The Sprinter

Chapter 17

Eloise whimpered. Pain battered in her skull. She cracked an eye open, frowning at the light

“It’s alright, it’s alright,” someone said. Ronan. “Just rest.”

Eloise shook her head. She pushed her hands into the floor, trying to sit up, but her arm crumpled beneath her. She fell back to the ground, but someone caught her. She looked up. Ronan stared back down at her, supporting her head, his calm, blue eyes filled with care and worry.

“Rest,” he growled, gently but firmly. Eloise groaned, but nodded, letting herself be lowered back to the temple floor. Salene and Arothena leaned over her, the former with a hand on her forehead, and the latter checking her heartbeat. They nodded, and backed away, giving her room to sit up. Her limbs trembled, but she refused to give in. Ronan placed a supporting hand on her back, helping to raise her into a sitting position.

She looked around. The yenaki were - gone. Utterly and completely, as if they had never been there. The foliage around the temple had been blown away, and now lay plastered across the few tree trunks that had remained standing after her - explosion. She had created a clearing in the forest, had taken rocks the size of men and flung them through the air for miles. She had felled trees that had stood for thousands of years. She had - she had killed them. She had killed the yenaki. She smiled.

The temple remained unharmed; the vines still twisted around the columns, unruffled, the ceiling still stood. And her friends - they had survived too. She doubted that even the combined power of Ronan and Arothena as Rellae could have shielded against the power that had burst out of her skin. It had - it felt like it was going to kill her. It almost did.

“Are you alright?” Ronan asked, his gentle, deep voice tinted with worry. Eloise nodded, her every movement feeling fuzzy - unreal.

“Has that ever happened before?”

She shook her head, fighting to keep the nausea down, “No. What - what was it?”

Her voice was hoarse, and her throat scratchy, as if she had been screaming for hours on end. She added that to her never-ending list of pains. Ronan looked to Arothena. She nodded at him. He turned back to her.

“Are you - are you sure you’re ready to hear it? You’ve been through - I mean, you might want to be slightly better rested first.”

“No. I - whatever it is, I want to hear it now. I want to know. Please.”

Ronan sighed.

“Wait,” Arothena cut in, “at least let me heal her first. Soothe her pain,”

Ronan nodded, relieved. Arothena shifted towards her. She held out her hand. A stream of dark, fast-moving water poured out of it, twisting towards her. Eloise gasped. Arothena had said that she had power, but she hadn’t thought that it was so - potent. Her power was shaped into an element, and it was strong. She must’ve worked for a long time to be able to master it. Arothena offered her a small smile, before the water slithered across her head, giving her an unpleasant tingling sensation. However, by the time it had returned to Arothena’s hand, the pain in her head had vanished. Absorbed.

“What - you have water power?”

“Not quite,” Arothena replied.
“Each Rellae’s magic is tapered slightly to their personality, so no power is the same, and to have power over an entire element is rare enough that in history so far, the only ones who possess such a power are the Eternals. There are so many different forms it can take that there are some that still aren’t recorded, not even in the archives of Derlgado, the strongest citadel in the land of the Rellae. Although,” she added, looking curiously at Eloise, “there is a legend that one day, a power will take root, strong enough to overcome all the forces of Tuiy. It has been dismissed as a legend, because a strength like that would be uncontrollable. It would be like having a monster, devouring and destroying your soul, feasting on your heart. It would destroy you before you could do anything with it. So it was put down to a fable. Until now, at least.”

Arothena looked cautiously to Ronan, then shuffled back, allowing him to enter her line of vision, even though she could turn her head now.

“That power you have, it isn’t - normal. Even for some of the strongest Rellae, that kind of power is unheard of. It doesn’t seem to have any shape either. And, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you have any Rellae heritage, either.”

Eloise shook her head. She was purebred human, as far as she was aware.

“Therefore, I think it’s fair to say that - it isn’t power. It’s - it’s you. You don’t have extreme amounts of power, you don’t have any power - you have an outlet. A means of escape for you, who you are. Your core - your very self. The energy that makes up you, the energy that creates you, that lets you exist - that is what that power is. You’re different because - usually it can’t escape. But you, you can release it - with devastating results.”

Eloise gaped at him.

“I wouldn’t, though,” he added, hesitation creasing his brow. Eloise frowned.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s you. The more you release it, the less you is left. It - it will kill you. More than kill you. It will erase your existence. Every single part of it, down to the last atom of your being. From what you released just now, I would say that you probably have... “

He broke off.

“How many?” Eloise demanded. Ronan gulped.

“I might be wrong. How much you release might change depending on your emotions - but there’s no way you’ll be able to control this power. Two. I think you have two uses left before it consumes you.”

~~*****~~

**Author's note: hi! Thanks for sticking with me this far. You're halfway there! Let me know what you think and how I could improve.