August 25, 1991
Erik, Henry and Coralis were getting ready to head back to school.
"Coralis, I don't know how I missed that detail when we were filing the paperwork for you, but was your birthday really on August 1st?" said Kief.
"Yes, I am now 11," said Coralis.
"Wait wait, DID WE REALLY MISS YOUR BIRTHDAY?" said Erik and Henry at the same time.
"Had we known, we would have done something to celebrate it. Why didn't you tell us?" said Kief.
"Because I don't think it matters."
Barla and Kief didn't like that answer. They decided that if Coralis came to their house again the next summer, they would do something for her birthday. Meanwhile, they would try to see if she could come to their house for the End-of-Year holidays: their boys started to see her as a sister.
Coralis was happy to see her friends again, but the uneasy feeling she had at the Montreal airport returned: something was watching her. She didn't know how to explain it.
At the end of October, she mentioned it to Martha, but her guardian couldn't reassure her: they didn't catch Julian's attacker. They didn't find out how the attacker breached the wards, but Principal Arthurio had them redone during the summer. Martha told her she was going to have the wards inspected.
The uneasy feeling persisted, through November. Anxious and frustrated, Coralis tried to control her by focusing on flyball and forgetting the rest.
Her team wore a dark blue cloak with a golden edge as their uniform. When she was up in the sky, playing the game while turning her pent-up frustrations and restlessness into ferocity and fierceness on the field, the sky would sometimes darken and blue storm clouds appeared. With the heavy sound of students banging their feet on the ground and blowing their trumpets as they cheered for her, it sounded like thunder was about to fall from the sky.
One night during a game, the cracking sound of lighting was heard from afar and blue storm clouds seemed to be following Coralis as the sky turned darker. The lights illuminating the field enlightened the blue of her cloak and made the edge look silver. Students started to loudly chant the name of Blue Thunder when cheering for her.
The nickname stuck beyond the field and flyball fans started calling Coralis Blue Thunder when passing her in the hallways or addressing her. She didn't mind the nickname and quickly got used to it.
She went to the Fullemons for the End-of-Year holidays. Sean was there. He was 17 years old and in his last school year. Coralis was glad he was there: she wanted to know if Julian knew his attacker. Martha told her he was never caught and didn't know who he was. She was convinced someone knew something but didn't want her to know, thinking she was too young to understand.
"Did you find out who attacked Julian?"
"Not as far as I know. School administrators said they never caught the guy and Julian swore he didn't know him," said Sean.
"Your friend Julian, what's his family name? Do you know if he was specifically targeted?" said Kief.
"Dewarp, Julian Dewarp, I know that he's been living with his uncle since he was 5 years old and that his uncle was his father's younger brother," said Sean.
"So he is an orphan like me," said Coralis.
Kief and Barla looked at each other. Sean's parents were also looking at them.
"Julian's parents were supporters of Lord Meozo and were killed during a raid from the European Bureau of Elemental Energy in July 1980," said Darisa, Sean's mother. "I wouldn't be surprised if his attacker was a Lord Meozo follower trying to locate descendants of some loyal supporters."
"That would certainly explain why both schools refused to give answers. These raids created so many orphans," said Barla.
"Coralis, what do you know about your parents? It's fine if you don't want to answer, I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
"It's fine. I don't know much about them. My mother was a water mage. No one knows exactly what type of mage my father was, people think he was a wind mage or mixed. My cousin and I were told they were involved with bad people and that was what got them killed."
"I don't think you're a water mage. Maybe mixed, but even the mixed ones, which are rare, have a prominent one. You could also be a spirit mage; people often mistake wind and spirit energies," said Erik.
"Maybe the guy knew your dad and sensed the same type of energy coming off you that he did from your dad," said Sean.
"According to paperwork, Coralis was born on August 1, 1980, in Montreal. We know Lord Meozo was killed on August 8, 1980… in Montreal. Her parents could have been working for Lord Meozo. Even after they killed him, the CMMA and EBEE kept raiding suspected gathering places and warehouses affiliated with his supporters. From what I heard, most orphaned children were placed with family members, but a few were placed in the human system," said Kief.
"I heard a little bit about Lord Meozo in class. He was a bad one, right?" said Coralis.
"Very bad, one of the worst," said Fabrize, Sean's dad. "I seriously hope his followers aren't trying to bring him back. The EBEE assured the population that Lord Meozo had fully been destroyed, but can we trust them?"
"Enough talks about Lord Meozo. This is our End-of-Year party, so let's be merry and talk about happy topics!" said Barla.
When they returned to school, Coralis wanted to know how to access her parent's safe at their London bank. Martha told her she might be able to arrange it at the end of the school year.
Early May, she received a strange letter:
Hello little Golmar, I was a good friend of your father. I would like to meet you to talk about them.
The letter wasn't signed. She didn't know what to think of it. She sent a pigeon to her cousin, to see if she had also received something like that. Her friends also found it weird.
The next week, she received another one:
Hello Ms. Golmar, I am an admirer of your parents' work, it is a shame that they died so young. They could have accomplished so much more. I hope you intend to follow in their footsteps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Once again, it wasn't signed. Coralis decided to show both letters to Martha. It was troubling her. If her parents were involved with bad people, then she didn't want to hear anything about them. Concerned for her safety, Martha was relieved to hear that the Fullemons had made the same arrangements as the previous year. Coralis would still have to return to a group home for a couple of weeks, but at least it wasn't for the entire summer.
When the school ended, instead of taking their flight from Glasgow, Coralis and Victoria went to London with Martha. Fearing for her safety, Martha decided to personally take Coralis to her bank in London. The girls would then take their flight back to Montreal from London.
Before entering the vault where her parents' safe was, the banker reminded Coralis that she was the only one who could go in there: Martha and Victoria would have to wait for her outside. Coralis nodded and followed the banker, who looked almost identical to the banker she met back in Montreal.
She opened the safe and only saw three items: two keys and a piece of paper. On the piece of paper, two addresses were scribbled on it: one was an address in London and the other was an address in Alexandria. She figured the keys were for the storage units she was told about, and the addresses on the paper were their location.
Martha was disappointed that there wasn't anything else in the safe, hoping to find out more about what her parents were into before they died. She remembered her mother, from when she was a student, but didn't know what she had been up to after she left school. Donny Golmar didn't attend GES, she didn't know him.
Coralis had a peaceful summer. This time, she didn't feel she was being watched at the airport, in mid-July. Just like they said they would, the Fullemons prepared something for her birthday. They didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but they wanted to do something, so Barla helped her sons cook her favourite meal. She had a lot of fun with the Fullemons and hoped that she would be allowed to go back to their house again next summer.
A week after she returned to school, she received another strange letter. Once again, unsigned and from someone who claimed to know her parents. She wanted to burn it on the spot, but decided to show it to Martha.
After Coralis showed her the letter, Martha met with the school administrators, to see about increasing security around the school, and got upset when they refused. They didn't believe that Coralis was in danger: these were just letters. She just had to ignore them. They couldn't stop people from sending letters to students.
When received several more over the following weeks. When she packed a small bag to take with her to the Fullemons for the End-of-Year holidays, she packed them with her. She had 14 of them, all from different people. She didn't care about what the school administrators said: she believed the school safety protocols weren't good enough and she didn't feel safe. Worried, Kief said that he would try to find out who was behind them.