Chapter 14

         "Don't move," a voice hissed.

         We stood stark still in the dark. I could feel Jessica shivering next to me.

         "I am not Panton. He is busy at the moment with other duties for the newly appointed Elders. They want to see the five brothers of Sergius. The female mortals can wait here."

         "We'll come with you, just turn the lights back on so we can see who you are," Irvin said.

         "You will see me when we arrive, but the mortals will not be allowed to see me. They need not fear however. I shall turn the lights back on once we have departed. Please teleport to the room you went to while you were waiting for the verdict of the former Elders regarding our secret. We give you permission."

         I gave Jessica a quick squeeze and teleported to that room we had visited so long ago, the one that had the beds made of clouds. It seemed like a lifetime ago since we had visited the former Elders to ask for their permission to tell the girls our secret. Now I feared that we would get in trouble for uttering the secret even though we had permission from the former Elders.

         A hecapsycheir appeared after us. I assumed he was the one who had brought us here. He waved for us to follow him out of the room. We walked to the throne room and kneeled before the newly appointed Elders.

         "Rise, sons of Sergius," Fire said.

         We stood up and looked at the Elders' knees. It was disrespectful to look them in the eye unless they asked us to.

         "We have heard that Sergius was a good and loyal servant of our dear and former Elders," Water said.

         "And yet his sons decide to disobey the rules that we have placed so that no mortal would ever know about us. The sons of a loyal servant lived amongst many mortals, learned with and from mortals, and even told five mortals about our secret." Earth said.

         "How do you explain yourselves?" Wood asked.

         "My lord, we had permission from the former Elders," Irvin said.

         "But you already knew that it was wrong to tell mortals the truth behind your powers. Why did you not leave them behind and move on? You are better off with the rest of us than with them. They have no intelligence, no powers, no vision," Earth said scathingly.

         "There is a reason that we did not leave them behind, but that reason cannot be put into words of true meaning," I said.

         "And what is that supposed to mean?" Wood asked.

         "It means that there are no words to truly describe the reason that we did not leave the mortals behind. Not in any language that any creature has heard of," I replied.

         "Well try your best, and then we'll consider the consequences," Water told us.

         "My lord, there is an emotion that I believe the humans feel. That emotion is called love. There are different kinds of love. A person can feel that they don't want anything bad to happen to another person, only good should come that person's way. That kind of love is usually shared within families. Another kind is between two soul mates, future husbands and wives. I think that my brothers and I told the female mortals our secret because we loved them. It was not deep love, but it was apparent enough to be noticed. The level of love was in between the love share between each other, and the love between two soul mates," Irvin said.

         "So you fell in love with a mortal?" Fire asked.

         "No, my lord. Not in love with the mortals, we just loved them, similar to the way you love each other. The five of you may disagree and argue with each other, but you are still like a family. No father, no mother, just siblings who will fight and argue, but overall, you still love one another," I said.

         "Your past actions are unacceptable!" Earth said angrily.

         "Calm down Earth, the previous Elders gave them permission; they should not be in trouble for it," Fire said.

         "Return to the room you teleported into and wait there for our verdict," Metal ordered.

         We bowed our heads and left the room without turning our backs to the Elders. (Turning one's back to the Elders was extremely disrespectful.) My brothers and I walked back to the room of clouds and sat down on the beds.

         Ten minutes later, the servant of the Elders returned and said, "Come with me."

         We followed him back to the throne room and bowed our heads before the Elders.

         "Sons of Sergius, we address you as one, though our votes for your punishment may vary," Fire said.

         "We have," Earth paused with a grimace on his face, "agreed that you must leave the female mortals and never see them again."

         "Have you any questions?" Water asked.

         "How much time do we have until we must tell them and leave?" Irvin asked.

         "You have until midnight of this day," Metal answered.

         "Must we wipe their memories of us?" I asked.

         "That won't be necessary," Fire said, though he didn't look very happy. "We shall make sure that they never utter our secret to anyone else."

         "How will you do that?" Hearst asked.

         "We will put them into a sleep so deep that they never wake up," Wood said.

         "No!" we all cried.

         The Elders all stood up at their full height.

         "Must we punish you further for yelling at us? Our decision is final," Earth said.

         Fire was the only one who looked calm. He pushed Earth back into his throne, and the rest of the Elders sat back down.

         "Perhaps an arrangement could be made," Fire said.

         "And what would your suggestion be?" Earth snapped.

         "If the mortals did utter our secret to another, then, and only then would we put them, and those they told, into the sleep," Fire said.

         "All in favor say 'Aye' all opposed say 'Nay,'" Water said.

         Fire, Water, and Metal said, "Aye," in unison.

         Earth and Wood both said, "Nay."

         "Very well then," Water said, "We shall not put them to sleep unless they tell someone else. I think that we can agree that we will put them to sleep if you purposely come within a single league of the female mortals."

         "You may depart to tell the female mortals our verdict," Fire said.

         We all bowed one last time to the Elders and walked backwards out of the room. The servant of the Elders led us back to the room we had teleported into in the first place, and we teleported onto our front doorstep in our house in Cambridge. We walked in the door and separated to find the girls.

         I saw Jessica lying on the living room couch reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. She looked up and ran over to me. Jessica threw her arms around me and I resisted pulling away. She saw the expression on my face and said, "Aden, what's wrong? What did the Elders say?"

         "Jessica, after tonight, I will no longer to exist to you."

         "Wait, you're breaking up with me?"

         "Were we ever together?" I asked. "Yes, but not because I want to."

         "But why?" Jessica asked as tears fell from her eyes.

         "Because I told you about us; although I probably would have gotten in trouble for being around you anyway?"

         "You told me about what? Why would you get in trouble for being around me?"

         "I told you who my brothers and I are. I told you about our powers and real identities. That wasn't supposed to happen. I'm not supposed to hang around with mortals."

         "But the former Elders said that you could."

         "But these Elders are not the former Elders. They're different."

         "Aden," Jessica started.

         "What?" I asked.

         "Let's run off together. Just the two of us, or if Terra, Cari, Rhonda, and Portia would consent, then the ten of us."

         "Jessica, you don't understand," I said. "There's no evading the Elders. We obey their orders whether we like them or not."

         "No, Aden, you don't get it. Don't you see? You're a slave to them. All of you are. Be free for once."

         "Jessica," I said sternly. "I will not exist for you. Anyway, I'm not good enough for you. If I stayed, I'd just hurt you again."

         "You wouldn't be hurting me by staying. You'd be hurting me by leaving."

         "Go back to James, Jessica."

         "What! To that fat sack of seal blubber? No way! Compared to you, his intelligence is that of a slug. You're Galileo, Newton, Curie, and Einstein combined compared to him."

         "Who said this was about science?" I asked.

         "I care about intelligence. He doesn't have that. You do."

         "Well I'm talking about who is best for you."

         "You are! Not him."

         "I've left you alone and in danger way too many times."

         "I don't care about that, as long as I get to stay with you. I'd have my life on the line every minute of every hour of every day if it meant I could stay with you. That's a much better alternative than being completely safe with an ignorant potato like James."

         "Fine, don't go back to James. Find someone else because I can't be there for you. If it meant that my life would be on the line to stay with you and protect you, then I would, but it's not my life, it's yours."

         "What would the Elders do if you were around me after midnight?"

         "I won't be around you after midnight. Anyway, they said that my brothers and I couldn't even go within a single league of you. I guess you have your own personal bubble with a radius equal to a league."

         "How far is a league?"

         "Approximately 4.8 kilometers."

         "In miles, how far is a league?"

         "About three miles."

         "Well the Elders can go . . . ."

         I covered Jessica's mouth before she could say anything worse. I glanced at the clock and saw that the time was 23:30 or 11:30 p.m. I had half an hour left to spend with her, and I didn't want to spend it arguing.

         "Jessica, stop," I said.

         "I think that if I have something to say, I have a right to say it."

         "You do, but there's only half an hour left until I must depart. I don't want to spend that half hour arguing."

         "I want to have some part of you once you've left. Any part of you."

         "What, do you want, my hair or something? I don't have DNA like you do, you know."

         "I don't care what really, I just want something to remember you by."

         "I suppose I could give you some of my hair, but it would deteriorate as soon as you touched it."

         "What?"

         I pulled out a couple of my hairs and handed them to Jessica. Once her fingers touched them, the hair turned to dust.

         "Why did that happen?" Jessica asked.

         "Because you are already leaving me, and I am already leaving you. You don't feel it, but it's happening. Even if I were to stay, I'd be a burden, because I'd be focusing all of my power on not being torn from you. This doesn't happen all the time, but the Elders clearly don't trust us. They're forcing us to split up."

         "What about your photograph?"

         "You could try and take a picture of me, but I'm pretty sure that I'd be see through. You'd only get a picture of the door that's behind me."

         "Okay, what else is there of you that I could have? Think, Aden!"

         "I have nothing to say."

         "I know, make me an eternal, undying fire. Please?"

         "I can't. As soon as I left, the fire would die," I told her.

         "Wait, will I still be able to remember you? Will I still remember your personality, your touch, the rest of you?"

         "I don't know Jessica."

         "But . . . but, what else is there of you?"

         "I'm sorry Jessica, I really can't think of anything else. Twenty minutes have already passed."

         "Well don't stop, keep thinking!" Jessica shouted.

         The atomic clock was ticking with only ten minutes remaining. I sat next to Jessica on the couch and put my arm around her shoulder.

         She leaned on my shoulder and asked, "Aden, did you ever love me?"

         "Uh . . . what?" I asked.

         "Did you ever love me?"

         "Jessica, I cannot truly feel human emotions, but I can come close. I love you like a sister, and I would do anything to protect you. That's what I'm doing now by leaving. I am protecting you."

         "So you don't love me like a girlfriend or even a gal-friend?"

         "What's a gal-friend?"

         "A good friend who is a girl."

         "I think that I love you more than a gal-friend, but not as a girlfriend. Did you love me?"

         Jessica looked at me with teary eyes and said, "More than you know."

         We sat there in silence for another five minutes. With only three minutes left on the clock, I stood up and held Jessica's hands. "The time has almost come," I said.

         "One more thing," Jessica said.

         "Yes?"

         "Promise me, that after you leave, you won't go out with any female hecapsycheire for a week, that's what, 168 hours?"

         "I promise."

         Jessica pressed her lips to my cheek for the last time, and I tried not to pull away.

         "Goodbye Jessica," I said.

         "Goodbye Aden," she replied.

         The clock struck midnight, and I teleported back to the old house that my brothers and I had lived in during junior high through high school.