Part 1
"On your feet! You are not so weak anymore, are you?!" Her familiar voice echoed in my head!
I was back; laid in a pit of smoldering asphalt. My life, only spared by the subconscious reaction to erect a barrier. "Anesha!" Reality slowly settled back in as a real voice called my name! "Hey! Are you alive, bro?!" That manner of speech pierced the ringing in my ears, recognized as Jordie Mack's. He foolishly walked across the scorched road leaving melted rubber from his sneakers with each step. "You look alive. Did you need me to get some help or something?"
Sirens in the distance. Still laid back onto the hot ground, I saw approaching fire trucks zooming towards us! I kicked myself up off the ground, booted Jordie aside and dodged away with only a few seconds to spare! Using water cannons mounted atop their shiny red vehicles, they sprayed the roads, buildings, trees, and everywhere fire had caught! The rescuers ran with axes, oxygen tanks, and medical bags to aid trapped or injured civilians. It seemed futile, lo'; those humans worked admirably, nonetheless.
And what of the town? Down the road, Whispering Hills was a long line of destruction and death. There was not a block one could see without burnt or dismembered bodies, human and animal alike. People cried, limped to safety, and helped each other, but one thing stood out in the quiet chaos. "Bernadine...Bernadine! Where is Bernadine?!" Among human crowds, a woman of her size would normally not stand out, lo', I would always be able to spot someone with such a distinct visage. She was nowhere! "Jordie, the sharp faced woman, taller than I, where did she go?!"
"Uh...no idea. I was running when those fire tornados sprung up, like most people." The fluffy haired fool pondered. "Ah!" He suddenly resounded! "That sharp toothed scary chick?!" That was basically my description! "The one in the catsuit?!" Apt, as she was dressed in such a manner. "She was wearing a jacket that looked like an alligator?"
"My goodness, man! Yes! Her! Where?!"
"...Uh, that way." Worst case scenario once more, as Jordie pointed across the horribly damaged Whispering Hills-Gold River bridge. In the time that I was unmoving and barely conscious, she left me alive. Bernadine must only have cared to track down the seed and Fate!
"I am going." Nothing could stand in my way anymore. For too long had I allowed obstacles, such as people and their problems, to inhibit my goals and sway my decision making. My defeat at the hands of Bernadine was proof of that. The pain in my gut from her Slice spell was proof of that. Fate and I being stranded in two separate towns was proof of that! All those instances and more existed as bricks used to build a monument of failure! Mocking me with its magnitude, existing as an obstacle to my goals, that monument was a creation of my own foolishness! (No more! I shall kill Bernadine.) Anyone or thing standing in my path was an obstacle, and all obstacles would be surmounted. Victory would be mine! Revenge would be mine! (Enough questions and hesitancy!)
I ignored all calls for attention, desperate and authoritative, on my way toward the bridge. Each step, my boots would sink into still warm asphalt or splash through pools of blood and viscera. Bernadine succeeded in decimating Whispering Hills' citizenry; with their numbers dwindled, streets that were bustling a mere hour before, became overcome with despair. Instead of music there were sirens, crying, and screaming; lights from their clubs were replaced by fires and emergency vehicles. So much of the town looked unsalvageable, and Bernadine assumedly moved to Gold River with that same intent. Calamity had befallen Whispering Hills, brought on by a single Magekin from Graewood, and yet one question still plagued me.
(Why?) Bernadine's actions had broken one of the most sacred Magekin laws. We were to always operate in secrecy, limiting our presence in front of humans! Our existence was to remain nothing more than legends and whispers. Yes, I planned to toss aside that very law myself, criminal to my own society that I was; lo', Bernadine was slave to the aristocracy! (What sense does it make that she would do something so contradictory? It is one of our longest held laws!) Magekin walked amongst humans every day, everywhere, and at all times, in fact. It was not uncommon for some of us to leave behind the world of magic and live with humans, lo', those who did, swore upon their lives to die with knowledge of Magekin and to never reveal our existence. There were many contingencies to maintaining that secrecy, even so, as human technology has advanced, they have amazingly grown less suspect of what they would see or hear. (Even if the world around is slowly changing, I am not aware that the veil over Magekin society has suddenly been lifted.)
