I WAS FLABBERGASTED that Professor Mia, or Mia as she had asked me to call her from now on, was a Sun-Blast, just like Brian had been. So I was wrong about the Professor-and-Sir formula but I felt like a true Paegeian really fighting dragons when Julia broke the news of what Mia was.
The voice in my head appeared again around the end of the day, staying with me the entire night and through the next couple of days. Everyone began to worry about me as my behavior became strange. I became quiet and appeared to be miles away from this world. I seemed completely out of it and I began missing some of the important things the professors and my friends said as the voice distracted me constantly.
“What is going on with you?” Lucian asked me one night as we said goodbye at the stairs. “And don’t say nothing. You haven’t been yourself lately.”
“I just have a lot to deal with,” I lied.
He lifted up my chin to look at him. “Elena, please tell me.”
I looked at him for a short while contemplating if I should say anything. “It’s a voice, okay.”
He squinted. “What?”
“This is nuts,” I whispered and looked away wishing I hadn’t said anything. “I hear a voice, Lucian. In my head. It doesn’t stop talking to me.”
“What does it say?” The corner of his lips jumped slightly.
“It’s not funny. I’m serious.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean that. But you know how this sounds, right?”
“Crazy, I know.”
“So, what does it say?”
“I don’t know. It speaks a foreign language.”
“Latin?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t sound like Latin. I can’t make out one single word.”
He pulled me into his arms. “Are you sleeping well?”
“I get enough rest if that is what you mean,” I mumbled into his chest.
“Then what do you think this is?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it could be connected to my Ascending.”
“Elena, no dragon has the ability of telepathy. Not even Blake.”
“Oh please, Blake is so not my dragon.”
“I’m not saying he is. I’m just saying that no dragon has that ability.”
“Then I’m probably going crazy, Lucian. With everything that has happened these past few months I’m bound to hear voices, don’t you think?”
“You are not hearing voices, sweetheart. You are hearing one.” He pulled his hand through his hair. It wasn’t as funny as it had been a couple of seconds ago. “Have you spoken to Professor Pheizer?”
I shook my head.
“I think it’s safe to ask her about this, Elena.”
“Okay. I’ll speak to her in the morning.”
The guards were starting to get restless around us. “I guess it’s lights out.” Lucian mumbled and gave me a soft kiss. “Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise.”
I nodded and waved at him as our paths parted.
Becky looked up from the homework she was doing on the carpet and Sammy spoke to Isabel’s holograph on her bed.
“What is going on with you lately?” Becky asked too.
I sighed. I’ve been keeping already an arm-length filled with secrets from them. “Can I ask you something?”
She tapped the spot next to her and I plunged down as Sammy say goodbye to her mother. She came over and sat on the carpet too. Worry lines made her frown and it didn’t suit her, even though it seemed to be a constant look on her lately.
“How is he?” I asked Sammy.
“Mom says he’s better but for some reason his healing ability doesn’t work as well as she’d hoped. She says it’s like he doesn’t want to heal.”
“Maybe it’s his way of fighting this, Sammy. The longer they feel the pain the more he can hold out from turning.” Becky tapped on her leg.
“I know,” Sammy sighed and ruffled her hair. “I just want him back so badly at Dragonia.”
“We all do. Then maybe this shit will change,” Becky spoke out loud what I had been thinking and looked at me. “So, what do you want to know?”
“Can you and George hear one another?”
She frowned. “What do you mean by hear one another?”
“Thoughts, Becky.”
Both of them stared at me as if I was mental. “Forget it.” I pulled my hand through my hair too and pulled out my elastic band. It felt good to ruffle up my hair.
“You hear voices?” Sammy asked.
I looked at both of them for a long time before my gaze fell to the floor. They were my best friends. I nodded.
Both gasped. “What does it say?” Becky asked me.
“I don’t know.” I told them everything I said to Lucian and they reacted in a similar way. Huge worry lines pulled both their eyebrows together and appeared in the corners of their eyes.
“What if I’m finally, you know, losing my mind?”
“They have pills for it, Elena. Besides you are not crazy. We’ll find out what this is.” Becky promised too.
“Speak to Professor Pheizer, she’ll know what to do, Elena,” Sammy said.
“That’s what Lucian said. I’m just scared it’s a first again and what if she sends me to an asylum?”
“Elena, c’mon, she won’t.”
“What does Lucian think.”
“Besides thinking it was funny, nothing else. He got a bit worried though.”
“What does it sound like?” Sammy asked.
I huffed. “Not as crazy as you think it would. It somehow soothes me and its tone is deep and husky.”
“That’s good.” She said and we just looked at her with raised eyebrows. “I mean that it doesn’t freak you out, just that the voice actually sooths you.”
“Okay,” I pulled my mouth and we started to laugh.
“What a messed up year this is going to be.” Becky said after the laughter quieted down.
“And it’s just the beginning.”
I STAYED BEHIND AFTER Professor Pheizer’s class the next morning. This was it; it was now or never.
“Elena,” she acknowledged me standing near her desk and I stepped forward. I waited for everyone to leave before I told her about the voice inside my head. She didn’t say anything as I explained everything, and just listened.
“How many times do you hear this voice?”
“It comes and goes but the period of time becomes longer every time.”
“It explains why you are so distracted lately.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t, I think it’s magnificent.”
I looked at her. It was the first positive response I’d gotten since I told anyone. “You do?”
“It must be your dark mark.” She looked excited as she said those words. “I can give you plenty of theories, Elena and most of them would probably come true, but all of them boil down to one thing. I think you are part of a dent.”
“A dent.”
She nodded. “Your bond is strong with whoever your dragon is, and it’s not the first time a dragon and a rider shared the gift of telepathy.” She pulled her lips awkwardly upwards and shook her head slightly. “Okay, maybe not entirely true, the couple of dragons and riders sharing this gift all became the Ancients.”
“What?”
“It takes years and years to develop hearing each other’s thoughts, Elena. After being with one another for so long, the bond is unbreakable and that’s where the telepathy comes in.”
She took a deep breath to retain the excitement I clearly didn’t share with her yet.
“Let me ask you this, why do you think when Becky Ascended Master Longwei pushed her claim date so quickly?”
“Because George and she were meant to be?”
She shook her head. “It’s because of what they are; a dent. If they denied one another, both of them would have been in a lot of pain. It’s a bond that has to be made and one that can’t be ignored.”
My eyes grew as she said these words.
“In all my years I’ve never seen a mark as dark as yours. Not even the Ancients. Whoever your dragon is…” she sighed. “We are going to witness amazing things from the two of you.”
“I don’t even know who my dragon is.”
“You will when you Ascend.”
“Master Longwei thinks I’m a Fire-Wielder.”
She frowned. “Please do tell.”
I started to laugh and she joined in. I told her about the incident with the Fire-Powder and how it should have burned a hole straight through my throat and stomach but didn’t. She just looked at me with admiration; the creepy kind.
“Already amazing. What else do you feel?” She asked.
“That is the thing. I don’t feel different. I don’t even feel close to Ascending.”
“The buildup takes time, Elena, but when it starts it can happen in a matter of days, if not faster.”
“So it’s between a Sun-Blast and Fire-Tail.”
She nodded. “They are the only two fire breathers, but from what I’ve been seeing in your journal,” she frown slightly. “I don’t think it’s a Fire-Tail, Elena. I think it’s a Sun-Blast. You have way too many dark colors in there that don’t belong to a Fire-Tail.”
I thought about Sammy again. “It could be though, if that specific Fire-Tail was going through a hard time, don’t you think?”
“You think you know who it is?”
“I hope it’s Sammy. She does feel pretty frustrated and angry with what’s happened to Blake.”
“You shared these emotions with her?”
I nodded.
“Then the only thing we need to do is wait.”
I took a deep breath. “So I’m not busy losing my mind?”
She laughed. “Far from it. Embrace it, see if you can’t write some of the words down if it speaks to you again, and I can help dissect it.”
I nodded. It sounded like a fun task and I couldn’t help but feel excited that someone was finally going to be able to help me.
“Thank you.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
I giggled again as her eyes sparkled and I said goodbye.
I found Becky, George, Sammy and Lucian in the cafeteria. They all looked surprised as they took in the wide grin plastered on my face.
“Spill.” Becky pulled me by my arm, eager to know what my verdict was. “What did she say?”
“She says I should embrace it,” I spoke softly.
“So it’s normal?” Lucian asked still with worry lines around his eyes.
“Sort off.” I pulled my upper lip and felt my nose crunch up. “It’s not unheard off, but I’m the first to experience it so soon.”
“What do you mean experience it so soon?” Becky asked.
“She thinks it’s my dragon speaking to me.”
All their eyes were as huge as orbs at my words.
“I know it sounds crazy. I’m hearing a voice.” I spoke fast and retract my thoughts. “The Ancients all have the ability to hear their partner’s thoughts.”
“Elena, the Ancients are all dents.” Lucian said.
“Exactly.”
“You’re part of a dent?” Sammy’s dimples dented deep into her cheeks.
“That is what she says.”
“So what, it’s between a Fire-Tail and Sun-Blast?” Lucian asked.
“Yes.” I looked at Sammy.
“You think…”
“I don’t know, Sammy. It could be. At first she thought it was a Sun-Blast because of my journal and the feelings I wrote down, but when I told her about what you are going through and that I feel similar things, she only told me to wait and see what happens when I Ascend.”
“You can hear my thoughts?” She whispered.
“I might, but it comes and goes. I’ll write it down when they do and we will know then for sure.”
She clapped her hands excitedly. “This is so frawesome.”
I laughed.
“I’m so with you on that one.” Becky said
“You guys should have seen Professor Pheizer. She wanted to jump out of her skin when I told her.”
Lucian laughed but it didn’t reach his eyes. He was still worried.
AFTER DINNER Lucian and I spoke again by the stairs. He held me against the smooth, cool stones as he looked hastily into my eyes.
“What if it’s not Sammy, Elena?”
“Then we deal with it.”
“And if it’s a male?”
“Lucian. I love you. It will never come to that.” My hands gently touched the sides of his cheeks and I gave him a kiss.
“You don’t know how they are when they can’t be couples.”
“Let’s not worry about that right now, okay. I’m sure that it’s Sammy.”
He gave me a quick smile, sighed, and nodded. “It’s pretty wicked.”
I laughed as he said those words. I hadn’t heard it coming from his lips in a long time.
We said goodnight with a long kiss and when the guards paced around us again our paths separated.
I couldn’t wait for the voice to come back. Sammy even tried to help me by thinking things while sitting right in front of me. We stared at one another but nothing came as we kept bursting with laughter.
Around ten we decided to call it a night and went to bed.
The voice would come again and this time I would be ready.
