Element. Flame of Elisar

Right behind her, on a steep wall, pressing its claws into the stone, the beast was descending quietly, with its moving mane stretching the tentacles forward, its nostrils swelling large enough to draw in not just the air but all the stones around, and never blinking or moving its violently burning eyes off its prey.

Elcha cut her story and stared at me, bewildered – my face must have had too eloquent a palette of colors that were enough to get my feelings without a word.

“Run, Elcha, run!” I screamed pulling the blades out of the sheath and rushing to cover her. She immediately realized everything and, jumping off the boulder, tried to rush to the river, yet was definitely too slow against the monster. It jumped, too, and would have got her right there, but ran into my claw – I had released one of the chains a split second before.

The creature roared and fell onto the stones, while I quickly pulled the blade out still

wondering how I had managed it.

“There! Fast!” I pointed toward a small cleft between the rocks hoping the beast would prove too large to squeeze in.

I could hear stones rustling behind and then a growl followed, which was getting closer. I grabbed Elcha by the arm and ran pulling her along.

She is too slow, I realized with horror, but we have to make it, no choice, the only desperate thought was beating in my head.

As we reached the cleft, I pushed her thus both adding her some acceleration and attaching direction to her movement. She flew into the crevice like an arrow, and I turned around. The beast was running at breakneck pace yet came to a dead stop the second it saw me standing on the way, daggers in my hands. Now it was standing opposite, growling.

“What now, you stupid rubbish? Never seen anyone fighting you back?” I shouted. “Wanna try once again?”

It growled again, teeth bared, and I could hear real menace in it.

“There is a way here!” Elcha’s voice came from behind.

“Elcha, run as far as you can, don’t look back,” I shouted over my shoulder, never taking my eyes off the monster. That moment, on my right, with my side vision, I could notice some more movement. And as I turned my gaze I froze. Another beast was emerging slowly from the bushes, its eyes glued to me.

“And you?”

“I’ll catch up!” I said slowly, trying to keep my voice stable. And there I had a click in my mind, I won’t catch up with her, no way! I won’t even leave this place now. Ever!

“Ricka! You crazy! I’m not leaving you here!” she was not just panicking, I could hear she was nearly crying.

“Elcha, just leave!” I shouted at the top of my lungs still never taking my eyes off the beasts. “Leave now!”

I could hear quick sounds of two feet running over the stones and getting lost in the distance.

The monsters were grinning and growling, yet did not dare come any closer, just standing there with their tentacles stretching forth.

Only then I could see they were different. The one I already knew was black as ink, while the other one had a slightly whitish mane. But the pattern on their skins was the same.

I wished I had not left my bag behind, Nargara’s special action elixirs would come in handy indeed.

My heart was nearly jumping out of my mouth, but at the same time I felt some strange and frightening calmness inside. The main thing was to stretch the time thus giving Elcha a chance to go as far as possible.

“What now, you stupid mongrels? Got your tails between your legs?” I tried to stick a smile on my face, but I think even someone sentenced to the rope would have a happier smile before the execution. “Afraid of getting your miserable skins spoilt? Expected to get me on a silver platter, didn’t you? You, two ugly things! And you couldn’t get me last time, so now you brought help, right?” I asked the black beast stuffing my voice with as much sarcasm as I could.

They both let out a hoarse growl and began their advance.

And the next moment, the one with the whitish mane rushed forward.

I was so frightened I shot both claws, which left a dull sob behind as they entered the flesh. The beast bellowed with pain and collapsed onto the grass having jumped short of me. However, as it fell down, my chains remained under.

Here, Truvle! Really great! Tell me nobody can get me with this weapon. So it was neither Truvle’s work nor the lessons I learnt from Yoos that could help me anymore. I tried pulling the chains with all might, and pulled again, but all in vain. They chains stuck under the ugly carcass. Out of my eye’s corner I saw the other beast ready to jump, and despair seized me. I threw the handles and darted to the passage. Something cut through my shoulder, getting deep through both clothes and skin. I uttered a moan, my teeth still pressed tight.

And then suddenly I was blinded by a bright flash, and a disgusting howl nearly ruined my ears, followed with the smell of burning flesh. I yet took a few steps forward, stumbled upon something and tried to pull focus. It was Elcha – standing right in front of me, her face harder than stone, and her hand ablaze with fire.

“Have been dreaming so long of trying this!” she said as she gave a wolfish smile, and then a huge fireball jumped off her hand. The fist creature, which had my blades under it, was already up and rushing at us. Everything around seemed to be slowing down.

“Elcha!”

She turned around and let another spell at the beast, which was already halfway jumping. The ball got right into its disgusting jaws, throwing it back, and us – the opposite way.

I was quick to jump up and drag my sister to the cleft seeing that the black monster was once again on its feet, already shaking its head to come round.

“Oh, shit,” I couldn’t hold anger, “they are up again… We got to run now.”

We ran down the narrow crevice in the rocks, dodging between stones. The cleft was soon left behind and we jumped out of the other side of the cliff.

The Sun had already set, and twilight came. We ended up just a little way off the Karun valley, and now there was a huge green field stretching before us.

I knew the place. Local shepherds often brought cattle to graze here. A little left, there was the trade route, and further down it, was the Eagle’s Nest fortress.

“There,” I waved to the side where the city lights were flickering, and then turned to Elcha. She was standing there, staggering, all pale and her face fallen. I even thought for a second that she had grown several years older within just the last minutes.

“I read somewhere that combat magic drains your power. But I could never have expected the feeling to be such a nasty one,” she smiled tightly.

“Hold on,” I whispered, casting a nervous glance at the cleft. “Looks like we’ve broken off, despite the thin odds. I don’t think they’ll squeeze through the crevice. Now all we got to do is get home,” I grabbed her hand and dragged along.

“We need to get to the valley entrance… the valley is sealed, they said, sealed, they said they would not go there…” she muttered indistinctly under her breath, “now I understaaand …” she drawled and giggled.

I gave her a look full of suspicion.

Looks like she is delirious, I concluded, as she went on slurring over her words, “They picked up the trail, hee-hee… there was only a year left, he said, all you have to do is just hold out for another year, hee-hee-hee … and he also said, while one is alive we don’t need the other one. Yes, that’s what he said… And there was something else, something about the danger of

fights…”

“Who was saying that, Elcha?” I snapped. I was all in goosebumps seeing her going insane.

And what if she goes completely nuts and stays that forever!

“Who was that, Elcha?” I asked again and gave her a strong shake.

She looked up at me, distracted, her gaze blurred, and smiled absently.

“I mean those two, wearing cloaks, I told you earlier today,” she murmured in a strange and dreamy voice.

“Okay, we got to cross this field right now, as quickly as possible, too visible here,” I said and looked around.

Some growl came from behind, my entire body got tense instantly, and I looked back still keeping Elcha with my one hand and bringing her behind my back.

The two monsters were approaching, both growling and their eyes shooting fire in the dark.

“That’s just perfect!” my sister said giggling again, which made me so mad I wished I had something heavy in my hand to bang her on the head.

Apparently, I was losing my nerve, too. And she seemed to be right, the situation was just perfect – no weapon in my hand and no place to hide, open area around only.

“What the hell do you want, finally?” I shouted, full of despair rather than courage. “Are we going to be so delicious or something? No more wild goats to eat?”

Elcha gave another giggle full of nerve, then raised her hand and let another clot of fire into the creatures. They jumped aside still remembering the previous fight, yet did not intend to leave, just stood at a short distance.

Okay, we’ll get to Elcha’s nervous breakdown later. The major part now is to survive…

“Elcha, listen to me now,” I said, “you beat them with magic whenever I tell you, just don’t waste your power, okay? And we are moving now to the city, fast, just as fast as we can.”

She replied with an estranged nod.

But my plan failed. A few seconds later my sister fainted, so I got her hanging in my arms like a huge sack, completely exhausted. The only part of me still able to move fast was my thoughts rushing around in my head.

I sat on the ground and embraced my sister, my eyes all sore with tears and indignation.

The beasts brightened up and began to approach us feeling much more confident.

Just another couple of seconds and it’s all over. I think I did have a chance to survive, alone, but I never – NEVER – even thought of leaving my sister behind.

I was up already, watching silently them approaching us. Next moment, one of them rushed at me, knocked me to the ground and pressed down. The smell streaming out of its mouth hit my nose. Disgusting! I looked up and saw the monster’s face right over mine, its teeth bared in an ugly grin, and its tentacles nearly reaching my face.

As they touched me it felt like electricity running through my body, and then I realized that I could make no slightest movement.

But suddenly the beast lost all its interest in me. They both mover toward my sister, then one of them bit her arm and started dragging her away. Elcha moaned with pain. The other at that time was moving its head to Elcha’s neck, as if trying to pick the right spot for an assault.

They are going to tear her apart, flashed in my mind. Tears were streaming down my

face, yet I could do nothing. I screamed, but I could not hear my own voice. Despair, rage and fear overwhelmed my head and were burning me from inside. I was rushing through that inner heat looking desperately for a way out of that all, and then it came to me… It was the way out! The heat that I could feel with my entire soul was the way out. There was a fire tearing me apart as if trying to get out… a flame of incredible power… a flame, pure and naturally primitive. And I could no longer tell where it was me, and where it was the fire! I was the fire.

The beasts turned sharply to see what was going on. As our eyes met, their tentacles began to move feverishly; they were both raging around the same spot, greedily catching air with their nostrils. One even began to whine with excitement.

But I took no notice of that already; I was all burning from inside. I glanced at my hands – they were all in flames looking more like scarlet tongues, and then the fire spread all over my body, sweeping me from head to toe. My hair sprang up filled with a force struggling to break out. The grass around flared and crumbled in ashes, spreading the fire further down the slope.

Some unearthly sensation of euphoria and invincibility filled me. There was nothing burning from inside – I myself was burning, just like anything else around.

I stood up, stepped toward the monsters, and, imitating Elcha’s movement, sent all this fire their way, charging it with all my rage, despair and fear.

A flash lit up all around. The light was so intense it looked like daytime for a moment. The space around seemed to be ringing and buzzing, and a deafening bang followed… and then darkness shrouded it all.

That very instant, all the unearthly sensation vanished as if it had never been there, giving way to some deaf emptiness and complete impotence. It felt like I was going to turn into ashes and get scattered around like burnt grass.

Semiconscious, I sank to the ground, curled up and drifted off.

The Accident

I came round feeling water poured on me. They must have poured more than a few glasses, actually. And then I felt on my lips that very nasty bitter taste that always made me sick, after which I saw Nargara’s face, all worried, looking me right in the eyes.

“She’s back! Praise to the Worlds!”

She waved her hand to somebody and I got seated. I spat out that sickening stuff and looked around. Mours again! Then I got surprised seeing I was covered in a blanket, and further then got terrified realizing there was nothing else covering me under that.

Next to me I saw Truvle, who was keeping me from the back and expressing some smile that was too shy to be a real one, actually.

The field around that was green once, was a desert, with all the ground cracked and burnt down to the last straw.

A bit further aside, I saw my sister lying on the ground and covered with ash. But I could not see her face. Nargara and Yoos bent over her and were busy doing something. The only green piece was around her body. Unlike me, she had still the same clothes on, even though much shabby.

“Elcha,” I sighed getting shocked with my own voice, or what was left of my voice, to be exact.

“Alive, lost lots of blood though’” Truvle said sadly.

“The beasts?” I continued huskily.

“Dead,” the smith said and hugged me, which was quite unexpected. “It’s all over, calm down.”

The sky was already getting bright as the first rays got out from behind the horizon.

Mammy approached us quickly and helped Truvle get me up on my feet.

“You can walk, can’t you?” she asked giving me a look full of concern.

I shook my head.

“Truvle, take her then. We got to leave right now, fast. Got to leave before a soul sees us,” the witch snapped, and that very moment the smith’s strong arms took me up.

Yoos was already standing nearby, holding Elcha in his arms.

She was unconscious, all pale, with sunken eyes and bluish lips. One of her arms was wrapped with a narrow strip of white cloth.

“Sorry, Truvle. I lost your gift,” I complained as I buried my face into his shoulder, “lost the blades near the river…”

“You really care about that sort of rubbish, baby? There, look! Your blades, I mean,” and he pointed at Yoos who was carrying Elcha. I looked out from behind his powerful shoulder and saw my weapon dangling at the old warrior’s belt.

“Where did…” I was baffled.

“When you got beyond the valley,” Truvle started, “Nargara could feel that right away. I had just come to Karun and was approaching your home when I met her. Then we called Yoos as we were rushing here. He was on watch, at the eastern gate. And then we followed your footsteps down to the meadows, and then got down the river still with no single where you went afterwards. We saw lots of prints, all mixed, and then found your claws and bag. When Yoos could make sense of it all, he said that the beast was not alone, and we went on to finally end up at the crack in the rock… and then there was an insane explosion that left the mountains buzzing,” he fell into silence for a few moments, and then drew a tight sigh, “Nargara rushed that way, and we still had to roam through the rocks before we could finally come out of the maze to find you,” he stopped again, and then, piercing me with an extremely intense look, added, “and the very thought something could be wrong with you two… We had real frights of our lives.”

“It was creepy,” I confirmed, still surprised with the severe looks on his unshaven face, which, in a moment, gave way to sorrow.

“When we got closer, you both were on the ground, not a single movement. I thought you were dead,” he had real trouble uttering the last words.

I gave a sob and buried my face in the shoulder again.

“Okay. C’mon, girl. Everyone is alive, and that’s what matters.”

“Alive…” I echoed still not sure it was true.

Strangely enough, but there was no pain in the body, and yet I felt broken, which must have muted all the sensations somehow. Nor could I realize clearly what had happened.

It came later when we were at home. They gave me a whole bunch of healing elixirs and put me to bed. I slept the whole day. When I woke up, there was no one around. The previous day’s images spun around in a vivid dance, leaving a clearly cut and indelible impression in my mind.

And there I lay, living through every single bit anew. Trying to understand what had happened out there in the field. I was perfectly aware that my power had broken the blockage, yet it still remained total mystery what the explosion was, and where that strength came from to fill me.

As Truvle was carrying me through the field, I saw that a huge part of the valley was burned down to the remotest slopes. The ground was burnt and cracked. The rocks in the distance were charred, and one – the one that was closest – had cracked and split apart.

No, it couldn’t have been me! How was that any possible?

The thoughts made me uncomfortable, to put it mildly. I had never met fire sorcerers, nor had I known anything about their powers or its manifestations. But even the little that I had heard and read about was very much different from what I saw that day.

I knew that every Element had its Strongest sorcerers, and they, in turn, could possess spells of the Highest Level…

The people of water had Ertar, a huge wave that could sweep away anything that came its way, and destroy cities; or Inglas, an enormous whirlpool that would draw in anything it came by. The thing was it could occur not in the ocean only, but could take a walk on the shore looking very much like a waterspout.

The Earth sorcerers knew how to create monstrous earthquakes, to crack apart the ground or turn it into quicksand that could suck in one whole army of people.

The strongest spell for the sorcerers of air was that of Sartun Hurricane, which swept

away any life from the Earth’s surface, or even worse – Jansoul spell. Once they cast it, all the air around disappeared and all the living beings simply choked.

I read a lot of stories about the Division of the Worlds, with numerous descriptions of the effects that the disasters inflicted by ancient sorcerers had had. Not everyone had wanted any change in the World order, which finally brought them all to a civil war, while many opposed the Division. Of course, it all seemed more like a fairy tale in our times, no more than an epic narration of a sequence of events through history, an exaltation of ancient sorcerers’ powers. But the charred land and the vast destruction left in the valley brought to my mind the fiery spell of Armaron that I once had read about in some book.

Overwhelming and destructive fire, of monstrous power, that could leave behind charred earth only, all covered with ash. The only “but” there was that I did not know the spell! No single clue what that could be. As the description said, the flames devoured anything it came across, the sorcerer no exclusion. It was something disposable, to be used only once, and the fiery man who dared use it was nobody but a self destroyer!

As for Elcha and myself, we were left totally intact, which, of course, could not but make us happy yet brought about even more questions.

Not able to stand all those thoughts anymore, I sighed deeply and stood up. I could hear some voices coming from the first floor. They were engaged in rather heated an argument, once getting louder, and then going quiet.

I got dressed and went down the stairs.

“Guess we all got to calm down,” a female voice threw. Nargara was definitely not in her best mood, so her voice bore some steel shade.

“Yeah, you’re right,” a man said, and I could instantly tell it was Yoos.

“I’ll get us a drink,” Mammy added in a softer way and, judging by the steps I could hear, she left the room.

“Got to do something about it. Rather soon!” Truvle insisted.

“I said earlier it is too dangerous to stay here,” Yoos was irritated. “They know the girls are in the valley. The longer we stay here the more we tempt the fate.”

“Now, where are you going to hide them?” Truvle’s question was full of irony.

“I would say Ozeron,” Yoos replied not a slightest bit confused with the dig.

“What?!” Truvle gagged. “In capital! You nuts?”

“That’s where nobody will ever come to find them. Besides, there are lots of people of fire, and water, and air. Just get lost among them all.”

“Never,” Truvle snapped. “I think Karun is a safer place. And there is nothing but two handfuls of ashes left from the Goortans. None to come after us again.”

“You know that there may be more of them. Many more. And those behind them – they will never stop trying,” Yoos’s voice was sulky. I could easily imagine him frown with his lips curved with anger. “They’ve been trying to get us for so many years… I doubt they will give up now.”

“Anyway, they won’t get into the valley, the magic is too strong; even the ground is soaked with it, so the mountains around are just one huge shield-artifact. And Nargara was good covering the tracks. It’s like our fortress now. So even if they do know the aim is here none of those wishing us ill can get through. They try, they die,” Truvle sank into silence for a moment

and then added, “and as for the capital, it’s too far, not much of a chance to get their alive. I was out in the square today…”

“Any news? What are they saying?” Yoos asked again.

“You know people! Thanks to the Worlds, they can invent stories, each better than the previous one,” Truvle chuckled, “and that’s all full of buzz. Some are saying it was a fire sorcerer who got lost in his experiments getting his own powers to kill him, others argue they know better – it was two fire guys engaged in a fight eventually killing each other. Some even say they witnessed it, yet never mention how come they survived. Yet others scream arguing it was a scourge from above, and all that stuff, you know. But I bet it’ll finally be the second option. I guess Karun will love it best.”

I froze with my left foot in the air as I was going downstairs, listening to the conversation, my breath held. These two were talking as if they had known each other for a hundred years. But I had never seen them before even being mutually friendly. They would only talk to each other when necessary – just nods, Hi’s and quick handshakes. Occasionally, when Truvle was in Karun, they met in our house. Now it turned out that they knew each other. Had known for a long time, yet had always just acted. But why?

Surprised by the discovery, I stepped back a little and in the darkness got something with my foot, sending a flask down the steps. As if that was not enough, it got followed by a pot – a traitor that fell down with a crash, thus announcing there was a shy listener in the dark staircase corridor.

Silence fell on the room.

“Ricka or Elcha?” Truvle’s voice broke the silence.

“It’s Ricka,” I squealed and went down.

Truvle was sitting by the fireplace looking at the fire, his face all reflective. Yoos was standing a little aside, silent, too, with his hands resting on the back of the chair. I was desperate. Of course they could guess immediately I was eavesdropping, and that made the whole situation extremely uncomfortable.

“How long you been there?” Truvle spoke first, stretching his lips into a smile and turning to me.

“Well, since around ‘it is too dangerous to stay here’, I tried to be honest.

The men exchanged glances. Truvle gave a short hum as Yoos drew in air through his nose a couple of moments letting it out just as slowly, obviously to subdue some strong language as long as I was there.