The team on the field huddled together discussing strategies. Parker counted how many players were in the huddle. “So, a team is made up of six players?” Master Sora’s face grew a shade darker.

“Well, actually, that’s where you two come in. A team is made up of eight players, not six. Our team is currently two short.”

“What happened to the other two players?” Alexis stared at Master Sora, seeing the beads of sweat roll down his cheeks.

“Let me introduce you to our players and see how we can make the two of you fit in.”

He led Parker and Alexis back out of the door and down to the entrance to the field. On the door to the field there was a sign that read, “Enter at your own risk. If there is a match going on, wait for an intermission before entering.”

Both of the kids looked a little perplexed by the note. Parker and Alexis asked in unison, “Do people get hurt a lot in Aether?” Master Sora didn’t answer, but instead, opened the door and ushered the kids inside.

When Parker stepped onto the field, he immediately gasped at what he saw. From above, the field didn’t look all that large. But looking at it from the same level, the field looked enormous. He wondered how you could play a sport on a field this large without getting absolutely exhausted.

They could see the team, or what they had of a team, still practicing. The girl in the goal was the first to notice that there were some new people on the field. She raised her hand and pushed it out in front of her like she pushing someone away from her.

Parker felt a gust of wind whip passed him toward the other players on the team. He turned and looked toward the other players and a second later they all stopped what they were doing. The team made their way over to them.

“Master Sora! What are you doing here? You don’t usually make it to our practices.” The girl that had been in the goal said this, sounding excited that he had shown up.

One of the girls that had been running with the ball down the field said, “Not like our practices matter that much right now. We still don’t have a full team. I can’t believe no one has come out yet. Fliers have been going around for weeks looking for new recruits.”

“Well, you’re in luck! I think I’ve found the two recruits that you’ve been looking for.” Master Sora sounded pleased with himself, as though if it weren’t for him, the team would be out of luck.

Parker and Alexis stood next to one another blushing, while the team stared at them, sizing them up. From the looks on their faces, Parker and Alexis got the feeling that they weren’t overly impressed with what they saw.

“They’re first years. You want to fill the opening with first years?” What the team said didn’t make Parker and Alexis feel like they were wanted any more.

Master Sora raised his hand and the team looked at him. “Just give them a chance. I would like you to explain the game to them, then try a couple of plays and see what they can do.”

The team seemed reluctant at first, but then decided to just give them a try. “Hi, my name is Evelyn Quinn, I’m a third year. I cover the goal for the team to make sure that the other team doesn’t score on us.”

“I’m Finn Shaw.” Parker turned to see a tall, stocky boy with short brown hair say. “Claire and I are blockers. We help defend the goal using our Imperial.”

Finn pointed at Claire, a tall blonde, for Parker and Alexis to see. She spoke in an excited voice, “Hi! I’m Claire Oswald. As Finn said, I’m one of the blockers on the team.”

A girl the same size as Alexis, with long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail said, “Hello. I’m Cassidy Blackburn, also a third year. I’m one of the three, well, one of the two shooters. Shooters are the ones who take the ball around and try to score.” Parker could barely hear what Cassidy had said. She spoke very softly, putting off the impression that she was a very shy girl.

Another girl, who was also very tall said, “I’m Gwendolyn, but everyone calls me Gwen. I’m the other shooter on the team. When Cassidy said that she was one of the three, that’s because there are supposed to be three shooters on a team. Kenny disappeared on us. He’s our usual third.”

Parker looked at Master Sora just as Gwen said this. The master stared at Gwen in disbelief. “Gwen, we talked about this before.” The look on her face said she didn’t care that they had talked about it. She gave off the vibe that she was a straightforward kind of person.

“What do you mean, disappeared?” Alexis asked this, even though the tension between everyone seemed thick enough to cut with a knife. Master Sora gave a loud sigh and said, “Well, I didn’t want to tell you, being first years and only your third day here, but I guess that’s over. We’ve had a couple of students disappear from the school. Now, whether they’ve actually disappeared, or are just hiding somewhere is still to be determined. A lot of the students are really worried about it though.”

Everyone’s faces looked rather grim as if they’d just received the news that someone had passed away. Parker tried to change the topic, “So, what do you do?” he asked a boy standing off to the side.

This boy was tall and lanky with hair like Parkers. “I’m Clayton ‘Clay’ Reid. I’m an attacker. I help the shooters get passed the blockers and do what I can to help score. I’m really good at spinning players and throwing off their equilibrium.”

Parker looked around for the other attacker, figuring there were two of them just like the blockers, but realized that everyone had introduced him or herself. “Is the other attacker one of the students that disappeared?” he asked. The silence that overtook the group answered Parker’s question.

“Anyway!” Master Sora boomed. “Give these new ones a try and see what they can do”

“Your goal is to score on me and Finn,” Evelyn said. Alexis and Parker walked in the opposite direction as the two players.

“Alexis, do you have any idea how to do this?” Parker whispered. Alexis shrugged her shoulders but had a large grin on her face.

“We just need to score. How hard can that be? I’ll take the ball since I’ve played for so long.” Parker was fine with this, but wasn’t sure what he should do to help her.

A whistle blew and Alexis started kicking the ball down the field. Parker had seen her do this before so he wasn’t shocked, however, the rest of the team was impressed with what they were seeing. Parker began running after her, watching carefully at what Finn was doing.

Finn made his way toward Alexis, but not quickly, as if he was gauging what Parker was going to try. As soon as Alexis crossed the middle line, Parker caught up to her. They were both hit with a blast of wind that knocked them off of their feet and flat onto their backs.

The whistle blew again. Finn and Evelyn made their way over to Parker and Alexis. “Now, that you know what to expect once you cross that line, how about we try again.”

They made their way back to where they started the first time. The whistle echoed across the field. Parker noticed that Finn wasn’t coming at them this time. “I don’t think Finn is allowed to cross that line to come at us.” Alexis pointed out that Finn was a defender, so his goal was to stop her from scoring. Which meant that if she was going to be a shooter, Parker had to be an attacker and help get her to the goal.

“All right, Parker, if you see Finn coming at me, you need to help me get passed him. Which means you’ll need to use your Imperial to stop him.

Parker nodded and they started making their way down the field. As they neared the centerline, Finn started making his way toward them. Alexis signaled to Parker that Finn was making his move and Parker took off in a sprint. Alexis waited a moment and then began sprinting toward the goal.

Quickly, Parker thought about wanting to knock Finn off of his feet so that Alexis could get by him. He focused his thoughts and then thrust his arm toward Finn. A blast of air surged from his palm and knocked Finn square on his back.

Alexis flew passed Finn as he lay catching his breath. Parker was sprinting right next to Alexis as they approached the goal. Evelyn was waiting; positive that she could stop whatever they threw her way. She kicked the ball as hard as she could to the right side of the goal.

Parker watched the ball travel through the air toward Evelyn. In a split second, he got an idea that might help score a goal. He refocused his thought from earlier and thrust his arm toward the ball. Another burst of air surged from his palm and collided with the back of the ball. The ball rocketed forward, faster than Evelyn could react. The ball spun in the back of the net as Evelyn turned to look at it in disbelief.

“Woo!” Alexis screamed. “I can’t believe we did it!” Parker ran to her and gave her a high-five.

“Great kick, Alexis! I knew you were good but I didn’t know you could kick a ball that hard.”

She looked at him, blushing a little from his compliment. “Well, your air burst sure helped a lot. Where’d you come up with that idea?” He explained that it just kind of came to him in the moment, which he hadn’t planned to do it ahead of time.

Everyone circled up by Master Sora to discuss everything that had just happened. Cassidy was the first to speak. “Well, they have my vote. That was awesome. You would think they’ve been playing this together for years, not ten minutes.”

Both Evelyn and Finn agreed, saying that they were very impressed with their unspoken communication on the field. Parker and Alexis were acting very shy and timid at the compliments they were receiving.

“Thanks.” Alexis mumbled. She didn’t know what to say in that moment so she waited for Master Sora to speak again.

“I think The House of Erion has a full team again. I will find them uniforms for their matches. It will be up to you to let them know your practice and match schedule. Also, it may have looked like it, but I would guess that they don’t actually know the rules to the game.” Parker and Alexis were both shaking their heads.

Parker explained that they just did what felt like the right thing to do in order to make sure Alexis could make it to the goal.

Master Sora had left and the team was now sitting on the floor above looking down at the field. Claire and Finn began explaining their position as blockers. Claire focused on their location on the field. “We spend our time protecting our goal. The blockers are not allowed to cross the centerline, but it looked like you caught onto that during your try-outs.” Finn complimented them on being observant as to where he was standing on the field and when he reacted to them.

“Now, it’s a little different in practice compared to the matches. Matches last until one team is three points ahead of the other. In the matches, you have to remember that the other teams will use their element against you. The House of Gia is very difficult to get passed because they mess with the ground itself. So, the shooters have to be careful, but I’ll leave that to them to explain. For the blockers, The House of Leith is very strong at protecting their goal by going straight for the ball, not the player. The House of Kenna uses brute force. They go straight for the players with their fire. I’ll be honest, it’s scary the first few times they come after you, but you’ll get used to it. The uniforms are fire resistant and if anything happens directly to you from the fire, we have Water Healers in the school that will help you out.”

Parker and Alexis looked a little nervous as Finn was explaining what the other houses did for defending their goals. But, when he mentioned Water Healers, they were blown away. “You mean, The House of Leith has people in it that can heal injuries?” Parker couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around that. Evelyn told Parker not to worry about that and explained that he’d learn about it in class.

Clay began explaining the role of attacker. “Well, based on what I saw, you’ve got a pretty good grasp on what your job is. Our job is to protect the shooters, just like you did by knocking Finn off his feet. Which, by the way, is not an easy task, so kudos. When it comes to stopping the blockers from the other teams, I’ll talk to you later about the best ways to stop them.”

Cassidy and Gwen started explaining their jobs on the field. Cassidy was holding the ball and explaining what she focused on. “Like Alexis, I’m good at handling the ball with my feet. However, that doesn’t mean you should only focus on using your feet. Throwing in variety will help throw off the other houses.”

Alexis had a very confused look on her face. “What do you mean throw in some variety? Can we use our Imperial too?” Cassidy shook her head and explained that only attackers and blockers can use their element.

“The shooters are allowed to use either their hands or their feet with the ball.” Alexis was shocked but intrigued at how Aether was rather different than soccer.

Gwen started talking about how she wasn’t the best at handling the ball with her feet but was really good at passing between the shooters. “The other houses think I’m not much of a threat on the field because I rarely kick the ball. But they overlook how good I am at moving the ball between our shooters to give them the right opportunity to score.”

“My job is pretty self-explanatory,” Evelyn laughed. “I do everything I can to keep the ball out of our goal. That’s pretty much everything you need to know about the positions. Now, let’s talk about the field. There’s the main field, which is where we were. Then, if you look at the outside, you’ll see a ring of water that goes around the whole floor. As you can guess, that’s for The House of Leith to use during the matches. Do your best to keep the ball out of it. If you look at the walls, you’ll see some windows that are open to the outside, those are for us to use. We have an unlimited amount of air at our disposal. The House of Kenna doesn’t need any changes and The House of Gia uses the ground under our feet.”

Claire handed Parker and Alexis the practice and match schedule. They looked through it and were shocked that they only had a couple weeks of practice before they started matches.

Practice would start tomorrow, most of them being in the evening with a few being first thing in the morning, before breakfast started. “That’s all for today,” she explained. “We’ll start explaining strategies at tomorrow's practice. See you here after dinner!”

Parker and Alexis made their way to the fourth floor having missed the rest of their first class. When they opened the door, everyone’s heads turned toward them because the class had already begun.

Master Kingston and another adult were at the head of the class. “Ahem. Might I ask where you’ve been? Not a good start to the year being late to our first class.”

Beads of sweat started forming on Parkers brow. Alexis was quick to save them. “Master Sora took us out of our last class to meet The House of Erion Aether team.” Master Kingston did not look convinced or accepting of their excuse.

“I’ll have a talk with him about that. He could at least give me a heads up that you’d be late. Anyways, where was I?”

Caleb raised his hand, “You had just started talking about the origins of each house.”

Master Kingston’s face lit up, “Ah! Yes! Of course.”

Parker and Alexis took their seat at the back of the class, disappointed that they couldn’t sit next to Caleb. The class went by in a blur. Parker tried to pay attention but he was distracted by all of the information he had received in the last few hours.

He couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing it was that he’d made the team, but was nervous in case he was a disappointment to the team. He stared out of the window next to his seat, looking down on the courtyard below. Memories raced through his head from his time at home before he came to Lancastre. He remembered all of the weird things happening around the house, getting burned, his dad acting weird and then the robed figure that appeared and disappeared as if it hadn’t even been there.

Parker couldn’t convince himself that he had just been seeing things. He could see groups of kids walking through the courtyard, laughing at each other, enjoying their time out of class. The courtyard looked like it was very relaxing to spend time in. He made a mental note to take Alexis and Caleb there when they had some free time.

Alexis kicked his chair to bring him back to reality. “Hey, it’s time to leave. We finally get to go have lunch.” They grabbed their things and started to walk out of the room. Master Kingston stopped them before they made it out.

“I assume we won’t have this issue again?” Parker didn’t like the vibe he was getting from her. It didn’t seem like she was a very cheery person.

Alexis to the rescue again said, “I highly doubt it. Master Sora grabbed us out of our last class and we’ve been with him since. We have our schedule now and nothing interferes with class so it shouldn’t be a problem.” Master Kingston looked down at them, frustration furrowing her brow.

“Good, this is not a class that you want to miss.” She turned her gaze directly at Parker, “Or one that you want to zone out in, by staring out of windows.”

Parker’s heart started racing, now aware that the master had noticed he wasn’t focused. “Anyway, we will review what we learned today and then go more in-depth behind each of the elements. Go and get your lunches, can’t have you spacing out in your next class.”

They found Caleb sitting at a table with Hailee and a couple of others. When they sat down to eat their Element Bars, Hailee practically screamed at them. “I can’t believe you made the Aether team! That’s so amazing! I’ve always wanted to play but I’m way too uncoordinated.”

Caleb didn’t say anything about this new information. He seemed a little upset that they hadn’t told him about it.

“I was just as surprised,” Alexis said. “I never imagined that something like this would happen. He just took us out of our first class and had us try-out for the team.”

Parker noticed that Caleb wasn’t even looking at them. “Hey, is everything okay? How were your classes? How about your Omni class? What was it like?”

Caleb lifted his gaze from his food to Parker. “Well, my classes were fine, but I’m not allowed to talk about my Omni class.”

The whole table stopped eating their food. “What do you mean you’re not allowed to talk about your Omni class? Why not?” Alexis didn’t understand why he wouldn’t be allowed to talk about a class but she let it go, figuring he would explain when he could.

The group finished their lunch and went to their last class of the day. It flew by, each distracted by something. Alexis found herself thinking of strategies she could share with the team on the best way to score. Caleb focused on his class that he was the only one in. Parker, again, stared out of the window next to his seat.

Being the first day of their Air Imperials class, they sat at one end of the enormous room they were in. Part of the room had desks lined up in front of a chalkboard. The other part of the room was a wide, open space with various objects scattered about. Windows lined the entire length of the room looking out over a couple courtyards and towers. The lake could be seen just past the towers, glistening in the sunlight.

Master Sora and a very small woman stood at the front, explaining the different things they would be learning in this class. Parker didn’t hear a single word of it. He stared out of the window at the tower jutting into the sky about fifty feet away.

It had clear windows that Parker could see through. Inside was a large staircase, just like the one by The Regale. He could see groups of students walking by heading to their classes.

Time seemed to pass very slowly. Parker had seen group after group stroll past the large window. Then, he noticed someone standing in the window staring back at him. They didn’t move past like all of the other students had.

Parker squinted his eyes, trying to see who it might be. Maybe it was someone he had met and they noticed he was in this window. As he strained his eyes, he could see who it was. It wasn’t a student he had met, not even one of the masters.

He would never forget the look of the robed figure that had stood in his bedroom. The person that had practically destroyed his room but then magically put it back together.

He never had gotten a good look at the figures face. Parker turned and tried to get Alexis’s attention but she was so focused on what the master was saying that she didn’t notice his attempt to gain her attention.

Parker turned back to the window and the figure was gone. “Am I going crazy?”

Everyone turned and looked at him. “Parker, is there something you would like to say?” Master Sora was now standing next to him.

“Uh… I thought I said that in my head…” The master looked at him, trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

“We can talk later, for now, I need you to focus for me. Can’t have you missing important information.”

They finished the class, but Parker only made it look like he was focused. He couldn’t get the robed figure out of his mind.

As they walked from the class, Alexis and Caleb met up with Parker in the corridor. “Is everything okay Parker?” Alexis had sounded worried about Parker’s little outburst in class. “Hello… Parker, you in there?” She nudged his arm, snapping him back to reality.

“What? Oh, yeah. I’m okay. Just thought I saw something during class, no biggie though.” He was trying to brush past their question so he didn’t have to explain everything. “Let’s head back to the common room and just relax for a while. It’s been a long day already.”

It was a quick walk from class to the common room. Standing below the entrance, Parker spun fast and shot upward into their house. Alexis followed without hesitation. They landed and looked back for Caleb who hadn’t appeared yet.

Alexis peered down the hole. When you looked from the twenty-first floor, it only looked like the house was twenty feet overhead. However, looking down the hole, there was no illusion of how high they actually were. She could barely make Caleb out as he stood below. “Caleb! What are you waiting for?” she yelled down to him.

He looked up nervously to her, took a deep breath and spun. The wind swirled around him. He rose through the air slowly, approaching the entrance. His head was about three feet from the start of the entrance when he crashed back to the ground.

Caleb sat on the ground, mad that he couldn't even make it up high enough to enter the house. It only made him mad because both Parker and Alexis could do it. He shouldn't have been mad though, and he knew it, because they were the only two in the class who could do it so far.

“Hey, is everything okay?” Hailee asked as she appeared next to Caleb.

He looked up at her and said, “Yeah… I suppose so. Could… you… possibly help me… get into the house…?” A big smile crept across her face as she lifted him through the air and into the entrance.

When he landed, he saw Alexis and Parker talking. He and Hailee made their way over to them. “Wanna know a little secret?” Hailee asked. They all nodded their heads. “Come this way.” She led them out to the balcony. “Well, sometimes I like to fly up on the roof to relax. No one ever goes up there. I never understood why though. It’s not against any of the school rules.”

Hailee was the first to fly up, followed by Parker, then Alexis. Alexis turned around to see Caleb appear but no one showed. She walked to the edge of the roof and looked down. Caleb was staring up at her from the balcony. “I’m still nervous to fly. There’s no way I can fly up there with the risk of falling over three hundred feet to my death. I’ll just see you guys when you get back down here.”

Parker understood how Hailee could relax up on the roof. “This is amazing. It’s like we’re in the clouds.” The sky was a vibrant blue. The sun beamed down casting dark shadows across the ground.

The three of them remained on the roof until the sun set. The sky illuminated in shades of pink and orange as the sun descended below the horizon. They could see the moon rising into the sky, the stars starting to shine down from above.

“Well, we should probably head in for dinner.” They made their way back down to the balcony and found Caleb relaxing on a couch. “Ready to grab some dinner Caleb?”

Down in the dining hall, everyone was gathered and sitting at their tables. A low buzz rolled through room as everyone enjoyed their Element Bars. The first years still found it a little difficult to only eat a couple of them.

Across the dining hall, the students were talking about various things; classes, how well they control their element, Aether and what they like to do during their down time.

Dinner rolled by and the students made their way back to their common rooms. They didn’t spend much more time talking. Everyone was ready for bed after a long day.