Descent Into Darkness

Descent Into Darkness Chapter 22

Hey, guys! Look who's back! Things have been crazy, but now I'm back, and writing regularly again. I'm going to reinstitute my voting challenges, and that way I can keep a schedule to upload more often! As soon as this chapter hits one hundred votes, I'll upload a new chapter. If it does not, I'll upload in two weeks. Enjoy!

Phoenix tried rising to his feet, but found he could not. He strained with whatever strength he could muster and conjured an orb, throwing it toward Elaina’s still body in Lian’s arms. He roared in anger when Lian’s hand shot out and caught the orb, its fire turning black once it touched her hand and then dissipating. “I will not allow you to kill such a warrior, Phoenix, just because your pride is wounded.” She lay Elaina down, and walked toward him, lifting him from the ground and suspending him over her shoulder. “We take our leave, and leave this city to mourn the destruction you have wrought.”

Phoenix struggled on her shoulder, shouting at her to release him when her elbow slammed into his temple, sending him into darkness.

He awoke hours later, long after night had fallen. He shot up to a sitting position to see Lian ten feet away with her back to him, stoking a dying fire. A growl escaped him as he lit his hand and pushed a wave of fire at her back, his anger spilling forth in a rush of flame. Lian turned in a flash, her hand coming up to meet his blaze. The flame turned black and stretched up her arm, her own power dissipating the attack. “We will be having none of that,” she said quietly, turning back to the fire before her.

“You interfered in my affairs, and I am not amused,” Phoenix snarled, rising to his feet and stalking toward the woman.

Lian reached toward the fire and removed a skewered fowl, holding it out to him. “Yes, I did. For good reason too.”

He accepted the food with a scowl and sat next to her, pulling a leg off of the still sizzling bird. “Explain yourself.”

The fire danced in the night, reflecting in her black eyes and adding menace to her features. “Do not think to give me orders, Phoenix. I serve you according to the will of my former master, not because you have demanded or done anything to deserve it.”

Knowing that she still held the stone he so desired, Phoenix calmed himself. “Explain yourself, please.”

Lian nodded, removing her own bird from the fire and biting into it. “Her husband told me of a plan she concocted many months ago. Should the stone ever be on the verge of falling into the wrong hands, she would bear it away on a whirlwind, to a place many leagues away.”

“She never would have had the chance,” Phoenix muttered with a full mouth.

The eastern woman closed her eyes. “Elaina did not need the chance, you arrogant fool. Considering that she had you exactly where she wanted you, and you would have died if not for my intervention, you should show some gratitude at the fact that you still live and breathe.”

Phoenix opened his mouth to speak, but the woman continued before he could, her voice dangerously low, poison dripping in her tone. “I served Tanos because he saved my life. When I was but a girl, just after my realization that I was an Atox, I was being hunted in the wild. I told you once, Phoenix, that I came to the realization when I killed another student and absorbed his power, remember?”

He nodded, and she resumed her story. “There is an academy in my city, for all Zuhdalay. We train there to be additions to our country’s army. It is against the sacred rules to murder another, as it is here, and I was imprisoned at the tender age of ten, for a killing that was warranted. The student was not a student, but a teacher, and he tried to rape me. As you know, a Yaagalee’s powers are constrained until the locks are broken, and that was the key. In my fear, the locks were broken and my body caught fire.”

“I have heard of trauma causing the locks to open before,” Phoenix mused. “It is said that traumatic breaks cause the Yaagalay to be immensely powerful, but there is always the possibility of the trauma affecting their mind.”

Lian glared at him, and continued. “The teacher was killed instantly, and I was safe, but not for long. When the others came upon his scorched body with me unconscious from absorbing his power, they did not care why. The man I killed was a cousin to the ruler of our land, and it was decreed that I would be put to death for my transgression.

“I was put in a prison meant for holding a fire elemental, but they did not know that I could command the earth as well. I punched a hole in the wall once I was told of my sentence, and escaped over the wall of the city. Two weeks later, starving and dehydrated, I stumbled onto a road. I was being chased by bounty hunters and their dogs. They were almost upon me when Tanos came around the bend. He slew the bounty hunters and spirited me away to Marlbon. I grew up, serving him as payment for saving my life.”

Phoenix only cocked his head to the side, waiting for her to finish. She sighed exasperatedly, throwing the bones of her dinner into the still crackling fire. “He did something honorable, something to warrant my service. I only obeyed his command to come with you because you’re the only other Atox I have ever come across, and I was curious to see how this plays out. I told you all of this to drive the fact that I am not your servant through your thick skull. You may ask things of me, but never order them. I will tell you when I disagree with you, and I may even openly oppose you as I did today. If you had continued fighting Elaina, you would have died on that marble, in a pool of your own blood.”

“I would have thought of something,” Phoenix grumbled, throwing his bones into the fire as well.

“No, you would not have, and I am done arguing with you. If you want my help, or the stone I carry, you will begin to take more time and think of a strategy that doesn’t result in the death of innocents.”

Phoenix blanched. “You have no right to keep it from me.”

Lian stood and turned from the fire, fading into the darkness outside of the ring of light it cast. It was a gift given me by another warrior. It is mine to do with as I please. I have no qualms of fighting you for it. Since I am pledged to you, what is mine is also yours, but I will not give it until you have proven that you can resist its temptations.”

Phoenix rose to his feet as well, staring at the spot where she had disappeared. “You would stand against me in battle?”

Her voice was much lower when it sounded, and directly behind him. “With you killing innocents, I may be doing this land a service if I killed you. There are those who have high hopes in you, Phoenix, that you might best Demetrius now that more people know of him. He will bring a darkness to this land, a darkness that is as of yet unseen.”

“I am fighting him!” Phoenix snarled, whirling on the spot, but she was gone.

“By doing his work for him?” she whispered, her voice coming from all sides at once. “Elaina would stand against him, and you almost robbed her of that chance in your mad quest for the stone. You’re clearing his path, making it ever easier for him once he decides to launch an all-out attack on this land.”

Phoenix almost retorted in anger, but stopped when he realized her tone. “You know of him and his plans?”

“Know of him, know him, yes. I know him from the days before he took the name Demetrius, from the days before he found the stones and became the man he is now.”

Phoenix let the tide of anger within him subside. “You’re right. I am clearing his path. The stone has a great many powers, and I succumbed to their temptations.”

Lian laughed in the darkness, the sound of it unsettling. “Phoenix, you are a horrible actor. I would see us united against Demetrius for the sake of the land, not fighting over the stones you covet so. I will tell you what I know, but only once I’m sure you no longer have a thirst for killing innocents. And I will be keeping hold of the stone I carry until I see your conviction."