Chapter Twenty Five
The next day, we were in Southampton. The Elementus Populas had paid for us to be put up in the best hotel in the area, which made me feel like a celebrity. The room, which I shared with Aura, was so beautiful. It had two huge king sized beds, a massive wide screen television, an ocean view balcony and there was a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. As much as I enjoyed it, it made me feel guilty. Just because I was born with these powers didn’t mean that I should be treated better than anyone else. That evening, before the opening of the boat show, while we were enjoying a fabulous five star meal, I couldn’t help but think of how the money could be better spent. We could have stayed in any old room, and instead given the money to a children’s charity, or a homeless shelter. Although the food was wonderfully cooked to perfection, it left me with a bitter aftertaste, one that I couldn’t seem to get rid of.
“Are you okay?” Aura asked out of concern.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I lied, thinking about the millions of starving people across the globe, “I think I’m just nervous about tomorrow.”
Niyol put his cutlery down, and looked at me seriously.
“It’s a good plan,” he insisted.
I nodded in agreement. “Yes, it is. But I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. Not even the…” I had to stop myself from saying the name of our enemy. We didn’t know who was watching, or listening. The restaurant was a large expansive space with a glass ceiling, and was full of happy patrons. They smiled at one another under the clear starlit sky, blissfully unaware of what Valeska had planned for the next day.
“You’re too soft,” Niyol pointed out. I shrugged. I’d rather be soft than hard, like Valeska.
“Don’t start,” Aura warned him.
“I’m not starting anything, Aura!” He sighed, anxiously. “It’s a good thing, that you’re, you know, the way you are. But this is a war, Sefarina…”
“It doesn’t have to be! Why can’t we just all get along?”
Niyol and Aura both looked at me as if I was a little child who didn’t understand grown up affairs.
“You know it’s not that simple,” Aura patronised. I clattered my cutlery against my plate noisily in distress. The thought that more people might be killed made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t bear seeing either my brother or sister harmed again, either. Why couldn’t we just solve this another way? But I knew that we couldn’t. As Sigwald had lectured me before: some people always want to fight, and there is nothing we can do to change their minds. I considered the possibility of finding Valeska and talking to her, trying to make her consider not harming anyone. I agreed with her that pollution should stop, but I didn’t see why she had such an extreme solution to ending it. Perhaps if someone had got to her in time, she would have been a peaceful activist, instead of a violent insurgent. I considered what forced her to make the jump to the latter, and if it could happen to anyone who had good intentions. I shook my head. It could never happen to me. I would, no matter what happened, never turn into someone so desperately evil. I just didn’t have it in me. At least, I hoped that I didn’t…
I glowered back at Niyol and Aura, but couldn’t pretend to be mad at them for long. I began weeping, softly, as I looked into their bright, innocent faces. I thought about them being hurt, possibly killed. I also remembered that they had taken the lives of other people, and I wanted to run away from them, out of the hotel, and fly far far away from here. Although I wasn’t sure quite how high I could actually fly. Or if I could even keep myself in the air for a significant amount of time.
Niyol flinched uncomfortably at my tears while Aura hugged me close to her chest. I inhaled her sweet smell. The perfume that she wore always made me feel safe, because I associated it with her care and comfort. She would never let anything bad happen to me, but I didn’t know if I could stop anything bad from happening to her. I was weak, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do ‘what was necessary’.
“We have an excellent plan, Sefarina, and it is designed so that there will be the least casualties possible. Captain Harris, Timothy and even Assistant Director Ayres clearly know what they’re on about! You just have to trust them, and trust us. We’re a team, Sefarina. We won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“I’m not worried about what will happen to me!”
Niyol and Aura burst out laughing, as if I had told a hilarious joke. My head ricocheted off of Aura’s chest so I pulled away from her in annoyance. I took up my knife and fork and began eating again, ignoring their cruel humour.
“No one can hurt us,” Niyol stated, confidently.
“It’s true, Sefarina. He can wield lightning! No one could even get close to him, or to me, or to you.”
I wanted to say something about Valeska getting sufficiently close to punch Niyol in the face hard enough to knock him halfway across the dining hall, but I didn’t. I also wanted to mention the moment when Aura had been pinned to the ground by the group of Inimicus soldiers on the moors, being beaten to a bloody pulp, but I didn’t. That would just be mean. And besides, maybe their confidence was correctly founded. Perhaps they really were as good as they thought. I had seen them in action, and they were able to take out swarms of fighters before. And at least this time, we had back up from an army of trained soldiers.
I smiled at them, as friendly as I could. I didn’t want to argue. We were all stressed and nervous, and having a rant at them wasn’t going to help them prepare for what faced us all the next day.
“I hope so.” I raised my glass of water, as if I was announcing a toast. Aura lifted her glass of wine, and Niyol his bottle of coke. The three of us clinked our drinks together over the centre of the finely decorated dining table, and then sipped.
“But please,” I pleaded, “promise me that you’ll try you hardest not to hurt anyone.”
Aura and Niyol smirked at one another, giving each other the look of noncompliance which I had seen many times before. All my life I had wanted them to get along. Now that they finally were, I should have felt happy for them, but instead I felt terrified. They were in agreement about one thing, that was for sure. They were going to play by their own rules, and there was nothing I, or anybody else, could do to stop them.