Next Mage
44.The Ultimate Dilemma

~Oliver's POV

"An 'Ultimate'?" Marilla echoed. Mom nodded.

"Yes. Basically, to put it simply, it's an extremely powerful elemental move that is usually unique to the mage who uses it. Some famous examples include Infernus' 'Blue Fire', Zale's 'Rip Tide' and Kamali's 'Slow-Motion'," she replied. "So, basically, it's just an overly-powered move that is capable of destroying heaps of stuff or using a normal move, but just enhancing it to make it special?" I said. "Cause there's already the 'Time Freeze', but 'Slow-Motion'..." Mom smiled at me in a half-sad, half-proud way.

"You catch on," she said quietly.

"Great! When do we start? It'll be quick, right?" I said excitedly, hope rising in my chest. Mom shook her head.

"Oh, no, the process takes weeks, sometimes even a months to complete," mom said, sounding a little frustrated. The hope dissipated. "And now..."

"With the spirit mages gone, we can't stop time..." Marilla finished glumly. I bit my fingernail anxiously.

"Mom, are you sure there isn't any other way?" I asked. Mom shook her head.

We stayed silent for a few moments.

"Hey Oliver?"

"Yeah Marilla?"

"You said everyone has an element, right? Just some are hidden deeper than others?" She asked. I nodded slowly.

"Yeah, but what does this have to do with anything?" I questioned. Marilla frowned and looked to her mother. I followed her gaze.

"Well, then mom would have an element too, right?"

"Wha--? Me? That sounds ridiculous," Mrs Waterson objected.

"Everyone has an element, even buried deep within them," Marilla said as-a-matter-of-fact. "And if it was buried deep, like, really deep, could someone, a spirit mage maybe, or...the--the Ragnarok sense it?" She asked, a slow smile forming on her face. I stood, confused for a few seconds, and then something clicked in my brain.

"Of course!" I said. "Mrs Waterson, would we be allowed to test you for your element?" I asked, turning to an open-mouthed Mrs Waterson, who looked like she was having a brain fart. Finally, she opened her mouth to utter two words: "A-a test?"

dashy line thingo

~Marilla's POV

Mom wasn't the type to fantasize or daydream.

She was a responsible, serious, down-to-earth person who thought, no, knew, that there was a logical explanation to everything, even if the thing that needed explaining was a human able to make disastrous earthquakes or flood an entire city. So when Oliver said she definitely had an element, she looked like the whole world just exploded. Or like her brain just flew out of her skull. Or like one of those weird internet memes where there's a really fat cat and it's gone wall-eyed or cross-eyed, with the words 'I CANNOT BRAIN TODAY. I HAS THE DUMB." in bold plastered on the top and bottom of the picture.

"A-a test?" She stuttered. "No, no no... I'm sure I don't have an...element. I'm normal, trust me."

"We'll just have to find, out, Mrs Waterson," Oliver said. I nodded.

"So, how do you do one of these tests?" I questioned a little bit of worry showing through my voice. Oliver's mom smiled at me.

"Don't worry, the test won't harm her," she reassured. "We can usually sense the elements due to a sensation we feel on our skin, with different elemental mages having a different sensation; for example, fire mages would feel a tingling, burning sensation and water mages' skin would feel moist and cold. But with a few humans, whose element is buried so deep inside them that we cannot sense them, we simply have them hold hands with mages of different elements each. The mages will try to deposit a little bit of their power into the human, and if the human's body accepts it, then that's their element."

"My, this is all very strange, I think I'll have to sit down after this..." Mom put her hand against her forehead, as if in shock. "How would you know if you've accepted the element?"

"You'd just know," Oliver's mom said. "But it's really easy if you're an earth, fire, water or air mage, because if a water mage tries to give you some of their power and you're a fire mage-- Oliver, Marilla, dears, hold hands please--" I took Oliver's hands in mine, shocked at how warm they were compared to my freezing fingers. I blushed as he stared at me with his intense sky blue eyes.

"And now, you simply think about giving your power to the other person, yes, yes, very good..."

I closed my eyes and frowned. I imagined the cool water being pumped through my heart, flowing through my veins, the power surging forward, moving through my fingertips and into Oliver's hands... Then a tingling sensation built up in my fingers like little volts of electricity--

"What the--!" I yelped, letting go of Oliver's hands and shaking my fingers as a strange sensation built up in my fingers, like I was getting burnt by tiny, hot fire pokers. "Get it off, get it off, get it off..." I shook my fingers again and rubbed them against my shirt. The stinging pinpricks of pain soon began to fade.

Oliver's fingers, on the other hand, were shivering.

"Ah! It's freezing!" Oliver rubbed his hands together and blew on them, as if to warm them on a frigid winter's day. I took Oliver's hand again, but this time his hands were like cold, frozen, icicles. I let the warmth from my hands flow into his fingers.

"Your hands are cold!" I exclaimed.

"And your hands are warm!" Oliver said, surprised.

Oliver's mom nodded.

"Yes. If two opposite elemental mages' powers combine, such as Fire and Water, the fire mage will end up cold and the water mage hot. If it was with Earth and Air, however, the earth mage's hands would feel very light and empty, like they had no hands at all, and the air mage's hands would feel dense and weighty," she explained. "Now, Marilla, would you like to try and give some of your element to your mother?"

"Sure!" I said, taking mom's hands and concentrating. Mom stiffened; she didn't know what to expect, and neither did I.

I felt the power rush through my hands and into mom's body with the strange tingling sensation. I opened my eyes.

"Did you feel anything?" I asked. Mom shook her head, a frown creasing her brow. Oliver's mom took her hands next.

"I'm an air mage," she explained. "Because you didn't feel anything at all when Marilla gave some of her powers to you, you can't be a water mage or a fire mage." Oliver's mom closed her eyes as we waited anxiously.

"Okay. Anything at all?" She asked, letting go of mom's hands.

"No," mom said. "See? I don't have any powers. It's impossible. It can't happen," she said, more to herself than us, as if to reassure herself that she was perfectly normal. We, on the other hand, stared at her in wonderment.

"You didn't react to Air or Water," Oliver said, excitement and hope building in his voice. "That means you can't be a water, fire, air or earth mage," he took in a deep breath.

"And that means," I finished, buzzing all over, "you're a spirit mage."

"A spirit mage..." Mom said quietly, her voice shocked. "No, I can't be..."

"It can. It's possible. Every single human in the entire planet has an element, even if they don't know it. And what's best about having a completely hidden element," Oliver exclaimed eagerly, his blue eyes shining, "is that mages, even the Ragnarok, can't sense it."

"And that means," I nearly cheered with triumph.

"You can save us all."