Tempering earth, p.1
Tempering Earth, page 1
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Blank Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Della's Cheat Sheet cont'd
Acknowledgements
About the Author
TEMPERING EARTH
Gathering Water–Book Two
Regan Claire
Copyright © 2014 Regan Claire
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.
This is a work of fiction. Names, character, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover art: Gore|Studios
First Printing: 2014
Nashville, TN 37209
To The Rebel Writers,
Briggs, Caylie, Elizabeth, Kat, Stormy, and Theresa– here’s to taking over the world!
*****
Della’s Cheat Sheet
Gathering- Absorbing energy from the elements (fire, earth, air, water, spirit).
Tempering — An internal use of elemental energy. Used to enhance/strengthen depending on which element.
Bending — External use of elemental energy. Can create or manipulate elements.
Reading — Use of elements to see the past, present, or future.
Shielding — Using elemental energy to protect from physical or metaphysical attack.
Elements:
*Earth- Can be found on the ground. Dirt, mud, sand, etc… Energy looks yellow and brown when Tempering Fire.
Tempering: Will make you stronger and faster
Bending: Create and manipulate earth/dirt, make mini ‘earth-quake’, create objects.
*Water- The ocean, rain, anything liquid. Energy is greens and blue-greens when Tempering Fire.
Tempering: Works on blood. It makes your skin more sensitive and helps with healing to a minor degree.
Bending: Used to create and manipulate water, make waves.
*Air- Anything with air in it, including wind. Energy is all shades of Blue when Tempering Fire.
Tempering: Will enhance vision, hearing, and sense of smell.
Bending: Allows you to create or manipulate wind and air, create tornadoes, move objects through air.
*Fire- Any flame, but also anything electrical. Energy is shades of red and orange when Tempering Fire.
Tempering: Allows you to see/sense/feel energy
Bending: Create and manipulate fire (or heat!); can make fires burn hotter.
*Spirit - Is found in all living things.
Elfennol- Non-human beings that rely heavily on Spirit element to live. They can also Gather from it, and use it’s energy-force as an offensive ability.
Clade- Technically the same being as Elfennol, but they have gone ‘to the dark side’. Enemies of our world.
Chapter 1
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This moment, meeting my dad for the first time – it didn’t feel like it was supposed to. I mean, I’d met Derek before at my Testing, but I didn’t know he was my dad then, not really at least.
Which wasn’t very observant of me, now that I think of it. Huh. Hindsight’s 20/20 and all that. I could beat myself up about being a moron later. I had more important things to attend to.
Like my father standing in my living room.
My social worker had revealed my mother’s true identity several months ago and with that information came a family I’d never known about. It was more than I dared to hope for growing up in the foster care system, so other than briefly asking my newly discovered family about it, I refused to spend too much time wondering about who my dad was. I’d already lucked out and gotten an awesome aunt, uncle, and cousin, so who my father was didn’t seem all that important.
That was, until a few days ago when I’d been Tested in front of the Elfennol Council. It was then that we discovered my father was one of the non-human allies to my mother’s family. The Elfennol Council demanded that I return in two weeks with him or be considered a traitor–a Clade.
That was a huge problem since I didn’t know who he was, so, I’d stopped by the bank to collect the one piece of evidence that could tell me my father’s identity: A picture from the safe deposit box I’d inherited from my mother.
When I saw Derek’s face smiling at my mother in the old photograph, several of the puzzle pieces that made up my life fell into place. But not all of them, and here was my chance to find out the rest from the mystery from the man of the hour: My father, Derek–who just so happened to be one of the same Council members who demanded a little meet-and-greet in two weeks, knowing full well he was the person who needed to show up.
When I was little, before I learned not to hope for things that would never happen, I’d daydreamed about this moment. Yet there I was, standing in front of my father – my dream literally coming true – and nothing felt different. I expected tears, or hugs, or this overwhelming sense of belonging. But I didn’t really feel anything other than an odd sort of numbness.
And there he was, standing in front of me–not saying anything, even though he knew that I knew that he was my dad. My stomach was queasy, and my heart was beating a little faster than normal, but it was still… anticlimactic.
“So?” I asked, wanting him to say something, not because I was actually considering calling him dad.
“I was half expecting you to know already. How long ago did you discover it?” he said, in what was probably the worst daddy-daughter intro ever.
“That’s the question you want to ask me? The first question you want to ask your daughter?” Ah, now the feelings were coming. My old friend, anger, was first to arrive at the party.
“No, it’s not. Of course it’s not. This isn’t the most ideal situation–“
“Oh really? What would have been more ideal for you, me not to exist at all?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Della.” I opened my mouth to object, but he waved a hand at me to stay quiet and continued. “It isn’t the most ideal situation because I only learned that you existed a few months ago, wasn’t certain you were even my daughter until a few days ago, and I had to sneak away in order to speak to you privately.” He turned his back and walked over to the overstuffed armchair that I kept next to the fireplace and sat down.
“Why did you have to sneak?” I asked, curious despite myself.
“Spies are everywhere, Della. It’s not only the Clades we need to worry about. The other houses are very interested in you right now. Some think that you are a Clade and will be used against us. Others feel that even if you aren’t a Clade, you can still be the cause of our downfall. And there are still others that would see you as a threat simply for being my daughter.”
“That doesn’t really answer my question, Derek.”
“If they suspect that I am your father, they might try to do something misguided to eliminate the threat before I can place you in our protection officially.” He didn’t sound all that happy with the prospect of “threat elimination.”
“Can’t you do that now: put me under your protection?” Seemed easy enough.
“Heirs must be claimed in front of the full council in Eurybis. I’m afraid that’s the only way.”
“Why can’t you just say ‘hey, don’t kill my daughter, guys?’”
“That isn’t how it’s been done for the last several thousand years and the other families won’t respect that. Our people are resistant to change. Anything less than an heir is expendable, and the only way to claim that is by full council.”
“So, call up Etta and Richard and claim me. Problem solved.” I knew that it had to be more difficult than that, or he would have already done it. I thought. I hoped.
“Full council is different. It’s… difficult to explain to outsiders.”
“Well, give me the dummy course. Plus, I’m not exactly an outsider anymore, am I?”
He sighed with a smile on his face, or maybe it was a small laugh on the exhale. Whichever it was, he seemed happy about my non-outsider declaration. “You know about the three Council members. We three are the leaders of the Elfennol, and we each rule over a multitude of houses which each has its own head. Full council occurs when all the family leaders get together at once. All house leaders sit with their Council member and help them come to a decision. They don’t get to vote, but they all get a chance to say their piece to their Council, and a good leader always listens to the arguments of their followers. Fortunately, a full council has already been called for you.” That must be what the Council had been talking about at my Testing, when I’m supposed to present my unknown-to-them father to prove my non-Clade status. “Unfortunately, until then it is extremely dangerous for you.”
“I still don’t understand this danger bit. Am I in more or less danger because you’re my sperm donor?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, knowing I was being disrespectful but not really concerned about it. After all, I’d just come back from a memorial service for my dead mother, got asked out by the first guy who ever seemed genuinely interested in me, and was standing in front of my dad, who by the way, wasn’t even human. My emotions had been on a cray-cray roller coaster, and my tact had left me completely.
“More. For now. But only if others suspect the truth.”
“Why does it make it more dangerous?” I had the sudden feeling we were talking in circles.
“Because of who I am, and what that makes you,” he said.
This was all giving me a headache, so I went and sat down on the sofa and positioned myself to face him. “Are you trying to give me a migraine? Why don’t we pretend for a moment that I was raised as an orphan and didn’t know that ‘Elfennol’ was even a word, let alone a group of magical people–”
“We’re not magical. We are from another realm where–”
“Fine. A group of aliens–” I ignored his chuckle since I didn’t see what was funny, “that I was genetically tied to.”
“Okay, I’ll try to explain it better. As if that were all true.” He gave me a sad smile to let me know he was joking, before continuing. “Della, there are three Elfennol cities right now. Each has its own ruler, and the three rulers make up the council.” He was doing something incredibly spectacular while explaining this. He created an image of a world map out of energy, light, and highlighted three innocuous places which I assumed were the Elfennol cities. I figured the closest to us was Eurybis, and it was the brightest of the three. “Eurybis is our capital. It’s much larger and much more important.” The map zoomed in on the city. "The leader of Eurybis, therefore, plays a more important role in the hierarchy.”
“Why didn’t Uncle Connor tell me all this?”
The zoomed up city briefly spun on an invisible axis, giving me an 180 view of it before the light suddenly dispersed into a million little fragments before he answered. “Assuming that he even knows, it hasn’t been relevant up until now.”
“Are we getting to the part about my imminent death?”
He sighed, again. Uncle Connor did that a lot with Cash too, so maybe it was just a dad thing. “Basically, the leader of Eurybis is the leader of the Elfennol–”
“And?”
“And, that happens to be me.” He looked pretty young for the ruler of an entire people.
“Oh.” Well, that was… cool? “That still doesn’t explain–”
“Do you always interrupt so much?” he asked, though he didn’t sound annoyed by it, which was good since he’d just interrupted me. Of course, I did always interrupt a lot, or at least Luke always said so, but I didn’t want to confirm so I shrugged my shoulders and gestured for him to continue. “Before now, there has been no direct heir to the Leoht line, after me. Of course, there was plenty of time for that to change in the future; I’m still rather young for our people, let alone one of our rulers. But my Heir would be rather important, politically. Since that’s you, and some of our more misguided people think that you might be an enemy, it makes possible assassination attempts before you can be claimed seem likely if they discover the secret. Once you are claimed, however, anyone who thinks of killing you will be considered a traitor. Which means Clade. No one would dare risk being cast out and forced into darkness. And if you can get the heads of all the lesser families to support you, not a soul would want to kill you, even if they wouldn’t suffer the consequences afterward.”
I wasn’t too sure about that, but before my brain could come up with all the reasons why that didn’t make any sense, it snagged on the word “heir.” At first I’d thought he simply meant “child”, but I was starting to think he meant it in the traditional sense. “Whoa. So, like, by ‘heir’ do you mean ‘child’, or do you mean–”
“‘Child who inherits everything I am, have been, or ever will be?’ Yes. You’ll take my place on the council, and help rule our people one day. I wouldn’t worry too much about it right now though, I plan on living for quite a while longer.”
That sounded like the most preposterous thing I’d ever heard. Seriously. I sat there and stared at Derek with a head full of questions swarming around and refusing to leave my mouth.
“Is there something you wanted to ask me?” Derek had leaned forward, elbow on each knee and his hands held between them, with a concerned furrow on his brow.
I gave a humorless laugh. “I don’t know where to start! I keep waiting for some bit of normalcy. I deserve a bit of normalcy! Just a little bit; just a couple of months when I have a chance to adjust before something else is thrown at me.” My eyes started watering, again, but I refused to give into the prickling sensation; I’d cried too much that day already. Instead, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to slow my racing heartbeat. When I was sure I had my emotions in check, I opened them and saw that Derek was sitting upright and staring.
“Okay. Questions. So, how do we keep this a secret, and me safe, for two weeks? You mostly explained about your people wanting me,” I struggled for a word other than dead, “out of the way because I might be Clade. I’m not, so won’t those people be happy once the news does get out? I guess I can’t do anything about the ones that think I’m dangerous for existing, but why would some want me gone just for being your daughter? Why does it take so long to call a full council? Are you like, the king or something? Do I have to come live with the Elfennol forever? How can I possibly rule the Elfennol one day when I’m not even one? Why is Eurybis the most important city? And you keep hinting at living a long time? How long is a long time? Can you die? Do Elfennol age? Will I? How did you and Gabby even get together? What would you have done if you’d known she was pregnant?” Strangely enough, it was the last one that I most wanted to hear, and was most afraid of the answer to.
“Della.” He stood up and turned away, I think to look at my mother’s portrait again. “I’ve been asking myself that question a lot. I’m not sure what I would have done, to be honest.” Derek turned back around, this time to look at me. “But I do know, if I’d been aware of your birth, you wouldn’t have been alone all these years.”
The damn prickly feeling was back, and this time I couldn’t stop it until one tear escaped, tickling the side of my nose until I quickly wiped it away.
“Um. What about all the other stuff?” My voice was smaller than I wanted it to be; the careful control I’d built up my entire life was becoming tenuous. I’d meant to sound nonchalant. To sound like his words didn’t really mean anything to me. But they did. This wasn’t, however, the time for a heartfelt conversation about all the would-have-beens. Right now was the time for practicality, and I needed those other questions answered. Questions that could help you survive your future should always win out over questions that help you understand your past.
Derek waited a few seconds before going on, as if unsure whether I really did want to move on to the less (slightly), personal answers. He nodded his head as if in approval and started at the beginning. “I don’t have time to go over everything right now. I wish I did, but your safety is more important.” He paused with his eyes steadily on mine.
“I understand. Just hurry up and tell me what I need to know, and… promise you’ll tell me everything else after the council, okay?”
He looked at me carefully and nodded his head. “Keeping it a secret will be both easy and hard. First, we’ll agree not to tell anyone else. That’s the easy part. We can’t really do anything about it if someone figures it out by themselves, however. That’s where keeping you safe comes into play. I’ve asked Alexander to keep an eye on you.” He held up a hand, preventing my interruption. “He’s frequently away on business for our family, so his presence won’t be missed. It’s unlikely that you’ll see him, simply be comforted that he is around. Keep your guard up, always. Try to be in this house after dark, since that is the most likely time for an attack, and stay clear of the open ocean. The sound should be safe, but please be especially careful if you decide to swim. You glow like a beacon when you do it, and any Clade or Elfennol within miles will be able to sense you until you learn how to Shield yourself properly.”
