Chapter Four

Another two weeks went by. I'd been at this camp for a month, now, and learned more here than I ever could've on my own. The daggers became natural. I got extremely proficient at magic. And I even won cake once…everyone was right. It did taste good.

Most times, though, Dani won the cake. She was definitely the strongest of us here, or at least, she had the most control of her magic. At fighting, she was average, but when she was using magic you couldn't beat her. I would've thought Clara would be like that because she'd been here the longest, but she had been right when she told me she wasn't a school person. She purposefully tried not to do what she was told.

Fane and I often dueled together with our daggers or double knives, and although he was good, it came out in a draw most times. He said this was normal, because "we're both Eternals, and we're both using the same weapons. How could we beat each other is we're equals?"

And Jonah definitely knew the most out of anyone here. He was constantly reading, sprouting facts about anything and everything, and attentively trying to do the tasks set out for us by X. Magic-wise, he was okay, and he was an alright fighter, but mostly he preferred reading.

It was the morning, and as usual, I was running late. I never set my alarm, and most of the time I woke with the sun. That was a mistake, but I never learned.

After magically changing my clothes (it was handy) I ran downstairs and saw everyone waiting in the lobby. I raised my eyebrows at them, because even Jonah was here. I looked outside, trying to see what was the matter, when I saw it was raining buckets.

"It's just rain, guys," I said. "What's the deal?"

"It barely rains," Dani replied. "We don't like it."

"You just walk through it," I answered, trying not to laugh. "It doesn't hurt you."

"Still…" But Dani opened the door and we all went outside in the rain.

After about a second we were all drenched. My hair was soaked, sticking to my face, and I was glad I didn't wear any make-up today. Dani wasn't so lucky – her mascara was running like it was on a race. "Jonah, you're making me water-proof mascara next time!" she yelled at him.

Jonah looked back. His glasses were spattered with raindrops, so much he could barely see. "Umm, sure." Jonah could probably list all the ingredients and steps for making mascara, but he wouldn't understand the need for it to be water-proof.

Thunder boomed above us. I thought it was cool, and I didn't mind, but Dani screamed and she ran faster.

But then the lightning came. One white tendril came down, right in front of me. I stumbled backwards as it hit the ground, blackening the grass. "Hope!" Clara called in front of me.

I managed to get up in the slippery, muddy grass, but I ran around the spot where the lightning had struck. It strikes twice, right? Or is that a myth? I couldn't remember, I was too freaked out. Lightning shouldn't have come that fast…it wasn't natural…

"It's magic!" I yelled. "It's not right!"

Dani had reached the building and she ran inside, Jonah getting in after her. Fane ran in as well. Clara was standing by the door, waiting for me. I almost got there.

But I didn't.

This time the lightning struck again, and it didn't miss me.

I heard a scream before I couldn't hear anymore. I felt a charge run through me, electrifying me. I fell to the ground, my breath sounding raspy in my head.

I opened my eyes but all I saw was white. Nothing, nothing…just white. Was I dying? It wouldn't matter, I'd just come back, right? But I didn't die this way…what if I didn't come back?

Flashes of light filled my vision and I felt myself…floating. I was levitating in the air, although how I knew that, I don't know. I still didn't hear anything and I saw only white. I tasted a coppery taste in my mouth, like blood.

A flash of purple went into my vision. Then green came along, followed by blue. I felt…peaceful as they went by, even if I didn't know what they were. I tried to speak but my mouth wouldn't open.

You are my Vessel.

A woman's voice entered my mind. I wanted to reply but I couldn't even get my thoughts together. A Vessel? What Vessel? More importantly, who's Vessel?

With the last flash of colour, the calm dissipated and a searing pain flashed through my head. This time, I managed to scream. I felt something on my wrist but I couldn't lift it or look down at it. I was paralyzed.

"Stop!" I yelled in pain. After that, I just kept screaming. My head was on fire. I couldn't think straight. I didn't know what was going on, only that everything hurt. Who was doing this?

And then everything stopped.

The white disappeared and I could see the sky again. Rain was still falling down on me, obscuring my vision. Whatever was keeping me suspended in the air vanished and I fell to the ground with an uncomfortable thump.

I felt barely alive. I had a terrible headache and my wrist felt strange, but I wasn't sure why. Clara was leaning over me, and everyone else had come back outside as well.

The rain stopped and the sun came out. It was magic…

At that point, my thoughts vanished and I died.

After going through the 'next dimension' and all that, I opened my eyes again. I was still in the field, but my headache was gone. However, my wrist still felt strange.

"Hope!" Clara was yelling. Her voice slowly registered into my mind as the rest of my senses woke up. "Hope!"

"What…What happened?" I croaked, my throat dry and my voice raspy.

"You should tell us," she countered. I slowly sat up, and then got a good look at my wrist. It wasn't broken, sprained, twisted, or hurt in anyway like I'd thought it might be. No, instead someone or something had tattooed a V onto it, covering the whole section where you can see your veins. I couldn't see them anymore. Instead, I saw thick, dark, black ink.

"Vessel…," I whispered. "She said I was her Vessel."

"What's a Vessel?" Jonah asked, disturbed that he didn't know something.

"I don't know," I groaned. "I don't even know who it was. She killed me, though, so I don't think all that highly of her."

"Well, it's nice to know that. Thank you, Vessel."

Nobody had spoken, but the same voice that had spoken to me earlier just rang out across the clearing. We turned around and saw her standing in the middle of the field. Slowly she walked over to us. Her hair was a shining blonde and her eyes a sparkling blue. She was dressed in elegant red and gold robes that draped over her fit body.

"Who are you?" Dani asked. Her voice contained fear and curiousity at the same time.

"I am Lêshä," the woman shrugged. "Thought you would know."

Jonah's eyes widened. He walked away from me and went over to Lêshä Then he surprised everyone in the clearing – he bowed to her. "Oh, thank you!" Lêshä called with glee. "Thank you!"

Dani gave a sharp inhale, and she and Fane both bowed as well. Clara followed suit, but she didn't leave my side. I would've bowed if I could've, but sadly, I wasn't in the best of shape for it.

Even if she was the goddess, I didn't like her.

"Rise," she commanded, and they all did. "Now, Vessel, why don't you like me?"

"For one," I growled, not really caring if she killed me – I don't die, remember? – "you keep calling me 'Vessel.'"

"Because that's your name." She seemed taken aback that I didn't like that.

"My name is Hope."

"But you're my Vessel." Now she just seemed confused. What kind of goddess was she? No wonder she was late. Maybe she forgot to set her alarm clock, too.

"What is a Vessel?" I asked. "And why didn't you ask me before you gave me a tattoo?"

"You already have a tattoo," she shrugged. "I didn't think you'd mind."

"I don't have another tattoo."

Dani sighed. "I do. I have a clock, on my left shoulder."

Lêshä's face brightened. "See? I knew there was a tattoo here."

I sighed, just as Dani had. This was not what any of us were expecting when we were going to see the goddess that had made us. "So what's a Vessel?"

"Oh! Right! Well, you were the ideal target…so I connected us. You can talk to me anyway you wish, and I can send messages through you!" she exclaimed brightly, as if being connected to her was the best gift ever. "You needed the tattoo. Couldn't help that."

I let out a long breath. "We can talk anytime?"

She nodded her affirmative.

I ran my fingers through my still-drenched hair. Dani's mascara fiasco was gone, though, so that was a good thing. "I would've appreciated it if you'd asked me first."

She seemed appalled. "You might've said no, and then I would've had to do it anyways."

"But what's the point? Why do you need to talk to us?" I asked. I looked at my friends, like, You can pitch in anytime now.

"Because you're my creations," she replied. "A mother wants to keep in contact with her children, doesn't she?"

Even my mother, who wanted me dead, was better than her.

"What is our purpose?" Dani jumped in, taking my suggestion to have someone else talk. "What do you want us to do?"

"Why, I want you to get rid of the Raze," she said immediately. "And I know how to do it."

We all opened our mouths in shock. I even stood up, ignoring the pain in my joints. I felt like an old person with arthritis or something. "How?" I asked.

"Where does the Raze's power come from?" she asked us.

We shrugged.

She sighed. "Wow. Okay. It comes from the Rock."

"That's a boring name," Clara commented. "Okay, great, it comes from a rock. What's that supposed to mean?"

"If the Rock is destroyed, the Raze are destroyed," she explained. "But you need to destroy it with Bläsa's ring."

"What's Bläsa?" Clara asked.

Jonah furrowed his brow. "I've never heard that before."

Lêshä laughed. "It's not a what, it's a who…although he's so inhumane you could call him a what, if you wanted to, I guess."

Clara raised her eyebrows, and gestured to Lêshä, telling her to continue the explanation. "Oh, right!" Lêshä exclaimed. "I forgot what I was saying. Anyways, Bläsa is the exact opposite of me. He's truly evil and he commands the Raze. In his ring he keeps the Raze's true power. No one knows where he is, though."

Dani blinked in surprise. She seemed to be okay taking in all this new information, even pleased that she had a purpose, but Lêshä's last sentence bothered her. "But you're a goddess. How do you not know where he is?"

"Weren't you listening, silly?" she replied, chastising Dani. "He's a god. His powers are equal to mine."

Dani didn't reply. She wasn't impressed by the goddess she'd spent so long waiting for, and neither was I. "So you want us to destroy the Raze? We have to find this Bläsa, take his ring – which he's probably wearing – and then find the Rock and destroy it?"

Lêshä nodded happily. "You got it! See, I knew I was right when I picked my Vessel."

Dani narrowed her eyes at the goddess, although I wasn't sure why. So maybe she was a little…eccentric, but still. I'd have thought Dani would be a little happier to see who she'd been waiting for.

"I have to go now," Lêshä said. "I can't stay corporeal for that long. Remember, though, Vessel – you can talk to me whenever you want."

"You'll be able to hear all my thoughts?" I exclaimed. "I don't want that!"

"Not all of them," she quickly said. "Only is you want me to, normally. But I wouldn't be so quick in turning down my gift."

"But I –,"

"She wants it," Dani interrupted me. "Don't do anything. She wants the gift."

I closed my mouth and looked at Dani in surprise, but she didn't look back.

Lêshä nodded, her lips pursed. "Goodbye, my Eternals."

"Will you come back?" Fane asked, finally speaking up.

"I may," Lêshä called. She was growing transparent, slowly disappearing. "The Vessel can call me. It would do you good to keep her alive."

"But the rest of us don't matter?" Dani asked in wonder. The goddess had made it sound like that.

"You all matter," Lêshä amended quickly. And then she was gone. I realized only then she had been standing on the blackened patch of grass.

We all stood there for a while. Finally, Dani rolled her shoulders backwards once and then marched right past us all into the school building. "What's wrong with her?" Fane asked, coming over to us. He offered his hand to me and I took it gladly, standing up with his help.

"I don't know, but something Her Majesty said bothered her," Jonah replied, coming over as well.

I was still staring at my Vessel tattoo. "Why didn't she choose Dani?" I asked, actually understanding what Dani was thinking. I knew because if we had switched places, I'd have thought the same thing.

"I don't know, why'd she choose any of us?" Clara said, shrugging away my question. She wasn't processing it fully, but Fane was.

"She is the strongest, magically," he agreed. "This Vessel thing is all magic."

I nodded, glad he understood me. "I'm only average. So why not her?"

"She meant to mark the one with the tattoo," Jonah said, realizing our words had deeper meaning. "Maybe she…I hate to say it, but maybe she accidentally gave it to you."

"Maybe this is Dani's responsibility and I shouldn't have it," I agreed with him. It made me feel weak. It made me feel less, less sure of myself, bringing on self-doubt, but he was probably right. "It's a mistake."

Clara sighed in frustration. "What?"

"Dani's jealous," Fane said, spelling it out for her. "She's the strongest of all of us with her magic, and this connection with Lêshä…she feels she should have it, not Hope."

"And Lêshä said she'd use the one with the tattoo," I finished for him. "But it happened to me. You saw how forgetful she is. Maybe she accidentally gave it to me."

"So that's Dani's, truly?" Clara gasped. "And she knows it?"

"Dani's been waiting for a long time to see the goddess," Jonah agreed. We began to make our way to the School building, and even if that was the last place any of us wanted to be (especially with Dani there. That would get awkward) but we had to go. It's not like you can skip school here. "It's a great disappointment for her."

We didn't say anymore. As we entered the classroom, we saw Dani had taken the spot on the end, as far away from us as she could get. She didn't even look at us. I wanted to say something, anything, but what could I say?

So I walked by her and sat down in my usual spot.

We told X what had happened and he took it all in stride, if robots have stride. Immediately we went down to the Practice Room and started a circuit. I was playing Dani basketball. Before we started, I tried to say, "Look, I'm sorry for –,"

She snorted, interrupting me, and then ran right past me, scoring a basket. That was it. I was too angry at her to try to apologize again. I had just tried to make things better, to find out what I could do, and she had just ran away.

We played the foulest basketball game I ever had, even though I'd only played about five. By the time Fane came out of the back room, we were drenched in sweat. I rotated to the tennis courts and left Fane with a warning about Dani's temper.

"She'll get over it," he whispered before I went away.

"I hope so," I mumbled under my breath. As angry as I was at her – I didn't want to be a Vessel. She could have the power! – she was my friend, and I wanted my friend back.

I played Clara tennis and then played Dani again. She hit the ball with such force a few times my racket flew right out of my hand. She only smiled gleefully when I rubbed my wrist in pain.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'd give you the power!" I yelled as I tried to return the ball she had just served.

"You were given the power! I'm the strongest!"

I couldn't get her to talk again. She was being petty, and it bothered me. It bothered me that she wouldn't let me try to talk some sense into her. It also angered me that she thought it was my fault.

Once I went into the back room, X said, "You're going to have to do better if you want to be the Vessel. Average isn't good enough anymore."

And that was it. I was done with it all.

"Don't talk to me that way!" I snapped. I could practically hear the power coursing through me in my ears. "I didn't ask for this. I don't want this!"

"But you do!" he yelled back. "You don't get a choice."

"There's always a choice!" I inhaled and exhaled several times before saying, "It was just taken away from me."

X remained silent for a while. "You must understand what I'm saying. The Raze will try to come after you more than the others. They'll want to sever the link you have to your goddess."

I grumbled. "This is going to ruin my life. And I don't want it. I'll give it away. I'll give it away to anyone. Dani can handle it better than I can."

"No," X said. I was surprised he was being this serious with me. "No, she can't. You were chosen for a reason. Come to terms with it or die."

"I can't die."

"You can."

"I am not going to die!" After saying those words, I felt such an anger pulse through my body and mind I couldn't contain it. I gave a scream and it all exploded everywhere. Black energy reached out to the shelves, tearing them down. The objects on them – which kept coming back, no matter how many times you destroyed them – disappeared or were burnt and turned to ashes. Only X was safe because he seemed to have put some shield up around him.

Finally the power calmed down. I sighed, letting it all go. It had felt good, wonderful, even, to use such magic, but it wasn't serving me a purpose so I disbanded it. The tendrils vanished. X dropped his magical, invisible shield. The room was in tatters, but I had no doubt it would fix itself again.

"That was impressive," he grudgingly said. "You can go now."

I left and went back to playing basketball.

The rest of the day passed awkwardly. Dani refused to talk to any of us, and although I was constantly assured she'd be better tomorrow, I was worried she'd never be "better." She had a grudge against me. I'd stolen her chance at being the goddesses favourite. There wasn't another.

Lying in my bed that night, I contemplated the whole day and its events, along with my new "powers." I had come to the conclusion that I was more powerful now, simply because I hadn't gotten tired all day. X had discovered this by the end of the day, too, and announced it to everybody. Dani got really angry then.

He'd also said we should get ready for a "surprise." He didn't say anymore, just that any day now he could spring this surprise without a moment's notice. Every time he warned us, we all glanced at each other nervously, except for Dani, who refused to make eye contact.

So, with the comfort of my bed around me, I thought about all of this. I contemplated it all, digested all the information I'd learned. I began to wonder if things could get worse around here with all this drama. And finally, my thoughts drifted back to when I was just a scared girl, wishing for death in a dark alleyway, starving and cold. Yes, things could get worse around here.

But one thought came rocketing to me. I don't want to die anymore.

I had accomplished the first thing everyone should do – I wanted to live.