The wind lessened and I slowly opened my eyes. The land stretched out to the left as Varil hovered, gliding around and waiting for Nyrit and Risha to catch up. My legs trailed in the opaque mist that rose in eddying circles from the wind from the dragon's wings, and my feet slowly disappeared entirely.
We slowly left the land behind us, and the temple climbed out of the mist. It towered above us as we touched down on the white stone steps. Dismounting, I stared up at the towering doors glowing with gold veins. I took a step closer and something rumbled within. The doors whined, then slowly creaked open, revealing the darkness within, about to swallow us whole. I looked at Risha and nodded. We walked forwards and ascended the steps, past the doors. They slammed shut behind us with a boom, and shadows pressed in from all sides. I jumped from the noise but came to my senses, casting a small soft orb of glowing flame ahead of us.
Slowly, the light illuminated the surroundings. I saw towering marble pillars, light grey stone flagons beneath my feet and groves carved into the walls. Odd, but not out of place. I cast a glance around the room, but with my low visibility there were no light sources I could see apart from the small glowing ball of fire like a tiny sun hovering in front of me.
So what if the grooves were the light source? All the other temples I had found had some way of lighting up the chamber.
Slowly, I directed the flames over to one of the grooves as I followed a few steps behind. My footsteps echoed around me, mirrored by Risha's as she began to explore, a glass-like shard of ice hovering in the air before her, casting a ghostly blue glow. I stretched an arm out, running my fingers through the groove then holding it up to the light. My finger was coated with a slippery, iridescent substance, and in it, what I assumed was dust sparkled slightly. I lifted my hand up to my nose and sniffed, smelling the familiar pungent odour of lamp oil. I smiled, then sent a ribbon of fire curling from around my fingertip and watched as it licked the surface of the oil in the wall. The flame flickered, then sputtered out altogether. I jumped back as heat hotter than anything I had felt before seared my face.
The oil erupted into sapphire blue flames that raced down the room. Over the next few seconds they faded to green, then finally a muted orange.
Holy shit.
With the room now lit, I could see more clearly, and my fireball blinked out. The room was made of marble and cool grey stone, similar to the pillars and flagons I had seen when I entered. Carvings lay half-crumbled on plinths and walls, depicting serpents, great warriors and battles, the memories of which were long since lost to time. I did not try to recall - there would be no point in trying, and some things are best left forgotten, left at the mercy of a void of cast away thought and dreams.
We pressed forward, the eyes of creatures and men bearing down on us, ever-present, watching out every move. Suddenly, behind me I heard a slight scraping of stone against stone, then a click echoing through the narrow hallway we were now creeping down. I turned and saw Risha staring wide eyed as sparkling black powder gradually poured into the air, smoke like ribbons and streams swirling and slithering closer and closer. I opened my mouth to shout at her to run, but felt cold slowly sweeping across my ankles, climbing higher and higher as I stared at the floor, rooted in horror.
No. No. No this couldn't be happening.
"What's happening?" Risha's voice cut through the silence, small, tremulous.
"I— I don't know!"
The smoke from the power was higher now, almost at my waist. My legs began to lose feeling from the cold, and as I breathed in again my lungs began to burn.
"Shit!" I coughed, trying to get rid of the powder, "Not good!"
I spun around, trying to see anyway out, but the smoke was coming from all sides now, and I realised, a wave of nausea punched my gut, that I could hardly see the hallway. My legs suddenly gave out, trembling beneath my weight, and I crashed to the floor. The stone cut into my hands as I tried to lift myself up, but I failed, and heard Risha calling out my name in fear as I fell into the blackness before she seemed to double over, coughing and spluttering. The more of the powder I inhaled, the more difficult it was to breath, my head swimming. My thoughts muddled as I pulled myself into a sitting position. With the ounce of will I had left, I urged the flames to rally in my hand in a vain attempt to light up the unfathomable darkness I had found myself in. The powder around us must be the same as what I had originally thought was dust in the walls, because as soon as the flame appeared it burst into white-blue energy, racing up my arm.
I screamed in agony as I felt the skin on my forearm and hand crack and blacken.
"Kelsie! Kelsie!" Risha's frantic cry broke through to me once again as she heard my shouts, the two dragons shrieking. I could not do anything. I could not think, I could not move as the energy continued to consume me. The pain became too much to bear, and I was still screaming as I tasted blood and blacked out.
YOU ARE READING
A Throne of Flames || COMPLETED
Fantasy"Before there was anything there were dragons. They ruled over oblivion, a gaping void where nothing exists but everything lives." The war had raged for decades. And in it's wake all that had been left was a broken expanse of a fire burnt wasteland...
