The Terrae

Calandra tried to feel it in her fingers, in her bare arms, her pale face, but there was nothing. She could feel no breeze on this autumn day. She could focus on her other senses, though. There was the soft buzz of the forest creatures, the rhythm of the distant river; she could even see the flashes of light dancing across her closed eyelids. But there was simply no air. She could not feel it; there was nothing to feel.

‘You are not focusing hard enough, dear,’ whispered Calandra’s grandmother. The short wise women stood next to the girl, placing her smooth hands across her granddaughter’s chest. ‘If you are breathing, there must be air around you. Concentrate on how it tickles your nose or how your lungs expand with it.’

Calandra exhaled an exasperated breath. She squinted her eyes and focused on the tip of her nose. She could feel something. There was definitely something there. If she could actually feel the air, or if that was just her mind playing tricks on her, she did not know. ‘I think I can feel it!’

‘Marvellous!’ exclaimed her grandmother. ‘Now, focus on what it tells you.’

Here we go again. Calandra was aware that the spirits of the earth could communicate to her kind, the terrae. However, it just seemed easier for everyone else to interpret their messages. Nonetheless, she tried. She was aware that the spirits did not convey their intentions through words but feelings. Calandra shifted her awareness to her body; how was she feeling? The girl certainly tried to think of something more sophisticated to reply to Grandma Clemence, but she only felt hunger.

‘Well- I believe that they are trying to communicate… that it is lunchtime,’ Calandra replied with a mocking ethereal voice.

Clemence laughed heartedly, ‘oh dear, I am certain that they would not be saying that.’

Calandra closed her eyes again. It should come naturally to her; it certainly did to her brother, Kater. But it was just so difficult to maintain the focus on the air, while at the same time interpreting her feelings. Her mind would continuously wander; the river was quite turbulent today. She sighed and opened her eyes, staring straight into the blue pools on her grandma’s face.

‘I don’t understand what is wrong with me. I cannot hear anything they are saying,’ she complained.

‘Do not worry, child,’ Clemence smiled. ‘Visualisation takes time. But the more you focus on the element touching your body, the easier it will get.’

‘It just seems easier for everyone else,’ sighed Calandra. ‘Kater barely has to concentrate.’

‘Well, now he doesn’t. But he is twenty-three, dear. When he was just sixteen, he could barely sit still to practice,’ laughed the grandmother. ‘Do not take your brother’s word about being a protégé to heart. Now try again. Simply focus on feeling the air, there is no need to search for meaning just yet.’

Calandra closed her eyes and tried to focus again. She could not feel the air right away, but she could definitely hear it. It was brushing through the leaves of a nearby tree. Why couldn’t this work? Why did she have to feel it? She groaned, and involuntarily an influx of air was pushed forwards.

‘I’m glad to see that you are not having problems with commands,’ sighed Clemence. ‘But this is not today’s task.’

The girl smiled apologetically. Commands certainly came more naturally to her. Her body seemed to react rapidly to the elements and command them. However, Calandra was aware that this could be a dangerous practice. Without visualisation, her actions were rampant; she had no intention of pushing that air forwards. She was getting ready to concentrate again when her mother interrupted her actions.

‘Alright, enough lessons for one morning,’ yelled Tahlia. ‘Lunch is almost ready!’

Calandra eagerly turned to her grandmother with a playful smile. ‘Maybe I was right,’ the girl pointed out, earning a lively laugh from the older women.

The two slowly walked up the hill back to the cottage. Even though Calandra had lived in Soluma’s forest all of her life, sometimes the place still felt foreign. In days like today, the old trees seemed more ancient, casting eerie shadows on the forest’s ground. Their house was surrounded by the woods. There was barely any patch of sky visible. This made for an ideal hideout for the terrae that were fleeing the Big Three persecution. However, for some reason, today, the forest made Calandra feel trapped. No doubt, her grandmother would argue that this sentiment was the forest spirits communicating with her. But Calandra could barely visualise the air on her lungs. The spirits would not be sending her any premonitions.

The girl pushed open the cottage’s red oak door. The smell of stew instantly filled her nostrils. She could almost taste the roasted mushrooms, glazed carrots, and caramelised onions. The whole house smelled like spices, cumin and paprika infused the room.

‘The weather is changing,’ Calandra’s grandmother whispered. ‘We will need to take precautions tonight.’

Almost as if invited by Clemence’s words, a cold breeze, previously absent, poured through the door pushing the warming scent of cumin away. A shiver passed through Calandra’s body as she closed the door. The same feeling of being trapped resurfaced and this time it got tougher to brush it off.

‘Precautions?’ muttered the girl. ‘Against who? The… persecutors?’ the last word barely a whisper.

‘Don’t be silly, Cal!’ shrieked her mother. ‘We haven’t been bothered by persecutors for the last twenty years, why would they come for us now?’

Still, Calandra turned to her grandmother. The older women looked less secure but offered the girl a weak smile.

‘The persecutors tend to attack during winter, dear’ reassured Clemence. ‘We don’t need to worry about them. Our worse enemy right now is probably a bear,’ the old woman grinned, but the smile did not reach her eyes.

Calandra had never faced the persecutors. Her family escaped from the capital before she was even born. However, the stories of the guards of the Three still terrified her. Since she was a toddler, Kater would retell in drastic detail their escape from Abigard, even though Kater himself had only been three. Her brother’s tale began with the disappearance of their grandfather. One afternoon Finian did not return from his guild’s meeting. At that point, the persecution had barely taken shape, which left the family to wonder for a week about her grandfather’s fate until. Until the first Earth Trial. Although Calandra doubts her brother was actually present, Kater vividly describes the three councillors, the highest representatives of the Big Three, wearing their thick dark cloaks that swept the ground, and their hoods drawn up almost covering their blackened eyes.

She is aware that there is no way her brother would have been allowed to go to the trial. But his description has always felt so real it still sent shivers down her spine. The girl could almost visualise them, the three councillors roaming Soluma’s woods towards the cottage. Right at that moment, a massive weight was dropped in Cassandra’s back, making her heart skip a beat.

‘Don’t look so terrified, Cal!’ teased Kater, ‘My plot to execute you is still in the works.’

‘Very funny, Kater,’ sighed Calandra’s father entering the room. The man briefly kissed the girl’s head before placing a large pumpkin in the kitchen table.

‘Thank you, Asher!’ exclaimed Tahlia while examining fruit. ‘Was it a good harvest day?’

‘Nope!’ replied Kater, ‘Nothing wanted to grow. The one pumpkin took us almost half an hour to visualise!’

The young man gave an exaggerated sigh but did not look too concern about the poor harvest. Calandra, however, tried to glimpse her grandmother’s eye, but the woman was determinately looking in the opposite direction.

‘Well- let’s eat!’ Clemence announced with a tone of finality as if she knew that Calandra was about to further question her on the persecutors.