Scattered Fragments

Chapter 17- We All Burn

             "Scorch," Everyn commanded the fire born beast behind her.
The giant bird plunged into the docks where Finch had run off to, engulfing the area in her flame- a cage for a rat. Everyn could see Finch running towards one of his ships on the pier. She reached for her bow and lined up a shot towards the ship.
Her fingertips pulled back then released the arrow with incredible force. The arrow sailed true, shooting straight up into the air, then beginning it's decent over the ship. Finch and his men stopped short as the ship he had been running to was completely destroyed in a vibrant explosion.
            The Caden skyline was caked in smoke and fire. Ever since Finch had decided to run from his manor and toward the docks, Everyn had turned the whole town into a giant furnace, and her power was the Kiln. The giant bird she manifested from her flame was chasing down Finch's men as they were beginning to flood the docks.
Everyn soon realized that there were more men coming into the docks than her bird could ravage. She turned and saw Finch point up at her, shouting at his men as they took position. Countless barrels from rifles and hand cannons were pointed straight up to her. Everyn stood motionless, her glowing red eyes pierced through her dark silhouette, giving her a twisted appearance.
Finch yelled, calling upon a roar of gunfire that cut through the rain like deadly sleet. Everyn spread her arms out then immediately crossed them. She floated in place as the bird's flames shot from its body and cocooned Everyn in a swirling ball of fire.
As each bullet got near her, the momentum from the ball would cause them to ricochet blindly. Crates and wooden planks blew apart as wayward bullets shot into them- even some of Finch's soldiers were caught in the crossfire. The more the men shot at her the more her cocoon would grow. Finch started to back step, shocked that it had already grew four times its normal size.
"Stop, Stop!" He repeated, but the noise from all that gunfire just drowned his out.
He began to push his men down one by one in an attempt to get them to stop, but the flames were getting close, devouring the pier.
Everyn laughed through the cinder, almost maniacally as her power grew stronger. Finch began to panic as he witnessed his men disintegrating into ash as soon as the ball touched them. The bullets stopped soon after as every man and woman started running away from the blaze.
A flurry of arrows began shooting out of the cocoon towards the retreating forces. Bodies began dropping to the ground, rolling and beating at the burning skin. Finch ran as fast as he could for the end of the pier, thinking the water would be safest for him. A scorching heat wave cut him off as the flaming bird swooped down and blocked his path.
            A little closer and Finch would have lost his eyebrows to the flames. Everyn stepped out from the bird's belly, her bow raised and an arrow aimed right at Finch.
            "I can light this town on fire all night Finch, but I'm tired of this cat and mouse," she said, pulling the bow's string back further.
He smirked, and raised his shoulders, "I've always pegged ye' for the type that likes a good chase." He took a step a couple hurried steps back.
            An arrow sliced past his cheek, a thin line of blood appearing in its wake.
He went up to touch it, "Of all the ways ye' could have killed me, you decide to go with a cliché?"
She looked around, admiring her work. "Always been one for the dramatics, you should know that."
            "Aye, but do you remember what I have always been known for?" He asked, passing her a sideways grin.
His traps! Everyn realized, quickly shifting
her gaze to the ground underneath her.
            A glowing white "V" lit up underneath Everyn. She tried to jump out the way, but the trap released a black smoke that caused her to crumble to the ground. The black smoke entered her lungs, trespassing her trachea and latching onto the Alveoli. A shortness of breath soon hit, followed by light headedness and a complete cut off  of the flow of Essence that she commanded.
            The flaming bird let out a cry before disintegrating into thousands of sparks. Silence soon followed as the fires that surrounded the pier began to die out- no longer being fed by Everyn's Essence. The rain had finally stopped, and the moon began to peek through the thick clouds as they dispersed.
            Everyn lay on the floor convulsing. All the heat inside of her body was gone, and a terrifying chill took over. She couldn't stop gripping her teeth, or loosen her knuckles, or stay still.
           Finch gave a deep laugh to the sky, and kicked her across the stomach. The girl groaned in pain, the wind knocked clean out of her.
            "You know, out of all the people who tried to kill me this month, you've come the closest to killing me," Finch said, turning and blowing a loud whistle.
Dozens of his men appeared from the shadows, some who managed to survive her flaming Phoenix and others who had arrived to the party late.
She was now surrounded and helpless, her own body beginning to reject her. Uratin wasn't a deadly poison, but it made you wish you were. It not only attacked the muscles in your body, making you shake so much it rendered your limbs useless and it also blocked off any and all Essence reserves in the body- complete incapacitation.
"But like all the rest, ye' come up short," he reached down and picked Everyn up by the collar. "It was a nice attempt, it really was, but I AM THE PIRATE KING!" He roared, causing Everyn to flinch. It wasn't something she did often, and honestly it caught her by complete surprise.
I was overconfident... I had underestimated him, she admitted to herself.
Finch dragged her along the pier, and then suddenly stopped. He brought her face up to his one more time. "The days of the Shihu are long past us. Once I heard all the ol' pals had gotten out, I knew ye'd come for me. You were always soft Ev', all those beatings me and the boys handed to ye' to keep you in line didn't make you tough, it made you obedient.
"You followed orders like a good dog, and now you come crawling back like one." He laughed at her face, but it was short lived. Everyn could feel an edge at her heels. She tried to say something but she was shocked to see James holding her. Her heart wanted to explode, her brain wanted to drive an arrow between his eyes.
"I've got no more uses for dogs anymore. Especially something broken such as ye'self."
James' face switched between his own and Finch's spastically. She smiled to herself just a little, happy with herself that she was able to remember the way he sounded like. Rough around the edges, but soft at the center.
She was falling, and then a crash, as if she hit the ground. She kept falling slower, in a new world, one much more denser and full of...Water. Everyn was sinking and the cursed drug inside of her was still in possession of her limbs. She held in her breath, but she knew better, she was just prolonging the inevitable.
Finch's words stuck with her. Ye' were always soft. Maybe he was right, that she wasn't completely mad, but what was so wrong about that? She had lived as best she could and longer than a person in her position would hope for. What was I fighting for all these years? She couldn't remember her purpose anymore. A smirk crossed her lips. So stupid.
Death filled her lungs, pushing past her mouth and gently entering. Everyn coughed out the water, then breathed in more water, then coughed it out, over and over until her body was too weak to carry on. She closed her eyes and smiled as she finally hit the bottom. What was I fighting for?