The Lost Element

Chapter 6

As they continued walking through the school, they would stop to take a quick look around the first classrooms, as the rest would be similar. In the Depths', each classroom was relatively normal. A chalkboard at the front of the room, bookshelves filled with textbooks, plenty of desks and chairs; the typical classroom settings. The only difference was the fact that every single room was bordered with a moat; you had to walk over a small bridge to enter each classroom, and there were no doors. There were only archway openings in the wall. The water in the moats looked the same as the water in the pond in the main room; if you gazed into it, it would seem like it had endless depth. 

There was one room in the Depths' that was different. It had the same opening for a doorway, but the room was much larger; as was the moat outlining it. The bridge needed to be longer to cover the width of the moat, and there were no desks or chairs. The floor was not even a floor, but ground. Several trees were scattered throughout the room, and in the middle was a pond, identical to the one in the main room.

"What's this room?" Ardiel asked.

"This is where you will learn to control the element of the room. Do you meditate, Ardiel?"

"Yes, I find it's the only way I can sleep."

"Well you won't have too much of a problem then. Most of our natural energies can be harnessed while meditating. The students of your class will gather here and meditate and learn the way of controlling water. There will be a similar room in each hall dedicated to the same purpose, with a few key differences of course." Ardiel responded with a quizzical look. "You'll see."

At the end of the hallway was a flight of elegant spiral stairs. They spun up as far as the eye could see. 

"Is this the tower?"

"Yes, it is. This tower will house the students studying the element of water. There is a similar tower in each section of the school, respectively."

"So we only learn one element?"

"No, you'll learn them all. Each student is randomly sent to a different hall based on what stones they receive and that's where they will start their studies. Instead of moving everybody when they master the element, they just stay with the room originally assigned to them, to keep things simple. Generally, the first element you start with will be your strongest, and you will go through and learn them at your own pace."

Ardiel's head was swimming; there was a lot to absorb all at once. "Ah, I see."

They proceeded with their tour of the school, moving onto the Corridor. The halls were laid out in a similar fashion to the Depths' and the doorways to the classrooms were the same. The rooms were different in the fact that there were no moats or water in these rooms, but four fire pits, one in each corner of the room; beyond that they were relatively similar. 

They came across the same kind of room that the Depths' had, the meditation room. There was a reddish-orange ball in the middle of the classroom, identical to the one in the main hall, and there were no trees. There were fire pits scattered across the room and the ground was made from sand, to keep anything from lighting on fire. This room, however, was on the second floor of the Corridor, where the water meditation room was on the first.

"Hey, that orb is identical to the one in the main room." Ardiel pointed out. "Does each of the meditation rooms have the same thing as the main room?" 

"You catch on quickly, dear. Yes you are correct, they are identical and they are linked in ways you couldn't imagine."

"I'll take your word for it. I'm having a hard enough time trying to wake up from this dream as it is."