Prince of Attania, 2

Stenson introduced Attan as a Family convert who had made the decision to release. They were at a mid-sized town south of Low City near the coast. Stenson pulled up to a storefront with his load of fresh vegetables, legitimately bought and paid for in another town several hours’ ride north, and spoke in low tones to the non-family clerk. Then he motioned for Attan to get out of the truck to help him unload.

Attan did not look the part of a Prince, dressed as he was in overalls and a heavy flannel shirt. His hair, which until now he’d kept meticulously short, had begun to grow out. It curled around the back of his neck and fell into his eyes. No one would connect him to the royals, although it was obvious he was Family.

“We’ll stay here tonight,” Stenson told him when they were finished. “Meeting tomorrow.”

Attan glanced curiously at the clerk, who was busy putting away produce. Was he one of Stenson’s new brand of Sons? Attan dutifully followed Stenson around the corner to a small hotel. He left the truck where it was, parked outside the store. A signal, perhaps?

Attan sighed as he scrubbed his hands and face of the day’s dirt. Pretty soon he’d be as grimy as Stenson, and no one would be able to tell for sure if he was Family or not. This was the third time Stenson was having Attan pretend to ‘release.’ It bothered him every time because he wasn’t the only Family who would be releasing. For the others, there was no coming back.

Stenson went out briefly to get something to eat. Attan didn’t see the point. He wasn’t hungry. Eating inevitably led to other things, and those things Attan could do without. He wasn’t worried about Stenson leaving, either. The man avoided transforming near Attan, and besides, Attan could bring him back no matter how far he ran. Attan had realized that the night he had stretched his essence all across Attania: except for the boundary out at sea, Attan had no limits, none at all. He wondered if Elea would sing him across that boundary if he asked her. Probably not.

Sighing again, Attan turned on the television. The King was back in Darcy. They showed him with Queen Lorra and their twins at some official function or other. The children were very well-behaved.

He really should communicate with his father, but there was nothing much to say. Attan closed his eyes and let his body go. He’d been doing this nightly ever since he’d first tried it, stretching his essence as far as it could go. It gave him a general feeling of connectedness with all of Attania, much more so than when he was physical. When he was physical, Attan felt isolated, even when he was surrounded by people.

The next morning, Stenson accompanied him back to the store, where they made their way to an upstairs room which reminded Attan of the room above the bookstore in Breen.

“Who’s he?” A distinctly Family man scowled in Attan’s direction.

“A friend,” Stenson assured him, moving to the front of the room, leaving Atttan to find a seat among the mixed group of Family and non-family. He picked a spot next to a middle-aged non-family woman who was there with an older gentleman. He scowled at Attan, too.

The Family man who had asked Stenson about him slid into the chair on Attan’s other side. “So where are you from?” he asked, still suspicious.

“Ah—Low City.” Attan answered honestly enough.

A few others turned their heads to follow the conversation. “You look familiar,” the man continued. Attan shrugged and turned his attention towards the front of the room where Stenson had begun to speak. Interestingly, he never introduced himself as their leader, instead saying he had been sent to them by the First.

“We are in a time of crisis,” Stenson intoned in all seriousness. “Attania is dying.”

Attan had heard this speech before. He tuned it out, preferring to gaze around the room at the very different types of people who had come to listen to Stenson. He found a Family girl around his own age staring back at him. She was with her parents and a younger sibling. Were they really contemplating giving up their physical life? He gave her a nod and a tentative smile before turning his attention back to Stenson’s speech. He was up.

“This young Family man is willing to let go of his human existence and return to Attania as pure elemental, which is what Family truly is. He does this because it is right, and it replenishes Attania, assuring all of our future.” Stenson paused, his eyes resting briefly on the non-family believers in the room. “His elemental essence will become the very air we breathe!”

Attan saw the excitement in the non-family’s eyes. They believed. They thought there was a chance that they would breathe in this air, and become, if not Family, at least able to share in the elemental abilities all Family possessed. He stood up and made his way to the front to stand beside Stenson.

“Are there any others who will follow this boy’s lead?” Stenson asked. A few Family raised their hands, including the parents of the girl Attan had noticed. “Good. This evening at sunset, in front of the town hall, we will have our ceremony. Attania thanks you.”

They stayed in the room as people milled about. Many stopped to ask Stenson questions. The Family girl came to stand beside Attan while her parents talked with Stenson. “Are you really going to release?” She asked him. At Attan’s shrug, she smiled. “I’m not sure yet, either,” she confessed. “My parents want to do it. What’s your name?” she asked suddenly.

Attan almost told her. “Does it matter?” he said after a few seconds. “After tonight, I’ll be gone, just a part of Attania again.”

“Do you really believe that?” she asked. “I mean, I know we’re supposed to, but—you’re not old enough to want to give all this up yet.”

She was talking about herself, Attan realized. She didn’t want to release. If only she knew he did, which is why Stenson’s whole operation confused him. He sort of believed it, too—all except the part where non-family would suddenly get Family abilities.

“I’m Arina,” she said over her shoulder as she moved to join her parents. “Nice to meet you.”

Attan made his way back to their hotel room while Stenson finished up making arrangements for the release that evening with several individuals.

“Hey, you!” Attan looked up, startled. The girl from the meeting, Arina, ran to catch up, pulling her younger brother by the hand. “This is Otto,” she said. Otto looked like he was about to cry. Arina looked around quickly, then pulled Attan towards her. “We shouldn’t talk here. Come with me.”

She led Attan past the small hotel where he was supposed to wait for Stenson, to a wooded park at the end of town. Past the trees was a sunken garden. Several kids sat on the low stone wall, watching glumly as Arina, her little brother, and Attan approached. Attan recognized a few of them from the meeting, but the rest were strangers. It was an even mix between Family and non-family.

A stocky kid who reminded Attan somewhat of Greg scowled at them. “I suppose this one thinks he’s special,” he grumbled. “What can you do? Make fire, call up the wind, make it rain?”

Attan shrugged. “Sure.”

“Which one?” The boy scowled again.

“All of them, I guess,” Attan confessed.

One of the Family boys spoke up. “He must have royal blood in him then. Only Family who have royal blood can call more than a few elements.” He sounded resentful.

“Not necessarily.” Arina came to Attan’s defense. “My mother can call three different elements, too. I can’t, though.” She conjured a small ball of flame in the palm of her hand. “Just fire.”

Attan smiled at that. He was glad she had drawn the attention away from his parentage. He danced a flame on each fingertip in acknowledgment. “Just fire,” he murmured. “My mother is just fire. She’s amazing.”

“So.” A non-family girl hopped off the low wall and stalked over to where Attan stood in the center of the sunken garden next to Arina and her little brother. “Tell us why you’re doing this. Are you willing to give up your elemental powers to us?” She sounded skeptical—and resentful. She might have been a few years older than Attan.

“Why?” Attan glanced around the circle at hostile young faces. “I don’t understand. Why are you all here? Aren’t your parents part of Sten—“ Attan corrected himself. “—of the First’s followers?”

“Not all of us.” Arina said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m in no hurry to die. And Otto here hasn’t even got a chance to do anything yet, and they want to take it all away!”

It wouldn’t have occurred to Attan that maybe she wouldn’t want to release. It would have occurred to his father. Jet had a hard time believing anyone wanted to release. Attan didn’t. “It’s what we’re supposed to be, right?”

“Oh, just let him release already!” The kid who looked like Greg, only younger and with brown hair instead of red, hopped off the wall next to the non-family girl. “He doesn’t know anything. He can’t help us.”

“Help?”

“We’ve listened to our parents talk about this day for a long time. They expect us to go along with it because we’re their kids. They talk about the King, and how his big plans haven’t changed anything, and how this life is not real! How can it not be real?”

Attan felt guilty. He had thought the same thing, actually. Or—not as real as his elemental state. “Have they considered learning to transform into Elementals? The King says that gives you the best of both worlds.”

One of the Family boys answered him. “That’s just for royals—you can probably do it. But we can’t—we’re just one-element Family.”

“That’s not true,” Attan said. “My mother—“

“Besides.” The Greg look-alike interrupted. “It doesn’t help us, anyway. We’re not even Family, yet. The First teaches that as soon as enough Family release, then the rest of us will be able to use the elements they become, like we’ll turn into a new kind of Family or something. If these Family can transform, then where does that leave us?”

Attan didn’t know what to say. If he said the truth, that non-family would never be able to absorb elemental abilities, what would these kids do? Right now, they were friends with the Family kids, which was more than his former classmates back in Low City could say. They had worked together in school, but they never really liked each other. Except for him and Greg, and that had taken a long time.

Otto burst into tears. “I don’t want to die!” he wailed.

Attan knelt down next to him. “You won’t die,” he assured the little boy. He wouldn’t have died even if he released with his parents and became pure elemental. It was just another level of existence. But, he supposed he understood what the other kids meant. “What’s your favorite thing?” he asked. “Sweets? Or your big sister? What do you love to do?”

Otto’s eyes shone bright with tears, but he answered readily. “Mama,” he said firmly. “And school. I like school a lot.” Some of the other kids groaned good-naturedly at that.

Slowly Attan stood and faced the group who surrounded him. “I won’t let you release if you don’t choose to,” he said. “I promise.” He locked eyes with the boy who reminded him of Greg. “You will have to help them if their parents choose to go without them. Will you do that? Even if it means less ‘elemental’ power in the air?”

The Greg look-alike chuckled. “We don’t really believe that either,” he admitted. “And of course. My mom already said Arina and Otto could live with us.”

Arina blushed. Attan was shocked. He didn’t think Family and non-family could have such feelings for each other, but then again, not all Family thought like Family, for all their powers. “Good,” he said.

“Wait. How can you promise something like that?” The Family boy asked suspiciously.

For answer, Attan disappeared. He flowed through each of them, as much to ease his own mind as anything else, and some of the Family kids gasped as they felt his essence pass through theirs and touch their signature elemental power. But the non-family kids, and even a few of the Family ones, had no reaction at all.

“I can transform,” Attan told them all as he took back his body. They didn’t know that wasn’t what would save them if they released. They didn’t know all of what Attan was, but for now, they believed him and that’s what mattered. “Tonight, if you don’t choose to remain as elementals, remember what it is you love about this life. That will allow me to bring you back.” Again, a half-truth, but it would help. It had helped Attan bring a little boy who had transformed a little too far back to his physical self.

“Who are you?” A Family girl with short, spiky black hair asked. She’d tasted of light when Attan had passed through her, and she shivered now as she gazed at him from her seat on the stone wall.

Attan smiled. He often wondered the same thing. “See you tonight,” he said, before disappearing from the circle. They were nice kids.