Fallen One (Book three of Alfireán age)

- The Mysterious Crater -

Rex raced across the snow-capped dunes, and Olivia watched as Alf's newly cast fire changed shape before her eyes. Morphing into a legendary bird of prey with its wings outstretched, it glided over the top of the melting snow in front of them.

Finally, she thought to herself as the biting cold faded away and the fire suffused their surrounding shield with heat.

"Ah, a phoenix," Rex yelled over his shoulder as he ran along the melted pathway. "Looks like you finally mastered my old man's spellbook."

Alf grinned roguishly and added an extra flare to his morphed shield. With a ripple of its feathers, the phoenix stretched out its fiery neck and opened its beak in a wordless cry.

It was truly impressive, Olivia thought to herself, but she found it hard to focus on her friend's achievement. Instead, her heart clenched as they approached the crater, and despite the cold temperatures, it felt like hot lead raced through her veins. An odd feeling of anger burned at the back of her head while fear gripped her chest.

The Fallen One had taken everything from her and now he had sided with Vackzilian. Which meant sooner or later, she would be forced to face him. As the group sped across the wintery wasteland, all Olivia could see was her parents flying to meet their doom while The Fallen One's sinister grin peered down at her in her mother's lap.

Fear and bitterness clogged her throat like a malignant poison, and Olivia wrapped her arms even tighter around her chest as she tried to wrestle with the darkness. The resentment and hate roiling inside her was everything Olivia stood against as a healer and follower of Christ, but still, the emotions threatened to swallow her.

But how could she help it? she wondered while the land raced by underneath her. He had killed her parents. He had stolen her childhood. He had robbed her of her home and he had... Olivia choked back the tears and emotions she'd been shoving under layers of denial and distractions. She couldn't do this on her own. With tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, Olivia looked up towards the starless, colorless sky where her help came from—from the Lord the Maker of heaven and earth—and started to silently pray.

"Careful Rex," Drakovian suddenly called out over the roar of the flaming phoenix as the horizon of rolling ice and snow gave way to nothingness, or rather a sheer drop off. "We don't want to tumble down the side, especially since I'm not sure you can fly in this thin air."

The green-clad warrior nodded and slowed down, but without his speed, Rex sank to his knees in the snow, lost his footing, and landed face first in the slush as he tumbled forward.

"Are you okay?" Valarinnia called as she dropped down into the snow and trudged to Rex's side.

Before she could reach him, the vice-champion sprung to his feet like he was some type of weeble wobble, brushed the wet snow from his hair and face, and declared, "Yep, just fine." So saying, he clambered back up on top of the snow.

Drake frowned in concentration. His dark eyebrows scrunched together, and staring fixedly towards the horizon, he started to ask, "Olivia, could you-?"

"On it," she answered, cutting off the half-spoken question. Thankful for the distraction, Olivia once again formed a scrying in her right hand while her light relaying spell floated skywards and up through a hole in the shield, Alf swiftly formed for her.

A picture coalesced in front of Olivia, and she blinked in surprise. The image showed the snow giving way to charred brown rock several hundred feet in front of them. That's odd, she thought to herself as she showed the picture to the others. I wonder why it's melted?