The Sleeping Citadel: Gray Magic

Classic Elements

AN: Originally posted 1/20/2020. Reposted 2/29/2024.

"The Classics? Oh, come on!" Sonorhc rolled her eyes and sighed as she studied her phone.

"What's the matter now?" Reaper asked. Even over the loud din of the cafeteria, Reaper could hear the displeasure in Sonorhc's voice.

"This," Sonorhc gave her phone to Reaper. On the screen was a list of names divided into two teams. It was for a game of Capture the Flag that Sonorhc was going to play that night.

Every so often, all the young magic-users of her neighborhood would get together for a game night. Capture the Flag was next on the list. It wasn't the choice of game that annoyed Sonorhc, however, it was how the teams were aligned. The first was titled "The Classic Elements" and the second was titled "The Other Elements".

"So?" Reaper asked as she read the names, not understanding what had annoyed Sonorhc.

"Doesn't he realize how... inaccurate and narrow those team names are?" Sonorhc asked back.

"Uhhhh, inaccurate and narrow?" Reaper was still confused.

"The Classic Elements," Sonorhc began. "The name implies that there are a set number of elements above or before all the others."

"But that's right, isn't it?" asked Reaper, tilting her head. "Fire, water, earth and air! The core four! What's wrong with that?"

"Wellll," Sonorhc winced. "It's debatable. I mean, yes, those are the classic elements, but that's only if you look at it from a Greek perspective."

Then Sonorhc went into more detail, explaining that other cultures had other classic elements. China, for example, had five: fire, water, earth, wood and metal. Japan had fire, water, earth, wind and void. But even beyond that, even places that accepted the Greek four would sometimes add a fifth, like heart/soul/life/energy/magic/raw power.

And even for China, the way they divided up their elements, the element of metal included light and lightning. And other places would add light, dark, life, death, good, evil, magic, tech, holy, demonic/evil, ice, and even poison. There were also debates about whether or not sky, air and wind were the same or different. Similarly, the element of storm/weather was sometimes different from electricity/lightning.

"In short, maybe we need to expand our horizons a bit more, and not be so Greek-centric," Sonorhc concluded.

"You've been hanging around Nevermore too much," Reaper scoffed as Sonorhc finished her explanation.

"No I haven't!" Sonorhc cried. "I found all this stuff out all by myself!"

"What? When? And why?" Reaper scoffed again. "I know you're philosophical, but this sounds like Nevermore stuff!"

"Well, it was a bit of an accident," Sonorhc admitted sheepishly.

"How do you accidentally research all of this?" Reaper snorted in disbelief. "Did you somehow read an entire textbook without realizing what it was? Or did you trip and fall into an open book and the page just happened to be about the elements? Or even better, were you looking for a... certain type of website only to click on the wrong link?" Reaper laughed at her own jokes.

"No," Sonorhc ducked her head embarrassedly. "Or. Well. It was sort of that last one..."

"It was?!" Reaper began shrieking with laughter and she elbowed Sonorhc suggestively.

"No, not like that!" Sonorhc cried quickly, trying to hush Reaper. "I was trying to research the elements for chemistry!"

"Ha! Even better!" Reaper kept laughing. "I mean, I guess that explains why you almost failed chem! You were studying the wrong elements!"

"They were less boring," Sonorhc growled. "Besides, don't act all superior! I still finished with a higher grade than you!"

"Yeah, a C+ rather than a C-! Big whoop," Reaper was still laughing.

"I still don't know how you even managed anything above an F," Sonorhc sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Nevermore," Reaper snickered.

"Ah. I should've known," Sonorhc rolled her eyes again. "Did you cheat? Or did you ask?"

"Both," Reaper smirked. "Nevermore let me cheat!" When Sonorhc gave her a look of disbelief, Reaper raised her hands defensively. "Hey, she may be a nerd, but she hates the school system and will gladly break any rule to spite it!"

"Ok, yeah, that does sound like her," Sonorhc couldn't help but smile dryly.

"Besides, she finished with a B, so she wasn't exactly top of the class either," Reaper continued.

"Well, to be fair, chem was a hard class. I don't think anyone liked it," Sonorhc said.

"No, I think a few kids managed to get As, but it certainly wasn't us, the Three Stooges!" Reaper joked.

"Hey, Nevermore is still smart," Sonorhc tried to say. "She's not a Stooge."

"Actually, she earns every good grade she gets. She's not a Hermione Granger or an Annabeth Chase, whose intelligence is natural," Reaper corrected Sonorhc. "I'm not saying she isn't smart. I'm just saying she has to work for it. Why do you think she studies so much?"

"Because she's an introvert?" Sonorhc joked and Reaper couldn't help but laugh in agreement.

"Ok, fair enough," she chuckled. It was no secret Nevermore was a homebody. There was no place she loved more than her bed and bedroom!

"I wonder if she'll join the game tonight?" Sonorhc mused, now that Nevermore was on their minds.

"Of course she will!" Reaper replied confidently. Even though Nevermore was a very unathletic and very introverted person, if the event involved magic and friends, she would always attend.

Tonight's game would have both. She did have a chatty streak, after all, she just needed to be with her friends first. And that would definitely be a reality at tonight's game, so Nevermore would most definitely be there.

"I'm willing to bet money on it," Reaper promised.

"Hmmmm... I wonder what she'll think about this Elemental Excitement?" Sonorhc replied, rubbing her thin thoughtfully. Only time would tell.

AN: More random, rambling rants about the arbitrary and Greek/Eurocentric way the western world categorizes stuff!

(I'm splitting this little storyline into multiple chapters, too, since it would be impossibly long otherwise).

And I've made other edits to the other chapters too.