Note: First things first, I am overwhelmed with your response. 1K reads! It's a daunting figure. I hope I don't let down your rising expectations. Saying that, I thank all my fellow writers of Wattpad and my lovely readers, who vote and don't vote alike, you are everything to me.
Second thing, about this chapter, there's an image of the Zodiacs and their Signs attached at the end. Uh-uh guys, don't scroll down now. You'll know when you need to. :)
If you have doubts or if you think there's some serious infodump, do bring it to my notice, but gently. Refer to the Map whenever you need; well, I do all the time. :)
(My notes will be shorter, from now on, pardon me this time!)

~Happy Reading❤✨~

***

"Mother, why don't you use the spade?" The little girl asked with curious eyes.

The mother smiled gently, "Because, the soil loves your touch, my dear. Why do you want to hurt it?"

The girl nodded and dug a small hole, imitating her mother. She sowed the seeds of a floral plant into it, and covered the hole back with her tiny hands.

If only she had waited before running away to chase a squirrel, she would have seen, that a shoot had already started sprouting out of it.

***

As I slept fitfully, the bizarre incident of the day still reeled in my flimsy dreams. I woke up for the third time in the dead of the night and decided to check my body in the lavatory of our chamber. Maybe, finally, I had acquired the Mark.

The elementees are all born with the Mark, that indicates their Houses. A child is born with no Mark to begin with, but later develops it, as and when it uses its Elementation. By the time the child reaches the age of eighteen, the Mark is at its prime too, dark and glowing. But being a Vacant, I had never gotten one. I had come of age the year ago and therefore had lost the final hope of ever getting it.

I had always stayed in the shadows, as my school-mates had all talked about their faint marks. A girl had showed me hers, the Scales of Libra House, which she had acquired to the left of her lower waist, and I had examined my whole body thoroughly after coming home. It wasn't there. It was never there. The boys had kept tormenting me to show them my Mark; I shuddered involuntarily at the memory, their menacing laughter still fresh somewhere in my ears. The Mark would reveal itself anywhere on the body, abiding no laws, and therefore, it was very uncouth to ask someone to show them their Mark. Even my childhood brain understood their implication.

I was suddenly frozen, struck by a thought which should have been the first thing to enter my mind. The kids had acquired the Scales because they belonged to the House of Libra. But my Mark, if and when I would get it, would not be shaped as the Scales, that I had always looked out for. It would be something entirely different.

And I knew the three options that I had; the Three Houses of the Earth Realm.

I pulled off my nightdress and camisole and stood facing the huge mirror on the lavatory wall. It was freezing cold, but a little bearable due to the heat-spinners. The light of the lamp was dim, but I felt the fire burn stronger as I placed the lamp gently on the rim of the sink.

Staring into the pitch-black eyes of my reflection, I let it sink in-

I have magic. I have magic. I have magic.

But it wasn't enough. It felt like I was awoken from a deep slumber, the dream left incomplete. It had vanished the moment I had opened my eyes. And now I was trying to grasp the last threads of one such dream, that felt distant with every pull of my will to remember it.

My dark hair let free, I looked different somehow. My thin face seeming younger, the wheat-colored skin felt alive. I lifted my arms up from my side, and looked at them in the mirror. My fingers; were they still pulsating with my powers? Would it happen if I try it again? Or was it just a trick of an eye? A one-time thing.

The need to splash my face with water was urgent, but thinking better of the chill, I simply blinked my eyes, rubbed my palms over my face, bundled up my long wavy hair and lifted them higher from my body for a clearer view.

Letting my gaze travel the length of my slim, bare reflection, I grazed my fingers lightly over my collarbone, desperately searching. Nothing. I turned around to look at my back, craning my neck. Nothing.

I sat on the rim of the bathtub, and peeled off my lower clothes. I pulled the lamp down from over the sink and placed it besides me. The exercises had done good to my body, I realized, tracing the taut linings of my thighs, looking for something, anything. Searching over my stiff calf , I bent over to my feet.

Could that be it?  There was a tiniest shade of red on my right ankle. It could be a mere scratch, I wondered rather I denied. My heartbeat racing faster and with slightly shaky fingers, I touched its faint edge.

Right then, the door of the lavatory opened, with a creaking noise. And I tumbled down from the edge of the bathtub, startled.

"Are you alright, Eleni?" whispered Serena, her face coming into vision.

"Yes. Yes. Serena, turn around, for heaven's sake. I don't have my clothes on," I said embarrassedly and hastily pulled on my sheer nightdress. She didn't turn around but swept her gaze around the tiny washroom.

"What have you been doing?" she cocked an eyebrow.

"Nothing." My eyes met her brown brooding ones and I prompted out, "Stop thinking whatever it is that you are thinking."

I saw her smiling unabashedly. "Oh no. One doesn't do things that require being naked on a Realm as cold as this." She wiggled her eyebrows and narrowing her eyes she added, "You sure, you're, okay?"

"I... uh...yes. Of course. I just..." I glanced at her awkwardly, not able to conjure up a lie.

"Eleni," Serena said and knelt on the floor in front of me, her voice suddenly intense, "I know."

I stared at her solemn face. "What do you know?" I gulped.

"You did that. I know." She exhaled loudly as she said.

"What are you sa...?"

"I felt it, Eleni. I was right beside you. I saw you raising your hands with that gleam in your eyes that every Elemental gets, when they are focusing extra hard on their elements."

As a matter of fact, I had seen it too, many times all around me. When Uncle Barak carried his heavy tables and chairs inside the coffeeshop. When Amelia would practice her school assignments, that involved airlifting her own self, in vain; she had practiced it on me too sometimes. I had seen large ships being flown from the factory units to the dockyards, by dozens of men focusing their breathing and senses in a collective spell of Air magic. Had I gotten that look too?

"Serena... let me explain." I felt my heartbeat taking up pace. The lavatory suddenly felt too small.

"Eleni, it's alright. I am your friend. I knew that you... you didn't have magic."

Friend.

My eyes widened at her words, "You knew? But how?"

"Well, every elementee uses magic for the better part of the day. You never even airlifted a single envelope or a tiny piece of paper to send over to Violette or me. You always walked."

I had wondered about the possibility of people around me knowing my secret, but to hear it being confirmed was making me feel a little dizzy in the head,

"So, okay, everyone knows I am a Vacuusha. And..." My voice was breaking. Of course, they all knew.

Serena took my hand in hers and said, "You clearly are not. You have powers you never knew about. I witnessed it myself. You created a tower of rocks that even the Earth Realm's Prince Nigel couldn't have created. The very first time that you used your Elementation, was to save someone's life, Eleni. And the wards around the arena prevent anyone other than the Defensors in the ring, from using their magic. But you just penetrated that." Her voice was composed and soft, she sounded as though she had given this a lot of thought. I looked at her with tears pooling in my eyes.

"Oh, come here you little new born baby." She pulled me in a hug.

She let me cry for a while and gently hushed me to normalcy. I realized in that moment, she was not just my colleague, but a friend. Why hadn't I ever seen that? I had overlooked so many things in my entire existence, I mused. We sat there in silence, until I could feel her curiosity bubbling like an overboiled tea in a kettle, ready to spill. 

"The questions that you have for me, I... believe me, I have them too. I don't know why my powers waited so long and finally showed up, but with this weird Earth magic. I was supposed to be an Air Elemental or nothing. I just..." I let myself take a shuddering deep breath.

My parents! Why Earth? Who had they been, really? Where are they now? Are they still alive somewhere? Or was I still going to remain delusional?  

My shoulders sagged even lower as yet another horrible question nagged at me - Where would I go if everyone found about this? 

The people of one Realm were not allowed to settle down in any other Realm. I was perplexed as thousands of questions started to pile up in my head, each heavier and crueler than the previous. The lavatory seemed to close up on me again, making me dizzy; the fire of the lamp, dimming.

I clutched Serena's hands to steady myself from the onslaught of fear and terror that was gnawing at me from inside. "I want to sleep, Serena." I said avoiding her gaze.

Without any hesitation, she got up and pulled me up. "Let's get you to bed then," she said in a softer tone.

I had just pulled over my quilt, when Serena came to my bed again and whispered. "Actually, I had another question entirely."

"What?" I felt irritated all of a sudden.

"Why the burning need to save our strange driver of the Summer Realm?" Even in the dark I could see her eyes twinkling with mischief. So many Amelias in this world.

I groaned involuntarily and a threw a pillow onto her face, turning to the other side. I heard her giggling as she went back to her bed. I couldn't help smiling a little myself. But it wasn't enough, to fall asleep or to calm my growing sense of panic. I folded my legs up to my chest and in the fetal position, reached out my fingers to the tiny red swelling on my right ankle. As the moonlight crept in through the window, I peered down at it and watched it aglow.

***

The sun was visible over the clouds early in the morning. It was as sunny as the Winter Realm could get; the driver of our carriage had cheerily informed us on the way. Our team of Corresponders had traveled from the foothills of the Nixus mountain range to the east of Piscean district. We were now waiting in a small tent on the grounds of Aquaskee's largest battlefield.

The distant echoes of roaring was audible all over the grounds, indicating, the Dragons and the other creatures were kept back around somewhere. There was a mini-amphitheatre at the farthermost corner of the battlefield, where the Defensors mostly practiced. As far as the eye could see, there was huge expanse of land, covered with dried grass, tents scattered neatly around, horses tied to the trees and the royals guards that patrolled all around the place.

Rosa had spotted Prince Nova and some other Lord whom we couldn't distinguish over the distance, dueling in what seemed like a friendly match. The Prince's handsome face was glinting off in the sunshine, a lock of his golden hair falling over his forehead just like the portrait from the polling booth. Undoubtedly, he was going to emerge as one of the top Defensors, until the Final Round. 

It felt strange watching Prince Nova alone, since he had lost his twin to a deadly epidemic that had hit Terraskee two years ago. The Gemini Princes and other noble children who were serving their Elementeeship oath were hit with the plague as well. The Gemini twins had always been together as all twins do, despite their opposite personalities. It would have been Prince Nova nevertheless, who would have been the chosen Defensor; he was loved all over the Spring Realm, unlike his twin.

And as if he had sensed my eyes on him, he turned suddenly and looked straight at me. I could just make out him, squinting in my direction, I held in my breath for the briefest moment, and he had nodded his head ever so slightly, that I thought I had imagined it. I had hastily moved past Rosa and entered the tent where our Supervisor and others were already seated, my heart beating fast. I definitely had misunderstood something out there.

We were briefed by a member of the High Panel, about how to conduct ourselves once we were in the mini-amphitheatre and the Lair of Creatures. As we entered the mini-amphitheatre, my eyes fell on a very pleased-looking Prince Nigel talking to one of his siblings. I had heard the news that had circulated, of course.

"Are you still thinking about that?" Serena hissed in my ear out of nowhere.

"I am not."

"Well, you are. I know it must feel unfair that he took the credit for your black tower. But think about it, it is for the best. This way you are safe." She murmured in a tone that one normally takes with a child.

"Serena, I know. And I am okay with that," I sighed. "It is for the best, indeed." It was far from okay.

"Good."

We walked in slow circles around the arena after Violette, and prompted her for things she might have missed noting. The impressionists were perched on a higher row, sketching the entire ground. Rosa, along with the other typographers, sealers, copiers and lettermen, was back at the working-tent in the embassy, looking after the reproduction of the drafts we had created. It was me, myself who had written the headline for the latest article, 'A black tower arises.'

Violette turned to us when we entered the Summer Realm's section of the arena. "You both stay here and watch over the two Summer Defensors, and King Orlon might come soon enough. Call out for me, when he does." instructed Violette and moved ahead towards the Spring Realm's section.

It had barely been a quarter of an hour when Serena said suddenly, dropping her binocular-holding hands. "Oh no, Violette took our flask. And now I am thirsty. I'll get it back," Serena said and took to jogging, before I had even gotten to say a word. I shook my head and decided to walk down a few steps. Landing over a platform, I gazed over the entire stunning view of the ground.

A platform divided every twenty rows of steps, onto one of which I was standing now. I felt a small draft at my feet and bent over the railing of the platform. The mini amphitheatre, as I realized, was built over a land bridge. From where I was standing, I had a perfect view of the pathway that was under the amphitheatre. I craned my neck when I heard hurried faint noises approaching, below me.

As two people came into view, I had a sudden feeling of unease. A person, no, a woman, with her head covered in a red veil, was being led by a soldier in a black uniform.

And the first thing I thought  was that - No one wore black, other than spies. 

She seemed to be struggling in his grip, her dark black hair loose and falling to her waist. The soldier had firmly placed a hand over her shoulder.

I gasped inaudibly when my eyes fell onto what his other hand was holding, a bright silver dagger at her back!

I had to do something to help the woman. There was a sudden drive of impulsiveness in my body and looking around, I found one of the exits to the amphitheatre a few feet away to my left.

Without stopping to think, I found myself running towards it. 

***

The Marks