Chapter Seventeen: The End Chapter Seventeen: The End

May 30, 2006

‘Top in news this week is the shocking death of Halliphac empress, January LeConte. Only ten days ago our country’s ruler was found murdered in her own parlor. Still no suspects have been, named leaving this case a mystery. The royal family, while refusing to comment on the late empress’s death, have now announced that the Crown Prince Jonathan LeConte will be claiming the thrown, making him the first emperor in Halliphac’s history.’

Gwen switched off the news feed and tossed the old radio onto a pile of used phones and Varekaian time pieces. Sighing, she wrapped herself tighter under her green blanket and stared at the stacks and shelves of junk in the Extras Chamber. She was nestled beside a shelf holding used and broken weapons, near the back corner of the room. Before her was a pile of things that couldn’t fit anywhere else. The extra Extras. She’d made a habit of sleeping there for almost five days. After three nights of nightmares and a newly discovered fear of empty rooms Gwen just couldn’t stomach her own bed. She found herself thinking of Earth, and her stacks of books and old clothes. She could never go back there after what she’d been through. The Extras Chamber was as close as she got.

She slumped against the wall as a second sigh escaped her lips. Life had changed too much since April. She would be seventeen in three months. For the first time in Gwen’s life she had no idea what would happen in those months. Earth would’ve promised a last miserable four weeks of high school, dealing with her parents, and a timeless summer of easy days and stupid jokes with friends, all leading up to an amazing seventeenth birthday bash. That was all before. Before the weeks of training, the subterfuge, before the death of Riker LeConte. Before she began to see her life as a lie, or a dream at the very least. None of it seemed real.

Gwen shut her eyes and burrowed into her blanket, praying it would just swallow her whole if she only wrapped tight enough. From across the room, the door opened with a small creak, but she kept her eyes closed. The approaching footsteps were steady, even, headed straight for her. As they grew nearer, Gwen slowed her breathing to a calm rhythm, pretending she was sleeping. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, no matter who it was. The footsteps stopped just before her and Gwen resisted the urge to crack open her eyelids to see who was disturbing her.

“I know you’re not asleep.” Andrew’s cool voice echoed around the room. “Your eyelids are fluttering. I don’t have to be a medical prodigy to figure that out.”

Defeated, Gwen opened her eyes. She would’ve looked irritated at Andrew’s intrusion but she found she had not the energy or the conviction to hold onto any emotion these days. Andrew hid his concern at her blank face. He sat beside her, his back to the wall, staring silently at the Extras Chamber. Gwen shifted slightly, thinking she ought to feel a bit awkward. Yet another emotion she couldn’t quite grasp.

“How are you doing?” The doctor asked, sounding very psychiatric. Gwen couldn’t hold back a sardonic eye roll.

“Fine,” she said. “I’m only sleeping in the universe’s strangest storage room and reliving the night I murdered a man every time I close my eyes.”

Andrew fell uncomfortably silent. Gwen let out a sharp breath and turned away. She hadn’t meant it to sound so angry, the words just came out, uncontrollable. She chewed her lips and avoided his gaze before finally mumbling, “Sorry.”

“It’s OK,” replied Andrew. “Getting it out is good.”

Gwen wished he would stop talking like a shrink. She really didn’t need the careful tone. If it hadn’t been Andrew and his usual ridiculously proper manner, she would’ve had a fit over being treated like a time bomb. He was wrong anyway, talking about it didn’t help. Telling the world wouldn’t banish the nightmares or keep the memories from crawling back when darkness fell. She decided not to tell Andrew that it was becoming increasingly hard to even think Riker’s name.

“You now, my mother was an elemental.” Andrew shook her back into the present. He’d tipped his head back and was staring at the ceiling quietly. Gwen was startled by the childlike look on his face, the clarity in his brown eyes.

“Really?” she asked, a sliver of interest slipping into her voice. “But I thought you were an Earthean.”

“I am,” he said. “My mother left Gaia when she was seventeen and traveled to Earth. No one’s told you anything yet, but Gaia is like a mirror-image of Earth. My mother wanted to see exactly how similar the two were. It was on Earth that she met my father and two years later I was born.”

Gwen listened attentively as Andrew recounted his story, his gaze roaming the ceiling all the while. He picked at a seam on his shirtsleeve idly, speaking easily, like he was reading a book.

“As near as I can tell, he disappeared when I was about three. He just left after sticking me with his name. It’s the only thing I can remember about him-” He grinned and glanced at Gwen “-Andrew Westley Benson III. At any rate, we went back to Gaia when I was nine, so I’ve literally spent half my life as a human, and half as an elemental. I’m not nearly as powerful as a full blood though, my powers are only concerned with healing. I’m really only a medical prodigy by mortal standards.

“Anyway, Bannon and I have been talking and, with Jonathan LeConte as emperor, it looks like The Crows aren’t going to have much of a job anymore. The agents under cover as his servants say he’s as benevolent as they come. Apparently he’s even made friends with lycans. It really does look like we won’t be needed. So, we figure… well you went through a lot on Halliphac’s account, and we just feel we owe it to you-”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Gwen interjected. She didn’t like the way the conversation was going.

“It’s not just that,” insisted Andrew. “Gwen, you’re part of the family now, and it isn’t fair to put you through all that and then send you home without trying to tie up all the ends. We agree that you need to be told what elementals are all about.”

“Well isn’t that what you’re doing here?”

“No, no, I already told you, I don’t know hardly anything about real elementals. You need someone experienced, someone who can teach you everything there is to learn. I’ve contacted a friend of mine from Gaia and he’s agreed to be your mentor. We leave for Gaia in two weeks, that is, if you want to.”

“Are you serious?” She could think of nothing better than a vacation from all her trauma, of learning to control the new power that seemed to weigh on her constantly, the idea of being able to feel thing without her body temperature shifting dramatically. “Andrew, that sounds absolutely perfect. You’d do that for me?”

His grin was back, lighting up his young face. “Hell, what else are we going to do with all that free time?”

“What about Breezie? And the CTs?” She asked. “Shouldn’t we do something about that?”

“Breezie was a mage, so our best chance of finding her is going to Gaia. Sort of, kill two birds and all that.” Andrew wasn’t listening to himself. He dug distractedly in his pocket, and finally withdrew a small purple envelope and held it out to her, saying, “This is the other reason I came to find you.”

Curiously, she took it from him, looking perplexed as her name written in calligraphy on the front. Gwen tore off one edge and dumped the contents into her palm. It was a single sheet of thick card stock, folding over once with purple lilacs printed on the corners. The inside read:

You’re invited
to share in the marriage of
Andrew Westley BensonIllthius Naga Lian Darclot

There she stopped reading, staring in astonishment as Andrew, who looked sheepishly away, blushing.

“You’re engaged?” She asked stupidly.

“I proposed some weeks ago,” he answered. “But you were at the castle. Sorry you’re just finding out.”

“That doesn’t matter. You’re getting married, when?”

“A week from today actually.”

“I can’t believe it!” Gwen pushed herself to her feet, rambling as she went out the door. “I have to go congratulate Illthius. And then I have to find Rhenin and chew his head off for not telling me. All those times he came to check on me and not once did he feel the need to tell me.”

As she breezed down the hall, the elation of the news dimmed, leaving free space for misery and doubt. Gaia was yet another unexpected decision. What good could it really do to train herself? Did she really want to commit herself to being an elemental? After all, she’d been a human her entire life, just because she suddenly found herself with the ability to light people on fire didn’t mean she had to give up her whole life to be someone else. She could still go home, she could finish school, have the perfect summer, and…

Nothing would ever be the same. She couldn’t just ignore that new part of her, the part with power, and a will strong enough to destroy a vampire. She wasn’t the same insomniac girl from Earth. Gwen leaned heavily against the door to Rhenin’s room. She’d wanted to go there blazing with false irritation, ecstatic with the news of a wedding, but what wedding on the planet could cure her of the emptiness she felt after her experience? Emotion washed out of her as she twiddled the invitation between her fingers. There was no sense in going back to the Extras Chamber, no sense in further wallowing, she may as well talk to Rhenin. She rapped hard on the door before pushing it open without waiting for a response.

“Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do,” she said dryly, adding no vigor to her quip. She brandished the wedding invitation in his confused face, looking at him accusingly. He raised his eyebrows, oblivious as to what she was implying. Gwen snorted in disbelief. “I was living in a house full of dead people and you couldn’t take the time to tell me something happy? ‘Gwen, a werewolf is attacking the city!’ ‘Gwen, try not to die’-”

“OK.” He cut off her sarcasm with a slight grin. “You know now, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she said smugly. “But I’m never forgiving you for…what are you doing?”

A backpack lay open on the bed, stuffed with neatly folded clothes. Gwen looked around the room for the first time. Rhenin’s things were no longer scattered over shelves, the dresser was empty, boxes sat at the foot of the bed. Her stomach lurched as realization hit.

“I’m shipping most of my stuff home,” Rhenin told her, giving her a cautious look. The kind of look a person gets when their friends think they’re unstable.

“That’s right.” She dropped her eyes. “You’re leaving.”

“Ten days.”

She hated that it hurt so much. She couldn’t speak for him but after all the time they spent together, Gwen at least, considered them friends. After all that had transpired, she found it impossible to think of facing the months ahead without him there to lighten the mood with his badly timed anecdotes. She would go to Gaia and learn to be an elemental, and change into someone else, and he would go home to…what?

“Why? Why are you leaving?”

Rhenin brought one knee onto his bed and rested his chin against it. “I have,” he hesitated, “a family.”

“What, like a wife and kids?” Gwen gave him a skeptical look. He didn’t seem the type.

“No,” Rhenin rolled his eyes. “Like, a nine-year-old daughter and an ex-girlfriend.”

“Nine!” Gwen nearly choked. She did the math in her head. “But you’re-”

“Not the poster boy for abstinence, yeah I know.” He smirked in his usual arrogant way. “Anyway the point is, Cassie – the ex-girlfriend – has gotten pretty sick and it doesn’t look good. I know it’s hard to believe, but I am actually capable of responsibility and…”

Gwen nodded, she understood perfectly. “They need you.”

“Yeah,” Rhenin fell back on his bed, sighing. “Sorry I can’t go to Gaia with you.”

Gwen ignored him. She pushed his bag aside and sat at the foot of the bed, resting her elbows on her knees. She tried to wrap her mind around Rhenin having a daughter. No matter which way she looked at it, he just didn’t seem fatherly enough. Not that she didn’t think it was possible, it just didn’t seem plausible. Gradually, the silence grew heavier, stretching on into awkwardness.

“Ten days, huh?” It was the first thing that came to mind. He nodded without looking at her.

“I’m staying until after the coronation. Did you know that the crown prince has invited all The Crows?”

“What? But that’s completely insane.”

“You’re telling me,” Rhenin said disdainfully. “Apparently Prince Jon is the anti-vampire. He says he wants to, quote: ‘reform the country into the proud land it once was and was meant to be.’ He’s nuts, people are even saying that he’s a practicing Catholic.”

Gwen couldn’t hold back a laugh any longer. A Catholic vampire? If that wasn’t laughable, nothing was. It was wonderful to think of something other than her own life, and her own traumatized self, to ignore the unfathomable future and the events of the last week, the last month for that matter. It was nice to, for the first time in days, just laugh it all off.

Elemental: Finished

((Author's note: I know, not the best ending. But my only excuse is that there will be a part two (and three, and four) if I can manage not to be lazy and whatnot. I am going to take a break and work on some other stories, namely being Simulacrum and To Catch a Thief. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope you enjoy those soon to come. Danke schoen and all that good stuff.))