~*~ Chapter 8 ~*~
For once I was thankful for the cold.
At least it made me numb; inside and out. With my current situation, I really needed that.
I watched as five more men were burned to death right before my very eyes. By their own fire, no less, and all were facing Aaron. The smell of burnt flesh permeated the air. Somehow his battles kept ending up in sectors right before me. I was always forced to watch. And for some reason I could never look away until the end—no matter how well I’d known the results.
But even the mighty Aaron was getting tired it seemed. Though, I couldn’t see why, and he hadn’t moved an inch for any of the fights. Yet somehow, a thin layer of perspiration was covering his pale skin. I was personally hoping it was because he was melting away so he could be a pile of flesh too.
And then, “coincidentally”, a few of Aaron’s opponents never even made it to their sector. “Missing” went his sixth opponent. “Suddenly fallen ill” went his seventh. And my favorite: “Crushed by a spontaneously falling tree” went his eighth.
These weren’t the only men suddenly having a stroke of “bad luck”. As the sun sank through the sky, more names were melted off without a battle ever even having occurred. Drastic measures were starting to be taken and I hadn’t feared for Solice more.
He came back from his first battle as the last male from the first batch of men called out. He’d fought the hardest one out of the lot and he looked it. He was covered in soot and some minor burns ran up his arms. People whispered mutterings of awe. He’d fought one of our army’s generals apparently, who was now in a critical condition and not expected to make it. He had surrendered. A Magmian general even having the capacity to surrender is unheard of. The word rarely registers within this country.
I couldn’t even be proud of the very person who had taught me fire combat because I knew what he was now.
A dead man walking.
He may not be killed in battle, but someone will come after him outside of the sectors. Maybe he’d be the next to be “crushed by a spontaneously falling tree”.
After all, he was nobody and a threat on top of that. No one but Lacey and I will ever have noticed his disappearance.
But still he fought on. That bloody fool would just not give up. I prayed he would surrender.
We passed the forty-eight hour mark. Elda and Rey retired to their tents multiple times, but I, I stayed right there in my throne the whole time.
About half of the men were out and half of the rock was a molten mess from being melted so much. I was not tired. My biggest nightmare would be falling asleep and then waking up to see “Solice Darkwood” no longer on that damned rock.
And “Aaron Christia” at the top.
With those images in my head, sleep was my enemy.
One more day passed. Men began losing it. One man mistook me and my hair for an actual ball of fire (seriously) and tried attacking me—only to be dragged away and executed by the guards; right in front of everyone.
Solice did not look at me once as he kept returning to the rock, each interval longer than the last. My stomach ached and my head was like a ton of bricks, but as long as Solice was still out there I would not sleep.
The smell of rotting flesh clung in the air and onto our skin at this point. All of the talk and buzz of Magmian honor had long diminished. To me, it started to feel like a mass murder.
Why does a King have to be born from so much bloodshed?
Because this, is Magmus.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
We hit the ninety-six hour point and I had lost nearly all sanity.
It was close to midnight. Rey and Elda in their tents, and just more killing and fighting beyond the birch trees. The dead, ugly, zombie birch trees.
The guards were switching shifts, so the blokes watching me were more concerned with getting away from this horror show rather than watching me. Somehow I found myself no longer sitting.
Suddenly I was walking. Away from the smoke and flesh. Away from the blazes of fire in the sky.
Walking and walking; the sound of burnt leaves crunching under my heels and my dress swishing through the dirt. It was like I was floating.
But then everything turned red. I looked around. My arms were red. My legs. My hair. My skin. I was red. I assumed it was fire.
Ah, I see, I’m on fire, aren’t I?
I heard another scream fill the air and I cringed in disgust.
I didn’t want to be here.
Why am I even here? Why did I stay all this time? Who was I watching again…?
Everything was a blur. And red. I wanted to float away. No. I wanted to fly away.
Why haven’t I flown away yet? I don’t understand why I haven’t tried that yet.
And then, as soon as the thought had surfaced in my mind, an eruption of ruby, orange, and golden feathers exploded around me. Falling and fluttering through the air—glittering possessively in the pale moonlight. As soon as I saw them it was like cinder blocks were lifted off of me. I felt lighter. As light as air.
I could just fly up now…
I started to lift slowly off the ground. I heard flapping behind me. The breeze felt nice. More feathers danced around me. I couldn’t remember where I was or what I was doing; all I did know was that I wanted to go higher.
My wings expanded and just as they were about to take me higher, something caught my ankle. It clasped on tightly and tugged me down. There was a weird humming in my ears. I didn’t want to go down, I wanted to fly up. But I got yanked down harder and the humming grew louder.
“…ber! Ember! EMBER GODDAMNIT!”
The feathers dropped. The red melted away and my body slammed to the ground, colliding with something hard along the way.
“Bloody--” I felt a slap land fiercely across my face. Now I really felt like I was on fire, or at least my cheek.
“What the hell were you thinking trying to fly out in the open like that?!” Someone furiously screeched at me.
The haze was clearing from my eyes. I saw Solice towering over me; his floppy hair a mess, his skin dark with cinder, and very pissed looking.
“What do you mean . . . fly?” My voice came out hoarse from its lack of use over the past few days. He pinched something behind my back. “OW!” I bellowed. My eyes stretched wide and I turned my head to face behind me. Sure enough there they were.
A grand pair of golden, ruby and orange phoenix wings flapped silently behind me, almost as if they were waving at me.
The situation I was in suddenly sunk in all at once. “I did not . . . just try to fly, did I?” I frantically stood up and looked around. “I’m such a sniveling fool! For the goddess’s sake tell me no one saw that.” I pleaded desperately.
“Hurry up and put them away Ember before someone sees!” Solice hissed at me.
I nodded, completely frazzled, and my wings erupted into flames, slowly burning away except for one last golden feather that managed to float to the ground beforehand.
“Are you trying to get killed Ember?!” He screamed once more.
Anger boiled in my blood at that remark. “ME? I should be asking you that, you wretched fool!” Something was spilling over inside of me and I wasn’t sure what it was. “Joining the Fire Maiden’s Battle, just what exactly are you trying to pull?! Are you trying to put Lace through the pain of losing another sibling?! She’s been through too goddamn much Solice and—“
His arms enveloped me tightly in one swift movement. It was then I realized I was already crying. “I’ve been so worried a-about you!” I sobbed into his soot stained shirt. “W-what and I s-supposed to do if you were already dead?” I continued to hiccup. All the stress over the last four days was just pouring out of me to the point that I was hysterical.
“Shhh, shh, it’s alright Ember. I’m right here. I’m not dead. I’m right here.” He cooed gently in my ear as if I was a baby. I only clutched him tighter.
Solice was . . . all I had. My best friend. My first friend. Next to Lace he was my only friend. If I didn’t have him I probably would’ve lost the motivation to live long ago. His existence meant so much more to me than I had ever known. If I lost this existence, I may just crumble. He was more than a friend though. He was like family to me. Real family. The way I always imagined actual families treated each other.
“Why were you out here like this, though? They’re allowing us a few hours for a break. I came back to the stone to see you leaving your throne and wandering out into the woods as if you were possessed or something. And then you go out and summon your wings?” His voice was soft but his tone was strong in my ear.
“I-I don’t really know what happened.” I managed to choke out. “I haven’t slept because I was so worried and I guess I just lost it . . .”
“You haven’t slept?!”
“I was scared I’d wake up to your name gone!” I cried out to him. He squeezed me tighter.
“I’ll explain everything when this is all over. Get some sleep. I promise, when you wake up, I’ll be there. Solice Darkwood can’t be killed off that easily, otherwise who’d be there for this big crybaby?”
I jumped out of his arms and wiped my eyes quick. “What crybaby, you quibbling peasant!” I retorted, reverting back to my usual clipped tone. I swear I heard him chuckle at me. I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him.
“Let’s go back. We could both use some rest. The last thing we need is someone finding out about your wings. Magmus doesn’t need any more reasons to isolate you for being different. And the whole you somehow being part phoenix/Extinguisher is pretty much a deal breaker.”
I nodded slowly and we headed back.
My wings are a lot like my hair. It was something (as far as I know) I was born with. I’ve always been like that. It took me some years to figure out how to willingly summon them and make them go away, but I essentially have that much figured out. I always just pegged me being not a fully developed Magmian somehow. Like I still have some parts Extinguisher about me. I had assumed that’s why my hair was red as well. Solice likes to think that it’s something more mysterious than that. Since our goddess is a phoenix, he thinks I’m somehow related to that, but that would mean so are the other Extinguishers.
I don’t know.
What I do know is Elda can never find out because if she could convince Rey that I’m an extinguisher like Igniall, I think I may finally see my end. But I like my wings personally. They’re what let me meet Solice.
I settled back into my throne and Solice onto the ash covered grounds to sleep.
It was nice to spread my wings, and for the first time since the battles, I forgot about Aaron.
Big mistake.