Editing Eldramin (section)

== Chapter 17 ==
''Fannara''

     “MOREN GUESS WHAT!” I ran into the cave, knowing full well that I was nearly an hour late. Valraea had to arrange for a different transport to take me when I had arrived at the Arena half an hour late. After the whole wound-swapping ordeal, I had to go for a check-up of sorts so that I’ll be ready to leave once the portals opened. I didn’t want to go but that wasn’t up to me.

Apparently, Moren hadn’t heard me when I was first dropped off, and my sudden shout made him jump. He turned around, looking a little alarmed.

“Are you okay?” 

I nodded emphatically as I bounced on my toes. “Better than okay, because, guess what. I was in healing class and we got to try wound swapping aaaand-”

“-if you say ‘guess what’ one more time I might scream.” Moren made an overly exaggerated face of annoyance. 

I laughed. “While that might be funny, I’ll refrain from saying it again, but that’s beside the point.” I took a deep breath and tried to stop smiling. “I wound swapped.” His eyes widened.

“No way.”

“Yep. I did it on the first try.” 

He looked almost alarmed. “''How?''” 

“What do you mean?” 

“From what I’ve heard, that takes ''years'' of training and practice. It’s insane that you could get it that quickly.” 

I shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. It felt easy.” ''Almost familiar'', but I wasn’t going to say that out loud; I knew it wasn’t. Maybe I’d just missed the feeling of using my magic like that.  

He raised an eyebrow. “Dang. I will never understand that.” Moren tilted his head to indicate I should follow him. We walked down the staircase-like structure, going deeper into the cave where we had found comfortable seats. It was also warmer here, and with what looked like a huge blizzard rolling in, it was much needed. 

I climbed up onto one boulder, directly across from where Moren had sat, and crossed my legs. It was on the incline leading down to the larger pool at the bottom of the cave, next to the slowly moving waterfall. Small patches of moss sat on the rock with us, their little flowers glowing dimly. 

“I really doubt you’re as horrible at light bending as you think.” Moren gave me a skeptical look. 

“My sister at age ten could do more advanced things than I can now.” 

“Okay, fair, but maybe your magic works a little differently.” I received a questioning look from him in reply. “Like, not everyone’s magic works the same. I know that’s true for me.” 

That made him look even more unconvinced. “Yeah, because you have way stronger magic than everyone else.” I let out an annoyed huff. I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. However, I had no clue how to respond without sounding like I was full of it. 

“Regardless, you never know.”

“I feel like at some point you do. Plus-” A loud clap of thunder suddenly echoed through the cave, cutting Moren off of what he was about to say and making both of us jump. “Well, that didn’t sound good.” 

I looked at him, shocked by the slightly amused tone of his voice. “Yeah no, it didn’t.” Another rumble of thunder resounded above our heads, followed by several large gusts of wind that seemed to blend into each other and then stayed there. 

I slid off of the rock and walked up to the entrance of the cavern. The temperature was significantly colder, and the scenery outside was being veiled by an increasingly thick screen of white. This was a huge storm. 

Snagging my bag and staff from the entrance, I walked back to where I had been sitting. Moren hadn’t moved. I slung my bag up onto the rock, leaning the staff against the boulder.

He waited until I’d climbed back to my spot to ask, “How bad is it?” 

I sighed. “I would be surprised if it cleared up before it gets dark.” He groaned and flopped down on the rock. “Well, aren’t you dramatic,” I deadpanned. 

“You do realize that we don’t have food, yes?” 

“Yes we do.”

Moren sat up and looked at me. “No. We don’t.” 

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag, unzipping it and pulling out several assorted energy bar type foods. “Yes, we do.”

“Oh, we do.” I gave him my most unimpressed look and shoved the food into my bag again. “Welp, guess dying of starvation is off the list. What else could we do...” 

I pulled the zipper of the bag shut with one yank and looked over at him. “Why must you think of such things?”

“I’m bored. So, what do you say to…hmm…” He looked around the cave, trying to find something stupid to do. “I guess anything relating to water is off-limits do to, you know, burning waters.” 

I scoffed. “And the fact that I can’t swim?” Moren seemed surprised by that. 

“You can’t swim?”

“No, it’s never something I needed to learn. Also, far too many old wives' tales about water spirits destroying villages.”

“I take it the Alithosi aren’t to found towards bodies of water?”

I chuckled. “That’s one way to put it. But yeah, Alithos wasn’t nearly as…open to such dangerous activities as people in this system seem to be.” 

“Isn’t one of your national sports climbing a gigantic tree with literally no safety equipment?”

“...I mean ''yes'', but that doesn’t count.” I stopped and thought about it. “Actually, no, you’re right. I have no clue why that’s allowed.” 

Moren laughed at that. “What was it like on Alithos?”

“Eh,” I raised one shoulder unenthusiastically. “It sort of sucked. Everyone is overly formal, the sky is always grey, and the people are intolerable; especially if you happen to be at the top of the class with no family standing and no relation to magic.” 

“Sounds like it was rough.” 

“I guess, but I had it a lot better than most. Anyways, you got me rambling, now it’s your turn.” 

“My turn?”

I nodded. “Mhm, you asked me a question so now I get to ask you one.”

“Oh, is that what we’re doing?”

“It is, so deal with it.”

He gave me a lopsided smile. “Alright then. Ask away…” He trailed off as two loud beeping sounds suddenly filled the air. Moren stiffened as he recognized the sound. It took me a little longer to realize what it was. An alert from campus. One of the annoying ones that wouldn’t stop making noise until you opened the message. 

My telecom was in my bag somewhere, so I grabbed it and began searching for the tiny metal square. I found it right as Moren’s alert turned off. He took in a sharp breath, and the com clicked shut. I turned off my alert and looked up at him.

“What was it?”

His eyes seemed slightly panicked as they met mine. “Jana’s forces are attacking Elquar. We’re instructed to shelter in place.” 

“Why would she attack in the middle of a blizzard?” 

Moren sighed. “She probably has some weather manipulators.” I realized that Moren looked extremely on edge with the news.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do…So, tell me about your sister.” It was the first thing I could think of to change the subject. 

He gave me a grateful look and started telling me about Larawyrn. It was evident how much he cared about her as he talked about how good she was at light bending, and how kindhearted she was. 

The hours seemed to melt away as we asked questions back and forth. An unannounced competition arose to see who could get the other to rant the longest. Moren was winning after getting me rambling about how horrible Alithosi dances were. Long, boring, and mandatory, they had been the bane of my existence at the academy. 

Moren finished telling me the confusing tragedy of how two of his pet fish had somehow eaten each other when he was a kid. Then it was his turn to ask me again. 

“Okay, here’s one I’ve been curious about for a while: what happened to your family?”

I took a sharp inhale of breath. “Ohh, that’s a personal one.” 

“Oh, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.” I looked at him, debating if what I was about to say was a good idea. 

“If I answer, will you tell me about Isabell?” 

Moren froze. “....I guess that’s fair.” 

“Hmmm, okay.” I paused and tried to think of where to start. “My parents were farmers. I had three siblings, one of which was off at school. I couldn’t tell you their names or what they looked like, but I know I had them. One year, there was a really bad drought, followed by horrible weather. We didn’t grow anything that year. 

“Because we were low on food and money, and my brother was off at school already, I was the only one they could really get rid of. My younger siblings were too small to stand a chance on their own.” I bit the inside of my cheek and tilted my head to the ceiling, as if the stone above me had some answer for me. “I was eight when I heard them talking about it- about ‘getting rid of an extra mouth’.  So I tried to hide from them, but I mean, I was eight, it didn’t really work.

“Next thing I know, I’m waking up behind a pub in Talidine.” Exhaling, I leaned back on my arms. 

Moren looked shocked. “And you haven’t heard from them?”

I shook my head. “Nope, not that I would want to, they didn’t want me.”  I shrugged and sat up straighter, turning so I could fully face Moren. “Alright, now you.”

“Yeah..” He looked down at the moss dotting the rock we were sitting on. “Well, I assume Ari has already told you some things.” 

“Yes, but I doubt she was unbiased in telling it.”

Moren scoffed. “That’s for sure. So, Izzy was..she was different. Everyone suspected that she was the Eldramin and that’s probably why she was targeted. The day she was taken was…horrible.” He quieted for a minute and a loud rumble of thunder sounded from outside. 

“When she first disappeared, her brother went missing with her. He was found later that night, so we thought we’d find Izzy too, but she was gone.

“Reports started going around that Jana was holding her, but we didn’t believe it at first. There had been an incident with her husband earlier that week and we didn’t think it would make sense. Unfortunately, we were wrong. 

“Once Jana was confronted about it, she began demanding that the Harpsons leave Lathra IV. It was so bizarre, every time we had conferences with Jana prior to this, she had seemed so…gentle, so to say, it was like something had changed. Every day the Harpsons didn’t leave, Jana did something to Izzy, recording the whole thing and sending it as a type of blackmail. I wasn’t supposed to see them but they had no clue what was coming when she sent the first one.” Moren shuddered involuntarily and fixed his eyes on a tuft of moss next to his foot. 

“What had she done?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer and very sure he didn’t want to say it. 

With a shaky breath, Moren said, “It was hard to tell. There was just so much blood.” I felt sick. “Well, Kayden Harpson, who was the head Chairman at the time, he tried to negotiate with Jana, but she wouldn’t budge. My dad decided that responding with force was the only option. Kayden and Marcy both tried to stop him but they were too late. 

“Every single soldier that was sent in didn’t come back, and Izzy was killed. At least we assume so. The recordings are…confusing, to say the least.” 

An awkward silence filled the air. I finally decided to break it. “Do you think she actually died?” 

Moren shook his head. “ I can’t explain it but…she’s alive, I can’t say how I know, I wasn’t supposed to know but…” He trailed off without finishing the thought. 

“So what are you going to do about it?” 

“I can’t do anything. She won’t be the same, there’s no way that after all those things Jana did to her that she would be the same in the slightest. And even if she was, finding her would put her in so much danger.” He sighed and looked at me, as if waiting to hear if I thought he was being stupid. 

I wasn’t sure what I thought. “Well, if she is alive, wouldn’t now be the best time to find her? The war has already started.” 

Moren shrugged. “When we need her, she’ll come back. 

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t. But I have hope.”