So, it was a normal afternoon when it happened(isn’t it always?). Camille and I were setting up a sort-of-real chess tournament. The only “participants” were me and her, of course. (She’s terribly jealous of my chess skills, so she‘s always trying to beat me.) Camille was getting one of those little tables out of my room, and I was looking for a chessboard.
“Have you found one yet??” Camille yelled to me from upstairs.
“I think I’m getting close!” Then, I thought that there might be one in my closet, so I went to look. I saw a box with a picture of a chess knight on it, so I grabbed it and headed upstairs.
“Found one! It looks really old. Think I might’ve gotten it for my birthday.” I said.
“Cool! Let’s set up.” So, I set the box on the table and opened it up. But then, a swirling red vortex came out of the box! Camille and I were holding on to whatever we could find.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING??!!!??!!” Camille had to shout to be heard over the noise.
“I DON’T KNOW!!!! MAYBE WE SHOULD TRY TO CLOSE THE BOX!!!”
“GEE, YOU THINK?”
“CAMILLE, THIS IS NOT THE BEST TIME FOR SARCASM! JUST CLOSE THE BOX!!!”
“OKAY, I’LL TRY!! I’VE JUST GOT TO STRETCH A LITTLE MORE…..AAAAAH!!!” Suddenly, Camille was sucked into the box!
“CAMILLE! I’M COMING IN AFTER YOU!!!” Even though I knew it was like, the worst idea ever, I let go. I was sucked right into the vortex, and that’s when it all started.

It turns out that the vortex was more of a portal. I say that because it spit us out onto a checkerboard floor with no walls.
“Where are we?” Camille was right next to me.
“Camille! You’re all right!” I was relieved to find out she was okay.
“Yes, yes, but seriously: WHERE ARE WE?”
“That’d be the question of the day, wouldn’t it?” Suddenly, a boy with spiky(but not too spiky)black hair came towards us. He was wearing a black windbreaker, a white shirt, a pair of jeans, and black combat boots.
“We could be everywhere, or we could be nowhere. It’s really a puzzle for us all. But we call it the Realm.” said the stranger.
“Oh, I’m Simon, by the way. And you would be?”
“I’m Sylvia.”
“And I’m Camille. Nice to meet you. Now, how do we get out, and who do you mean by ‘we’?” Leave it to Camille to ask all the questions.
“To answer your first question, back the way you came-” with that he pointed towards the nonexistent ceiling- ”-and ‘we’ are the rebels.”
“If you and your friends are rebels, then what are you rebelling against?” I was curious, so you really can’t blame me.
“We’re rebelling against the Elders. That‘s why I brought you here.” Before I could say anything else, he started explaining. The Elders didn’t like magic. Most rebels could use magic. Thus, the Elders were trying to destroy the rebels. So of course, the rebels were fighting back.
“…So wait. You’re saying that you can use magic, and you used it to bring us here?” Camille was getting ticked off. But then Simon explained magic. He said that there were 2 main types of magic: Elemental Magic, and Basic Magic. There were 4 kinds of Elemental Magic, but a Mage could only have one: Fire, Earth, Air, or Water. Fire and Air are offensive magic. Earth and Water are defensive magic. Then there was Basic Magic. Basic Magic could take all kinds of forms, like necromancy, shapeshifting, ability to talk to animals, and control over certain things, like metal. But then Simon told me something that neither of us could believe(and when I say that, I mean that Camille LITERALLY couldn’t believe it).
“You two are wizards, just like me.”
“…Ha! Good one! Like that’s true. If I have powers, then why do I always lose at chess?” See what I mean?
“Um, Camille? Maybe he’s telling the truth. I mean, come on, anything is possible, right?”
“She’s right.”
“Hmm…Maybe. Wait! If you’re so magical, then prove it!”
“Okay.” With that, Camille lifted into the air and dangled by her ankle.
“Believe me now?”
“Yes! Yes! Just put me down!”
“Okay.” Then, BANG! Simon dropped her on the floor-hard.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to do that.”
“All right, so I’m guessing you can use telekinesis?” I’m pretty good at guessing things, so I figured I was right.
“You’re getting it now! I should tell you your powers now, shouldn’t I?”
He seemed eager to tell us.
“Sure, why not?“ I was calm about it, but Camille was still suspicious.
“Okay, so Camille is a Fire Mage, and Sylvia, you’re a Basic Mage, but I don’t know exactly what kind yet. Only time will tell. But meanwhile, I should take you back to camp to train. And Piper, your brother is here. You never met him because he was pulled in here at a young age, before you were born.”
“My…brother?” I knew I had a brother, but Mom told me that he ran away.
“Oh sure, so Sylvia gets to be a Basic Mage with some sort of awesome power and a long-lost brother, but I can only control fire?” said Camille.
“Actually, Fire Magic is one of the most powerful kinds of magic.” Simon was confused at her sarcasm.
“Never mind. I‘m fine with it.”
At camp, Camille was whisked off to the place where Fire Mages train, while Simon ran some tests. We tried telekinesis(no), control over metal(no), ability to talk to animals(definitely no), and even necromancy(no, no, and no). Nothing seemed to spark, except that I had a natural ability to do Elemental spells.
“Hmm…I guess you’ll have to figure it out on your own. Would you like to go see how Camille’s coming along?”
“Sure! Why not?” At the Fire Camp, Camille was doing great! She was juggling fireballs and shooting flames out of her fingertips.
“Pretty cool, huh Sylvia?” Camille seemed eager to show off. “So did you find out your power yet?”
“No, not yet. We tried everything, though.”
“Ah, well. It’s getting late. We should turn in.”
“Yeah, probably. I’m exhausted.” I could tell that Camille was pretty tired, too. Simon had already gone to bed. At our room, I tried to do magic again, but nothing clicked, so I went to sleep.

When I woke up, I was apparently chained up somewhere. But I had no idea why, or how. All I knew was that I wanted to get out. NOW.
“Well, well, you finally woke up, huh?” Someone was talking, but I couldn’t see them, so I looked up. When I did, I saw a boy with very dark brown hair, almost black, wearing all black leather clothing. He had startling brown eyes, and they were familiar, but I couldn’t recall where I saw them.
“Three questions, and I’d better get answers: Who are you, why am I here,
and what do you want with me?” I was getting mad, fast.
“Well, you’re here because I need to talk, what I want with you is to convince you to join me, and I’m Landon. I’m not going to bother with the formalities, though. What they’ve told you is that they can’t think of what your power might be. But really, they know, but they don’t want you to know. The same happened with me. If I had stayed there, I would never have known I had control over metal. So really, I’m doing you a favor.” It was a couple minutes before I understood. He was tricking me, and someone had tricked him.
“Okay, so either this is all a crazy dream, or you’re a figment of my imagination and the worst is yet to come. Because I know that you know that I’m not that stupid.” Hmm. I took boxing, right? And I got really good at it. I wonder… Even though I knew I would break my knuckles, I tried to break the chains by punching them. Surprisingly, it worked(without breaking my knuckles, no less!).
“Ha. You really think that it’s going to be that easy?” He even sounded like a jerk.
“Yes. Yes I do.” With that, I broke the chains binding my foot. He didn’t seem too happy about that.
“Getting cocky, are we?”
“Dude. Nobody speaks like that anymore.” It was true.
“Piper! Are you okay?” It was Simon and Camille!
“What does it look like?”
“I knew those boxing lessons would pay off!” Camille seemed happy.
“I know, right?”
“Hello? If you two came for her brother, then take him. His eyes watch me at night, and it creeps me out.”
Uh-oh. We forgot about that guy.
“Piper? I meant to tell you…who you called that guy is your brother.” How did Simon know?
“What, can you read minds too?”
“How’d you guess?”
“Lucky hunch. But more importantly, that is my brother?”
“You know, I have feelings too!” He wasn’t too happy to be referred to as a thing. I guess he was my brother. And I just realized! That’s where I’ve seen those eyes! They’re my eyes! Creepy.
“If you’re my brother, then WHY did you kidnap me?”
“You know why. I explained it to you in a big, long speech earlier.”
“Um, Piper? I meant to tell you that the tests were misguided. You’re an Elemental Mage, not a Basic Mage! But we don’t know what element. It could be a subdivision of one of the elements.” Gee, Simon knew just what to say.
“All right. What are the choices?”
“Let me think…Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Ice, Light, Metal, or Storm.” Wow. He was a total braniac, even by MY standards.
“Narrow it down, would you?” Camille read my mind-not literally, like ‘read your mind and creep you out‘, but more like ‘know what you‘re thinking at that moment‘.
“They said either Earth, Ice, or Storm. They also said that it was ultimately your choice, which doesn’t happen often.”
“Hmm…Camille, do you think that Storm would be good?”
“Mmm, probably. But you would be better off with Earth.” She knew me well, and I trusted her.
“You’re right. Let me try this.” I imagined stone daggers in my hand that were made for throwing, and surprisingly(what are the odds that something surprising would happen twice in one day?)two daggers rose out of the ground. Literally.
“I see that you’ve chosen Earth.” Simon might be smart, but he didn’t have much focus. He was staring off into space when I was choosing an Element.
“Let’s try this out.” I had good aim(I took archery a few summers ago), so I tried throwing one of them at Landon. He jumped out of the way just in time.
“Hey! I thought that you had sympathy, cause you know, I’M YOUR BROTHER??”
“Ah, but you know what they say, dear brother, all is fair in love and war.” It was one of my favorite quotes. Actually, I like a lot of quotes.
“Ooh, burn.” Camille was a real goof sometimes. Anyways, a few hours later, we were back at the camp, and I was training in the physical fighting room with Camille.
“You know, we could settle down here. Simon said that the time in the outside world is frozen until we go back. If we go back, it’ll be like nothing happened.” I stopped punching the dummy for a second. What?
“How come?”
“Well, here, it’s like a place where we can be…us. We don’t have to act different.” That was true.
“Yeah, maybe we could.”
Later that day, I was talking to Simon.
“Simon? You know how Landon mentioned another brother? What’s with that?”
“Well, you’re your other brother’s twin, and Landon is your older brother. So I guess that he has your brother somewhere, but judging by his tone, he found him that way. So I really don’t know what to do.”
“So…my twin brother is a statue, I have a jerk of an older brother who claims he's innocent. Out of all the things that I’ve heard here, that’s the most believable. That’s just sad.”
“If you want, we can go get him.” That was the best thing he’d said all day.
“That would be great, but I have to train first.” I was weak.
“That makes sense.”
I had to sleep before anything else, though.
“Sylvia?” Why was Camille still up?
“Yeah?”
“You asleep yet?”
“No, why?”
“Well…can you believe all that’s happened today? And come on, I knew that I‘d have a sleepover with you, but this is ridiculous.”
“Camille?”
“Yeah, Syl?”
“Will you let me sleep now?”
“Yeah.”

The next day was filled with training. I mastered making weapons out of stone, but I was working on lifting rocks out of the ground. And it’s harder when there isn’t any earth. But, practice makes perfect. I wanted Camille to see this, so I called her.
“Hello?” At least I got cell service.
“It’s me. You have to come see this!” After I said that, I hung up. Camille got over there quick.
“Wow…it’s amazing! The entire place is made of earth?” She seemed impressed. I couldn’t blame her.
“Yeah! Isn’t it cool?”
“Very. How’s the training coming along?” I knew she would ask that!
“Well, I’ve mastered making weapons, and I’m learning to lift rocks, but it’s harder when there isn’t any earth.”
“Good start!” She knew just what to say.

A few weeks later, I had mastered lifting rocks, and I was getting better at creating the earth I needed. Camille had mastered Fire Magic(which is very impressive, even for her). There was one thing left to do.
“Simon?” I needed to ask him something.
“Yes?”
“I’m ready to get my brother back.”
“Are you sure?”
“…What do you think? Would I have walked all the way here if I wasn’t ready?”
“Good point. Let’s go.”
When we got there, I banged on the door as loud as I could.
“LANDON!! IF YOU DON’T LET US IN, THEN I’LL BREAK THE DOOR!!” That was me. He didn’t answer, which was a mistake. I punched the door and it shattered to pieces.
“Hey! I worked hard on that!”
“Remember what I said? All is fair-”
“’In love and war’, yeah yeah. I thought I was supposed to be the wise one.”
“Ha! Good one! But seriously, I want my brother back.” Right to the point.
“All right, but I don’t know how to unfreeze him. I found him like that. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He brought out a life-size replica of a boy around my age-but it was plated in metal.
“What…happened?” I was very worried.
“Yeah, what happened?”
“I found him like this! I didn’t do it! Why would I? He’s my brother!” He had a point, but I didn’t realize it then.
“Sylvia, he’s telling the truth. Why would he Encase his own brother?” Simon was right. He was a jerk, but then again, if he wanted me dead after I broke the chains, then he would have been perfectly capable of doing it. So why would he Encase my brother?
“All right. You’re safe-for now. But I’ve got my eye on you. Understand?”
“Okay, okay. I get it.” Ha! He seemed like he was about to wet his pants!
“Good. Because if I catch you trying to do any funny business…” I was serious, though.
“All right…”
“So, when will you be able to unfreeze him?” I wanted to know.
“I’ve been trying to learn for weeks. Did you think that I wasn’t training?”
“Well…”
“Hey! Well, I am training. It doesn’t help that you keep busting in here, you know!”
“I guess you have a point for once. I’ll give you…well, how long will it take, Simon?”
“Around 3 weeks.”
“I’ll give you 4 weeks to be generous. I’ll come back, and you’d better be ready.”
“Can I have 5 weeks?”
“Don’t push it.”

When we got back to the camp, I was talking to Simon.
“Simon, do you think that we could…I don’t know…make him not evil? He would be a good ally…and a good friend.”
“Hmm…there IS a chance that I could do something that would wipe the memory of the spell from his brain…but he would have to agree. How persuasive are you?”
“Are you kidding? I’m very persuasive.” It’s true. I once told Camille that her shoelaces were untied, and she reached down and tried to fix them. Apparently, Simon looked at my thoughts.“I see. You’d have to persuade him to agree when I reach into his mind. And if he doesn’t agree…then all of his memories will be wiped.” Crap. I didn’t think of that.
“All right…I’ll do it. When do we leave?”
“As soon as you’re ready.”
“Because I want to get the one who did this to my brothers.”