.A Spark From Before.

-18-

I opened my eyes to a scream.

I stood up, already knowing what was going on.

I looked over my shoulder, seeing the flames rise from the village, with the danger of me existing the Elite mobilized fast.... But not fast enough.

"Skarla stop screaming, it won't help them or us." I said gently.

"She is right ice queen, we made our choices.... We need to live with them now."

"B-but..." She took a deep breath, looking at me.

"I'll keep you both safe but we need to move now, they will search for us until found, we need to put distance between them and us and that now."

"Lets move."

I let out my arm and a tree twisted its own branch off and the straight piece fell into my hand, with a swing of my staff the leaves fell off and formed into a straight wooden piece.

"Here, you told me once you left yours behind to bring me with you, consider this as payment, it won't fail you." I let Skarla grab it from my hands."

"How did you do that with no movement, you just lifted your arm to catch it." She said, jogging to follow me as I marched off, turning my back to the town that once was their home and now a would-be a funeral pyre.

"There are things, knowledge, lost to time each time a previous generation dies, my understanding of magic runs deeper then anyone else's, being born a few centuries only after Merlin's time."

"Merlin?" Davis whispered, walking by his sister's side, both struggling much more then I did to advance but the elements are my playing field after all, of course it is easy for me.

"Another time, it is a long story to tell."

"Oh right, right.... So what is this trick?"

"Elementals were created by Merlin, from his death to be exact, there is a huge amount of elemental magic existing but it is finite unlike wild magic, all elementals in history have tapped into the same magic since it was a one off gift from the god. that is also the reason so few of us are born each generations, the elemental magic potential split up between the mages, in some way we share one big, almost endless and yet finite, amount of magic."

"Once used up it vanishes no?"

"Wild magic? Yes. Elemental? No, wild magic excess slips over into the empty realm, the void, since it is constantly generated, elemental magic always sticks around, never less never more then what was first created."

"But how does that give you this ability?"

I stopped and turned to them, plants lacing up their legs and stopping them.

"You see what I just did?" I let them go as they watched in awe. "I only need my mind... The reason why I can do that and I am so strong is the same reason why the Gatekeeper can hold out the fight alone or why your magic manifested so quickly compared to how your mother would have been ninety before there was hints of it.... With more mages the magic is spread thinner.... But there are only three of us that exist, granting us far more power then before.... With this much magic I would have been able to stop the Decay... I am sure of it."

"Amazing." I smiled at Skarla.

"I'll teach you how to harness that magic inside of you. When I am the queen I will have saved the people and they'll need someone to protect them, you'll be my first mage of a new generation, the newest of head mages, you'll know all you can, and you Davis will be the master of the archives, I know how much you love to learn... I'll help you reach both of your dreams but first help me reach my given goal."

"I can't wait." Skarla smiled back at me with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Where she goes I go.... And I would love to see the old books of the Capitol.... So I will follow." Davis said, much less enthusiasm but I don't care.

"Good, now go on walk, you are slow so I'll walk behind for your safety."

Skarly didn't question me and Davis followed her.

I grinned before that fell off my face and I turned to look fully at the burning town.

"Thank you for your sacrifice Viola." I said in a whisper that the wind carried away. "I couldn't have changed her mind without you." I gave a crooked smiled before turning and following after the two.

Lives in exchange of much more surviving.