Chapter 43 - My Fire

                                                              Olive

Olive woke up and was instantly beset by confusion as she registered the state of her body.

Why am I in so much pain?

She moved her arm just a few inches and groaned. Every centimeter of her legs felt like someone was stepping on them. Her back and shoulders were no better.

“Cameron. Cameron, are you there?” She whispered with her eyes clenched shut while she focused through the excruciating pain.

“I’m here, Olive. What’s wrong?” His gentle voice was full of concern.

“I don’t know, it hurts. Everything hurts. I can barely move. What’s wrong with me?”

“I think maybe you pushed your muscles too far with no mana or density to fix them.”

“So this is all my fault? Mother was right, I’m always getting into trouble because I’m too hasty. That’s why we’re here. This whole situation is my fault. I’m sorry you got dragged into this, Cameron.”

“Well, I’m glad I’m here with you. I wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through this alone.”

A silent tear leaked from Olive’s eye as he spoke. She immediately forced her emotions under control like her father had taught her. She was far too thirsty to waste even a single drop of water on tears.

“Thanks, Cameron. This will become a memory we laugh about in the future. Our parents will find us soon. They can’t hide us for much longer, I’m sure of it.”

She heard Cameron sigh and forced her eyes open to look at him. He leaned against the bright blue bars of their metal cage, his gaze locked on Dommell who lay in a fetal position not far away.

Blast this infernal cage! There’s so little mana in my body I can’t even stand under my own weight. Who would ever imagine that becoming more dense could be a bad thing?

A memory of the two women from the day before flashed through her mind. Embarrassment warmed her skin as she remembered them laughing and pointing at her while she pushed her body too far.

This must be why they were laughing. It’s not that we are in a cage but that I was stupid enough to exercise without food, water, or mana.

How was I to know this would happen? I’ve never gone even a minute of my life without mana! Why didn’t they just say something instead of laughing?

No. No more wallowing in pity.

Olive heard her father's stern voice as a memory of her in the garden with a nasty gash on her knee after a tumble.

“Animals don’t feel pity, for themselves or others. If a bird lost a leg, it wouldn't waste even a minute crying about the loss. It would hop about on one leg and get back to hunting before it starved to death.”

Be that bird, Olive. Don’t let them take the hope that tomorrow will be a brighter day.

If I can’t exercise then I’ll work on image training. Father didn't take the time from his duties to teach me the basics only for me to not use them.

“Cameron, how did Uncle Nostrus teach you to imagine the elements?”

“Burned me, dropped me, drowned me. Yours?” He replied nonchalantly while pointing to his scar.

“Oh… I suppose I had a similar experience and it’s good to know Uncle is as mean as he looks.”

“It’s okay. He made me strong,” Cameron shrugged.

“What about your father, Dommell?” Olive asked.

“What father?!” Dommell spat before turning away from them.

“Sorry,” Olive replied, upset with herself for forgetting about the recent passing of his father.

With the mood ruined, Olive wriggled into the dirt until she was as comfortable as possible before allowing her memories to consume her.

She was no longer in the cage. She stood before the raging ocean, her father’s towering figure beside her.

“The Great Uncrossable Murinth Ocean,” His voice was like flint but also held a note of sadness.

“The empire’s southern enclosure. None have ever attempted to pass beyond her reaches and lived to tell the tale. Behemoths of a higher tier than myself inhabit vast territories larger than the entirety of our lands. All foolish enough to enter their waters are devoured.”

He let the severity of his words sink in for a few moments before he snapped his fingers and the world turned blue.

As far as she could perceive, the ocean froze solid. Waves shattered under their own weight creating shining diamond dust that swept into the air as the instant temperature change shifted the winds into a howling moan.

He pushed her forward onto the ice. She felt her feet freezing until they grew comfortably numb. Her fingers stopped obeying her commands as her nose leaked and little icicles formed on her eyelashes.

They walked for hours across the frigid ice until her steps faltered and she fell to her knees. The freezing temperatures leaked into her bones, her feet swelled and became numb. Her breath frosted as each lungful of air brought the cold into her very core.

She was exhausted, all she wanted in the world was to take a nap, to fall asleep and succumb to that pervasive, warm numbness.

“Oliviala, this is the element of ice. Remember it well. For when you ascend, you will call upon these memories to fuel your techniques.”

Olive withdrew from the memory and focused with all her will on the feelings of the cold. She pictured the vast ocean, frozen solid, and the cold seeping into her bones as she slowly lost herself to the might of ice.

With the image complete, she moved to the next element.

This time, her father had taken her to an active volcano. Wrapped safely in his aura, she was flown directly into the vast fissure that spewed violently into the sky. Deeper and deeper he took her into the mountain until they were surrounded on all sides by molten fire.

“Feel it on your skin, taste it on your breath. Fire consumes all life until it burns out even itself. A raging blaze can destroy a forest in a day, yet also sputters out quickly when its fuel runs dry. A forge’s heat, contained and controlled, can make even the strongest metals succumb given enough time.

“You must look within yourself to discover if your fire burns hot and wild like your mothers, or perhaps it will be controlled and meticulous like mine.”

Olive came back to the present, where she still imagined that heat on her skin.

What is my fire?

Determined, simmering just below a boil, consolidating, preparing. Ready for the day it is unleashed into the fierceness of a raging inferno.

A wicked grin flashed across her face as she pictured unleashing her flames upon the murdering psychopath who had thrown her into this vile prison.

As if her thoughts had summoned the man, he appeared just an arm's length away on the outside of the cage. He looked down at them with a wide smile showing far too many white teeth.

https://imgur.com/YJrrkj6

“I’ve brought you a present!” He shouted, causing all three of them to jerk in surprise.

“We don’t want anything from you.” Olive grumbled, too drained to put the fire in her heart into her words.

“Don’t rush to thank me yet, no-no-no it would be much more fun to watch first.”

He vanished again, appearing a moment later on the nearby gallows with a woman's neck grasped firmly in each hand. Their struggles were futile as his arms didn’t budge in the slightest no matter how hard they thrashed.

Olive gasped as she recognized the two women. Their snickering smiles were nowhere in sight. Pain and terror were the only emotions that showed through their wide and panicked eyes.

With movements so fast she couldn’t follow his blurring arms, Markhiss tied a noose around each woman’s throat. He hoisted them into the air until just their toes were touching the wood platform.

With a vile chittering snicker, he stepped back to observe his handiwork before turning to the cage and the horrified children within.

“Are you ready? Please tell me you’re ready. I don't think I can wait another moment!”

Suddenly his voice shifted to that of an overly proud politician as he stuck his nose in the air.

“Let it be known to all far and wide that lies are the root of all evil.

“These foul wastrels have lied before my divine self on this fine day. Their sentence… is death!” Markhiss proclaimed with a pointed finger.

A whip of pure darkness sprouted from his hand and with one swift stroke, it lashed out and cut deeply into the women.

“NO! Stop this! What are you doing?!” She screamed but he paid her no mind.

The women thrashed and cried but quickly realized their own movements were causing them to choke. Desperately they tried to get their toes back underneath them to relieve the pressure on their necks only for another strike to unbalance them.

Again and again, the whip fell, each strike punctuated by Markhiss’s sick laughter. Olive covered her ears as their screams clawed into her skull.

Olive could not bear to watch, she closed her eyes and imagined the day she would help him find justice.

Long after their bodies were limp, Markhiss continued to lash into them with his whip of darkness. The hollow sounds of wet meat being struck reverberated within Olive as she focused with all her might on the next element.

                                                                Jiran

Jiran ran through the seemingly endless tunnel for what felt like days but he knew it to be only a few hours.

The ghostly shadows came at him randomly and with no warning. One second he would be running and the next, a dagger of darkness was plunging toward his back.

They made no sound when they struck, forcing him to stay hyper-aware the entire run. He tried to camouflage himself with light but they found him easily.

He quickly gave up any attempts to avoid them and ran as quickly as he could. He didn’t hold back, using exorbitant amounts of mana as often as needed to blast them back into nothingness.

https://imgur.com/UFbTwYH 

Why are they always women? So creepy.

After destroying the trio of shadows, Jiran once more resumed his sprint. After only a few minutes, he spotted a collapsed wall in the tunnel.

Finally, something different. I think at this point I would be happy to see a beast. Anything but more shadows.

Jiran approached cautiously as he noticed several deep gash marks in the stone walls around the collapsed section.

Where a normal beast’s paws usually had three to five claws, whatever beast destroyed the wall appeared to only have one large claw.

Do I check it out?

13:48:17

Twenty minutes. If I don’t find the beast that left these marks by then, I’ll turn back.

Jiran advanced quickly into the tunnel. He swept his arm back and forth, the light from his palm illuminated the passage to chase off his pursuers.

He found more of the deep claw marks. They crisscrossed the walls every few feet as if the beast had been looking for something within the stones.

Please be a tier four.

Jiran turned an unnaturally sharp corner and saw a snake the size of his arm coiled and ready to strike. He raised his arm with a Shaping of ice ready to blast the beast but stopped at the last second when he realized it wasn’t a snake but a pickaxe laying in the shadow of a rock.

I’m an idiot. Those weren’t claw marks.

This is good news though, I must be close to an exit.

Laughter split the air behind him and Jiran picked up speed. He raced through the mineshaft blasting light every which way in an effort to keep the shadows from materializing. He came to a fork and heard laughter from only one direction.

He started heading down the opposite tunnel but stopped.

Screw that, I’m not going to let whatever those shadows are lead me around by the nose.

Jiran closed his eyes, trusting in his light to protect him as he concentrated. He breathed deeply through his nose, testing the air.

Just a touch of moisture.

A Coating on his arm allowed him to feel the density in the air along with a thousand other sensations. He could feel the droplets of water as they left a tiny shower of impressions along his mana.

Turning back, he chose the tunnel with laughter.

Fifteen minutes later, he clenched his fists in celebration as he found an old mining operation.

It consisted of several wooden buildings that looked long abandoned. Every surface was covered with dust and equipment was scattered on the ground as if the miners had left in a hurry and never returned.

Not going to waste time investigating.

He ramped up the mana into his palm and shone the bright light across the large cavern looking for another exit. He quickly spotted five more tunnels and clicked his tongue.

Crap, which one takes me out?

Shadows began to coalesce inside each building by the dozen. They looked out at him with empty, black eyes as they laughed menacingly.

Jiran lit his other palm and with an arm raised in either direction, quickly spun in a circle waving away the ghosts.

Up. I need to go higher, which one looks like it goes higher?

All the tunnels looked the same. The shadows pressed closer, his flashing lights obliterated them but they streamed out of the buildings seemingly without end.

Wait, up. I fell from a hole in the ceiling.

Jiran shined one of his lights upward and instantly found the shaft the miners must have used to get this far below ground. It was deep within the shadow of a huge stalactite as if the ghosts had been trying desperately to hide it from him.

With a grin, Jiran pumped mana into his legs and jumped. He blasted wind from his feet and shot through the air. He entered the tunnel from an angle and slammed hard into the wall.

Shadowy figures grasped at his feet, setting off alarm bells in his head as his foresight blared a warning of danger. With a shout of defiance,  Jiran flared his mana and the wind blasted from his feet, sending him flying up the tunnel at maximum speed.

Within seconds, he saw light above and raced to meet it.

Jiran blasted out of the tunnel and into the open air with a joyous laugh. His smile died a second later when a vice-like hand gripped his ankle.

“Gotcha!” A voice yelled as the pressure on his ankle became a downward pull that was impossible to resist.

“Quick little warbbit, ain’t cha!”

The sudden force turned his upward momentum into a downward dive and Jiran’s own wind-powered speed brought him slamming into the ground.

A blur of movement was followed by a blast of pain as a closed fist met his face. Reeling from the blow, Jiran lost focus on all of his shapings as he collapsed to the ground.

Before he could recover, something cold slid around his neck followed by an audible click.

A man stood over him, dusting his hands in the air as if he just completed a hard day's work. Jiran barely paid him any attention as his senses were drawn inward.

A familiar feeling of his mana being forcefully pulled toward his neck sent a spike of panic through his chest.