Free Children of the Elementi by Ceri Clark

vacuum was created. The man didn’t even stop to see who he had hit but moved on shoving people out of his way, frantic not to miss his stop. As he ran on to the exit, the rest of the carriage emptied.
    A student sitting on the opposite seat to Kiera saw the woman collapse on the floor. Rushing across to the expectant mother, the boy pulled her to her feet. Concerned, he stood in the doorway calling for a guard to get help. Sure the pregnant woman was being taken care of, Kiera leant back exhausted. Her whole body ached but she knew what she had just done was right. She had saved a life! She had not just imagined it, she had felt the tiny life and because of her, it was alive. The mother would never know, but she did. She smiled. Maybe she could atone for all she had done.
     
    A few hundred miles away, Jake and Mirim faced each other on the corner by the school. Jake was staring at Mirim in disbelief.
    Jake felt it first. Connected to the Matrix, Mirim experienced it only a few seconds later as it travelled through the psychic link.
    “Did you feel that?” she breathed. She felt the tingle of raw power leave her senses.
    “Yes.” He said slowly.
    “Someone used power! We need to find the other lost children of the Elementi. That had to be one!”
    Jake squinted back at Mirim, “Lost children of the Elementi? That sounds like a bad sci-fi movie.”
    “A what? No, one of the Elementi. You are one, I am one. There are three others. I am from the family representing air; there is still earth, fire and water to find.”
    “What am I ?” He demanded.
    “You, you are the spirit element. Your family’s color is white. You represent the focus of all the powers. You can wield all four, but you do not have as much of any one power as we do individually. You are however more powerful for having all four. We need you to complete the Matrix. There are five points, four on the outside and one in the middle - you. Without you, the four elements can do a lot, but without you, neither Aras nor the Magi can be defeated.”
    As the Matrix transferred the coordinates of the energy surge, Mirim gazed into the distance, “I have the coordinates of where he or she was. From the data I downloaded from your networks, the power was most likely used on a train. I need you to concentrate on the power to find it. Now you know what it feels like you should be able to focus on it. Let the power draw you to it.”
    “How do I do that?”
    Mirim held back her impatience. She had grown up with the Matrix so she knew how to use it. She had forgotten the younger boy was new to it.
    “Listen, follow my thoughts.” She hadn’t done this since before her mother died. It was dangerous. You had to trust the other person implicitly. After this, he would know her better than she knew herself and vice versa.
    Taking a deep breath, she reached out with her mind. Feeling her mind touch, Jake tentatively reached out with his. Memories flashed back and forth to each other at lightning speed. He caught her intense loneliness of being alone in the Citadel for years and the grief at her mother’s death. How could she bear to be alone for that long? In his mind, she learned the thirst to find out about his parents, his heritage. She also saw the grief of losing his adopted parents and the wonder he felt at what was happening at that moment.
    After the initial exchange, they turned to look at Jake’s core of power. Visualizing it as a thin thread of power snaking through his body, she showed him how to match the power they had both felt against the four different colors making up the white cord. Tweaking each strand, they resonated at a different frequency. As Jake experimented on the green color, he knew he had it.
    “That’s the Earth element. She has an affinity with nature. She will be able to recognize metals or just make things grow better.” Mirim explained.
    She drew him along the yellow thread that kept her in contact with the Matrix mind back on