Also, one of my students may make a webcomic out of the story, so stay tuned for more information about that.
As far as other news goes, still working on my urban fantasy, hopefully yall will hear some good news about that soon enough.
Anyway, without further hemming and hawing, here is the story:
By Your Powers
Combined
Smoke billowed from the factory
across the street and left an oily taste in my mouth, but still, I grinned at
Igu. This was our sparring spot, no matter what was being made here. Clutching
the azure-forged hammer, I squared my feet; my shoulders screamed from the
weight. The instant exhaustion was worse than working overtime in the azure-ore
mines.
Igu pointed the tip of her
whip-blade at me, the ocean-blue ripples across its steel matching my hammer. “Tima,
are you sure you don’t want to use the practice weapons one last time?” Her
voice was softer than the tunics we both wore.
I couldn’t wait to get my soul
crystal implanted into the hammer after this morning’s ceremony. Fire … The
best of the four powers.
Shaggy hair whipped across my face
as I shook my head. “You scared?” Just maintaining my stance strained my
muscles to the point of breaking: only years of mining gave me the strength to
step forward. The One! Without the soul crystal’s weight reduction, my hammer
weighed a ton, but I’d power through it like I did everything else. “Like a
little baby?”
“Don’t cry when I cut you.”
“I don’t cry.”
“You do, too.” Igu edged to her
right. She was average height for someone in our village, which put her up to
my chest.
“Liar. I haven’t cried since I was a
child.”
Igu rolled her eyes. “You just
turned sixteen.”
“Which means I’m an adult.”
“Not until we get our soul crystals
removed.”
She was down the mine this morning,
acting all pissed off and touchy for no reason. It was like she didn’t want to
leave the village with me. If she’d told anyone about our plans, they’d stop
us—
Igu would never do that.
“Just shut up.” I charged, and gripping
the four-foot handle, I turned my hips into the swing.
Igu rolled under the strike and
pulled her whip-blade’s trigger. The sword blade elongated and extended like a
lasso around my feet. “Should have thought first.”
I released my grip on the hammer and
allowed it to flip through the air and thunk
to the ground. The lack of weight threw my body into a quick spin, and my knee
caught Igu in the chest.
She grunted, dropping her whip-blade
before the impact lifted her into the air.
Hardly surprising considering I was
almost twice her weight.
Igu tumbled upon hitting the ground
with liquid grace. Grime coated her inch-long pink hair, a shade lighter than
mine. “We’re supposed to be practicing with our weapons.” Her off-white eyes
burned with indignation.
“We can’t just rely on our weapons or
powers in the Gladiatorium. We have to be ready to change at a moment’s notice.
Adapt.” I kicked her whip-blade behind me, and glanced at my hammer.
“Think, stupid.” Igu was right in
front of me, her open palm smacking me in the chin and sending me staggering
backwards. She leaped forward and planted a boot in my chest.
I turned with the blow, shrugging it
aside with raw power and pulling her into a bear-hug. “No need.” I lifted her
into the air as the Ritual Temple’s bell chimed: time’s up. I set her down then
hurried to pick up our weapons.
Staring at us from an entrance into
the factory were four adults of the same height: short. They didn’t look much
older than me, but instead of the milky white eyes of childhood, they each had
colored irises to represent their powers.
Red, a fire wielder and the only
woman in the group, had maroon hair to match her eyes and wore a scowl that
made my hands tremble.
I wasn’t nervous or scared of her … much.
Really, I wasn’t.
Green, the bald earth wielder,
looked like a twig while Yellow—the wind wielder—turned to Blue and kissed him.
Ugh, why would Yellow stoop to kissing Blue? Didn’t Yellow know water was a
worthless element?
All had on sleeveless fighter’s
tunics like me and Igu, but they each had metallic tattoos covering their arms:
they were Regime Hunters. Dogs doing whatever job the Regime sent them out for,
without care of cost or collateral damage.
A shiver twisted my gut, and I
turned away, handing Igu her whip-blade. “Ready?” I asked, voice cracking.
“Of course,” Igu said. “But, you
know, if you go into a fight with the One like that—” She nudged me in the
side, “—you’re going to get roasted.” Her joking tone about religious fairy tales
helped me forget the bastards staring a hole into my back, whom Igu didn’t even
seem to notice.
Wait, was she still going on about that think-before-I-act nonsense?
I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “Just
leave off.”
“Tima …”
“The One was shattered long ago to
save everyone; he was going to kill every last man, woman and child to protect
the planet.”
“That doesn’t make him any less frightening.”
She shivered. “If anything, more so.”
“I’m not scared of a God who can’t
stay out past sundown. I’m an adult.”
“Not yet.”
Starting towards the Ritual Temple,
I waved for Igu to hurry it up. “Look, as bulky as I am, I need to be fluid if
I’m going to win the Gladiatorium and convince Aisa to marry me.”
Igu scoffed. “One, she’s twice as
old as you, and two—”
“What are you getting at?”
“That you should find someone closer
to your age.”
“Like who? Ekanli? She’s taken.”
Igu puffed out her cheeks then
crossed her arms, glancing at the ground. “There’s me.”
Bursting into laughter, I stumbled
over my own feet. “You’re. Not. A girl.”
Igu’s whip-blade shot out in its
solid form, the cold azure-steel pressing against my ribs. “What was that?”
I grinned down at her. “You’re my
best friend. Nothing can come between us.”
She lowered her whip-blade and
muttered something.
“Cheer up. By this time tomorrow,
we’ll be living the dream. Never having to go back to the mine, sneaking out of
the village, finally getting out of here like we’ve always wanted, just you and
me, riding off on a big adventure.”
“And you promise we’ll leave
together?”
“I promise.”
###
After placing our weapons in one of
the Ritual Temple’s lockers and throwing on brown robes, I motioned for Igu to
go in first. A few deep breaths and some focus would do me good. My soul
crystal had to be fire. My training with Mother, my size and my fighting style
were all based on the inherent strength fire granted, though the speed from
wind or the endurance from earth wouldn’t go to waste.
Just as long as it wasn’t water,
whatever its inherent ability was. I’d have to study water’s power after
becoming an adult in case I fought someone with water, but that could come
later. Water wasn’t important enough to really merit my time.
Though the power of any element was
amazing, it was countered easily enough with an azure-forged weapon or defensive
use of an element.
I ducked through the high archway.
Centering the whole chamber was the ancient device granted by the One to remove
soul crystals from our bodies. The same device that gave rise to the Regime’s
factories and new technology: high-calorie food, medical equipment, weapons. Some
ever claimed the Regime was being foolish and trying to replace horses,
building some machine here in the village, in that factory. Several gears
churned in the main device, which was connected to four tables, all forged from
azure-ore.
The mayor and village elders stood
around the circular room and wore bored expressions. Mother and my uncles were
there, too, among others; at least, they
wore smiles. All here would bear witness to our ascent into adulthood and bless
our futures by adding their prayers to ours.
Aisa, the village healer, was in her
early thirties, tall compared to the other villagers—almost up to my chin—and
had held my heart for the last seven years. At the moment, she stood next to
two of my friends: Ekanli and Modaj. Her beautiful red eyes marked her as a
fire-wielder, and after today, my eyes would no longer be a stark white; we’d
match.
On the third ritual table, Igu
grinned up at me, her lips quivering. Despite the solid stone she lay on, she
looked more nervous than uncomfortable.
Forcing the biggest smile I could
manage, I nodded. When the tension in her face relaxed, I moved to the last
ritual table and lay down.
Aisa’s robes swished as she came over
to me.
I bit into my lower lip, cheeks warm.
“Are you nervous, Tima?” Aisa’s
voice was a mix of honey and sweet cakes: delicious to hear.
“No, I’m ready.”
“Good,” Aisa said. “Remember, Tima,
you can’t get off the table.”
“Can we start?”
“Okay,” Aisa said before projecting
her voice to everyone, “let’s pray.”
“May the Four shelter us from the
One until day becomes night and takes his power away,” I said along with everyone
else. “And may the One be just while reigning over the day and only punish
those who draw his gaze.”
The chamber fell silent, and the
ritual device buzzed to life; the
four fist-sized crystals mounted atop it bursting to light, each emulating a
different element’s color.
Everything went white, and pain
locked my joints into place. Ahhhhhh! My toes curled. Teeth gritted. Not right!
My joints were being jerked out to the side, or at least they felt like that.
My legs contorted, and every hair on my body was being ripped free.
Can’t die here. I—
Flopping to the side, I came to the
edge of the table.
Someone screamed, a woman. Silence. Two
more screams filled the void. A fourth.
My voice?
Distant, Aisa cried out a warning, then
something about the other three children. The other three …
My friends were dying! Igu was dying!
I pushed myself up, vision gone. I had to get to them, to save them.
Rough hands seized my shoulders and
pressed me flat onto my back.
I thrashed against those holding me
down until my muscles revolted. No matter how strong I was. No matter how much
Mother had trained me. I was helpless. Unable to save my friends. Dead. Worthless—
Couldn’t breathe.
The white faded.
Darkness.
Needed air!
I sat up, gasping. I … had passed
out during the ritual? The ritual … Why had I passed out? How long had I been
out? A haze hung over my thoughts; I was forgetting something. Something very
important. I ran my fingers through my hair: it was matted with sweat.
My gray tunic and shorts were no
longer covered in dust and grime.
Huh?
The purple couch underneath me said
I was in Aisa’s house, one leg sprawled across the coffee table. Maybe she’d
washed my clothes. By the door were my hammer and a backpack.
How much time had been wasted
sleeping?
A pounding headache kicked me in the
skull, and something drew my attention to the fireplace. It felt like something
was pulling me to it.
On the mantel, inside a small glass
box lay a blue crystal as big as my thumbnail. The crystal pulsed and magnified
my headache.
“What,” I said. “Is. Happening?”
“Establishing
our link,” a baritone voice said inside my head as a thin, blue line of
light extended from my chest to the crystal. It was the crystal speaking. “Filthy human.”
Once connected, dizziness smacked me
across the face, and I stumbled backwards; the coffee table took my legs out
from under me. I landed on the couch, but my head thunked into the wall.
“Filth,
was that necessary?” the crystal asked.
“What?”
“Filth,
I am Barges, and I am a water soul crystal.”
“Water?” I ground my teeth then
punched the couch as my stomach sank. The One, it felt like I’d swallowed a
chunk of azure-ore. My research and training had all been a waste of time. The
One, the One, the One! “It shouldn’t be like this. I’m a fire wielder. This has
to be a mistake.”
“It
isn’t.”
“Worthless! Why do I have such a
worthless element like water?”
“You
think water is worthless?” Barges asked. “Filthy human.”
“No strength to overpower my
opponents. No endurance to shrug off attacks. No speed to strike like lightning.”
“The
inherent abilities offered by fire, earth and wind are nice, but what I offer
is far more grand.”
“And what’s that?” Hope threatened
reality, but I knew better.
“Grace.”
“I’m never going to win the
Gladiatorium.” But that wouldn’t stop me from trying. Since I hadn’t had the
time to study water, maybe I could find a way to use it—
“Filth,
I can hear your thoughts; you do not have to speak aloud.”
“Don’t need you telling me what to
do.”
“Yes,
you do,” Barges said, his voice oozing with contempt. Our link was thin at
this distance, and I could only see it while focusing. “I am supposed to teach you how to harness my rather incredible power.”
“Wait, harness?” My throat was
scratchy. Can’t you use it yourself?
“I
can levitate myself and make whatever object I inhabit lighter, but unless you
ingest our link, I have no control. Filth, I give you access to my power. When our link is visible without focusing, we are
connected, and as long as you are not starving, you can draw on my power.”
I rose from the couch and made my
way back to the fireplace, our link thickening with each step. This close,
Barges’s power sank into me. It felt like having a warm coat down in the mines.
A grin tugged at the corners of my mouth, and I picked up the glass container. I
could work around this. Not sure what
grace is, and creating and manipulating water is nice, but—”
“Filth!”
Barges’s voice rang inside my skull. “You
think simple creation and manipulation is all a fragment of the One is capable
of?”
Huh?
“Even
without ingesting our link for a burst of power, with me at your side, no other
filthy human will stand against us.”
Footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Aisa stepped into the living room and arched an eyebrow. The flowing robe clung
to her body, but the golden belt gave me something to focus on that wouldn’t
make my cheeks burn. “Awake already?” she asked.
Barges buzzed.
Enough
from you for now. I forced a smile. “Aisa …” I let her name rest on my
tongue, but hearing it brought back memories of pain. The ritual had gone
wrong. There had been screaming and— “My friends!” I moved towards Aisa. “What
happened?”
She scratched her nose as if about
to make up an excuse or lie; she had always done the gesture before dodging my
proposals. “Something went wrong, and they, to some degree or another, managed
to get off the ritual tables. After working all night to heal them, two are in
stable condition.”
Two?
Aisa tugged on the collar of her robes.
“But Igu’s still in bad shape.”
My jaw dropped. I had to be
mishearing her. Igu was in trouble, and I hadn’t done anything for her during
the ritual. Worthless. My best friend— I sucked in a breath I didn’t know I
needed then slipped past Aisa and rushed down the hall.
The primary care room was only big
enough for a cabinet that reached the ceiling, three beds and one of those new
machines that beeped. Technology didn’t make sense and wasn’t worth my
attention. The beeping machine next to the leftmost bed bound Igu’s right arm
with some type of cable. Her pink hair was a sweat-soaked mess, and her chest
rose at random intervals.
Something caught in my throat.
Swallowing over and over didn’t help. My knees became weak, and I dropped to the
tiles beside Igu’s bed. “What’s going on?”
Barges buzzed in his glass container.
Three other buzzes joined in, and
something about an eternal host reached my thoughts. A chatter of four voices
cried out in what sounded like elation, repeating, “Eternal host,” over and over again. It didn’t make sense, and I
didn’t have time to make sense of it. It wasn’t important right now.
“Why is she like this?” I asked,
mostly to myself. Maybe Barges would know, so I asked him, “Why?”
“It’s hard to say,” Aisa said, answering
the question not meant for her as she stepped into the room. “Usually, when
someone breaks the ritual table’s containment, their soul crystal shatters,
they’re unconscious for a few days or both.” She gestured to Ekanli and Modaj.
A few days? Their plans to leave—
No, that wasn’t important. Igu’s life was. She had to be alright. Please, say
she would be alright. I promise, I’d pay more attention to her, give her the
attention she deserves if she just woke up. If she was just okay.
“Igu screamed then stopped breathing,”
Aisa said, gesturing around the room, “as you and the other two started
screaming.”
For some reason, it felt like she
was holding something back: no matter. I clutched Igu’s unbound hand. “Is there
anything I can do?”
“She needs a bit more rest before I
can push anymore power into her, but …”
“But what?”
“Well, I have a meeting tonight in
the heart of the Gyutrop Forest, and I must not appear weak for it.”
I blinked. “A meeting? You’re
joking, right?” How could Aisa even be considering this? What had happened to
her over these past few days? She’d known Igu and me all of our lives: she
wouldn’t just give up on us. “That has to be a joke.”
“If I don’t go to that meeting,
millions of lives will be lost. If I don’t deliver this message to Kude—”
“I could deliver the message for
you!”
A smile tugged at the edges of her
lips. “You’d do that for me?”
I’d do a lot more for her. “Of
course. Just tell me where, and I’ll head there.”
“Travel south towards the forest and
go off road when you see the split boulder on your left.” Something felt
rehearsed and off about her words. “Travel across the fields until you reach a
nature trail at the edge of the forest, marked with honey-vines of a bright
purple. Follow that trail until you reach a meadow. By the time the moons are
out tonight, Kude should be there.”
“And what do I tell him?”
“Rebirth has come. He’ll
understand.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. It
sounded like some anti-regime code-phrase, but I didn’t say anything.
Aisa pointed back towards the living
room. “Your overly large hammer and a backpack with some high-calorie food and
waterskins in it are waiting for you.” She sounded as if she had planned for me
to go this whole time, which doubly made this situation feel weird. “And your
horse is ready.”
“Make sure Igu is good and healed by
the time I get back.” When Aisa nodded, I hurried to the door, grabbing my
things and heading out into the afternoon light.
###
I was so full I wanted to lay down
for a nap as I eased Puudra onto the nature trail marked by purple honey-vines.
Now fused into my massive, azure-forged hammer, Barges made it lighter than a
mining pick. The belt hook that held Barges was specifically designed for
gladiators and had cost me two-month’s salary from the mine. But it was totally
worth it: sturdy, easy release, a design Aisa liked.
A good bit of food still remained in
my backpack, and I was second-guessing how smart stuffing my face while riding
had been. The constant bouncing was rougher on my stomach than falling down a
mining shaft was on my head.
Towering pines quickly replaced
shrubberies as the main obstacle to moving deeper into the Gyutrop Forest;
evening sunlight glinted off Barges, showing a range of blue in the folds of
steel. The crisp, pine-scented air was refreshing after weeks of overtime in
the mine and that new factory in my training spot.
I trotted deeper into the underbrush;
hopefully, it wouldn’t take me much longer to get to this meeting place. Shadows
were extending across the trees, and the sun would be setting soon. Twenty
minutes, maybe: knowing when the sun would set was something no one else did
better than me.
I pulled Barges free and dropped him
onto the ground with a crunch. A
smile came upon me. Positive thoughts: Igu would be fine. Focusing on our link,
I summoned him back to my hand.
“Filth,
was that necessary?” Barges asked.
I dropped him again. The summoning
trick was pretty neat. Anyway, while we
have time, let’s see what you can do with water.
Barges groaned. “For the last time, filth, it is not me; it is you who do the work.
You— No, you know what. Just do what I say. The One, humans are stupid.”
What
was that?
“Focus
on the image of water. Think of it like reaching out with your hand to scoop
out a little from a river. But do not move your hands, and target the air in
front of you.”
I gritted my teeth and reached out
to the air with a mental bucket rather than mental hands.
Water flowed out of nothing—it was like
that time someone, who was not me, for real, upended a bucket of ice water onto
Igu’s head—and the water sloshed around until it formed a ring around my body.
It wasn’t fire, but this was still awesome. In one pull, there was enough water
to cover both me and Puudra like armor. That would be a good complement to my fighting
style if it was light enough.
Barges chirped something, but somehow,
with the thought of be quiet, I muted
him before he could break my concentration.
I shaped the water into armor—weightless—then
into a giant sword that floated in front of me. I slashed through the thick bushes
and small trees that had encroached on the nature trail: it cut so easily,
effortlessly. Two more swings, and my stomach groaned. The water slipped from
my grasp and splashed to the ground. I jerked on Puudra’s reins, pulling her to
a stop as I reached out to the water. It would be easier to manipulate water
than just create it—
My stomach roared; the forest spun
around me.
I tumbled to the side and landed
flat on my back, breath fleeing my lungs.
Puudra snorted then leaned over to
lick my face. And again.
I had a good coat of slobber before
my arms answered the call and reached up to stop another one of her sloppy
horse kisses. “Thank you, girl. I’m fine.” Pain stabbed through my middle, so I
released the silence command to ask what’d happened.
“Filth,
I tried to warn you.” Barges’s voice was so condescending that if he weren’t
a solid piece of azure-steel, a slap upside the head would be in order. “You are starving. You burned every last bit
of food in your stomach and most of the fat from your body because you have not
practiced creation or manipulation before. I told you to only create and
control a little bit. But no, you had to prove you were a stupid human and rush
it.”
I didn’t need to hear this from a
hammer. Forcing myself to stand, I stumbled to Puudra’s saddle and braced on
it. Unslinging my backpack, I pulled out a granola bar. It felt like I hadn’t
eaten in weeks. Two bars later and a third in my mouth, I grabbed a waterskin
and sucked it dry.
“Eat
more.”
Yes,
mom. I stuffed another two bars in my mouth, choking down the chewy granola.
Ahead, the pines cramped together,
and low branches hung across the nature trail. It’d be faster to walk Puudra
towards the meeting place with so little light left, but my back ached from the
fall, which had made my legs stiff. And the call of the night—insects and
birds—was not scary at all, for real. I was an adult.
Still, I scrambled back into the
saddle and moved forward as night finished overtaking the forest. I was off by
a minute.
Vines tangled around Puudra’s legs
and made her fight her way into a clearing. All four moons reflected off the
small pond in the center, giving enough light to see clearly.
Wait, all four moons … Bad things
always happened on nights like this.
No. That was a child’s superstition.
I was an adult now. The One couldn’t return, and even if he did, he couldn’t
remain out at night. He always went away at sundown.
I climbed down to lead Puudra over
to the water and let her drink. I stretched, limbering up—
A twig snapped in the distance.
I muffled a squeal. I wasn’t scared.
No matter how much my hands were trembling. Nope. The One wasn’t here. He
couldn’t be: a God wouldn’t come back to take vengeance on the world. My breath
caught, and I reached out to the air around me to draw water and shield myself.
A short woman with hair that
practically glowed crimson stepped into the clearing not ten feet from me with
a bald man behind her. They both had metallic tattoos winding up their arms.
Even though I hadn’t seen them up close in the village, these two were clearly
the Regime Hunters I’d seen while sparring with Igu: Red and Green.
I cocked my head to the side. Where
were Yellow and Blue? And was one of them Kude? “Are you following me? Or were
you coming here on your own?”
“That’s suspicious,” Red said, voice
shrill, words slurred. She rested a hand on the pommel of a short sword. “Very
suspicious. What are you doing out here, this late?”
“Camping?” I shrugged.
Green grinned while a snarl
contorted Red’s full lips.
“So,” I asked, “what brings you
two—Four?—out here?”
“The lovers didn’t want to waste their time,” Green said in a hoarse
whisper, “so they didn’t come.” He tugged on the collar of his fighter’s tunic.
“But, children aren’t supposed to be out of the village at night, so I had no
choice but to accompany the hothead.”
I scoffed. “Do I look like a child?”
“No.” Red bared her teeth. “You look
suspicious.”
Yelling at her would be so
refreshing, but she was a Regime Hunter: I’d get into a cart load of trouble.
“Can you leave me alone? I’m supposed to meet someone.”
Green swallowed. “Kude?”
I nodded. “It’s you then?”
“No,” Green said, voice sounding
resigned.
Steel rasped across leather as Red drew her short sword. “Traitor!” Fire ignited
around her free fist; she rushed towards me.
Ready for it, I drew out a wall of
water, and steam filled the clearing, obscuring my view.
“Good
instincts,” Barges said, sounding impressed. “Just enough water, and you hardened it. Not bad for filth.”
“Puudra,” I said to my horse, voice
trembling, “stay.”
Deep breaths.
Drawing Barges felt right, the
weight perfect: for me alone, heavy enough to have a solid feel, light enough
to stay exhaustion. I took a step away from the pond.
A bolt of fire zipped by, singeing
my hair. Soon, the ground beneath my feet began to shake.
I sprinted towards where Red and
Green had been, using Barges to slap a bolt of fire out of the air. How did she
know exactly where I was—
Green! He was using his power over
earth to track me!
If water were anything like fire, I
could reach out to sources around me and control them with ease as long as
there was no opposition. So, I grabbed onto the steam and compressed it,
creating a small shield that floated ahead of me. The area cleared, and I
swung, hitting nothing but empty dirt where Red should have been.
Red stepped out from behind a tree a
few feet ahead, her short sword glowing orange. She charged.
Rather than stumbling from the
missed swing, I danced forward in a twirl of fluid motion. Grace? I slammed my
water shield into Red’s outstretched arm, opening her up. A quick strike to the
gut wouldn’t kill her, and it should give me enough time to get away.
But if I didn’t deliver the message to
Kude or the Regime Hunters knew who I was, my family and friends would be in
trouble.
The ground pitched beneath my feet
and threw me forward. Red’s fire leapt from her sword and destroyed my shield
with a boom! The explosion threw both
of us back, and a shock of pain jolted my mind with the loss of the shield,
leaving a sour taste in my mouth. Spikes grew from the ground below me.
“Water
armor,” Barges said.
Burning almost every bit of food in
my stomach, I dried the air and created water armor like earlier, hardening it
with all my focus. The spikes ripped into the armor as I landed on them, but
they didn’t pierce it, and my weight shattered them. I kicked my feet under me
then tumbled to the side and lifted Barges.
Fists of stone slammed into my side,
pulverizing my armor and sending me for a spin. Green stepped forward and held
his hands out towards me.
I twirled to regain my footing and
prepared to charge Red, who’d just stood.
“You traitor.” Red pumped more fire
into her short sword. “Know that soon your family and that bitch, Aisa, will join
you in the One’s prison.”
They were going to kill Mother? Impossible,
she was a gladiator. But Aisa—
“Filth,
they are trying to distract you,” Barges said.
Red and Green strode forward, side
by side, closing the distance.
I’m
going to ingest our link since you said it’d give me a burst of power. Which
I needed with so little food left.
“Filth,
it could take a whole day to regenerate our link. During which time, I will
return to my normal weight: you won’t be able to carry me without straining.”
No
choice.
“Good
…”
As if my chest were a giant mouth
and the blue link between us were a noodle, I slurped it into my body.
Barges screamed, and a surge of
power pulsed through my veins.
Mental silence.
Filth, now I was in control.
And these humans needed to die!
Every one of them. For the sake of the planet, together, Tima and I would kill
them all, starting with these two. I hurled my hammer-body to the ground
between Red and Green then shot a spear of water at each. They slammed their
powers against the spears, shattering them easily since I had not resisted. My
water sloshed across their exposed skin, harmless until I used it to establish a
connection.
They were mine.
I churned the blood in their veins,
stopping the flow, reversing it, speeding it up.
Howls of agony erupted from both.
A smirk crossed my face. No time to
keep playing though; I ripped the blood from their filthy bodies, riddling them
with holes. The sound of liquid pattering
the underbrush preceded the metallic smell of a forge. Two fewer humans to
destroy the planet.
No … more time. If only the sun were
still out—
Everything felt heavy. My head. My
eyelids. My thoughts. My body crumpled to the ground beside Barges and the
empty Regime Hunters. Bastard. Barges, that bastard made me kill them. Horrible
person. I. Never again.
Someone approached me, wearing
shorts and an open shirt that exposed bright yellow, rock-like skin.
I’d come all this way for Igu.
Failure. Talking big, but couldn’t save anyone. I just rushed in without
thought. Just a worthless murderer. Aisa would never love me …
“So,” the yellow man without Regime
Hunter Tattoos said as he knelt down. Darkness erased everything but his voice.
“Aisa sent you to find me in her
place? This had better be good.”
Silence.
###
My back screamed out in pain as I
awoke on a bed in the corner of a cold room … No, a cave. And my bed was just a lump of stone.
So, I was alive?
Glowing rocks illuminated this
section of the cave, and there was a constant drip, drip, drip somewhere in the distance. That explained the
stink of mildew. Across from me, a stone desk protruded from the wall. My
hammer and backpack lay on the table, both looking clean compared to my
dirt-covered clothing.
I pushed myself up and waddled over
to the desk.
How had I gotten here?
Where
are we? I asked Barges.
No answer.
Barges?
I wrapped my hands around his handle and gritted my teeth as I picked him up.
So heavy. This isn’t funny.
Still no answer.
Then the image of killing two people
twisted my stomach. Now, as then, it felt like watching someone else do it. I
stared at the blue folds in Barges’s steel. The bastard had made me kill them.
But it was my fault for trusting him, for rushing to the decision without
thinking it through. But that’s all I was, a brute who struck first and never
thought.
“You recover quickly after using so
much power,” a gruff voice said from the left. The yellow man strode to the
bed, wearing wave-patterned shorts and an unbuttoned shirt that had branchless
trees growing on a beach. “You’ve only been out for a few hours after going
against two who should have killed you.” He sounded bitter as he sat on the bed.
Had they been his friends? Or had he
wanted to kill them himself?
“Now,” he said, “tell me why Aisa
sent you instead of coming herself.”
“Because she’s busy healing my best
friend. Igu is dying. Was, I hope.” My heart pounded against my chest. Was this
guy on my side? That would make things so much easier, but after … killing two
Regime Hunters, I had to be careful. “So, are you Kude?”
Grinning, he looked at his yellow,
stone-like hands then tapped himself on the chest: there was a clink. “Clearly.”
“Any proof?” My arms were starting
to ache, so I set Barges down by my feet, handle pointed towards the ceiling. My
muscles must still be exhausted from the fight, from my first powered fight.
“Like a passcode or something?”
“Why did she send you?”
“She has a message for Kude.”
“The message, boy.”
“I’m an adult.”
He took a deep breath and closed his
eyes for a long moment. “You’re powerful alright. Even some of the best
water-wielders I know couldn’t manage blood control like that.” He looked me up
and down. “But that wouldn’t work on me, so talk.”
“Are you sure you’re Kude?” I couldn’t
quite put my hammer on why I was questioning him like this, but if millions of
lives were at stake as Aisa had said, even if I didn’t understand the message,
I had to be sure. And the way he wrung his hands together made my skin crawl.
“Like sure sure?”
“Are you stupid?”
My hands rested atop the bottom of
Barges’s handle. “You want to say that again?”
“You’re too young to match me, boy.”
“Boy? I’m twice your size, rock-biter.”
I bent over and took Barges in both hands, lifting the massive hammer into my
forward fighting stance.
“Willing to fight?” Kude asked.
“Always,” I said, adding as much
threat to my voice as I could manage. I needed to hurry back to the village and
get ready to leave. Igu should be awake by now, and if I didn’t hurry, Mother
and everyone else would find out we’re going to leave. They would stop us. I’d
be trapped. And when they found out I’d killed those two Regime Hunters … “I
don’t have time for your meanness.”
“Meanness? You really are a— Look,
both of us are on a tight schedule. Didn’t Aisa tell you that millions of lives
depended on this meeting? And it’s timeliness?”
She had …
“Just tell me what you know.” he
said.
“Fine.” This seemed like the best
and only proof I’d get. I rested Barges on my shoulder, holding it with one
hand, and took a deep breath. What had been the exact words Aisa had told me?
“Rebirth has come. You’ll understand. Well, she said, ‘he’ll understand,’ but I
think you get it.”
Kude frowned. “Oh?” His eyes bulged,
and he rushed to the far side of the cave, opposite the door he’d come in. “The
One, I have to get to the village now. No time. If you see Aisa before me, tell
her to wait at her house.”
“Fine by me.” I stood and grabbed my
backpack off the table before hooking Barges onto my belt. I wanted to ask how
this message was going to save so many lives, or what it meant, but there was
no time for that. Igu and I needed to start our journey before Mother found out.
“So, is my horse, Puudra, wherever we are, anywhere nearby?”
“Yes. I tied the beast to a tree
just outside.” Kude placed his trembling hands on the wall, and everything
began to shake. Soon, the ceiling opened up, and the floor rose to meet the new
opening like stairs, leading out into the morning. He raced out ahead of me.
###
A bit past noon, I finished my last granola
bar and hopped off Puudra outside Aisa’s house. I’d expected Kude to head to
Aisa’s with me, despite what he’d said, but instead, he’d never slowed and rode
off towards the center of the village.
Like every other building in the
village, the roof of Aisa’s two-story house was a sharp triangle to break up
the hail that came off storms crashing into the northern mountains. The
infirmary’s sign was still flipped to ‘in,’ but unlike when I’d left, the front
porch was covered in some type of green slime.
Just in case Mother came by, and to
avoid whatever that slime was, I decided it would be best to bring Puudra
around back and tie her up there next to Igu’s horse, hidden by the privacy
fence.
A spray of green liquid shot from
the second floor as I stepped away from Puudra, and slime covered me from head
to toe. My arms clung to my side, and a burning sensation raced across my skin.
If I could summon some water—
I dropped to the ground and rolled
through the brown grass in Aisa’s backyard, but rather than removing the green
slime, it only dried it; hardening around my body, the slime trapped me in a
burning cocoon. Everything blurred.
My power …
It couldn’t end like this. Igu and I
were so close to realizing our dream.
An icy sensation engulfed me, and my
body was lifted into the air. Nothing bound me anymore, yet I couldn’t move as I
was taken somewhere and dropped onto a soft bed. I phased in and out, the
images jumbling around me. Then, Aisa was there. So lovely. Modaj and Ekanli, my
friends, stepped up behind Aisa. It was good to see them out of their infirmary
beds.
“What were you fools doing?” Aisa
placed her hand on me. “I said slime anyone you don’t recognize.”
Modaj and Ekanli stared at their
feet and said, “Sorry,” at the same time. “We only saw someone coming around
back,” Modaj said, his face pale, and Ekanli wrung her hands, finishing his
sentence with, “We didn’t get a good look at Tima.”
“Now, the four of you have to delay
your escape. The One, this might mess everything up.” Fire energy swarmed
around Aisa like a dust storm before lancing into my body.
Unfiltered agony screamed from every
inch of my body. Hot. Hotter than that slime. Something popped. My teeth
ground. And I howled.
As the pain vanished, Aisa slumped
over me. It felt like days had passed, every muscle in my body begging for a nap.
But Aisa was resting on me! Her soft breasts were pressed against my chest, and
her warm breath brushed across my neck. I had to be strong: this was my big
chance. My hand trembled as I reached out and patted Aisa on the head, but she
didn’t stir.
Well, that was deflating.
Unlike the last time I’d been in this
room, the plain white ceiling towered above me, and the beep, beep, beep of the machine had a steady rhythm. Something was attached
to my right arm, opposite of Aisa: I couldn’t move it. The smell of rust and
rubbing alcohol gagged me, and the sudden motion drew a sigh from Aisa.
“How is Igu?” I asked, throat scratchy.
Aisa smiled up at me. “Always
worrying about others first. You know, you nearly died, right? That slime is
our newest weapon.”
“I’m fine. Though, a bit thirsty.”
A low chuckle bubbled out of Aisa’s mouth
and warmed my cheeks. With her deep crimson eyes and full lips, she was beyond
beautiful. She stood then turned around to grab a glass of water from the
cabinet, handing it to me.
I gulped it down.
“Better?” Aisa placed the cup back
on a shelf.
“Thanks.”
“Anyway, Igu is fine. She woke up a
little bit ago, but she’s still exhausted.”
I moved to sit up, the good news
giving me a bit of energy and removing the mining clamps that had been gripping
my heart.
“No, you don’t.” She rested a firm
hand on my chest and held me down. Fire’s strength must be nice. “Conserve your
energy for the journey ahead.”
Did Aisa know Igu and I weren’t
planning to just visit the nearby villages? That our plan was to go far away and
fight in the Gladiatorium, to a place where we’d never have to come back if we
didn’t want to? “Umm, what journey? The plan was to just do a circuit of the
Range villages.”
Aisa bit into her lower lip then
scratched her nose. “Well, if Kude is a traitor as I suspect, the Regime will
know about you four soon enough. And if not, which I doubt since Kude’s a lying
bastard, you four still need to make your way to our base of operations. The
future will depend on it.”
“Four? Huh? The plan— Wait, the
future?”
“Yes.”
“And Kude is a traitor?” I coughed
into my fist. “But he said to wait for him here.”
“The One, really?”
The way her nose flared when she
swore made me smile. “Yeah.”
“Well, it looks like he failed.”
“Failed?”
Aisa nodded. “For the future, I had
to give Kude one last test of loyalty. I gave him the information, preparing
for everything. If he’d just stayed in the forest, he’d have caught any group
leaving if he was a traitor. But without the right information, he wouldn’t
come to the village. I knew he wouldn’t kill you because he’d be in too much of
a rush when he got that information.”
“What?” A lump formed in my throat. She’d
said, ‘our new weapon,’ earlier, not the Regime’s. She talked as if she wanted
the One to come back. This wasn’t good. “Loyalty … to the anti-Regime criminals,
right?”
“The rebellion to overthrow the
Regime’s oppressive control and stop them from destroying our ecosystem.”
Aisa was a criminal. Or a rebel as
she called herself, fighting against the Regime. I guess I’d suspected,
especially since the Regime was filled with One-forsaken bastards, but still,
no good can come from destroying the Regime from the outside.
“May the Four come together as One,
returning God to once again rule our world,” Aisa said, eyes focused on mine as
if I were the only thing that existed. “May the One find permanent residence
within one of the chosen.”
One of the chosen? A fragment of the
One … What had Barges said? Eternal host? That had to be Igu: I wouldn’t let
Igu get taken, so I had to play dumb.
“What do prayers have to do with
this?” I had to get answers out of her, no matter how much I wanted her to keep
looking at me in this adoring manner. “I don’t understand.”
“A long time ago, the Regime split
the One’s essence, but they couldn’t destroy him. Now we have a chance to bring
him back. You four can fix so many problems with your combined powers, but if
Kude is on his way here, we have already wasted too much time.” Aisa leaned
over and kissed me, her lips softer than I’d imagined against mine.
An inferno, hotter than being healed,
burned my cheeks. I was going to faint. “I—”
Boom!
The entire house shook, and cracks spiderwebbed across the roof.
“Aisa! We know they’re in there!”
The mayor’s sharp voice pierced the walls. “Don’t make this any worse than it
has to be.”
Aisa gritted her teeth. “So, this
seals it. Kude is a traitor. Guess he has to die.”
“Killing draws the One’s gaze.” And
I knew how much that gaze weighed down one’s shoulders, how sick it still made
me feel.
“Some people are worth the risk of
drawing the One’s gaze.”
I shook my head. “That’s not true.”
“It is.” Aisa unhooked the device
from my left arm and helped me sit up when Ekanli and Modaj stepped into the
room, each wearing a backpack.
“We’ve got everything,” Modaj said.
Ekanli nodded. “And the horses are
ready.”
“Good.” Aisa hoisted me over her
shoulder and gave me a good look at her butt; she carried me to the back door
as another blast shook the house. “Get Igu out back and onto a horse.” Once out
back, Aisa’s house groaned under a third blast. She laid me over Puudra’s long
saddle, face down, then stuck Barges into a saddle strap.
When had she grabbed him?
A faint blue line grew from my
chest, linking me to Barges, but all I heard was a low groan, and that might
have come from me.
Ekanli hoisted Igu onto the second
horse, Igu’s horse, as Modaj put on a second backpack—mine—before getting onto
Puudra behind me. Craning my neck like this made my entire spine scream out.
“Follow the road through the Gyutrop
Forest to get to Serion-Town and meet my friends at the Fire-Spark Inn.” Aisa
helped Ekanli onto the horse with Igu as Aisa’s house collapsed under another
blast.
There was a woomph, and three figures edged forward from the front yard.
Aisa threw up a wall of fire. “Tell
the innkeeper, ‘Fire brings us together,’ and he’ll take over from there.”
“Alright,” Ekanli said.
“Aisa,” I managed to say. “What
about you?”
“I’ll stall the Regime dogs while
you four escape.” She smiled, and all I could think about was the kiss. “Don’t
worry about me.”
That wasn’t possible, but the words
caught in my throat, choking me and causing Aisa’s gorgeous face to blur.
“Let’s go.” Ekanli kicked her horse
into a gallop.
Modaj followed, Igu and I just along
for the bumpy ride.
Everything whirled, and my stomach
turned, but I wasn’t sure if the unease was from the constant pounding or
leaving the woman I loved behind. The crack
of an explosion behind us was distant, and the buildings around the town faded
beyond sight. We’d made it out onto the open road and passed the broken boulder,
yet the horses skidded to a stop half way between the boulder and the Gyutrop
Forest.
I pushed myself into a sitting
position in the saddle, trying not to burst into tears or turn Puudra around.
Modaj grunted from behind me, and
Ekanli, who was on the horse with Igu, glanced my way.
Twenty feet away, Kude stood in
front of a ten-foot wall that blocked the road. He was … a traitor; he’d forced
me to leave Aisa behind.
“Stay back,” I said to Modaj and
Ekanli in a low voice. I hopped off Puudra and grabbed Barges, who was once
again light, but I couldn’t feel the strength of his presence in my mind or the
warm mining coat of his power. Time to teach Kude some respect. But I couldn’t
let him attack my friends. Think! “But if you can figure out how to use your
soul crystals,” I said then took a deep breath, “that might help.” It would
stop me from worrying so much about them.
Modaj handed me my backpack before
unslinging his own and pulling out his green soul crystal, still in its glass
case. “Should we get down and help you fight?”
“You?” I stifled a laugh while
keeping an eye on Kude. I had to discourage my friend to keep him safe. “The
scholar? No, you two would only get in my way.” There was more food in my
backpack. “If things get rough, I want you two to get Igu out of here.”
Ekanli stared at her yellow soul
crystal. “Sure.”
Modaj shook his head. “I—”
“What’s the holdup, boy?” Smiling, Kude
looked like a child’s depiction of the One: scary and monstrous with rock-like
teeth to match his yellow skin.
Barges trembled in my grasp: this
wasn’t my first powered fight, but there was something about Kude. No, for Aisa,
I’d crush him. “I’m going to shatter every bone in your body!”
“Oh?” Looking as if he were
stalling, Kude started forward at a winter’s pace. “You know, I’m kind of
surprised you’re one of the four. Should have snuffed you out when we first
met. If only I hadn’t had to hurry to deal with Aisa.”
“If I hold Barges over my head with
one hand and point,” I said in a low voice to my friends, “make a break for it
in that direction.” I bolted towards Kude, Barges held out to the side.
“Come, boy.” Kude opened his arms
wide.
Think
before you act! I screamed at myself.
Kude was an earth-wielder, and a
powerful one at that.
Skidding to a stop a few feet from Kude,
I spun and hit the ground, scooping up dirt and slinging it at him. The section
of the road in front of him opened into a massive pit, and my breath caught as
I danced back to safety.
Kude turned away, but some of the
dirt had made it into his eyes, and he howled.
I rolled to the left, circling
around him and the pit.
Kude slashed his hands through the
air, and his pit expanded, devouring the ground around it. He rubbed at his
eyes then glanced to the left and right.
My body, as if moving on its own,
twirled forward on what was left of the ground around Kude to stand between him
and my friends. I placed my lead leg between his and slammed Barges square into
Kude’s midsection. The perfectly placed strike sang through my joints.
His eyes bulged, and his body
collapsed in around Barges’s head then flew backwards and crashed into the wall.
I followed, knowing where to swing
before Kude bounced off the wall. His earth-hardened body came forward, and
Barges met his chest halfway.
Crunch!
Kude crumpled next to the wall as cracks spread along its surface, and soon, it
joined him on the ground in a heap. The pits behind me vanished.
We could leave—
Kude shot to his feet and roared as
the stones around him wrapped around his arms, creating massive talons. Warping
his body with his power like this had made him a real monster when combined
with the earth’s endurance. Raw earth energy hovered around his face: the
dirt-slinging trick wouldn’t work again. And if Aisa couldn’t stall the Regime
much longer …
My chest heaved, and each inhalation
burned. I threw up Barges, hoisting it above my head and pointing to the east, then
charged Kude.
Flying rocks and spinning blades of
wind crashed into Kude, opening his stance and throwing him back a few steps.
Igu let out a cry from behind, but Kude
held my focus.
“Filth,
water armor,” Barges said, voice weak.
The blue link between me and Barges
pulsed, and his power warmed my skin. Despite still being upset with Barges, I
drew water from the air and wrapped a thick layer around my body.
Kude, despite his monstrous body,
looked winded and sore as he glanced between me and my friends, who had edged off
the road and towards the tree line. Still, he swung at me with lightning speed when
I reached him. His claws tore into my armor, but Barges smashed into his side. He
grunted, but appeared unharmed.
I stepped back and reset my stance,
the water armor thin. The ground rumbled beneath me, and I tumbled to the left
as a new pit opened. The bastard was fond of that trick.
Blades of wind and spears of water
skewered the ground behind me.
Had my friends lost control of their
powers? Wait, water? Not earth? And from behind rather than the right …
I scrambled to my feet and risked a
glance around.
My friends were trotting the horses
farther to the right, Igu sitting up with Ekanli. Almost opposite them, from
back towards the village, Yellow and Blue, the two remaining Regime Hunters,
sprinted towards me and Kude, water spears forming around Blue and wind blades
swirling in front of Yellow.
Aisa … had been beaten.
I swallowed.
They had to have captured her, not
killed her. Please, say that was the case.
“It’s over, boy.” Kude stalked
forward, moving to pin me between himself and the two Regime Hunters while
cutting me off from my friends. He’d been stalling.
The One, guess it was my turn to be the
hero. “Go!” I shouted to my friends, hoping my voice could reach Igu one last
time. Though, honestly, they should have already been on their way.
Stone claws snapped up and bit into
my leg, draining my water armor to nothing.
I managed to slip out of the clamp
without taking any damage, but Blue and Yellow had arrived, and I turned to keep
an eye on all three at once.
“Create
more water!” Barges’s voice rang inside my head. “Combine the Fragments.”
“As long as you don’t fight back,”
Kude said, gesturing with his talons, “I’ll let your friends live. Three is not
a threat.”
If my friends would be safe, it
would be worth giving up here. But Kude was a One-forsaken liar who’d betrayed Aisa.
I created a ball of water. The ground
beneath my feet undulated and a spike of earth shot up towards my head, but
Kude’s gaping expression said it hadn’t been him. Modaj and my other friends …
“Yes,
yes, yes!” Barges sounded excited. “Finally!”
I didn’t understand—
A hiss of fire and a squeal
of wind slammed into my ball of water as soon as the spike of earth did. My
friends had brought their elements together with mine. No! This couldn’t be
happening.
I glanced back at my friends. “Get
Igu out of here! Now!”
Kude growled, dashing forward. The
water spears around Blue shot forward at the same time as Yellow’s wind blades.
From three different directions!
Barges,
what should I do? I reached out to the water my friends had hit with their
elements; it rebuffed me then started glowing.
Too late!
Not good, not good, not good! Especially
with the sun still up, even though it was just a spec on the horizon.
I danced around Kude to use him as a
shield, forcing Blue and Yellow to pull their attacks up short then reached out
to craft more water, but nothing happened. I froze in place. What? Barges was still light, but his
presence was gone.
A stone fist slammed into my head
and threw me onto my butt.
Spots filled my vision.
Kude, Blue and Yellow stood over me,
and Kude’s arrogant smirk made me want to puke. He—
“May all be sheltered in my light,”
a resonant voice said from behind Kude. It sounded as if four people were
speaking at once, and one of them had Barges’s baritone voice. “May all those
who have wronged my planet suffer. By your powers combined, I have been reborn!”
This was the worst; this made Aisa
the worst. The One, God, should never be allowed to return. Aisa had wanted
this to happen, and now my friends were in trouble because of her. Igu was in
trouble. How much time was left?
Kude’s jaw dropped as he peered over
his shoulder.
Flowing green hair, short in the
front and long in the back, a shade lighter than his face. An orange glowing
orb on his chest that looked like the sun. His arms were red. His legs yellow.
And his body blue. A monster with sharp, pointed teeth … just like the prayers
had said.
Fire and wind wrapped around Blue
and ripped his body to shreds. Yellow cried out to his lover until water and
earth stabbed into him then tore him apart. Their blood and body parts
splattered across me.
Kude gritted his teeth. “We
shattered you once. We’ll shatter you again.”
“Shattered?” the figure, the One,
asked as if looking for the memory. “Ah … No.” He shook his head. “No one will
take me away from this world again. I will soon be eternal.”
One minute till sundown, I guessed. Please
say I was on point this time.
The One extended a hand towards
Kude, and all four elements blended together. Kude drew the ground to him, but
it was too slow. The One blasted Kude, the shockwave throwing me across the
ground along with a swath of dirt and debris. Boom! Another wave hit Kude. When everything settled down, he was
nowhere to be seen, nothing left but scraps of his shirt.
I pushed myself up to my feet. I had
to run. I would be next.
As if I were insignificant, the One looked
past me and searched the area until his gaze fell on my friends, fell on Igu.
My heart leaped into my throat. Igu
… I should have loved her, not Aisa. Something deep down screamed for Aisa, but
she was wrong for me. Igu had been right about that; Igu had always been there
for me, and I was so stupid not to see it.
The One circled around, putting
himself closer to the tree line, blocking my friends’ escape. The four elements
gathered around his outstretched hand as he pointed at them.
Fifty seconds.
I shot to my feet and hurled Barges
at the One. “Get out of here!” Barges hit him in the chest, and his blast of
raw energy ripped through the air above my friends. I summoned Barges back to
my hands as I barreled past my friends.
The One blinked as if he’d just seen
me.
Perfect footwork. Perfect
positioning. I hit the One in the gut with everything I had and sent him
tumbling backwards.
My friends cantered over to me, the
One between us and the Gyutrop Forest.
Forty. Please say my guess was true.
I gritted my teeth. “What are you
doing?”
“Get on,” Igu said, lips quivering.
“We can’t outrun him. I’ll draw him
away and hold his attention.”
The One rose from the ground,
floating above it.
“Go west then hit the woods,” I
said, “Trails should bring you back to the road.
Thirty seconds.
Igu shook her head. “Tima, you
promised—”
“I’ll catch up later.” After taking
a deep breath, I rushed towards the One.
Please, by the Four, leave and say
my timing is true!
The clack-clack-clack of horseshoes on stone and hard dirt heading west
along the tree line and growing farther away from me was reassuring. The One floated
towards me, his attention shifting between me and my friends.
Before anything else, I had to draw
his attention long enough to let my friends get away, so I hurled Barges at him
again.
He caught it.
I slid forward and punched him in
his steel-like jaw.
Twenty.
He didn’t budge. Instead, he grabbed
me by the neck and hurled me towards the woods.
I collided with a tree, and the granola
bars in my backpack dug into my flesh. After flopping to the ground, I lay flat on my back, my body too heavy to
move. A moment. Just a moment to catch my breath and reorient myself.
The One floated over to me, Barges
in hand. He seemed hesitant. “Fragment, you are not my intended host.”
“Host?” I asked, drawing out the
word.
“But you will work as a temporary
vessel till I find the girl.”
I swallowed. “Are you sure?”
Ten.
The One extended his free hand
towards me. “You will give me enough time in this world to find my true host.”
I shook my head and forced tears.
“Please, no.”
Five.
Placing his hand on my chest, the
four elements wrapped around us. “Rejoice.”
Four.
“Igu!” I pointed behind the One. “Stay
away!”
Three.
The One froze, glancing over his
shoulder.
Two.
I laughed despite the pain of the
One’s touch. “Even I wouldn’t fall for that trick. Ha!”
One: the sun set, and the One
screamed. “No!”
“I’ll have you back in my hammer
now.”
“You—” Darkness swept across the
land, and the One vanished in a puff
of smoke, leaving a grinding hum in
the air. Barges dropped to the ground beside me, crushing the underbrush, and
groggy muttering came through our link.
I stumbled to my feet and retrieved
Barges before walking deeper into the woods, heading east and away from my
friends. Sorry Igu, but I had to break my promise; I had to keep her safe. I
couldn’t risk our powers being close enough to combine again during the day or
the rebellion getting hold of all
four fragments.
Too bad I couldn’t gloat about this
victory or tell Igu I might love her, but at least, I was getting out of the
village and knew she would be safe, far away from me.
The end
