It's Elementary

Lily Van Lear was staring out the window as the rain poured down outside. She loved car trips like this; when you can never see where you're going. She stretched her brown curls over her eyes, like an emo kid, peering through both them and the fleeting raindrops. The man sitting in the driver's seat next to her smelt of wine and perfume, not her usual type, but the elders had put them together. Why? She didn't know. They were both very good looking; maybe that was it.

The road started to become stony and wet. They were going up the side of a mountain, further and further to a tip, where they would fall off the edge of the world, or at least that's what Lily wished.

“Lily?” Henry asked.

“Yeah?”

“What do you want your new name to be?”

“Do I have to pick a new one?”

“Yep.” Henry said, smiling and tossing his head of blond waves. “I think I'm gonna be... Neville Trout.”

“No, that's terrible!” Lily giggled. “At least pick something that sounds good, like... Vincent Vadelucci. That would be a great name.”

“I dunno. Maybe I'll ask the elders for suggestions?”

“You can get good ideas from street signs.”

“Like which?”

“Shasta Daisy.” Lily said, “Doesn't it sound awesome?”

“Yeah. I'll just let you do all the family naming from now on.” Henry said, not without sarcasm. Lily giggled again and resumed staring out at the dripping landscape of huge, empty, frozen fields and the mountains towering in the background. She thanked the elders for setting her up with someone she could really get along with.

Chapter 1

When they got to the top of the mountain, the lodge was entirely blanketed in snow. There were no lights anywhere except for the two rusty green lamps at the entrance. The lodge looked as if it had been there since the turn of the twentieth century. Lily and Henry walked slowly up the old stone path, hearing the snow crunching beneath their feet like dots candy. “You ready?” Henry asked.

“I hope so.” said Lily. They entered. It had a heavy smell, like a hundred people all living and breathing in the same room. And that's what it was. The scent was exhilarating, like the marketplace of a foreign country. One lady was wearing a bright green polka-dotted dress, bunched artistically like a fashion model's, although some looked as if they had just come in off the streets. There was a stage at the center of the room, and platforms for six people to speak over the crowd.

“Henry!” called a bubbly voice from behind them. Lily and Henry turned to see a man with dark, spiky hair, a wide smile, and a well-pressed shirt. “I haven't seen you since graduation! How've you been?”

“Oh, I'm great. I hardly expected to find you here, I thought you didn't believe in the six?” Henry said, cocking his handsome head to the side.

“Guess what? I do. Hahaha!” Neal laughed heartily. “No, really, I just wasn't feeling Judaism anymore. It's such a cold religion, you know, I can't relate. There's some God up there, just doing anything he wants with our lives. We're not allowed to know what he looks like, we can't imagine him, we don't even know if he's – I'll use the pronoun for the sake of speaking here-- a man or a woman. I just didn't like it anymore.”

“So why not Christianity or something?” Lily asked. “It would probably be way easier to explain to your friends.”

“Well, let me ask you something.” Neal said, “how many people are actually allowed to hear Jesus speak? That's one thing I'm really stoked about here. It'll be neat to hear the elders, right?”

“Uh... okay.” Lily said, a little put off by Neal's over-enthusiasm. She loved Elemental Paganism herself, but she hardly considered herself a fanatic. At least not yet. It was only her first hearing.

“Thanks for saying hi, Neal, but we'd better be off soon.” Henry said.

“Well, I'll be watching to see what you two get named. I assume by your faces you're paired?”

“Yes,” Henry said, “We are.” he smiled and pointed to the blue leaf tattooed on his cheek, the same as Lily's.

“See you later then!” Neal chirped, as he disappeared into the crowd. Feedback crashed through the audience, as their hands snapped to defend their ears from the onslaught. “Oh, hi? Is this on?” Everyone looked to the stage, where a meek-looking man, bent over, eyes glazed with cataracts, tapped his mike and peered blindly about the room. Lily thought he looked a lot like one of those albino mice she used to feed hamburgers to as a chemist's assistant. “Hmm-hmm.” he coughed, “Great to see everyone's here. Now--” he said, and five other respectable-looking men and women emerged from behind the curtain, “We have come to begin the ceremonies.”

Henry grabbed Lily's hand and held it tight. She leaned in closer to him and waited as the old man fished a small, brown notebook out of his pocket and passed it to a tall woman in a tweed jacket to his left.

“Nicole and Emanuel Barcher!” she screeched. A woman with frizzed blonde hair and a man with long, black locks came to the stage. Someone backstage pulled the velvet curtains back to reveal six glass boxes, each standing on their own wooden pedestals: one with nothing in it, one with fire, one with water, one with a lightbulb, one with dirt, and one with a single grey stone, sanded into a perfect sphere.

“Up, up, up,” said the old man, “Now stick your hand into each of these boxes in turn, and become acquainted with the elements.” The two stuck their hands in and out of the first box easily enough, but hesitated at the second. They watched as oil burned inside the box, and a tube from under the stage poured in oxygen to feed the fire. Emanuel looked back and Nicole before gritting his teeth and shoving his hand toward the box, before he felt the old man's fingers close around his wrist.

“Let the head of your union go first.” he said, and turned his head back towards Nicole, who gulped before bravely allowing the flames to lick her hand for a good few seconds before she swiped it back out. Her skin had scarred a bit and she bit her lip to hold back the tears as she watched her soon-to-be-spouse attempt the feat. Then Nicole hurriedly placed her hand in the water and made room for her husband to do the same. Exposing themselves to the rest of the elements went quickly, without further event.

The two of them were soon summoned to the front of the stage before the six elders and asked them their new names.

“Quintai.” said the woman. The elders nodded and a tiny woman slung a chain of clover about her neck.

“Brian” said the man. The elders shook their heads.

“No pre-existing names, please. ” they said with dire gravity.

The man looked forlornly at his wife. “Mikattan?” she suggested. He shook his head. The gathered became silent, waiting on them to choose a name. “Vivilliat? Nevins? Koknive?” she whispered. He shook his head again. He didn't like any of them. This didn't look good, and the crowd watched nervously on while the elders peered imperiously down their noses at the amateurs. The man started to rub his face with his hands, up and down, causing strands of midnight black hair to fan around his face. You could feel him sweating from hundreds of feet away.

“N-Nevins.” he said aloud. The council looked pleased and noted it down. The couple were allowed to leave the stage, and one after another took their place, although few had as much trouble choosing their names.

Henry noticed Lily fidgeting with the edge of a plastic tablecloth nearby. “I think I've got a name.” he said confidently.

“Which name?” Lily asked. Before Henry could answer, the elder called them both to the stage. After seeing so many people do the same things ahead of her, Lily felt ready for it. Her purpose reaffirmed, she accomplished each acquaintance before Henry with ease. When they neared the end of the ceremony, Lily stated her name “Shasta Daisy”. The judges nodded their heads and turned towards Henry. He paused. Why do all the men think this is so hard? Just pick a name, for the Lord Element's sake. Lily thought.

“Yrneh.” he said. The elders nodded their heads, but slower, like the gears in their brains were jammed with something sticky.

As Lily and Henry exited the stage, Lily whispered, “Yrneh? Where did that come from?”

“It's Henry backwards.” he replied, “You can still secretly call me Henry if you want, I won't tell...” he said, moving close enough to Lily that she could smell the blood coursing through his veins.

“Ugh.” she said, stepping back. “I thought you could at least come up with a real name, for my sake.”

“Honey, none of these sound like real names.” Henry said. Lily glared at him, he knew that he was heading for rough waters. But inevitably, he continued, “Quintai? Bivotino? Miv... Miv... I can't pronounce it. These rules are ridiculous, we just have to keep our heads down and follow them.”

“Is that all this is to you? Just following the rules?” Lily hissed.

“Um... yeah?” Henry shrugged.

“Nothing deeper than that? No feeling? No belief in the powers of the universe?” Lily was moving in for the kill. When Henry didn't answer, she said under her breath, “You are so damn shallow.”

“Shallow? I'm shallow? Why do names mean so fucking much to you?! What about a rose by any other name? Didn't you ever think of that? Did you even go to school?” Henry shouted. By this time, the entire room was watching them, horrified.

His accusations obviously struck a chord. Lily gulped back tears and ran from the room. “F-fuck you, Yrr-- whatever your name is!” she shrieked after she ran out the door.

Silence settled over the room again, then a bustle of noise, one could almost hear the rumors whizzing around the room...

“Quiet!” yelled one of the council members, a somber-faced woman with the posture of a two-by-four. Everyone's eyes turned to stare at her, instead. “We must go back to the proceedings, and let it be.”

“Let it be.” echoed the congregation. After a few seconds of silence, the whole introduction process began again. Henry stood shell-shocked in the middle of it all. He thought about staying there through the rest of the ceremonies, but then realized if he did he'd go barking mad. Slowly, he sneaked out of the room, praying that the elders wouldn't notice. When he'd reached the faint glow of the two lights on the snow, he paused to breathe in the frosty winter air. He kicked a pile of snow, sending the fine ice crystals spraying across the brick pathway.

Lily was nowhere in sight. As Henry had no inclination to go looking for her, he headed off in search of something else to do; somewhere else to go. He headed through tunnels of pine branches, through the dark forest into oblivion. Henry never realized that he could easily get lost among the wooden turnpikes, it never occurred to him that the basic necessities of life would become increasingly hard to find the further he got from camp. All that did cross his mind was the fire in his heart, the flames forcing him further and further away from Lily, from all that had been his not too long ago.

And out of the darkness came light! Steel! Crimson blood melting the snow with its infernal heat.