Scattered Fragments

Chapter 16- Scorch Me

          The sun was now setting, draping the land in a dark blanket and putting the town to sleep. Caden, however, was the type of town to be up well over its bed time. The only thing that put its residents to sleep was the bottom of a bottle, or the closing of a tavern.

          Everyn stepped out of the town's largest bar, the bright lights from the inside cut through the darkness of the streets. After she finished scoping out Finch's manor, she decided to hunt for a little bit of information about the place at a blackjack table or two.

          Now she was heading home, eager to sit down for a while and be around people who didn't smell like high hell. Everyn couldn't wait to leave the town behind. She needed to get back to normal- whatever that was now...

          As she walked in she noticed Pope was hunched over the kitchen sink, cleaning pots and pans from Celeste's dinner meal.

          "You put him to work?" Everyn asked Celeste.

She looked up from her place on the old sofa where she was laying on an elbow, reading a small paperback, humorously titled, . "Better than him just sitting around doing nothing. Besides, he knows better if he thinks he could run away."

          Everyn looked over to Pope, sensing the fear sweating off of him. At least she has him in line, Everyn thought, looking back at Celeste. "What in the world are you reading?" She asked.

Her cheeks began to flush as she looked down at the book titled, Essentials of Essentia: A History and Guide to our World. "It's just something I managed to borrow from the bookshelf. It's actually quite interesting. It talks about how the art of Essentia was founded about five hundred years after Essence was discovered. Before, people called the-

          "Goddess, save us all," Everyn said under her breath. "Spare me the history lesson.

Celeste chuckled, closing the book and putting it to the side. "So, did you guys find Finch?"

Everyn shifted, "Yes, apparently he's Caden's new Pirate King."

Celeste's eyes furrowed, "How in the world did a man like that become Pirate King? He looked like such a pushover when he was in the Shihu."

          Pope cleared his throat from the other side of the room, "I've heard that the man befriended the former Pirate King and became his right hand. A week after that, the man was found on the docks, washed up from the ocean. It seemed his boat was caught in some storm, although no storm seemed to come."

          Celeste and Everyn turned to the boy.

          "Celeste, what do we do to eavesdroppers?" Everyn asked.

Pope put his hands up to his ears, before Celeste could respond and said, "Understood."

The two women turned back to each other.

          "It seems that Finch hasn't changed a single bit," Celeste said. "Did you figure out how we're going to get him?"

          Everyn stuck a finger out and willed the fire Essences in her body to form a small ember at her fingertips. The small flame was perfectly stable in her control. Fire was one of the most dangerous forms of Essence that one could conjure and maintain without it running wild. She did this little ritual to remind herself that she was in control.

          "The man lives in a fortress, and commands a couple men shy of a small army. If we're going to get in we're going to have to create some kind of diversion," Everyn said, scuffing out the small ember at her fingertips. "Remember that time when Trista got under your skin during lunching hours that you made her glass of water explode as she drank it?"