Check here for the original photo prompt in the Elements of Genre Writing group on Facebook.
Berilia hated her master. He was old school, grumpy, and sexist. The boys in his Summoning school were the majority of the population and were significantly better treated than Ananaf and herself, the only two females who had bothered to try to get into the school and hadn’t washed out due to the rigorous curriculum. Much as she would complain, Beri would never say that Master Malcolm was not the best-qualified to teach his craft, but his methods, especially toward the female students, were absolutely complaint-worthy.
That was how she’d ended up here… sort of. In a round-about way. See, the robes she and Naffy wore as uniforms were ridiculous. Master Malcolm actually had them color-coded. Male students wore blue, the shade and depth of the dye deepening as they progressed in level. The same principle applied to female uniforms, except theirs was pink. It wasn’t too bad for Naffy, as she was a much more accomplished summoner than Beri had trained to be and wore an almost tolerable magenta. As Beri was only a First Level Apprentice, her robes were light baby pink. Or, were supposed to be, anyway. She had argued until out of breath with Master Malcolm at how ridiculous her outfit was. She wasn’t one to care, but pastel pink day in and day out was driving her insane. He was, as usual, completely decided on the matter and would not hear any complaint. So, that afternoon, Beri had kindly offered to do one of the other apprentice’s laundry and, lo and behold, the colors had mixed in the hot water and her robes had come up a lovely shade of lavender! Not quite the color she had been going for, but it was so much better than the banality of the baby pink that she hardly cared.
Master Malcolm was a spiteful individual and, so, here she was: the waterfall. It was a lovely place to come and meditate and she didn’t really mind the environment, as it was, but the purpose was much more sinister. In her training, she had done quite well with Earth elementals and had been looking forward to moving up to the next level with the Fire elementals, as all of the other students had progressed. However, the day after he’d caught on to her wardrobe change, he’d sent her to work with the most stubborn and distasteful elemental he used for training purposes. Water elementals were, by and large, quite a difficult to work with. Whereas the Earth elementals she had been working with were mellow and pretty easy to bargain with, water elemntals ruled the world and they knew it.
This one, Zanir, was particularly powerful, which meant it was vicious and cruel as they came. One of the higher echelon of students at the academy, Valartas, had been found drowned in the dormitory showers when the water lily seeds he’d procured for Zanir were not up to snuff. That wasn’t the only student he had killed, either. Rumor had it another student beginning his final level of training had failed to please had died due to exsanguination after getting a paper cut for failing to please. There’s no way to know how Malcolm kept the beast in check to work with the Ninth Level apprentices with relative safety, but it had to be something huge.
So, here she’d been, trying to summon an elemental so far out of her league it probably couldn’t even hear her. She’d been sitting here every day for a month to try to summon it successfully. Master had told her that she was free to come to him to wash out at any time, but she was free to have as much time it took to complete her special assignment. The worst part? The stupid blue dye had mostly washed out of her robes and she was back to a dull bluish-pink. It really hadn’t been worth it.
Deciding she’d sat here long enough, moping and miserable, she set out her equipment to begin the summoning ritual. One blue candle, a few white lilies she’d gathered on the way, and a bit of chalk. She set up the candle with the lilies laid out nicely in the front, then drew a circle around them. Around the circle, she began to draw the arcane symbols for summoning water and the specific symbol for Zanir, specifically. Inhaling a deep breath, she read the words scrawled out around the circle, “Earth, Air, Fire, Water. I am in need of you. I, your humble servant, Berilia Amynitha Bowenlark, hereby call you here for an audience, O Zanir the Powerful of this Momentous Waterfall.” Then, she pulled up all of her will, the stubbornness of her nature, the strength and courage of her heart, and lit the candle with her intent and held her breath.
A long moment passed and, just as she was about to give up or pass out due to asphyxiation, the water in the fall transformed into an incredible dragon’s head and rose to reveal a huge, serpentine body with scales glittering every color of the rainbow in the bright morning sunlight. Letting out a loud gasp and a little bit of urine, she just stared up at Zanir, beautiful, dangerous, and looking right back.
“Quite a persistent little one, aren’t you?” he said with a voice made of the roar of the rapids and the waterfall, yet as echoing and clear as the sound of a drop hitting water in a bucket.
She swallowed, and responded, “Oh, wonderful Zanir, I am quite fortunate to have obtained your magnificent attention. I have brought for you fresh-cut lilies from the gardens at the school for the honor to be in your illustrious presence.” She grabbed the lilies from the bench before her and held them out to the water elemental as gracefully as she could.
“Ah, yes. My favorite. Malcolm told me of the situation between you and, I must say, you are quite bold to have envoked his wrath. I thought about making you wait for an entire year, if you could manage to summon me daily for such a time. After a fashion, that is in my nature, as a water elemental. I could kill the likes of you in a moment, but it takes centuries for me to eat through a single stone. Is there any bargain you wish to make?” His eyes whirled greens, blues, and lavenders; breathtaking in their beauty and terrifying in their coldness.
“No, O Great One. Just the truth of our meeting, should Malcolm ask it. I sincerely hope to meet with you again, when I am more adept and skilled than at present. I should like to present a gift to you after Malcolm has resumed my training, Magnificent Zanir.”
The water elemental chuckled, and in a huge crashing wave, was gone. The water in the falls no less tranquil than usual. Picking up her drenched and extinguished candle and wiping out the chalk marks, Beri stood and prepared to leave. As she gathered her robe up about her, she noticed it was a deep, dark purple everywhere it was wet and laughed as she trudged home, even though her return meant dealing with an afternoon of smug argument with Master Malcolm about her Zanir-approved wardrobe alteration.
Rabid Writes 