The Girl with the Fire Heart

Damon is on edge. He can smell the heat coming from Valentina as he sits beside her. He wants to grab her and take her far away from here but he knows his duty. He stays put, listening as the leader of the tanzanite kingdom drones on and on about the importance of the blessing ceremony. It feels like forever before the leader announces the time for the child to reveal his element. Damon feels his element stir inside of him forcing him to sit a little taller.

He sees, from the corner of his eye, Valentina’s face grow serious, like she can sense the shift in the air. She shifts closer to him, leaning close to his ear.

“Something isn’t right,” she says to him.

He tilts his head down towards her, silently encouraging her to finish her thought.

“We shouldn’t be here. Damon… we need to go,” she urges.

Suddenly, Damon feels it. When they walked in, Damon felt the power surging through him. He felt invincible for a moment. As they walked to their seats, he felt unsettled for some reason, like someone was watching, waiting. From the minute he sat down, he knew something was off but he wasn’t quite sure.

The air feels too thick, almost suffocating. He feels like the room is closing in on him and his element responds to the feeling strongly. Damon can vaguely hear the leader of the community going through the ritual but Damon’s focus is on not freaking out or letting his element get out of control. He looks to Valentina and sees her eyes are closed, her fingers are tapping in her lap and to anyone else, she looks perfectly serene.

But he knows better. Damon knows she feels the effects of the environment just as he does. Finally, the leader of the community calls out for the guests to stand. Valentina and Damon rise along with everyone else. Movement on the opposite end of the room catches his attention and Damon feels his element zero in on the stranger across the room.

He stares into green eyes, so vibrant and yet so cold. The person across the room is ruggishly handsome. Something about the strong jaw, the defined nose, the dead stare calls to something inside of him but Damon pushes the feeling away. Suddenly the smell of earth reaches his nose and he can’t help but close his eyes when the scent hits him. He feels Valentina’s hand land on his arm, her weight dropping into him as she leans her body into his.

Damon can feel his mind churning, like he knows exactly what is happening but he can’t seem to recall what. He element pulses again, his necklace feeling more like a burden than it has his entire life.

“And now the time has come for the child to choose his path in life, his destiny, his element, his responsibility to the world,” Damon hears the man say. Damon shifts his attention from the mysteriously familiar green eyes to the stage where Elliot and Ava stand with their son.

From his seat, Damon can see the small family clearly. Elliot stands a little ways away from Ava and yet both look down at their son with pride. Damon’s eyes trail down to the young boy standing between them. His cheeks are round and pudgy, slightly pink as if he had been running around and was then told to stand still. He wears all white, as is custom. The leader leans down and smiles gently at the young boy, gesturing and speaking softly to the table that is opposite him. The young boy smiles gently before nodding his head in understanding to whatever the leader tells him.

The room goes unnaturally silent, the guests all holding their breath as the young boy takes his first step forward towards the tables. With each step, the room gets impossible quieter, no one wanting to miss a single thing or make a single sound. Finally, the young boy reaches the tables and climbs up the steps of a small stool that Damon hadn’t noticed was there before. The young boy looks at each element in turn, taking his time.

Damon feels a pang in his chest at the pensive look on the young boy’s face. Damon gets the sudden urge to run on to the stage and wrap the boy in his arms, to take him away from this.

Valentina can feel Damon’s sorrow for the young boy. It hits her in waves, and with each passing moment, his sorrow seems to get deeper and deeper. She knows why. She won’t pretend she doesn’t. This is far too big of a choice for a three year old. But they stand side by side anyway, their desires to protect him overshadowed by formality and custom. Valentina leans a little more in Damon, this time wanting to comfort him rather than use him for support.

She can still feel the iciness of the air, the goosebumps on her skin standing to attention. The smell of dirt hasn’t faded either, and she wonders for a brief moment if there is something she is missing. When she felt the weight of the air wrap around her, she needed a moment to focus on standing on her own two feet. She hadn’t meant to lean against Damon when she stood along with everyone else, but she did it anyway because the feeling was too strong.

Looking at the young boy on the stage, she watches as he lifts his hands and places each one on either table in front of him. He leans towards the common elements for a second before turning his attention to the table with the rare elements. He looks curiously at each one, before turning his attention back to the table with the common elements. The tension in the room eases just a bit when he gives the common elements his undivided attention.

Slowly, he goes about inspecting each one before settling his gaze on the gemstones. The tension in the room eases just a little bit more. After a long moment, the young boy picks up the tanzanite stone and steps down from the stool, turns towards his parents and smiles brightly. The rest of the tension in the room fades as the tanzanite kingdom continues their exclusive lineage.

Valentina turns her eyes towards Elliot and Ava and sees the raw relief in their eyes at their son’s choice. It dawns on her that a blessing ceremony for this kingdom has never gone this way before. The presence of both herself and Damon created a shift in the boy’s intuition for a moment longer than what has been the norm. Valentina is about to say something to Damon when the little tanzanite boy turns abruptly and locks eyes with her.