Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 195876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 979(@200wpm)___ 784(@250wpm)___ 653(@300wpm)
"Today, you have all formed the beginnings of a tether with your elemental companions. You'll spend the next five years learning to strengthen that tether, growing your personal power and the abilities of your elemental in the process. By the time you graduate, you'll cease simply being a tethered and you will become primals, the deadliest weapons in Empire's army."
There's a sudden cheer from the courtyard that drowns out the falling rain. I look around, wondering how anyone could cheer right now when it still feels like we're prisoners. I notice just a few others who aren't cheering, Bastian included.
It warms me to him slightly to see he's not celebrating. If Raith wasn't still recovering in the healer's room, I imagine he would be stony-faced now, too.
So many died for us to get here. If this is a victory, it's one that was built on a pile of corpses so large it makes my stomach turn. And becoming weapons? The thought certainly doesn’t make me want to cheer.
"You are wise for your thoughts, angry human," Typhon rumbles in my mind. Even when he's hiding himself from others, I can always see him. I can sense him, too, even if he's not in view. It feels like an internal compass, always pointing toward Typhon.
"You know you can just call me Nessa, right?" I think back, fingers curling into my palms as the small round of cheers and clapping continues.
"I will call you by your name when you earn the distinction."
"Is that how it is? Maybe I'll start calling you little boy blue. How would you like that?"
"You wouldn't dare." A flash of heat travels down our tether, mixing anger and something almost like amusement.
I smile to myself. I've already come to understand that Typhon is uptight and a little grumpy at the best of times. But he knows he's going to have to take one of his lesser forms soon, and he is clearly upset about it. He wants to spread his wings and maybe 'roast a student or two' to assert our dominance. I told him that wasn't going to happen.
"Now," Voss says, "as is custom, newly tethered first-years will approach the selectors and present your elementals for categorization. You will be required to share your elemental's name and age. And…" Voss hesitates, smiling slightly. "In the highly unlikely case any of you have bonded an elemental old enough, you will present any other forms it's capable of assuming."
A few older students chuckle, as if the suggestion is ridiculous.
"So we need to lie about your age. Do we need to make up a name for you, too?" My throat tightens at the thought of revealing even a fraction of what Typhon truly is.
"The indignity doesn't cease…" His mental voice reverberates with disdain.
"Please, Typhon. Raith was right. If we come out and show how powerful you are, I'll probably be dead by the end of the week. I don't care if the Rector is trying to say we're safer now than we were before. I'll believe it when I see it." I remember Malakai's cold eyes watching me, calculating.
"They would have to get through me first, angry human."
"And I'd still rather avoid that. So can we please just be discreet, even if it's apparently against your nature?"
"You may claim my name is… Typhonus."
I blink, then slowly drag my eyes to where he's sitting straight-backed and proud in front of the students.
"Typhonus? So subtlety and deception aren't in your nature either, are they? What other forms can you take? Maybe I can try to think of a name that seems like it fits your shape."
"I can take many forms, angry human. My earliest was a type of flying fish known as a kuratokken. They are native to—"
"Flying fish. Good. That sounds really unimpressive. We'll call you Pondus. Flying fish. Aged… thirty? Is that too young?"
Typhon turns his dragon-like head toward me in outrage as the first students begin approaching and presenting their elementals to the selectors.
Most elementals take the forms of animals I recognize, but crafted out of pure elemental energy. I note with interest that the younger elementals other students bonded seem more insubstantial, somehow. They're generally more transparent and seem less solid, unlike Typhon who just… looks like an actual blue dragon for the most part. Most elementals are also roughly the same size, maybe that of a regular sized dog or slightly larger. Voss watches from high up on the balcony, eyes sharp and full of interest, as if he's still searching for something—or someone. His gaze fixes on me for a moment, lingering just long enough to send a chill down my spine.
"Pondus is not a fitting name for someone of my status and power. A pond? You really wish to name me after such a small and insignificant body of water?"