The Realm Protectors - Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Whenever you watch movies about people moving to a new place and going to a new school, they always seem to have everything perfectly organized and neatly packed.
That's not even remotely realistic.
Currently, I'm frantically searching my room for my favorite pair of shoes – the black Nike's with the white swoosh – which should be easy to find, considering that my room is mostly empty at this point. But no, I can't find them. I open the doors to my closet and look around at the few clothes I've decided to leave, purposefully not looking at the gown shoved to the side. I close my eyes and shove my hand underneath the piles of tulle, exclaiming when my hand finds the missing shoes. I close the closet and slip on the shoes, tying them quickly before running upstairs. My dad is outside with the armored guards, loading my suitcases into the suburban. My mom is standing in the dining room, talking to the woman who changed my life a couple weeks ago. Professor Cira Grantwood, High Arch of the Elemental Realm. Bit of a mouthful.
I met Professor Grantwood two weeks ago, when she stepped out of the perfectly white suburban that had randomly pulled into our driveway. After a quick and confusing conversation between my parents and the strange woman, I found out about a whole other world connected to ours, separated by a thin fabric of space... or something like that. A world known as the Elemental Realm, where humans like us have element-based powers. Apparently, my "only child" mother had a sister who was an elemental, and now the genes have been passed on to me.
The woman introduced herself as a High Arch – a ruler – of this world. She was a light elemental, meaning that she could control sunlight and such. To proclaim her title as High Arch, a band of gold sat on her head with a little symbol of a book engraved on it. She told me that in a few weeks, I would be leaving this world to go to the most prestigious school in the Elemental Realm: Asavanra Academy – the only blended element school in the Realm.
After the fiasco with Lex at the New Year's Gala last night, we called Professor Grantwood to tell her that I was ready to leave earlier than expected.
Now I'm hugging my family goodbye – trying not to burst into tears when I see Mom crying – and suddenly I'm off on this new wild adventure. The armored guards, Privates Jasira and Réamann, are up front, driving us to the 'gateway' to the Realm. I'm sitting in the back of the car, which is emptied out limo-style, and taking a quick lesson from Professor Grantwood about the basics of the Realm.
"So how exactly does this 'gateway' work?" I ask her.
"Space elementals have the power to open up 'tunnels,' which appear as little rips in the air and act as portals from one place to another." Grantwood explains. "Gateways are just very large tunnels, created by the first space elementals in a very large and impressive display of power." I nod and the professor goes on to explain, "You'll learn much more about the Realm at Asavanra. I teach the history course." I feel my nerves settle just a bit to know that I'll be familiar with at least one of my new teachers.
"So how come you didn't come and tell me about all this before this school year started?" I ask. "I mean, won't I be joining in the middle of the school year?"
Professor Grantwood shakes her head. "In the Realm, we treat the school year a little differently. It starts in the third week of January and goes until the second week of December, with four week long end-of-the-year breaks and summer breaks, and week long spring and autumn breaks."
I stifle a groan. "So I have to start the classes I took here all over again?" Professor Grantwood chuckles.
"Technically, yes. However, the classes you took here in the Otherworld – or so we elementals call it – are valued much less in the Elemental Realm." She says. "The class periods for classes such as mathematics, english, and foreign language are shorter than the kinesis classes or the Realm history classes. And for otherborns like yourself, we have a life skills class to help you adjust to the way we live in the Realm."
I nod again, remembering how Grantwood had explained when we first met that residents of the Realm call this world the Otherworld, and call non-elementals 'others.'
"Ah, here we are." Grantwood smiles. The car stops and the guards get out, opening the doors for us. "Thank you, Jasira." A cold breeze meets us as we emerge from the car, lifting our hair away from our faces. I shiver and pull my jacket tighter around me. Grantwood's ashy brown hair lifts away from her neck, showing off the little sun symbol between her collarbones and revealing that there are streaks of gold woven into her hair. I press my fingers to that spot between my collarbones, where my element brand will appear the first time I use my power.
A woman with pale blonde hair is waiting for us by the most incredible thing I've ever seen. It looks like a wound, a gash in the air in front of me, but instead of red blood, I can see space. Stars and nebulae and even planets are trapped inside this purple slice in the air.
My jaw must be somewhere near the floor because the woman with the pale hair chuckles.
"It is quite stunning, isn't it?" She asks.
"Can no one else see this?" I ask, stunned. "It's... it's huge! And beautiful! How has no one stumbled inside it before?"
Professor Grantwood lays her hand on my shoulder. "The nine main gateways to the Realm were strategically placed in locations that people tend to look over quite easily: abandoned alleyways, shadowed caves hidden in rock formations, etcetera. That way, the human instinct to not pay attention to those things works to our advantage."
I nod again – I seem to be doing that a lot today – and start walking towards the gateway. Professor Grantwood stops me with a squeeze of my shoulder.
"I must warn you about something before you proceed. When elementals enter the Realm for the first time, whether by birth or by the way you are doing so now, they experience pain that coincides with the amount of power inside them. The more power you have, the more painful your first steps into the Realm are."
I gulp and nod. The woman with the pale hair gets into our suburban and waves.
"Good luck!" she calls before driving off.
I look to Professor Grantwood, who gives me an encouraging nod. One of the guards steps through first, probably making sure it's safe for their High Arch, before I step into the rip.
It's a sensation like no other – I'm flying and running and falling and yet I haven't moved. Stars bend and stream past me and then there's pain. It sparks in my veins and my vision blanks white and gold. I squeeze my eyes shut and bright colors dance behind my eyelids. The pain crescendos until I can't tell where it ends, I can't tell if I'm even alive.
Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.
I barely register the feeling of my feet hitting the ground before my vision goes static.
✷✷✷
"You're leaving?" Lex's confused face is the first thing I see. "But... but where are you going?"
"I can't say." I whisper. It hurts to see her, my best friend, this way. And for me to ruin her special night, the gala she spent so hard planning. She even ordered me this gorgeous gown, a mountain of sparkling gold tulle. "It's a... confidential... government... thing." The lie isn't good, but Lex never was the brains of the operation.
"You're leaving me." She says to herself, as if she's trying to convince herself the fact is true. "After all this time, all these years? You don't even seem upset about it!"
I stare at her incredulously. "You think I'm not upset about it? Lex, I don't want to leave you! I have to! You're my best friend!"
"Obviously not if you can just leave me like this!" She shouts back. The sound echoes off her balcony, the sounds of the gala on the floor below us rising to meet us. I stare at her.
"So that's it? You're breaking up with me?" I whisper. Lex turns away.
"Get out of here." She murmurs.
"Are you serious?" I ask.
"You heard me."
"Lex, I can come back and visit on break – "
"I said get out!" She spins, yelling, her face a flustered red and tears shining in her eyes. But I know she won't shed a single one for me.
Her makeup is too expensive.
"Fine!" I shout back. "You know what Lex, I never did think we fit quite right. You live like the world owes you everything, and I can't stand it! You're acting like I want to leave everything I've ever known! Well, I don't! So you know what Alexia? I will just leave. And I won't look back."
Lex – Alexia – won't look at me.
"Good riddance." I turn on my heel and walk away. I pause right before going inside her room. "And when I leave, you can have this damn dress back."
I slam the door behind me on the way out.
I hurried out of her room and down the grand staircase, weaving my way through a maze of partygoers. I finally reach the door when someone grabs my arm. I spin around to see Andrew, one of my best friends. The Lexington Manor servants' logo sparkles on the lapel of his tuxedo.
"Cee, where are you going?" He asks. "It's not even midnight yet."
I pull my arm from his grasp as hard as I can manage. I feel weak, like the fight with Lex drained me physically. "Lex and I got into a fight."
Andrew scrunches his eyebrows, concerned. "I know you guys have your disagreements but you've never run away from a fight like this before."
I sigh. "I'm leaving town, Andrew. I'm transferring to this fancy boarding school."
His eyes go wide with shock. "Since when do your parents feel the need to send you to boarding school?"
I scramble for a lie, anything better than what I said to Lex but still connected. "It's... it's an advanced academic program set up by the government. They take the top students in each state and send them off to this boarding school in... uh... Europe."
Andrew's eyes flash with suspicion, but I guess there must be enough sincerity in my tone that he somehow believes me.
"Well, congratulations." He says. He wraps his arms around me, squeezing me tightly like he always does when he hugs me. I choke on a sob.
"You're not gonna get mad at me like Lex?" I ask, tears welling in my eyes.
Andrew shakes his head. "I know you wouldn't leave unless you had to. When do you leave?"
I'm about to tell him the real date, the one we had previously set, but my hurt from the fight with Lex gets the better of me.
"Tomorrow."
Andrew looks shocked before looking away.
"I guess... this is goodbye?"
I nod.
He shuffles his feet. "You know Ciana, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you. I – "
He starts to speak but the fireworks go off, the booming explosions cutting off his voice. He's still speaking, and I'm nodding like I understand. I try to read his lips, but the only words I can make out are 'tell you' and 'but'. When the fireworks die down, I reply.
"That's great Andrew but... I really need to go and finish packing." He looks hurt and I briefly wonder if I missed something important.
"Oh... alright." he gives me another hug before disappearing into the crowd.
When I get home, the dress is shoved into the back of my closet, and my feelings for my friends are shoved down deep inside of me.