Elementals || Grishaverse

Chapter 39: The Start

Adaline gasped as she came out of the water. She wheezed for air when she noticed that nobody was near her. The sky was darker than it had been, but it had only been a few minutes since Ramina tried to dump her head into the pond of the waterfall.

She heard the sounds of running and then saw Ramina kneel down beside her. She tried to place a hand on Adaline's back when she pulled back sharply. "What was that? What did you do to me!"

"You've only started finding out, moi-"

"Stop! Stop calling me names!" Adaline was facing an identity crisis and she did not need Ramina's help with it. "Who are you?"

"My name is Ramina Smirnov. I'm-"

"So that wasn't a lie then. Bravo!"

Ramina did not snap back. She understood Adaline's confusion. "I'm a part of a Samodiva family."

Adaline looked at her for the first time. "What?" Had she heard her right?

"What you know about them is true. A Samodiva is of assistance to anyone who needs it. I come from a family of Samodivas....but I'm the last one. I think. I have been helping you all your life. You chose us. You chose me. You bequeathed that honour on me and-"

"You're crazy. You are absolutely crazy!" Ramina sighed. It was always the same answers. "This is a trick, isn't it? You mixed something in my food. What you're talking about cannot possibly be real!"

Ramina sat criss-crossed on the ground. She had to be patient. She could hear her parents' guidance about explaining everything clearly and not becoming mad at the lack of understanding from Adaline.

"The Hand is not only a waterfall. It's a beacon of energy." She started to explain. "It contains your memories." Adaline's eyebrows furrowed. "The water in this pond comes from the heart of the world. It can store important things such as memories and it is your symbol." Adaline took a breath. "I've been guiding you to your destiny from the very beginning. This is a test that you need to take."

Adaline shook her head relentlessly. "I don't know you. We've never met."

"But we have. I am your creation."

"That makes no sense. I cannot create anything." She whimpered. "I'm Adaline! I'm nothing!"

"But you are. You are so much more than what you are thinking yourself to be, Adaline." She said. "What you saw were your memories. This is not the first time you've met the Darkling. This isn't the first time that you've lived a life."

"I've never met the Darkling! This is a bloody trick!"

Ramina held her forehead. "You'll find your answers. Just....take some rest. Come on."

Back in the Little Palace in his war room, the Shadow King clattered against a shelf of books from a blinding pain in his head. He was trying to place a book back in the above shelves when the pain had started.

There was a bright white light that blinded his eyes. There was a ringing sound that accompanied it until the Darkling saw the same vision of being in a meadow. He was confused by that.

It was so long ago.

He looked at his clothes and recognised the meadow immediately. It had been his escape place when he needed to feel normal. He looked at his scarless hands and realised that he had long hair that reached his shoulders.

"This is from before I created the Fold." He realised.

"Aleksander." He heard a voice next to him.

The Darkling turned his head to the voice. "Adaline."

The blinding pain returned after he drove a knife into her chest. He was in the Little Palace. He was in the war room. He looked at his hands. It wasn't bloody. He looked at what he was wearing. His kefta. "What the hell was that?"

The sun set over the hills looking over the Hand. Adaline slept through the day, the exhaustion taking over her functioning. Simon was sitting by a fire when she walked out of the tent. "What's going on?" She whispered.

He looked up at her. His eyes melted after seeing her helplessness. He wanted to help her. He had vowed to do that. She was like his little sister, but he had never felt so helpless himself. He couldn't comfort her because after everything Ramina told him, his help wouldn't matter.

Adaline needed to trust them. That was the first priority. When he first heard Ramina's explanation after her apology, things didn't make sense. She had asked him to trust her and after Adaline came out of the water, Ramina's explanation started to make sense.

He needed Adaline to trust them. "You need to find out, Addy."

Adaline scoffed. "What does that even mean?"

Simon pointed to Ramina, who was walking from the darkness of the forests towards them with two loaves of bread. "I need you to trust her."

Adaline couldn't believe it. Could Simon have really been so blind that he couldn't see what Ramina had done to her? That couldn't be it. "What?"

Simon realised her thought process. "Trust me then."

Adaline looked at Ramina and walked towards her in a frenzy manner. It was obvious that she was going to pick a fight and Simon was too late to stop her. "What did you do to him?" She pushed her. "Have you tricked him as well?"

Ramina had one final sentence that she could use. "Don't you want to find out why you are sensitive? Don't you want the answers to your episodes and faded memories?"

Adaline was taken aback. She had never actually revealed it to anyone that she didn't remember her childhood or that she had episodes. "How do you know about that?"

Ramina had hit her emotions right where it needed to be hit. "I need you to blindly trust me for the next few days. I am not trying to hurt you in the slightest. I am only trying to fulfill-"

"Fulfill your destiny. I get it." Adaline held her forehead. "I'm sorry. All this is too much for me. I don't know-"

"What to do." Ramina finished her sentence, receiving a confused glare from Adaline. "Sorry, you say the same thing everytime."

"What? How many times have I done this? And how is that even possible?"

Ramina shook her head. "You'll find out. It is a test, Adaline. There are a lot of things that need to be answered, and you will get them. All you need to do is trust me. Or trust Simon." She beckoned to the helpless friend that sat by the fire.

"I'm assuming that you've told him everything."

"Whatever she could." Simon said. "You've always doubted yourself, Addy. Trust us. You need to see the other memories."

"How did you trust her?"

Simon shrugged. "It all made sense. It came together."

Adaline turned around and looked at the waterfall. "Are you ready?" She heard Ramina's voice.