningful I knew that she felt bad for what she had done and I knew that she would do anything to take it all back. But how was I supposed to move forwards with news like this, where was I supposed to go with it? This chaos magic inside me, what did it all mean? Was I supposed to wait for this growing magic to come back and what did it even look like? What was I to expect to come my way? Was all it down to me or was this all just another trick and I'm not the person they were searching for? So many questions which ran through my head was making my brain explode and I couldn't take it all in. "Willow please say something," Yvette's voice again bringing me out of my paralyzed state of mind. "This chaos magic inside of me, can I control it. Will it control me?" I kind of stammered along the words because I was afraid to what the answer could be "Both." I looked up from the glass of water and made direct eye contact with her.

"The power which lives in you is something that you've never come across, it's new to you and it's been stable for a very long time and it's only decided to come back out now. Now that it has, it has a mind of its own and if it's like anything we saw before then you'll have to learn how to keep under control otherwise we don't know what will happen," all I could do was nod at her reply before my next question came flooding out "Why did it have to be? Why couldn't the power have been given to someone else?" Yvette sighed heavily before she gave her answer to me "We all believed that once you were born the water element would be passed onto you, but it wasn't it stayed with James and we were all unsure to why that was. And once Nathan was born, James lost the ability of the water element as it had transitioned to Nathan. It even skipped Corinne who was born seconds before Nathan. From this Alesandro got in his head that you were the key and that the power already lived inside you and needed an awakening so he already wanted to use you for his experiment and there was no changing his mind. Soon he manipulated almost all of us to believe that he was right and it did seem the most logical as well." I just felt my head nod at her again because there were no words escaping my lips except the questions.

"Is Nathan ever going to get back the water element?" I asked curious but Yvette couldn't find the words to answer my question "It seemed clear that it was lost forever so I am unsure if it's still out there but if it is, I'll answer your next question, then the curse would be broken and he will regain the power the element again." I felt a sigh of relief pass through my body at that point knowing that the balance could be put back into place. "Thank you for telling me the truth Yvette," I managed to find new words to come out of my mouth and a small smile creep across my face as we shared the same glance. "It wasn't a choice whether or not to tell you Willow; you deserved and had the right to know. Now enough talking, you must be hungry," I laughed at her slightly as she pushed herself up from the seat and headed to the kitchen. As I placed the glass of water against my lips and let the cold sensation pass through my mouth and down the back of my throat a new question passed through my mind. "Yvette," I called her name as I looked behind me to see her through the window hole to the kitchen "What is it Willow?"

"You know I mentioned what happened in the village yesterday."

"Yeah."

"The guy I used my magic on, there was something he said which I can't get out of my head," she stopped what she was doing in the kitchen and came back in the room and looked at me crossing her arms "What was it?" I took a breath and said to her "He said he was looking for something when I asked what they were doing there. When I pushed him back he looked at me and said "It's you, how is that possible?" and it seemed clear that I was the thing they came to island looking for...Yvette am I in danger from something other than myself?"