The sky was a perfect, crystalline blue and the sun shone down brightly. I was beginning to think that it never rained here. The weather always seemed so lovely and nice, the sky always cloudless, and it was always the perfect temperature.

Neither I nor Azula had spoken since we'd begun walking through the garden. I felt a bit like she was angry at me, but she did not say anything, so I was not quite sure.

Azula broke the silence after another moment. "Lyra," she said, sounding less jovial than she usually did.

I glanced at her. "Yes?"

"Why were you talking to Tristan about me?" She asked.

I flushed a little. "I was just asking random questions." I shrugged. "The conversation began because Tristan was telling me how love works for faeries and it just went on from there." I shrugged. That wasn't the whole truth, but I didn't feel like talking to her about that. When I glanced at her, I saw her eyes narrowed on me.

"I see . . ." she said, her voice colder than I'd ever heard.

"Azula, is something wrong?" I asked, a little uncertainly.

She shook her head, tucking strands of her blue hair behind her ear. "Nothing you need to worry about," was her short reply.

I nodded and looked over at her, to find that she was staring off into the distance, looking pensive.

Azula sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry," she said. "My problems do not concern you. I am not mad at you, I promise." She smiled, but it seemed forced.

"That's alright. I understand." I offered her a reassuring smile.

She looked away, sighing.

"Can I ask you a question?"

She cast me a skeptical glance. "I suppose . . ."

"Tristan says that you two have known each other for a long time. How did you meet?" I asked her.

"We grew up in the same village." She replied. "We have known each other since we were children."

"How did you both end up here?"

"Mere coincidence." She answered. "Though, the entire story is rather long."

"I like stories." I answered.

She was silent for so long that I thought the conversation had ended. But then she continued.

"Alright, then. We are from a village very far north, called Langdale. It was a port town, off of the coast of the Black Sea. It was an isolated little village. It did well for itself as a port town, but it was not owned by any country. And, while the territory belonged to King Sammael, he was not in control of Langdale. He'd tried time and again to force us into an agreement that would give him power over our village. I don't really understand why he wanted to be in control of the village so much. He wouldn't really gain anything from it. But he was adamant.

"The leader of our village refused him one too many times, I think. It angered the king that he could not have Langdale. So, one night, while everyone was sleeping, his soldiers marched on the village and burned it to the ground. They slaughtered everyone in sight, children and women and men, it made no difference. Anyone that ran, they went after and killed." She took a shuddering breath and looked away. "My family was no exception. We tried to run, and we almost made it. But they caught my mother. My father tried to go after her, but it only resulted in his death. Then, they killed my mother, as well, and came for me.

"When I tried to run, they caught me. Though, I did not know Tristan well, he had never been unkind to me. And this time was no different. He killed the soldiers using a sword he'd obtained from another fallen soldier. I'd run, without looking back. After I made it out of the village, I continued running. I spent months walking from one place to the next, without any place to go. All of my family and friends had been killed. I had no one, and I had nowhere to go. I wound up begging for food and for money so that I could buy shoes. I walked so much each day that my feet would be bleeding and I'd be crawling along the ground, trying to keep going."

I felt a pang in my heart as she spoke. I listened with rapt attention. I was so engrossed in her tale that I had not even realized I'd stopped walking.

"People often took pity on me, seeing the state I was in. They would give me money, food, clothing. Sometimes, I was almost living comfortably. I would have enough food for weeks, and enough clothes to keep me warm during the cold winter months, and enough money to buy more if I needed it. Though, there were times where I did not think I would make it through the night. Where I would be starving and end up having to kill rats in alleys and eat them or, once, I was so hungry that I ate the leather from my shoes." She paused, her eyes bright, as though with tears, though I couldn't tell for sure. She averted her eyes and continued.

"Anyway," she went on, "I lived like this for several years. Sometimes I would steal things, but mostly I begged and wandered from place to place. Eventually, I ended up in Sierre. I didn't know what city I was in at first. I was just wandering through. It was one of those low times, where I had no food and no money. My feet were a bloody, torn mess, because I had no shoes, and I'm sure I smelled awful. I hadn't eaten in an incredibly long time, so everything was a sort of haze. I ended up at the palace gates but, of course, the guards wouldn't let me through. I hadn't even really wanted through. I had just been trying to sleep under a little ledge by the gate but they wouldn't allow that either.

"That was when Rylan found me—he was a prince back then. He isn't so much older than me, so he was still fairly young. He'd allowed me to spend the night in the palace. It was the first real bath I'd had since I'd left my village. And the first hot meal, as well. The servants that had attended me had even given me new clothes and bandaged my feet, under his orders. He'd been so kind to me that I felt like I owed him. I know that he wouldn't have held it against me if I hadn't done anything for him. But, I felt obligated to, after all he did for me. He wouldn't let me leave the palace until I was healed. Though, when I was finally well enough, I did not want to leave. I asked King Oberon, his father, if I could work for them as a maid. King Oberon had agreed to this and I began work as a maid for the royal family." She smiled at the thought, looking happier than I'd seen her look all day.

"It was some time after that, when I was cleaning in the courtyard, that I discovered Tristan worked for the palace, too. He'd become a soldier for the Lithanium royal army. It had been a nice sort of reunion. I had been more relieved than I would have thought at seeing that he was still alive." She flushed. "And that is how it happened." She ended quickly. "I'm sorry. I told you it was a long story." She smiled timorously and looked down at the ground.

I was still watching her, a little stunned. The way she always smiled and seemed so joyful, about everything, when she'd endured all of that. I did not understand it. "Azula," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

She turned to me, her eyes as sharp as daggers. "I don't need your pity, Lyra. I was only telling you what you wanted to know. Don't feel sorry for me."

I nodded my head, trying to ignore the weight that had settled in my chest. "Right," I said, looking away, scrambling for some other topic, a more lighthearted one. "It's a nice day, don't you think?" I said, staring up at the crystalline sky, streaked through with white.

When I glanced at Azula, I found her staring at me blankly. "Yes, I suppose so . . ."

I cringed inwardly, regretting my decision to talk about the weather. "So, you use water magic right?" I asked.

She paused, glancing at me, and then nodded. "Well, yes. I am able to manipulate water, in any form." She answered.

"In any form?"

"The explanation for this is rather long. I can manipulate water in any form, meaning I can make it into ice, or steam, or keep it as water. I can make the water hot or cold. I can even create the water out of nothing. I am what is known as an Elemental fey. Because, well, I control water . . . which is an element." She explained, adding the last part a bit unnecessarily.

"That must make your job easier, being able to create water." I smiled.

She returned my smile with one of her own and nodded. "Yes, it can be quite useful."

"Are there a lot of faeries with your power?" I asked curiously.

She raised her eyes skyward as she thought, then shook her head. "No," she answered. "Elementals are relatively rare. And True Elementals are rarer still."

I stared at her, confused.. "True Elementals?" I repeated slowly.

She paused, looking pensive. "There are two types of Elemental fey. There are Limited Elementals and True Elementals. Limited Elementals can only control certain aspects of an element. For example, a Limited Elemental fey that can control water. But maybe that faerie can only use hot water and nothing else. Or maybe a faerie that controls fire can only use the element of fire if there is a source nearby, instead of being able to create fire. That is a Limited Elemental. A True Elemental would be able to control everything about the element."

"So . . . you are a True Elemental . . .?" I asked her.

She smiled at me, nodding her head. "Yes, I am. I can control every aspect of water." She said.

I thought about this—about how incredible it was. Truthfully, I felt a tinge of jealousy, wishing I could have magic. I turned to her. "Can I see?" I asked, a little timidly.

She smiled and nodded, holding her hand out in front of her. Slowly, I saw what had only been air begin to move and shimmer and then I was staring at a ball of water, floating just above her hand.

My breath left me as I watched in awe. I heard Azula release a soft breath as she moved her hands through the air, the small ball of water growing and then transforming. She pulled her hands away from each other and the water in them expanded and stretched into a floating river and then shot up into the sky.

As it rained down around us, she brought her hand out and back to her and the water collected in her palm. She made some sort of gesture and the water took on a shape and solidified into ice before my eyes.

When she held it before me, I saw that it was in the shape of a rose. My eyes widened as I took the delicate stem of the ice rose between my fingers, staring down at it. In the next moment, the ice melted and the water fell into the grass with a faint rustle.

I looked up at Azula and she was smiling, her eyes bright. "What did you think?"

I had no words to express what I felt after what I'd seen. I opened and closed my mouth once, twice, and snapped it shut before I could do it a third time.

She laughed. "Right. Well, I'm pleased you enjoyed the show." She said.

I nodded, smiling. "Yes, it was incredible!"

Azula's cheeks flushed and she smiled slightly. She lifted her eyes up toward the sky and her smile faltered. Before I could ask, she stood up quickly, motioning me to do the same. "We must go inside. A storm is rolling in." She turned and began walking toward the house.

Feeling quite bewildered, I glanced up at the sky. It was completely clear, not a cloud in sight. All the same, I stood and followed her through the gardens back to the palace. "Why must we go inside? It's nice out. It doesn't even look like a storm is coming."

"The sky is rapidly changing colors. And storms in Lithanium are not something you want to be caught in. You will soon understand why." She pushed open the doors that led into the palace and let me through before shutting and bolting them behind me.

We had been inside for hardly a minute before I heard an tremendous boom from outside. It took me a moment longer to realize it was thunder. Not long after, the clouds were rolling in and it began to pour.

To me, it looked like a regular storm . . . at first. I was staring out the window as the rain pounded and the thunder and lightning soon became a constant.

The windows began rattling and I watched as a statue in the garden crumbled from the force of the raindrops. I was suddenly very thankful that Azula had made us go inside.

"Are you going to watch the rain for the rest of the day? I'm sure there are plenty of other things you could be doing." Azula said from close by.

I tore my gaze away from the window to look at Azula who was braiding back her blue hair, looking bored. "I guess I could go read a book or something . . ." I answered uncertainly.

"Alright. I have things to do. I'll call you when dinner is ready. If you'll excuse me," Azula lowered her head in a sort of bow before hurrying off.

Finding myself alone, I let out a breath and walked up to my bedroom, where the book that Amaryllis had bought for me was lying on my bedside table. Thunder clapped outside, rattling the glass in the windows.

I sat in a chair before the fireplace and began to read. I could hear the storm raging outside. The wind blew relentlessly and the rain pelted against the windows so forcefully that it sounded like shattering glass. Occasionally, lightning would flash from outside, quickly followed by earsplitting thunder.

I read for some time before there was a soft knock at the bedroom door and Azula let herself in. "Dinner is ready, Lyra."

"Alright." I shut my book and returned it to my bedside table before following Azula to dinner.

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Hey! I am so, so sorry I haven't updated in forever! It's actually only been like a month and a half. I was working on something else for Camp NaNoWriMo! Anyways, I'm back! Sorry to keep you guys waiting and I really hope you enjoy this chapter! It might be kind of boring. But, hey, if every chapter was packed with action, it would all be boring! Well, hope you like it!

Another thing: the title is temporary. I don't think it fits that well with my story, so if you have any ideas please tell me! You can message me privately, leave a comment, or post on my page!

Please vote, comment, or follow! Follow me for updates on my new story. I will try to publish regularly, at least once a week. Because I have school, I will most likely publish on the weekend. Thanks for reading!