The Realm Protectors - Chapter 10: Chapter 10

The second week of school somehow always seems to take forever. So of course when I need the extra time to plan the RAS presentation, it seems to pass in the blink of an eye.
I've spent the week watching videos of past RAS presentations from multiple different schools, all of them filled with incredible displays of power and abilities. Asavanra's presentation is typically pretty good, but I really want to make it great this year. After I made a rough outline of what I wanted it to be like and showed it to the others, Nile and I got to visit all of the fourth sect Physical Kinesis classes to pick the best elementals to help us with the presentation.
Now Nile and I are on our way to Aveyard Facility to practice with us eight before the others come later tonight. Nile holds the door open for me and I give him a kiss on the cheek as I walk inside. The doors to one of the gymnasiums are open, revealing Professor Grantwood and Ciana. Ciana waves at me and I smile and wave back. She's always so giddy. Someday she'll be my Right Arch.
Ugh, I don't like thinking about the future.
"Are you ready for your first practice, Enya?" Grantwood asks me. "I hope you've planned something really spectacular."
"I think it'll be great." I reply. "I've spent all week planning and scouting. I think a week will get us prepared for the showcase."
"Perfect," Grantwood nods. "Well, I'll get out of your hair. You guys pretty much have Aveyard to yourselves for the rest of the evening."
"Thank you, Professor." Professor Grantwood walks out with a wave. I turn to see Nile chatting with Faris, Carter, and Ciana. Lyra, Avani, and Nikolina walk in behind me. "Perfect, we're all here."
"What's the plan, oh mighty leader?" Avani asks with a smirk.
"I have a rough plan of what I want to happen, and I just wanted to get all of you caught up on it before the other fourth sects get here in about an hour." I say. "I think five of each element will be just fine, so we'll have forty people total. That should fill the auditorium nicely, especially since Nile and I handpicked the best fourth sects we had.
"Our goal is to fill the auditorium. That's where it will be," I explain to the three first sects. "The best showcase presentations always make use of the whole auditorium, so we need to fill the space very well. We'll start with a bang. Ciana and Nikolina, you and your elementals will make me and the fire elementals invisible. We'll walk in a circle into the middle of the auditorium and set off a huge firebomb."
"Got it," Nikolina responds softly, looking at the packet. Ciana gulps but nods.
"The other elementals can help you figure out how to do it for tonight," I assure her. "Then you can ask your Kinesis professors about it this week."
"Okay,"
"After the firebomb, we'll become visible again." I go on. "We'll do some fancy choreography, this and that. Eventually we'll make a ring of fire above our heads. That's when Faris and the air elementals will walk in, turning it into a fire tornado. They'll take over from there, doing choreo. Clouds will form above the stadium and Nile will bring in the water elementals, and they'll make it rain. More choreography, and then Ciana and the Light elementals will appear, making rainbows out of the droplets of water. Choreo, choreo, is everyone following me?"
Nods around the circle as pages are turning. Good.
"Great, next Avani and the earth elementals will do some cool growy things, and then Carter and Lyra will come in with the time and space elementals. They have their choreography that they do with stars and suns and black holes and stuff. Is that plausible for you guys to do, Carter?"
"With the help of the space elementals, yeah." He nods. "It's complex but it'll work."
"Fantastic." I grin. "This is all coming together nicely. Okay, lastly, to usher in the big finale, Nikolina and the darkness elementals will make everything as pitch-black as possible. That's when Ciana and the light elementals and Lyra and the space elementals will disperse the shadows with sun and moon beams. The stadium will be lit up again, and then we'll make giant formations of our elements in the air, spinning. Does that make sense?"
"Yup,"
"Crystal,"
"Enough,"
"Perfect." I smile. "You all have your individual choreography. I have more packets for the other thirty-two when they get here, but for now let's practice the basics of it."
We spread out around the room. Nikolina is huddled next to Ciana, her mouth and hands moving as she explains something. Ciana nods and looks at me.
"Whenever you're ready," I say. Nikolina nods and raises her hands, Ciana mirroring her. I watch my shadow pull up from the floor and disappear, and then lights blur in front of me. Then my vision clears.
"You're invisible." Nile announces. Ciana's arms are shaking slightly, but Nikolina is the picture of calm.
"Watch your eyes," I warn. Everyone covers their eyes as I bring my fists up and pound them back down to shoulder-level, spreading my fingers. A ball of fire bursts in the middle of the gym floor, reaching up to the ceiling. Lights blur in front of me again as the fire dies down, and Nile tells me that I'm visible again. I raise the fire, swirling it around the room before sending it into a circle. "Faris, that's you."
Faris steps up beside me and raises his arms, twisting his wrists and using wind to bend the fire circle into a fire funnel, and finally a fire tornado. I release the fire and step back, watching Faris turn the smoke in the air into pure white clouds, making different cloud shapes before forming them into one giant cloud above our heads. I nudge Nile, who's nose is buried in the packet, and he steps up beside Faris.
"Alright, let's make it rain," Nile mutters. He raises his hands and makes fists, pulling them back down to his body. Rain droplets start to fall from the clouds. Faris makes them dissipate and Nile takes over, pulling the droplets into waves that stream over our heads. He brings it to the floor, pooling it up and making it shoot up like a fountain. He bursts it into millions of tiny droplets and Ciana steps up across from him.
"My turn?"
"Yup," I nod at her. Her shoulders rise and fall in a deep breath. She sweeps her arms in an arc, light shooting up and forming a dome of light. It catches the droplets and makes a cage of rainbows over our heads. It's beautiful, and I smile.
Ciana flicks her fingers and the rainbows fade, lights flashing like paparazzi. They waver a little bit and I notice she's biting her lip in concentration. She makes the lights spin around until they look like shooting stars, forming them together into one giant sun.
Avani steps up and squares her shoulders, pulling her arms up slowly and making a large plant grow under the sun. Ciana steps back and breathes heavily. I walk over to her while Avani does some choreography with her plant.
"Hey, good job." I say to Ciana, patting her on the back.
"Thanks," Ciana pants, hands on her hips. "I had no idea what hard work it is to use your ability like that."
I smirk. "It'll get better. You've only had your power for a week, remember?"
"Yeah, I know. It just frustrates me that it's so difficult."
"I used to be the same way. Then I just kept working at it, and it came easier."
"I suppose it'll help that we're ." Ciana purses her lips. "We're supposed to be the most powerful elementals ever, right?"
"Supposedly, yes." I watch Avani step back as Carter and Lyra step up and do some intense choreography. "Realm Protectors are supposed to be the most powerful yet. They say their power always builds."
"Does that mean that someday I'll be even more powerful than Professor Grantwood?" Ciana asks suddenly. She seems startled.
"Technically, yes. But we've got a while yet."
Nikolina steps into the circle and raises her arms. Shadows pool around the ceiling of the gym, and she drops her hands hard, shadows enveloping everything. Ciana gasps and stumbles. I can hear her breaths coming quickly. I squeeze her shoulder.
"You're alright, you're alright." I mumble to her. I feel her raise her arms when stars appear in the darkness, and soon beams of light are dancing with beams of opalescent moonlight. The shadows disperse and we all step together again, forming a circle. We all raise our arms as one, giant formations of our elements appear above our heads.
"Release," I command, and the formations disappear. "Great job everyone. I think we're doing pretty well. The others will be here soon, but for now take a break." I stand and watch the others separate and sit down, taking some sips of water. Nile comes behind me and wraps his arms around my waist.
"It's amazing, Fireball." He says, lips against my hair. I smile and turn around resting my head on his shoulder.
"Thanks, Waterboy." I smirk.
"What was up with, uh, what's her name again?"
"Ciana?"
"Yeah, the little sunshine."
"Not sure. She was struggling a little with the choreography."
He pulls back a little to look me in the eyes. "You think she's not really a Realm Protector?"
"I didn't say that." I frown. "She's sweet, and she's still a lot more powerful than any first sect light elemental I've seen. I mean come on, some of the people in our grade aren't even as good as her."
"Fair enough," Nile shrugs. He kisses my forehead and I smile.
"Hey Enya, people are starting to come in." Ciana calls out from where she's talking to Lyra, Avani, and Carter. I step out of the comforting embrace of my boyfriend's arms and over to the group of elementals coming in. From the looks of it, it's mostly fire, light, and air elementals.
"Welcome everybody!" I call out, a smile pasted on my face. "If you want to group into the different elements, that'd be great. There should be four of you, plus one of us."
For the next fifteen minutes, groups of elementals arrive. Us eight hand out the packets and I describe the plan of the presentation again.
"We'll be performing last since we're hosting it here at Asavanra." I finish. "We have five practices until the showcase, so let's start by breaking into elements and working on specific skills. Space and time, you two go together."
The eight groups of elementals chatter as they head to a part of the gym to practice their individual choreography. I take the fire elementals to the corner, and we get started working on the firebomb and ring of fire.
We manage to get through the whole practice without setting off the smoke alarms, so I consider that a win.