June 2, 1995
Coralis could not sleep. She barely slept the entire week, regardless of how exhausted she was. She couldn't shake off the feeling that something was about to happen. Lord Meozo was the topic that was on everyone's lips, everyone had a story to tell. The school didn't share any news about him because they didn't want students to panic but relatives and friends outside the school wrote about him in their letters to students.
The elemental population was frightened: they didn't want to lose their elemental powers to Lord Meozo. The students knew they were safe at school, but the school year was almost over. What would they come home to? Coralis knew the school wasn't as secure as the administrators wanted the students to believe and that it was a matter of time before he'd come for her himself.
At 4:00, she got up and went to the window to sit on the ledge. The windows were locked, but she had found a way to open them. Looking at the horizon, she saw an odd dark fog with a tint of red above a hill across the school perimeter. 'This can't be good' she thought. Staring at it, she considered flying toward it to see what it was.
She returned inside to grab her stick and as she searched for her wand, she found herself standing in the middle of what looked like a cave but with an opening above her. She could see the sky through it. Looking around her, it didn't take her long to figure out what just happened. She had been summoned.
In front of her stood a humanoid creature as tall as her and with orange-piercing eyes. She heard the stories: she knew who and what it was. Lord Meozo stood in front of her. Quickly, she made sure that her mind walls were up and cemented as Martha taught her. He stared at her with a smirk on his face.
"At last, I get to meet you," he said, in a croaking voice. "I remember the last time I saw your mother. I wanted her to bring you to me, but your father reminded us we had a meeting to do, and, well… we died. Well… I didn't die… I can't die…"
Coralis closed her eyes and focused on her inner energy, thinking about how to handle the situation. She didn't have her wand but there was something she could do, even without it. She felt her energy stirring within her and remembered something she had been reading about a similar situation that happened nearly 700 years ago in the Tibetan mountains. She opened her eyes, Lord Meozo was still staring at her.
"You are just as beautiful as your mother, although, I think you look more like your father."
"What about yours?" said Coralis, staring into his eyes, pushing some of her energy into them.
Lord Meozo took a few steps back, blinking.
"What about mine?" said Lord Meozo, trying to understand what just happened, feeling a burning sensation in his eyes. "What did you do, little Golmar?"
Smiling, she tried to repeat the same trick but this time, she directed some of her energy through her left hand, wanting to strengthen it and direct it better. Lord Meozo took another step back. He became enraged and lashed out at her, but she was already a step ahead of him. She was anticipating a fight from Lord Meozo, not a talk.
She ducked so the spell he sent hit the wall behind her instead. He rushed to her with his claws out. She couldn't get out of the way on time and he slashed her right shoulder blade. Her adrenaline was pumping high so she didn't feel pain from it and stayed on her feet.
Once again, she pushed out some of her energy and stared into his madness-filled eyes.
"What about your mother?" taunted Coralis, smirking. "You remember her, don't you?"
His left hand went to her throat and he lifted her in the air. She was so focused on what she wanted to do next that she didn't realize she was hanging in the air until she started feeling light-headed. She ignored the feeling and pushed through it to force more energy into his eyes, willing it to get into his memories, to pierce through his mental walls. He didn't anticipate her to get into his mind and soul: everyone thought he had no soul.
By the time he realized what she was doing, it was too late. He couldn't push her out. He felt his brain burning and unconsciously, he released the pressure on her throat. He still had his hand wrapped around her throat, but no grip. Her feet touched back to the ground.
"WHAT ABOUT YOUR MOTHER?" she said.
She kept pushing energy into him, forcing him to remember his childhood, uncovering memories he had buried for 207 years. She felt her stamina draining but she ignored it and kept pushing through, willing her energy to go deeper into his soul.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?" he shrieked.
She shoved light into his soul, cranking up the intensity, while forcing Lord Meozo to view the memories of his mother's eyes and of everything she had done for him, using the light to purify his damned soul and force him to feel his mother's love, a love he thought he never had.
As students and teachers woke up, they saw the dark fog looming in the horizon, across the school perimeter. Coralis' friends noticed that she was missing and were convinced that she was in the middle of that fog. Principal Arthurio sent a few teachers and guards to check what was by the Eastern border. A white light was seen peeking through it, and everyone stared at it.
Swope and Borin were among the three teachers who were sent to investigate. They saw the white light through the dark fog as they passed the school perimeter.
"Bet we'll find Coralis Golmar and Lord Meozo in there?" said Borin.
"I'm just hoping we won't find her brainwashed against us," said Swope.
When the group arrived at the cave, Lord Meozo still had his hand around her throat, but his skin was all dried up and becoming ashy. Her skin was glowing bright, and so were her eyes, still staring into Lord Meozo's decaying skull.
There was a thick black smoke hanging in the air, and bright yellow filaments coated with white light came out of his ears, shooting up toward the sky. Lord Meozo disintegrated in front of their eyes and turned into a pile of ash and dust.
They couldn't believe what their eyes saw. Suddenly, Coralis collapsed on the ground, unconscious, and it brought them back to their senses. Swope rushed to her and checked if she was still breathing.
"She stam'ed out. I don't know how much energy she used up, but she's completely drained. I will to take her to the infirmary and then meet you all at Principal Arthurio's office. You know what you saw."
"Do we?" said Borin while the others were looking around, taking in what was left of Lord Meozo.
Yuril, the other teacher, passed his hand above the pile of ash and dust. He was a fay who was very connected to all living energies.
"There is absolutely nothing coming out of these ashes, not even any essence residue. If he had transferred his soul into another vessel or object, we would have sensed some essence residue stuck to his bodily remains or lingering around," said Yuril to the others. "I don't know what she did to him. It feels like she burned his soul and destroyed him for good, there isn't anything left that could be resurrected."
"We will need to ask her when she wakes up. For now, we only know what we saw," said Swope.
Borin pulled a bag out of his cloak and turned a rock into a broom. Yuril took the broom from his hand and helped him get all the ashes and dust into the bag.
"We will meet you at Principal Arthurio's office but after that, we will have a field day at the lab," said Borin.
They left the cave and Swope ran to the infirmary, with Coralis still unconscious in his arms. Martha met him there. While the nurse patched up Coralis' shoulder, Swope told Martha what they saw. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Knowing how much energy it would have taken out of her, she suspected that she would be in a coma for a few days.
"This confirms that she never was a wind mage, but a spirit one," said Martha.
"It also explains why Lord Meozo wanted her so badly, especially if she turns out to be as powerful as her father, if not more."
Coralis had no family so her guardian had to authorize who could visit her. Erik and Henry argued she was like a sister to them so they had to see her. Knowing their parents would have adopted her given the opportunity, Martha agreed to let them in as her family. She also allowed Victoria and Maribel to visit her.
Everyone wanted to know what had happened. The dark fog and the white light had been seen from far beyond the school grounds. To protect Coralis, fearing more people would come after her in the aftermath of Lord Meozo's death, Martha, as her guardian, formally requested that Principal Arthurio only refer to her as Blue Thunder when telling the students what happened and addressing the media.
Martha also told her request to Roberto. When Coralis Golmar graduates and becomes an adult in the eyes of the elemental community, she will choose which name to use. Until then, Martha didn't want more people to be able to find her. The Northerners had already signed her under her nickname.
The name Coralis Golmar must not be spoken among elementals beyond school grounds. Students had been calling her by that nickname for years, to the point where most of them didn't even know her civil name or had forgotten it.
Coralis stayed in a coma for 7 days. She missed a few final exams but the school administrators agreed that given what she had done, she would be exempted from some of them and allowed to retake the others.
She was discharged from the infirmary 4 days later. Sitting at the dinner table with her friends, they noticed that her eye colour started changing and pointed it out to her. They were normally green but were now alternating from green to a mix of silver and dark blue.
Coralis was worried. She had to find a way to force her eyes to stay on their normal green colour. The school year was almost over and because she was a reservist for The Northerners, she would have to travel back and forth between Glasgow and Montreal for the summer. She couldn't be seen with silver and dark blue eyes by humans: this wasn't a natural eye colour.
Martha was also concerned: Coralis had to learn to control the surplus of energy that was now coming out of her, or incidents were bound to happen when she was among humans. She told Coralis to meet her at her office after her last exam and to bring Victoria with her.
As instructed, Coralis and Victoria went to Martha's office right after their last exam. Martha gave Coralis a pair of eyeglasses.
"I asked you two to come see me for two reasons. First, to give you that," said Martha, pointing at the eyeglasses. "These eyeglasses serve two purposes: to glamour your eye colour like their original one and to conceal your aura. When you wear them, you won't be able to use your elemental inner magic through your eyes, but you'll still be able to use your wand."
"Thank you so much, this is a life saviour," said Coralis as she put them on. "I shouldn't be using my magic when I'm in public surrounded by humans anyway, so it's fine if I can't use it when wearing them."
"However, you still need to learn to control your elemental energy. That fight against Lord Meozo had completely drained you. While you were in the coma, recharging, your essence has grown more potent, stronger than it should be for your age, and that's what's reflecting through your eyes."
"The other reason I wanted to see you two before you leave school is to give you a first lesson in animal transformation. Coralis Golmar, I know you will be travelling back and forth between Glasgow and Montreal. Erik and Henry Fullemon took that class during the year so you can practice with them when in the UK, but I also want Victoria to start learning about it, so you two can practice together when in Montreal."
"How is that going to help me? Honestly, I am excited at the idea of learning how to transform into an animal, Erik and Henry kept talking about their animal transformation classes, but I don't see how it is supposed to help me. Wouldn't it make my essence even more potent?"
"It will give your energy an outlet by willing it to transform you into your choice animal. I'm sure the twins told you that the shift is not painful, we're not lycanthropes. The animal transformation process will give you a form of control over it. Controlling your energy is also about keeping your emotions on a leash, so also make sure to keep your emotions in check at all times."
Coralis chose the panther as her animal, while Victoria chose the pigeon. Martha gave a book to each of them and proceeded to their first lesson. An hour later, it was time for them to go to the dining hall for their last dinner at school. When they would return to school after the summer, she will meet with them again to check on their progress.