Relocation

xiv

When they got back to Lunaris, Cassidy said bye to everyone and prepared to face the wrath of her concerned mother. 

As she walked down the gravel path to her house, Cassidy could see her mother, Jessa Spires on one of the balconies. Waiting. The moment she saw Cassidy, she stood up and went back into the house and a couple second later was running outside.

"Cassidy! What the hell? Where's Jax? I need to talk to them!"  her mother asked, embracing Cassidy.

"W-what? You know Jax?" 

Letting Cassidy go, she scoffed, "Of course I know Jax. Your father and myself are the leaders of the Eternal Flame. We're descendants of the original creators. Surely Jax told you some history!"

Cassidy shook her head, frowning.

"Of course they didn't."

"Actually, I was waiting for you to tell her. I don't think I should be the one to tell Cassidy that her mother was apart of the Eternal Flame," Jax said, appearing behind Cassidy.

"What happened to your leg?" Jessa demanded, finally noticing the thick cocoon-like bandages on Cassidy's leg.

"She got stabbed by Archaeit children. Poisoners no doubt," Jax answered calmly.

"About those children, they're being controlled. I bet Ayana's a Controller," Cassidy added.

"Ah so Ayana is now an Archaeit?" 

"She was from the start," Jax replied hesitantly.

•••

At school, there was only one class that Cassidy didn't have friends in. Ancient Relics. Fortunately, she met one of Nai and Enver's siblings, Devon who mainly sat with her as he also had no friends in this class.

Ancient relics were pretty boring to study. The work sheet she was given made her read through almost the entire book until she found it. Apparently past owners of the textbooks marked on the sides of the pages what questions certain information would be used for which made majority of the worksheets a whole lot easier.

But, as she was scanning through the table of contents, she noticed a peculiar thing to say the least. An Archaeit.

Immediately she flipped to the page.

An Archaeit is an ancient relic used for strengthening one's abilities. For example, a Hydrokinetic will be able to summon and control a lot more water than they could before. The effects of an Archaeit last for an eternity and if the effected is killed, the strength is passed on to the killer. Many people do not want the effects of an Archaeit as the negative aspects are tremendous.

The Archaeit powers greed as well as strength. The user of the Archaeit will become increasingly greedy and will eventually long for more power than a chorus can take. 

Archaeits can be found underwater typically. They are small, rectangular pieces of stone, typically with a glowing blue rune (check p. 643 for runes). 

The only was to permanently destroy an Archaeit or its effects is by lighting the ancient fire yourself and lighting the person on fire with ancient fire. Ancient fire cannot hurt chorus so the only thing being killed is the Archaeit.

They were using the power of Archaeits. That's why their group was named Archaeit. Cassidy was sure of it. There was no way a Controller could ever be so powerful that they could control two chorus from far away. It was hard enough doing one of those for a powerful Controller, but both? 

•••

Cassidy had told her mother that she was sure that Archaeits were using the runestone magic to strengthen their abilities. Jax had even teleported over to talk about it. 

"So we just summon the ancient fire and then they're weaker?" Jax asked, setting the pile of scroll they were carrying down.

"At least that's what the book said," Cassidy confirmed. 

Her mother nodded, clearly thinking about the situation.

"Well, I guess that explains the information I've uncovered," Jax said, running their hand through their dark hair.

"What? What information?" Jessa demanded, sitting up from where she was sitting. 

"Those children that attacked you, there's more of them. Majority of them aren't alive," Jax whispered solemnly.

"What?" Cassidy demanded, confused.

"They've used the Archaeit power to... control children's dead bodies," Jax shuddered.

"Wait actually?" Cassidy's father, Caspian Spires asked, walking into the room.

Jax nodded, pulling out their comporter, they showed everyone some images of who the children were.

Cassidy recognized the one that attacked her with shaggy blond hair that covered half her face and a permanently wide grin. What had happened to these kids?

Jessa put a comforting hand on Cassidy's shoulder.

"Damn," Caspian whispered.

"Cassidy's right. We can't run anymore. We have to fight back."