As promised, a new installment for you all. Vote, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think!
Phoenix tried to respond, but could only stutter a negative before she yelled again. "I spent months, months, trying to free you, and you are so blasted stubborn that it almost took your death, and you would undo all that work, all that trust that not only I, but your entire family have placed in you? You disgust and betray me."
Phoenix backpedaled quickly, putting distance between himself and the angry woman. "My apologies, Lian. I had a moment of weakness."
Lian anger faded, and her eyes softened. "I will deal with you in a moment." Phoenix saw the fire ignite behind her eyes once more and she whirled on Tanos, who had backed up against the heavy black cloth of the tent. "You would undo all the work I have done, and spoil the only hero who can possibly lead us to victory. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Tanos was visibly shaken, and raised both hands into the air. "I was only trying to boost his powers. Our one great hope should be as powerful as possible; I meant no harm."
Lian snatched the stone from Tanos' still-open hand. "Never again. Understood? He cannot be in contact with any of the stones, especially one of this size. I would never be able to bring him back."
Lian spun without waiting for a reply, and roughly grabbed Phoenix's sleeve, half pulling, half dragging him from the tent. She said not a word as she led him from the tent and back to the village, then through it, and into the woods. Down the path to the clearing by the stream, and to the stump Ember had sat on all those years ago.
She pushed him down to sit on it, and he complied, waiting for her to speak. She paced back and forth in front of him for a few moments, visibly shaken for the first time since he had met her. She finished pacing and turned to him. "I do know what the stone does to a person, though I have never felt the detrimental effects myself. I know that a person never truly forgets how they feel with the stone, and they are forever weakened by it. Not physically, but mentally. It is addicting, and it can be all that drives a person after they have felt it."
She sat in front of him, and he looked down at her. She pulled a knife from her hidden sheath and began cleaning her fingernails, visibly much calmer. "I think we need to get back to the task at hand. Training you with your air-born powers."
Phoenix was confused. "Wait. You are not angry with me?"
Lian smirked. "I have not said that. I am, but I know that your actions in Tanos' tent were no fault of your own. We simply need to make you stronger to such temptation."
He smiled back. "And how do we go about this?"
"Meditation."
"Meditation?"
"It is sitting still, eyes closed, and becoming tuned to yourself. Only by introspection can we truly know ourselves."
Phoenix rolled his eyes. "I know what meditation is, Lian. I simply asked how it is supposed to make me stronger."
"It is by knowing yourself, that you learn your own weaknesses, and by knowing your weaknesses they become unexploitable."
"And when do we start?"
"Now. Close your eyes."
Phoenix did as he was told, closing his eyes and letting the smile fall from his face. He did not know what she expected to happen, but he centered his mind as best he could.
"Slow your breathing," she said, her voice calm and even. "You have nowhere to go, nothing to do. You must only be calm."
He wanted to laugh, but held it in for her sake. Hours passed, without another word from her. She stood and he opened his eyes, and followed her back to the village without a word between them.
The next morning, before the sun had risen, she was rousing him, tossing him his clothes, and leading him to the stream. He meditated with her until lunch, and she handed him a bit of bread and cheese, and a small flask of wine. He ate and drank, and went directly back to meditation. He found it calming, and allowed him time to consider the coming battle. Tactics, troop placements, weaponry, and supply all flew through his mind. Until they did not.
He was back in the darkness. All around him, the lights floated, passing through him as they pleased. The screams came then, and he concentrated on the few spots of laughter, waiting until the cacophony died down. When it finally did and he was no longer assaulted, he opened his eyes to see the man before him once more. "Welcome back to the middling, Phoenix, son of Doritan."
"Demetrius," Phoenix hissed.
The man bowed his head. "So here we are. Many months after our last encounter, being pulled closer and closer together. It will take but weeks now for us to finally meet face to face. My soldiers have landed on the shores of Brisiris, and many more come. I too, come to Brisiris, to see it razed, to cleanse it."
"To kill thousands, you mean. Innocents, children, anyone who does not agree with you."
"To claim power is to lay waste to those who have it."
"What power could the slaughter of villages, people who have never even stepped a league from their home, bring you?"
"Power is obedience. When someone obeys a command, they give you power. Power over their life, power over their will, power over their very soul. I am a simple man, Phoenix. I simply want to drown out the screams, and replace them with laughter. I need obedience for that. Obedience from both my own land, which I already have, and obedience from Brisiris."
"And after Brisiris falls? What then?"
"The East will follow. And then I will send ships, great ships, across the Unending Sea to find other lands to bring into obedience."
"Men have a right to live free," Phoenix snarled. "With no king, no ruler, but the laws nature herself has handed down. You choose to upset the balance that has prevailed for millenia? You are mad, and I will see to it that I personally stomp the life from your body, mark my words."
Demetrius' calm faltered then, and Phoenix saw the beast within. "All men should bow to power. And the most powerful should bow to no one! I found Avec and Sans, I became the most powerful elemental the world has ever seen, able to bestow great power and able to rip away great power on a whim! I will rule Brisiris, and any other lands I come across, and there is nothing you can do to stop me! The gods themselves will not interfere, because the gods themselves know this to be true!"
"That is not true," said a new voice, and Phoenix's counter-part, the phoenix itself appeared next to him. The man could feel the anger rolling off his godhood in waves, and he smiled.