Eternal: Chapter Ten, Part 1

Chapter Ten: Counting Down

Though I knew I wouldn’t use a pre-prepared speech, I still sat with Caroline while she wrote it. If nothing else, I could use it to go over my main points and wing it, as that seemed to work for me. Besides, if I wasn’t there, she might have switched it into her style of speech, the kind to attract people through anger, not through informed choice. Yes, that meant fewer followers, but that was how I wanted it. Level-headed people were easier to lead and talk to than hotheads.

When I toured the second time, Drei came with me. He was doing better and took his directive seriously. I slept every night—long enough for it to be considered sleeping—and ate regularly…well, drank. He was never overbearing about any of it—except maybe the sleeping thing. It still felt like we were in a romantic relationship, which was important.

Afterwards, both Caroline and I had several requests to speak at universities and various other forums. We accepted what we could handle—Drei and Ian both having a strong word in the decision as they knew our boundaries better than it seemed we did, at times.

Everything was looking great, even if there was still a huge chunk to do yet. There were also still the vocal naysayers and the bounty hunters shadowing our travel. We always had to be cautious when returning home, trying to shake any who may be following us before nearing our neighborhood. It seemed we were successful at this, but I suspected their directive had changed from capture to something potentially more sinister. My schedule kept me busy enough, though, my brain hardly had time to fall down that dark rabbit hole of guessing.

Over the next five and a half months, we didn’t have anything specifically planned except preparing for the march. It was Nick and Ian’s idea that I take a few more speaking engagements over those months so it didn’t feel like we had abandoned them, which Valetta and Mitchell supported.

Valetta and Mitchell were preparing to leave on rounds again, ensuring everyone still felt content and comfortable now that the main message was well circulated. We even had air time from our second tour and extra engagements. The site was publicized for free on news stations; although not all of what they said was positive, enough people had seen the commercials or heard us speak that a little bit of bad publicity didn’t hurt us much.

It was interesting to read what people wrote on the forums about the different views of the networks. While some found it outright hilarious, others were really upset by it, venting their anger in long-winded rants. They made a lot of good points—some of which could be found elsewhere on the site—and I found those touching. People cared enough to be angry, and that was a compliment. A huge one.

During the days, Nick was selecting his security detail, interviewing a wide variety of individuals to ultimately choose thirty people. Drei was helping him as he had been on Caroline’s muscle squad and had a way of reading people, as well as intimidating those who weren’t up to the challenge. Although Nick sometimes complained, I could tell he was somewhat grateful. Fifteen—out of 18—that he had already interviewed had cracked under Drei’s gaze, and Nick had liked them as well. Considering Nick had cracked under that same gaze only once that I could remember—mostly because Drei had bared his fangs—none of those 15 were asked back, for the time being.

While they were busy with that, Caroline, Xenia, and Kora were collaborating on the speech—Kora and Xenia mostly through video conferencing. Most days that’s where I was. Since I would have to follow the speech this time, it was important I actually knew what I was supposed to say. The first part was, again, about elementals, this time with demonstrations as I spoke. From there, we segued into what the government was doing in their hidden facilities, then moving into our rights as people and a need for liberation. Caroline and I spent several nights, just the two of us, trying to figure out how to end it. Part of me wanted to just tell her I wanted to hand everything over to her at the end since that’s when it stopped being so idea based and real action would need to be taken. That was her forte.

She probably would have turned me down if I had brought it up; not because she wouldn’t want to accept but because she might still think she wasn’t strong enough after what had happened to me. Caroline was strong, though. But even if I had told her that, she wouldn’t have believed me.

Eventually we decided to leave the end up to improvisation. I could read the crowd and know what needed to come next, what would make for the perfect ending. It felt right that we didn’t write the end, as though something was going to happen and change how it would wind up anyway. But I didn’t want to be a pessimist. Everything was going to be as close to perfect as was possible. It had to be.

After we finished the beginning of the speech, we sent it to Ian, who was working with Mikael and Jake—again mostly through video conferencing—to work on the choreography. Instead of demonstrations at the end or interrupting the speech, we had decided to incorporate it into the beginning in ways similar to the demonstrations in the commercial. Ian, being the artistic soul among us, was heading the choreography. Occasionally, I stopped in to see what they had worked out and it amazed me how ideal it was. Though it wasn’t what we would usually do if we used our powers for fun—because it was artistic—it was graceful and poetic. Ian was going to work with Caroline on her part of it as she was the only fire elemental I had who was willing to admit it.

Jake had started calling and messaging me semi-frequently. He was doing better, slowly returning to the way he had been; he would never be that way fully again, but he was working on being more level-headed and warmer towards people. Any time he was having trouble venting or letting go of something that had happened, he contacted me. And as soon as I could, we would talk it out. Sometimes he called just to talk about how great his day was, or to tell me about a girl he had met who supported our campaign. On those days, I’d ask if he had thought about facing his dad again. The answer was always no, though, over the months, he had been increasingly more hesitant to reply. Eventually, I knew he’d say yes, and if he asked me to come with him, I would. But until then, I’d ask another question, usually about the girl, and he’d perk right up again.

Kora was even beginning to relax. Her boyfriend had asked her about the movement and about her involvement—she said he had told her he was interested—and she was honest with him about everything. After she told him, she asked if he thought she was a freak and wanted to break up. But instead, he told her he loved her even more and asked what he could do to help. When she told us during a video conference she was glowing. All of her worrying had been for nothing.

Xenia still had her hair dyed, recently changing it to a pale blue, but she was happier, as well. Over one of her breaks, she stopped by and thanked me. It turned out a couple of her friends were also elementals—granted they were earth—and all of them felt better about being able to be open and honest. She said some people were scared and still thought they were unnatural and dangerous, but most people thought it was cool.

And Mikael was still Mikael. He was still happy and optimistic, supportive. Some days I wondered if he missed his family at all, just because there was an occasional sadness about him. When I would ask, he just shook it off and insisted he was fine. I wasn’t sure I believed him, but I knew, no matter what it was, he’d be okay. If he wasn’t, I hoped he knew he could talk to me about whatever it was.