“Hurry.  Hurry,” Leeteuk hissed, ushering the six persons ahead of him forward.  “The Headmaster has been calling for us,” he explained quickly as he straightened his loose, tan colored robes and pat his hair, the light brown strands jutting forward and slightly into his deep chestnut colored eyes.

                Eunhyuk groaned as he raised a hand to cover one side of his face, “Not another lecture…”

                Siwon put an arm around the slightly shorter man’s shoulders and winked, “Not that it would do you any good.”  Kyuhyun snickered at the exchange but didn’t say anything, focusing instead on touching up his own feathered black hair where a few stray strands tickled his eyebrows framing intense, dark brown eyes.

                The three girls sighed and shook their heads.  “Come on then,” Kharin shrugged, braided pale chestnut colored hair bouncing on her back.  “Let’s just get it over with.”  Confidently, she led the way and the others followed with no small help from Leeteuk who brought up the rear.  Eleanara and Summer nodded in tandem with her and slipped themselves into the middle of the pack, the former near the rear and the latter closer to the center.

                Today, the interior of the monastery seemed slightly different and nervous gazes traced the decorations and smooth ceiling.  The walls of the monastery held few secrets for them as they had lived there nearly their entire lives.  None of them remembered their family or had any friends outside of the valley they resided in.  It could have been a very lonely existence, but they had each other and the students who resided there, young and old alike.  That was not to say they always got along just fine, but they made it work, if only because they had to.

                Eunhyuk was perpetually pulling pranks and being silly but he was also one that generally kept them laughing.  Kyuhyun had a voice they could all appreciate and it helped to lighten their day when he chose to use it, though it could be equally caustic when he wished it to be.  Siwon was the tallest of the group and among the more protective, sometimes overly so, but he was always quick with a hug or a hand if anyone needed either.  Leeteuk was the more or less self-proclaimed leader and he always worried they would not be ready should they be called upon, but for all his harrying, he was the most dependable of the group.

                Among the girls, Kharin was the leader and typically voiced what was on her mind but she had amazing insight and tended to see the bigger picture more often than most.  Eleanara remained one of the quieter ones but she had her moments as well.  Even more so than Siwon, she was protective of them, a mentality in direct contrast with her diminutive stature.  Summer was another fighter; self-assured in her abilities and quick to help keep the others in line when they took it a step too far.

                All in all, they meshed relatively well, which was good as their interactions with the other persons in the monastery were minimal to say the least.  Among those their own age, they did have some relations, but nothing extensive and few close friendships, if any.  Most didn’t want to get too close in case the time came for them to be called, not that any really expected it.  Their instructors weren’t exactly overly fond of any of the students per say, many of whom had come of their own volition or from their family’s shame.  The Northsage Monastery was a place where one could forget the past or work towards a more enlightened future, but it was a difficult journey to make so only a very few stepped through the doors, year after year.  As such, the monastery was also remarkably self-sufficient, needing infrequent supplies from the village at the base of the mountain pass.

                Kharin pushed open the large double doors that led to the inner hall the Headmaster always called them to when in attendance, and the rest filed in after her, coming up short when they saw him in full regalia.  “We’re here!” Leeteuk announced, coming around from behind them and then pausing as he took in the scene.  His eyes widened and he looked back at the group in surprise and with some trepidation.  There were only a handful of reasons why Headmaster Yoogin would call them before him dressed as he was now.

                The group fell quiet and stared, nervous hands playing with the fabric of their robes, all of the same uniform color.  “Trainees,” Yoogin began, surveying them with his ancient gray eyes.  The wrinkles in his face sagged slightly when he blinked, white eyebrows following the motion tiredly.  He tapped his gnarled oak staff on the stone floor once and nodded.  “It is time.”  Without another word, the stone door in the floor in front of him slowly creaked open, sounding of stone grating on stone.  With all the grace of his station, Yoogin headed down the stairs where wall sconces lit up as he passed by, the hem of his off-white robe dragging on the steps behind him as he descended.  The staff and the ornate headpiece he wore cast shadows along the passage that danced eerily in the firelight.

                Uncertainly, the group moved toward the open portal as one and peered down into the lit hallway.  Headmaster Yoogin was already a good ways ahead of them, but it would not take them long to catch up…once they took that first step anyway.  “At least it’s not a lecture,” Summer shrugged, looking from face to face, waiting to see who would go first.

                “Well,” Leeteuk said at the same time Kharin did.  They laughed nervously and she tipped her head to him to go first.  He smiled and nodded dubiously.  “Let’s go.”  He took his first step and started down the chilly walkway, one hand trailing along the cold stone walls as he walked.  The rest fell in behind with Eleanara following first, Kyuhyun and Summer next, while Siwon, Eunhyuk and Kharin brought up the rear.

                Just to see if she could, as they passed the next wall sconce, Summer reached up and extinguished the firelight, the flames winking out swiftly.  Her grin of triumph was immediately doused when the group all turned to her.  “Summer!” they grumbled as they were flooded in darkness in that area, light flickering before them and behind but nothing where they stood in shadow.

                “Sorry,” she cringed, glaring at the now dead sconce, unable to reignite it so easily.  “I just wanted to see,” she muttered, looking at them in annoyance.  Her ability had been apparent since the time she could walk and she had been encouraged to practice it as often as possible so that she might be well prepared if the time came.  Natural elements were harder to neutralize than created ones, or so she had been told, but simple lights were no problem.

                A sigh reached them from the back.  “Come on guys.  We don’t have time for this,” Kharin reminded them with a look ahead, her green eyes sharp and wary.  Being at the top of the staircase, relatively speaking, it was easy to see they still had a ways to go.

                “She’s right,” Kyuhyun remarked, looking around.  “We’ve played here enough.”  His gaze touched Summer and then passed over her as he looked at Leeteuk in the lead, to the neutralizer’s annoyance.  Visibly, she fumed next to him but when the group started moving again, she followed along with the rest.

                They were all nervous of what was to come, so despite whatever feelings they may have had, they ended up pressing close to each other.  By the time they reached the platform at the bottom, they were all holding hands in one long chain.  Their grips tightened when they had a chance to look around and they could see the six solid bronze sarcophagi that held the bodies of those they were to be the substitutes for.  Each one had a statue and a nameplate at the head of the sarcophagus so that they could all be recognized easily.  Behind each statue was another wall sconce so the room was considerably warmer and brighter than the hallway had been.

                A silent sigh escaped them as they stood in awe of the magnitude of the room before them.  Vaulted ceilings rose high above and on the roof of the interior was an extravagant painting depicting the six persons as they had been in life, drawn against the backdrop of their corresponding element.  In the case of the neutralizer, they had but to look on the floor to notice the image of a woman with her arms spread wide as if to embrace them.  She had wavy black hair that curled around her shoulders and vibrant honey colored eyes which smiled at them through the imagery.  She was wearing the same tan colored robes they themselves wore now, with a braided sash of the six elemental colors tied at her waist and a strange multi-symbol amulet resting on her chest.  Her hood was pulled back and the sleeves of her robe had slid back to reveal slender, delicate hands and arms.

                 “I knew she was a woman,” Summer whispered to herself, earning another glance from the rest of the group.

                 “Her name was Sinrielle and she was a priestess of the Elemental Order.  Even before the elements were given to us, we honored them as the fundaments of life,” Yoogin explained reverently as he regarded the group before him.  He sincerely hoped they would be up to the task ahead of them.  Resolutely, he turned his attention from the group and reviewed the sarcophagi that had called to him just this day.  Every Headmaster waited for the call, a clarion sound in their mind that refused to go away until it was answered.  The signal had finally stopped now that they had arrived and he could relax for just a moment more.

                “Sir?” Leeteuk asked into the relative silence, his voice carrying easily over the sound of the flickering flames.

                “Yes Leeteuk?” Yoogin asked with a backwards glance over his shoulder.

                He gulped, suddenly the center of attention again.  “What would you have us do now?”   Briefly, he shrugged at the others since they weren’t helping any.

                “You know what elements you have trained to take over,” he explained, gesturing to the circular indents at the foot of each sarcophagus.  “Summer,” he called when the rest began to move.  “You need only remain where you stand there,” he assured her as she slowly relinquished her grip on both Siwon and Kyuhyun.  They looked at her uncertainly but had to focus on the plaques that named each person and indicated which element they had wielded.

                The elements followed the pattern of light, earth, fire, water, wind and shadow with the corresponding elementalists named as Sungmin, Shindong, Heechul, Donghae, Ryeowook and Yesung.  Hands were at last freed as each individual had to make their way to the appropriate circle and none of them were within arm’s reach of the others.

                Having been trained in the path of light, Eleanara took the first circle and stood before the tall figure in front of her.  Her curly, golden blonde hair was pulled back into a half-ponytail with a wooden clip so that her pale face and hazel green eyes were easy to see.  Nervously, she looked around while Leeteuk took the circle next to her.

                Just under half a foot taller than her, he stared at the statue before him, reddish brown hair framing his face artfully in uneven strands.  His deep chestnut eyes were focused intently before him so he didn’t see who stood in the circles beside him.  The equally tall Kyuhyun took the next circle and smoothed his feathered black hair down, looking around with uncertain dark brown eyes.  He caught the gaze of Siwon beside him who stood about two finger lengths taller than him.

                Siwon had cut his dark hair shorter than the rest but what was left was still wavy and perpetually looked slightly tousled.  He shrugged at the other man, with eyes the color of freshly turned soil reflecting his own uncertainty.  Behind him, a slightly shorter and energetic Eunhyuk stepped into his circle, fidgeting constantly.  The bangs of his bright blonde hair teased his eyebrows, making his soft brown eyes glance up in consternation.  Uncertainly, he looked to either side and smiled at the equally tall Kharin who ree and took a deep breath.

                Kharin gave him a thumbs-up and then looked at her statue, threading an errant strand of chestnut hair behind her ear; it had worked itself free from her braid and now tickled her face.  Her green eyes crinkled in annoyance before she cast a curious glance back at Summer who regarded them all from her position in the center.  Garbed as they were, she seemed odd by herself, straight red hair and pale blue eyes gleaming in the firelight.

                As the six trainees all stepped into place, a gentle humming sound started to come from the sarcophagi as the headmaster took his place at the pedestal between fire and water.  There was a small table with a book on it and it was this that he opened and began to read from, his voice quiet and reverent.  None of them could understand the words but a picture began to form in their minds as he recounted the tale of their predecessors.  The words painted an image of what the elementalists used to look like, reminding them they all started off as low class citizens.  None of them were of noble birth and only Heechul had been born into a merchant family.  More images came to mind and as their story unfolded, the sarcophagi started to glow, very dimly at first and then with greater brilliance until it was nearly blinding.  All within the room were forced to cover their eyes and it was then that they felt phantasmal hands on their shoulders, pressing gently, before a feeling of warmth suffused their bodies.