Emile’s Sister

Once they left the school grounds, Blood's understanding began to deteriorate at a rapid pace.

Blue skies, buildings as tall as the sky, and hundreds of multi-colored boxes zipped around — each stuffed with anywhere from one person to eight.

In front of the school, an oversized fountain regurgitated water into the air and spread a thin layer of mist on the skin of its passing students. As they approached, Blood narrowed his eyes at the plaque resting upon the fountains base:

"Blue Raven's School for the Gifted and the Original"

Blood didn't recognize the characters, but he was able to read them. Pulling his eyes up and away from the plaque, he inspected the fountain even further.

It depicted a large raven swooping down from flight, landing on a course rock, a waterfall's edge, which spout water from its edges.

Emile and Emma eventually split from their group of friends and joined another rambunctious line of students. Some time later, a vibrant yellow rectangle stopped before them and a slew of doors pulled open.

The students in line rushed into the rectangle, Emile and Emma included. Blood followed and, since he was a mere ghost, stood in the aisle beside where Emile and Emma sat.

He could have sat inside of someone, if he was feeling up to it, but the concept of wriggling within another person slightly disturbed even the war-hardened veteran he was.

Emma pulled a bright blue stick from her jean pocket and slid it's top in her mouth, a red light illuminated on the stick and smoke began to seep out of the corners of her lips.

"You only have two weeks to quit," Emile suddenly spoke.

"Yeah —" Emma replied sarcastically, "that's two weeks of succulent and delicious raspberry haze. I said I'd quit by graduation, it's not graduation."

"I'm just saying, I feel like it's something you're supposed to lean off of…"

"Yeah and my brother's supposed to be stronger than me, but here we are," Emma smirked.

"Touché."

Blood widened his eyes. Brother?

He stepped through the seat in front of them and stood just before Emma. Leaning forward, he stared at her face in bewilderment.

"I knew you seemed familiar…" he mumbled to himself.

Memories resurfaced in Blood's mind. He returned to the wall's on the edge of Fallen Sky, beyond the abandoned districts and within the fortress's medical unit.

Blood had only been stationed there for a month up until Emile arrived thanks to some strings being pulled by the Collector and during his stay there he spent all of his time investigating Emile's class.

Normally, something like that wouldn't be possible — a random foot soldier shouldn't receive access to a training camp's roster, but Blood's position as healer gave him the clearing he needed.

Due to being a healer, Blood was promoted to squad leader, he just didn't have any members in his squad, so in order to recruit members he was given access to the upcoming recruits from each of the training camps.

The only camp's details he read were Emile's and Emma was part of Emile's class, the portfolio just didn't mention their relationship and why would it? Their standing as brother and sister has nothing to do with their grades and performance, so Blood never cast Emma a second glance.

Now, however, he couldn't take his eyes off of Emma. Of course he knew that blood had nothing to do with Gift's, just look at himself and his brother Blaze.

Blood had a manipulative ability that dealt with blood that already existed, he simply controlled what already was — his brother Blaze, on the other hand, had a conjuration ability that created flames.

The two had nothing in common, so he knew Emma's abilities couldn't be measured by analyzing Emile, but the temptation was too enthralling.

If Emile was so strong, then was Emma? And what pushed him even more down this spiral was Emma's last comment; the two of them agreed that Emma was stronger, but how could that be the case?

Over the course of an hour the fast-moving rectangle stopped multiple times and each time a handful of kids departed from the vehicle. Towards the end, it was Emile and Emma left in their seats in addition to three other people.

Looking out the window, the tall skyscrapers Blood saw an hour ago were nowhere to be seen and have since been replaced by an overflowing forest, a small creek that ran alongside the road, and a clear blue sky that occasionally fluttered with various different birds.

"Hey —" Emma suddenly pulled an earbud out of Emile's ear, "why did you tell the guys we haven't finished our college essays?"

"Did you want to go to the game?" Emile asked.

"Well no — of course not, but we got accepted into UPIN already and even moved, which is another thing you've yet to tell anyone. What's your deal?"

"Well I don't know, don't wanna jinx us I guess. If I say something the all-knowing, ever powerful karma will rip it away."

"You're so dramatic," Emma rolled her eyes, "and also a terrible liar."

Emile pulled out his other earbud and placed both of them back in his case,

"You know Jay's been trying to get into college forever, it's his family's dream and we just got into a good school by running a little fast — I don't wanna come off like we're bragging," Emile explained.

"Okay you might be a little fast, but I'm super fast and Jay would be happy for us, you know that."

"Yeah I know I know, we'll tell everyone on Monday, okay?"

"Okay!" Emma chirped, "Our stop's coming up, let's head to the door."