March 31, 1995
Coralis was exhausted. For the past few months, she spent all of her time between classes, flyball, additional classes and the library. She felt like she had no free time for herself, even if she considered flyball practices and games as fun times. She missed the shenanigans with her friends.
She hadn't received any random letters for over a year, but she remembered them well. She was tired of it all: of the looming threat hanging above her head, the uneasy feeling of something watching her and waiting for it to concretize, the overloaded extra-curriculum activities, and all of those people who thought she would start worshipping Lord Meozo just because her parents did. The day he'd come for her, she wanted to destroy him for good and end it with him.
At 19:00, she sat in the library, once again, trying to research what had been tried before to destroy the type of creature Lord Meozo became. As far as she knew, from all the stories she read and heard from her teachers and friends, he was born an earth elemental mage, but always sought to be more.
Like her, he was an orphan, but not because his parents died when he was a baby: he made himself an orphan. She couldn't figure out why. Now that she was surrounded by people who grew up in a loving family and that she experienced it, she couldn't fathom why someone would want to be without that.
Since she started at the GES, she began to understand a lot of the things that Ms. Lenoir and Ms. Henrien, two of her social workers, had tried to explain, and why they pushed for a trial, even if it was clear it was a lost cause.
He never was happy with what he was and started chasing the wrong demon to make himself more powerful, to be above it all. Over the years, he became cursed. Not only was he chasing and swallowing powers of all kinds, he was also chasing immortality and he wanted fellow elementals to worship him as a god.
Coralis began to realize that beneath it all, he was a scared little boy, who sought the approval of his mother, but she couldn't accept what he was becoming and what he stood for. He felt he never was good enough for her and wanted to feel he was above her: he wanted her to worship him and to be the only one she needed.
In the end, he got so addicted to the sense of adoration he got from his followers and to the idea that his supporters would do anything to please him, that he forgot about his mother. She sought his attention, to bring her boy back, but he couldn't see it.
Coralis struggled to stay awake but she pushed through. She had to find a way to end Lord Meozo. Based on everything she read, she wondered what the EBEE and the CMMA were thinking. Merely dissolving his body from within a summoning circle would never have kept him away forever but only buy them some time. She found some occurrences of similar situations and began to read about what was done to end such cursed creatures.
Victoria sat beside her. Unlike Coralis, she didn't struggle to stay awake and enjoyed sitting at the library to research. Like her friend, she was growing angrier with the whole situation. Victoria hated that her friend was continually a target. She didn't regret becoming friends with Coralis, but she wished that her own life wouldn't be in danger just because she was close to her.
"Coralis Golmar," the librarian whispered. Coralis jumped on her seat, she didn't see him walking up to her, "Principal Arthurio wants to see you now."
"Oh okay, thanks. I'll go see him now."
Coralis stood and pushed the book she was reading toward Victoria.
"I have to go see Principal Arthurio. It better not be for a detention, I had no time to get into any sort of trouble."
"Well… I can think of something… and I hope it's not because of that. Those two are helping to keep us alive and Principal Arthurio isn't."
What Principal Arthuro told her was the last thing she expected to hear. Her cousin Nadilla killed herself the night before. Coralis couldn't believe it. "No, Nadilla wouldn't do that. There is no way. She was happy at school and didn't return to a group home in years… did she lie on that?"
She stood in front of the principal without listening, lost in her own thoughts. Until he clapped his hands in front of her face. She looked at him staring at her and she bolted out of his office.
The first window she saw, she spelled it to open, grabbed her flying stick keychain from her cloak and jumped off, turning her keychain onto her stick in the same motion. She went into such a rage that she conjured up a storm without realizing it. The sky filled with lightning and thunder.
She was angry at herself. She should have been there for her. The last few years, she was so set on spending her summers with the Fullemons, trying to get a glimpse of what life with a happy family was truly like, that she completely neglected the one family member she had.
She felt guilty. She started thinking about the letters that Nadilla had sent her over the last few years. She was happy at her school. Like her, one of her friend's family wanted to adopt her. Maybe they changed their mind and she was tired of it all, of never being able to entertain hope of happiness. Coralis didn't think it was the case.
Something didn't add up and she had to find out what really happened. She had to go to the funeral. She didn't know if she could: she didn't listen to anything Principal Arthurio had said after he told her the news so she would need to talk to Martha. If she couldn't, she didn't care if she'd get expelled over it: she would go to the funeral.
Martha told her that she had already arranged it: Coralis and Victoria would fly to Sudbury, where they would meet with Victoria's parents. From there, a special transport will take them to Northern Ontario. The school had already agreed to let her attend the funeral, considering Nadilla was the only family member she had. Martha had insisted that Coralis needed a close friend with her, to at least balance out her emotions. Although Victoria's parents didn't live close to the WES, they were a lot closer than the Fullemons.
At the funeral, Coralis stayed silent the entire time. She couldn't process anything, but she listened to everything. Nothing made sense. Nadilla was happy, she had no reason to kill herself. One of her friends, Laticia, refused to believe that Nadilla killed herself and was convinced that the school was covering something up, but no one would listen to her. Laticia's parents applied to adopt Nadilla. To her, she was like a twin sister from a distant relative. She listened to many more conversations and concluded Lord Meozo must have been behind her death.
When Coralis returned to Scotland, she refused to talk to anyone and distanced herself from everyone. When she wasn't in class, she was up in the sky, either hovering above the school and sitting on her stick, or playing flyball. She missed her weekly meetings with Martha and Swope, but they understood: Coralis was grieving the only family she had. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that Lord Meozo was behind Nadilla's death.
May 4, 1995
Coralis had started to talk to people again but to a select few. She was still ignoring most people, answering yes or no when she needed to. She could feel the unbalanced power stirring within her. Flyball was the only way she knew to let go of everything without hurting anyone accidentally: it was a brutal sport.
That night, scouts for the British and Canadian national flyball teams attended the game. Once again, for nearly the entire match, the crowd loudly chanted the name Blue Thunder but she wasn't paying attention to them.
The British scouts were impressed but found she was too young. Coralis was only 14 years old and in her 5th year at school. They decided to wait another year or two but they signed up Erik and Henry: they were 16 years old and in their last year at school, despite their numerous detentions.
The Canadian scouts, however, sought to sign Coralis up as a reservist until she was out of school. They remembered the inter-school tournament the previous year and had their eyes on her the moment they read about her background. Coralis attended a school in Scotland but she was born in Canada and grew up there, making her eligible for their team.
Coralis was excited at the opportunity, as playing flyball professionally was a dream of hers. She wanted to continue playing it with Erik and Henry but the British team wanting to wait meant that it was not a sure thing. Figuring it could be fun to play against them, she wanted to sign up with The Northerners, the Canadian team, if they wanted to recruit her, even as a reservist. Erik and Henry agreed with her.
Because Coralis was only 14 years old, her appointed guardian, Martha, had to agree to it. With everything that Coralis went through, especially for the past few weeks, Martha saw it as something positive for her so she agreed. She was glad to see her excited about something: she was finally getting out of her isolation shell.
Martha gave The Northerners one condition: they had to sign her up under the name of Blue Thunder. She was a minor under her protection, her identity could not be revealed to the general public for her safety. She also told the scouts that given her academic records, she would likely be graduating after her 7th year.
The following weekend, The Northerners' team officials came to the GES to watch a flyball game and to sign Blue Thunder as a reservist attacker until she graduated from school, after which she would become a main attacker. The team officials trusted their scouts, but after hearing the way they spoke of her, they had to see one of her games for themselves.
They had to have her on their team. With what they saw, they would have signed her under any condition. Her guardian could have asked for more money, but the only condition was that she had to be signed as Blue Thunder. They didn't know where that nickname came from, but if she had to be signed as Blue Thunder, then she would be signed under that name.