Chapter 5

May 15, 1991

The school was hosting the European Elemental Tournament. The EET was a competition between twelve elemental schools located across Europe: Scotland, England, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Ukraine and Romania. There were more elemental schools located in Europe, but smaller or considered not prestigious enough, so they weren’t officially included in the EET. These other schools had the option to sign up eligible students to the EET, but would never be hosting it. To be eligible to participate, students had to be an elemental aged between 15 and 20-year-old. They could be living outside of Europe, but had to officially be attending full-time an elemental school located in Europe. The tournament lasted 10 days.

Participants would compete in various events and disciplines, depending on their subspecies: potions, flying, combat, history, etc. The best 3 competitors of each discipline would then compete at the World Elemental Tournament.

It was the third night of the competition. During the EET, the curfew was at midnight, instead of 21:00. Taking advantage of being able to be out late at night without any risk of getting into any sort of trouble, Coralis and Victoria went out for a walk at 23:30. They were too young to participate in the EET, but they enjoyed the festivities and the opportunity to meet students from other schools.

They were walking through the wood located behind the school, near the limit of the school perimeter, when suddenly, they heard a high-pitched scream of terror. Coralis and Victoria stopped walking and tried to find out where the scream was coming from. It stopped for a few seconds, and it started again. Coralis focused on the direction of the sound and ran toward it. Victoria was a little bit reluctant to follow, she wanted to be back in their dorm before curfew, but she wanted to know what was happening.

Coralis arrived at a small clearing and stopped running. At the other end of it, she saw a student pinned against a tree, and the back of someone wearing a black cloak with the hood above their head. The attacker was holding a wand in their left hand and had it pointed at the student’s neck. Not far from them, there were two other students, frozen as if the attacker decided to turn them into ice sculptures. She did not hesitate: she pulled her wand out of her own cloak and pointed it toward the attacker. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do, but she had to interfere. She wanted to stop the attacker and injure them. She didn’t even think about whether or not she could win, or if she would also be turned into an ice sculpture. She didn’t even know what the attacker was.

She sent out an attack spell that came out as a laser beam. It hit the attacker left shoulder blade and burned all the way through it. The attacker dropped their wand and the student fell on his knees. Startled by the unsuspected attack against them and injured, the attacker turned around to face Coralis. She couldn’t see their face, but could see their eyes getting bigger.

“Golmar!” a male voice whispered, and he disappeared.

Just as the attacker disappeared, four teachers arrived. They heard the screams from the garden located by the maintenance cabin. The student by the tree was still trying to get back on his feet, the two frozen ones were laying on the ground, wet, in the middle of a thin pool of water.

“What happened?” Swope said. Swope was one of the four teachers who were at the clearing, a combat teacher at the Scotland Elemental School.

“We… we… were walking… through the wood…,” said one of the two wet students on the ground, panting, “we… we were heading back… back to the school… to our room… but someone attacked him…,” he tried to raise his right hand toward the student by the tree, “we… we tried to help… but the creature turned us into ice. I don’t… know who he was or what it was,” he paused, trying to catch his breath. “But that girl…,” he then managed to sit on his knees and pointed his right hand toward Coralis, “arrived, and attacked him. She… she injured him, but he disappeared after that. Then… then I think it’s when you arrived.”

“Thank you. What’s your name? I don’t think you are one of our students?”

While Swope spoke to that student, one of the other three other teachers walked to him and the girl next to him, and the other two went to check on the student by the tree.

“My name is Sean, sir,” he said, with a steadier voice. “The girl next to me is Malia, and him,” pointing at the student by the tree, “he is Julian. We are here for the EET, representing the Imperial Elemental School, but I do have two younger cousins coming to this school here.”

“And you, Ms. Golmar and Ms. Millous,” Swope turned to Coralis and Victoria, “what were you doing out here at this time?”

“They saved us,” said Malia, “please sir, don’t punish them if they’re past curfew time, if it wasn’t for her… I’m sure we would all be dead. Plus… did you say Ms. Golmar?... Before the guy disappeared… he whispered that name… as if he knew her… Sir… I don’t know who he was… maybe Julian does… but this girl is probably in danger now.”

“I will mention that to Principal Arthurio and to her guardian, thank you Malia,” said Swope. His attention returned on Coralis and Victoria. “I still want to know what you two were up to at this time. It is half past midnight.”

“We wanted to go for a walk before curfew,” said Coralis. Victoria was next to her, staring at Julian, who was struggling to get on his feet. “We left at 23-something, and were planning to be back before midnight, but then, we heard a scream, so I wanted to check if someone was in danger, and well… when we got here, there was this guy, wearing a black cloak, attacking Julian against the tree, like Sean said. I didn’t look at the time, sir, I just wanted to help.”

Swope didn’t know what to do. He knew he would need to give a detention to Coralis and Victoria, because it was past curfew when they found them, but there was still the matter of three students from another school who got attacked by a potential intruder. He wondered if these three students were specifically targeted and if they needed to worry about Coralis safety.

The three other teachers took Julian, Sean and Malia to the infirmary, while Swope walked Coralis and Victoria back to their dorm.

“I will have to give you two a detention because I found you well past midnight. However, considering you did save their life, and that we do need to investigate how the intruder got in, I will recommend no disciplinary actions regarding the use of combat magic after school hours and without supervision. Ms. Golmar, I know that you are supposed to travel to the Imperial Elemental School after the EET for the flyball finals, and I will make sure that not only you can still go with your team, but remain protected. I know Martha will be worried that Julian’s attacker knew your name.”

“Thank you, sir. I don’t care about the detention, I’ll take it, but I really don’t want to miss the flyball finals in England. We would have been back on time… but I heard someone screaming, and well… Victoria followed me.”

Martha was indeed worried about Coralis, when Swope told her what happened, but not only for the upcoming school trip to England: she worried for when Coralis had to go back to Canada for the summer, where she would be back surrounded by humans. What if that intruder, who knew who she was, decided to keep tabs on her and managed to track her to her group home?

Erik and Henry were Sean’s cousins. When Sean got released from the infirmary in the morning, at breakfast time, he went straight to his cousins table, instead of going where his schoolmates were.

“ERIK! HENRY!” he said as he was approaching their table. “Oh hi, you,” looking at Coralis, “I wasn’t expecting you here. You know my cousins?”

“Hey Sean!” said both Erik and Henry at the same time, before Coralis could reply anything. They had no idea what had happened the previous night. They sat down at their breakfast table just before Sean arrived.

“Hmm... so you know Coralis?” said Erik.

“Yeah, she literally saved my life last night,” said Sean. Then, looking at Coralis, “did you tell them what happened? And did you get into trouble?”

“Hmm no, we just got here. I got an hour detention to do later on today, but that’s it.”

“Wait what?” said Erik.

Sean sat down on the empty spot next to Henry and told them what happened during the night. Erik and Henry looked at each other, then at Coralis. They were concerned about the fact that this guy knew her and were wondering if she would be safe for the summer. They knew that she was an orphan and she would have to go back to her human world for the summer. What if this guy comes after her, when no one else is around to protect her? They decided to talk to their parents about it, to see if they could invite her to their house for the summer.

At lunchtime, before going to the dining hall, they went to the bird enclosure to send their pigeon away with a letter to their parents.

Meanwhile, Martha was sitting down in the principal’s office, with Swope, a representative of the Imperial Elemental School, and the school administrators to discuss the events of the previous night. The fact that someone managed to get within the school perimeter to attack a student was concerning. Just as their meeting ended, the secretary entered the meeting room: the Fullemons wanted to talk to Principal Arthurio about Coralis Golmar and last night’s events, as their nephew was involved.

Upon reading their sons letter, Kief and Barla Fullemon wanted to know more about the young girl and what actually happened. They were willing to take her in for the summer: she became a good friend to their sons and they didn’t like the idea that she would have to go back on her own to the human world, where she could possibly be in grave danger.

A week later, the day after the EET ended, Kief and Barla Fullemon met with Principal Arthurio, Martha, Roberto and an attorney representing the European Bureau of Elemental Energy to discuss Coralis’ situation. Henry and Erik’s parents were granted permission to take Coralis under their custody for the summer. However, because she was currently under a ward of the state status in the human world, it complicated things. The Fullemons were full-blooded elementals, so they didn’t have a lot of history among the humans, and had no official valid human document under their name. Their sons had valid birth certificates, but Kief’s and Barla’s documentation had expired decades ago.

Thankfully, Roberto knew a lot of elementals and other supernatural people working in government positions. Coralis would have to go back to a group home in Canada, until paperwork goes through, but would be able to leave to go to the Fullemons before school started. There were still some formalities to follow. Not ideal, but better than a full summer among humans, especially if she was potentially targeted.

On July 15, 1991, Coralis took a flight, alone, to go to the Fullemons’ house. Part of her was sad to have her time with Nadilla cut short, but a big part of her was also very excited at the idea of being able to play flyball with Erik and Henry for the remainder of the summer. Once again, she took all of her belongings with her and Martha picked her up to take her to the airport: Coralis was still a minor.

At the airport, while they were in line to get to the registration desk, she felt eyes on her, as if someone was watching her. She kept looking around, but couldn’t see anything suspicious or anyone staring at her. She tried to ignore the uneasy feeling, but couldn’t shake it off. Martha thought she was merely anxious, as this time, she was going to be on her own during the flight. She knew the staff would keep a close-eye on her, because she was a 10-year-old travelling alone, so she wasn’t worried.

“I’m sure that you are nervous about the idea of taking a long flight alone,” said Martha before Coralis went through the security, “but don’t worry, you’ll be safe. The Fullemons will be waiting for you at the airport in Glasgow.”

“I don’t care about traveling alone, I am not scared about that. I don’t know why, but I keep feeling like someone is watching me, and I don’t like it,” said Coralis before she parted from Martha and went to pass through the security check.

Martha kept her eyes on her until she couldn’t see her anymore and decided to press Principal Arthurio for answers regarding the intruder who attacked a student during the EET. If someone was indeed watching Coralis at the airport, it couldn’t be good. She didn’t know how the attacker recognized her as a Golmar, but assumed it was someone who knew her parents: he probably sensed the same type of elemental energy coming off her aura as he did from her father, and she did look like Donny Golmar.