Amora sighed peacefully in her sleep, turning from side to side at each sigh, Three pairs of eyes watched her as she slept. Amora could feel warm sun rays on her skin, she thought she was back home in San Geneva and she had dreamt everything all along, till she slowly opened her eyes and saw three pairs of eyes looking at her. Amora jumped and screamed at the sight of them but stopped immediately when she saw that they were just children and they were staring at her like she was crazy.
The three kids, two boys and a girl, all looking so perfect, smiled at the confused Amora. The youngest amongst them was a boy with dark hair and sparkling hazel eyes, he looked like a child crossing the toddling age.
"Who are you?" She asked finally as she got her voice back.
"Good Morning Ulanni, I am Jesper, this is Linetta and this is Evander. We are your cousins" The one who looked like he was the eldest spoke to Amora.
Amora thought that these her cousins were the cutest kids she had ever seen, especially the one that had been introduced as Evander.
"I am Amora and would want you to call me Amora for now" She smiled at them. Amora got up from the bed and stretched. She noticed that the room was just plain , devoid of colors or decorations. She still was very much confused about how she had gotten to the room, when she could hazily remember sitting on a really comfy chair.
"I, uh, don't know how I got in here" She said to herself.
" I see you are a fire elemental" That was Linetta speaking with the softest voice. "perhaps, you could show us a few fire trucks" Jesper added, but Amora only gave him a stiff smile knowing that she knew nothing about being a Mystian, let alone a fire elemental.
"Are there other cousins?" Amora asked the kids. " Yes,grumpy stormie and Aither, although, Aither isn't here" Jesper explained.
"Grumpy Stormie? Who's that?" Amora asked.
" Ah! You'll get to meet her someday" Linetta quickly said.
Amora saw that the little Evander wasn't talking at all but just staring at her and giving her a cute baby look.
"How old is Evander?" she asked Linetta. " He is just four years old" She replied.
" You passed the cauldron test, so that makes you our new cousin" Linetta said excitedly.
"Linetta" Jesper shushed her and scolded her in their own little weird way.
Amora didn't know what they were talking about when Linetta mentioned passing a cauldron test.
"Children, the Hall's carriage is here now, hurry up" That was Sereia's voice in the hallway calling out to the children.
"Where are you going to?" Amora asked.
"We are off to the Learning Hall's, we will be back by noon" Jesper said again.
"Come on Vander, let's go" Linetta motioned for her baby brother. Linetta arched her back a bit and then beautiful purple wings came from behind her and this shocked Amora.
"Are you a fairy?" Amora asked as she reached to touch the wings but Linetta stopped her by swatting her hands away. " I am not a fairy, no no not a fairy" Linetta smiled widely, just as she was about to tell Amora what she was, her mother, Lady Olette called her to get ready to leave for the learning hall.
Amora sat on the bed watching her strange cousins leave. Evander had the most beautiful hazel eyes she had ever seen. Eyes that felt like they could see her deepest thoughts. She jumped out of bed and did little workouts just as she had always done with Louisa. She picked up her tab and tried to activate Lexi,but found out that there were no network bars ,she missed Lexi's annoying smartness . She stared at her home screen that had the selfie she had taken with Louisa and Lesley, her heart felt painful pangs as she recalled that particular day, her birthday, the day everything had gotten out of hand and the day her mother's death began to loom around. Hot tears fell down her cheeks as she held her phone staring at the pictures that tugged painfully at the memories, the life she left behind.
"What would Lesley be doing? I hope she's alright" She said to herself. Amora kissed the picture on her screen , wiped her tears and decided to see what this place has for her by finding her roots as soon as possible and get back before highschool prom and graduation or so she thought.
She grabbed her towel and toiletries, she headed out of the plain room. She met a young girl who looked at most fifteen years of age, smiling and staring at a small mirror.
"Uh, excuse me, please where can I get a bath?" She asked the girl. The girl had silver hair and when she looked away from the mirror to face Amora, Amora could see that she looked like a younger version of the Lady Sereia ,only that she had light pink colored lips unlike Last Seraia's which was a deep red.
"The bath house is just down the hall by the right, do make sure to let the water out after washing" The girl said and then resumed talking to her own reflection. Amora thought that the girl was rude in a subtle kind of way.
"Cascade, drop that mirror and get down here or the carriage will leave you behind and I'll make sure you walk all the way to the learning halls" That was Lady Sereia calling out to her daughter who was grumbling but still staring and praising her own reflection.
"No you shan't do that mother, that would be mean of you" Cascade grumbled as she walked down the stairs. Amora thought Cascade to be the vain cousin who was obsessed with her own beauty.
Amora had difficulty finding the bathroom, but found it anyway. It was built behind a wall that she had to push for it to give way. Amora decided that the house was built centuries ago because of its rare archaic designs of rooms behind walls. Stepping into the bathroom, fragrances of Lavender, Vanilla and a mixture of other herbs hit her nose and she could see clouds of steam around.
"Exquisitely vintage hmm, me likey" She said as she looked around the huge bath house. Just right at the center of the room, she could see a pool with embedded into the ground. She was amazed at the Roman-styled bath pool.
"I might just enjoy this place" Amora smiled as she took off her clothes and steps into the bath pool. The water felt warm on her skin and it soothed her nerves surprisingly.
"It must be something in the water" she thought. She saw two bricks embedded by the pool with two different symbols; one with an upside down triangle and the other with water symbol. She touched the one with the upside down triangle symbol and the water immediately moved from being deliciously warm, to extremely cold.
"Oh crap!" Amora's body was beginning to shiver now, she touched the stone again and then it changed back to it's original temperature. Amora quickly took her bath and rushed out of the mysterious bathroom.
Amora dressed up in a black bikers short, yellow cropped hoodie and white sneakers. She walked out of her room,down the stairs and followed the aroma coming from the kitchen.
"Hello Lady Olette" She greeted with a smile and took a cookie from a plate on the table. "Ha! Beautiful morning to you Amora, you slept through breakfast so I'm making you a new one since the children gulped them all" Olette was whisking eggs in a ceramic bowl.
"Oh the kids, I met uh three of them? Linetta, Evander and uh... Jasper?" Amora was slightly struggling to remember the names of the children who had come into her room.
"Jesper" Olette corrected.
"Yeah yeah Jesper"
"Linetta and Evander are my children, Jesper and Cascade are Sereia's" Olette poured her mixture into a pan and set it into an oven that looked like it was cut out from the wall to Amora.
Olette poured some water into a kettle and passed it to Amora asking her to turn on the stove.
"Can I get matchsticks?" She asked the lady who was busy looking for something in the larder. Olette stopped and looked at her with a questioning look. "You are a fire elemental, you can just light it up by snapping your fingers" She said coolly.
Amora didn't know what this lady was talking about being a fire elemental, all she wanted was a god-damned matchstick to get the stove on. " I uh, don't know how to do that" She replied with a little stutter.
"But you are a fire elemental, aren't you?"
"I don't know what I am Lady Olette, if my hair means I am a fire elemental, then I'll just have to agree, but I can't light the stove by snapping my fingers" Amora rolled her eyes at the beautiful lady.
"Aw poor child,your stay in the human world must have dampened your powers. Not to worry, you'll get it back after a few days of energy push at the learning halls, the mentors are really good"
"You mean like a school?" Amora asked.
"What's a school?" Olette asked back.
"It's a place where people go to learn, so I was guessing that you were referring to that" Amora knew the lady didn't understand and didn't care about the explanation she just gave.
"You'll blend in soon enough dear, starting with your dressing" Olette eyed her outfit and gave it a disapproving look. " What's wrong with my dressing? These are all designers" Amora argued but the woman was oblivious of the fact. Olette proceeded to get the stove on with a stone and set the kettle on for some tea for Grandma Daeva.
"Why don't you have servants?" Amora asked.
"Because, Grandma Daeva doesn't believe in those, she believes in hard work and doing things yourself" Lady Sereia answered from behind with her velvety voice.
Amora began to feel a slight migraine and she winced from it causing the two ladies to rush to her as she almost fell.
"What's wrong?" Olette asked as she gave her a cup of water to help with the dizzy spells.
"I just feel so weak and my head aches badly" Amora began to feel light-headed.
"Must be the after effects of the dizzy-wizzy potion used so the cauldron test could be carried out" Olette blurted this words out without thinking. They had been asked to keep it a secret, to keep the cauldron test and the dizzy-wizzy potion that was slipped into Amora's honey mead the previous day.
"What potion? What's this about a cauldron test huh!?.
"Uh, it's nothing, why don't you come with me, let's get the tea tray to Grandma Daeva" Sereia changed the topic immediately after giving Olette a warning glare.
Sereia took the tea tray while Amora followed closely behind. She was looking pale now and her dizzy spells had worsened from just being dizzy to hallucinating. She thought she could see Lesley standing in front of her but it was only a statue of a young woman.
"What's wrong with her?" Grandma Daeva asked. Sereia whispered the cause of Amora's strange symptoms to the lady.
"But it has never affected anyone this badly" She whispered back. She was very confused now and didn't know what to do to the girl who was now spilling gibberish and laughing hysterically for no reason. She asked Sereia and Olette to go get some water and napkins so she could use to ease Amora's body that was already burning up.
Amora could feel heat and cold creep up her body the same time, she didn't know what was going on anymore, all she knew was that she was about to break and that she did, as she fell to the ground, seeing nothing but shadows and hearing nothing but distant echoes.