Alfinians Rise

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"Addi! Addi! look!" a small voice cries out. Kelin? 

I spin on my heels, shimmering silvery-white hair swirling around me as I stand in a field of void white. Before me stands a little boy, about waist high with hair white as freshly fallen snow. He runs towards me, with a baby toothed grin. 

I kneel just in time for fair-skinned arms to fling around my neck as I am attacked by a giggle monster. 

"Up! Up!" My little brother cries as I hoist him up by the underside of his thighs, planting his bottom on my hip. He leans back, revealing his shimmering yellow eyes, brilliant and bright like the purest of gold mineral found in the depths of the earth. A dusty rose paints its way across round, pinchable cheeks and I cannot help but give in to his contagious smile. 

Holding onto him tightly I spin on my heel, adjusting so that I lift him into the air by the waist, eliciting squeals of delight from his tiny pink lips. I cannot help the hearty laugh that fills my chest as I watch his face contort with delight. After a few turns, I set his tiny feet on the ground and kneel before him. Reaching out with paled fingers I brush down his hair that's gone wild from turns. 

"Wanna see something cool?" I ask him with a smirk. 

"Magic! Magic!" He cries, backing up a step to give me some room. 

With a smile on my face, I hold out my hands, closing them together and inhaling deeply. Gathering the electricity buzzing in my veins as I focus on the palms of my hands. Warmth bleeding forwards and gathering until finally, I open the palms of my hands to reveal a burning flame in the form of a butterfly. Kelin screeches and reaches for the flame. Was it anyone else I would fear him getting burned, but from the moment he touches it, the red flame turns blue. This is his power. To amplify those of others. To take the raw forms and create something concentrated and powerful. I release the butterfly into the air and watch as he tracks it with his eyes, moving it, controlling it with his mind so that it swirls in the air, circling around me and growing in size till it is growing larger than my head. My heart swells with pride as  I watch him, all giggles and grins. 

"Evi wake up. Wake up." Kelin says, his voice suddenly much lower and desperate. The voice doesn't match the face. I look at him confused. 

"Since when have you called me that? That's not my name, love." I ask confused. 

"Wake up!" 

My eyes shoot open and instantly regret floods me as I am blinded by the grey sunlight that filters in through a tear in the ceiling. My entire being hurts and I raise a tanned hand to my face to find salty rivers streaming from my eyes. Was I crying? 

Blinking quickly, my eyes adjust to the light and realize that I'm in an unfamiliar tent. A singular one. Pale, sunbleached fabric surrounds me as I groggily sit up. It's then that I realize I'm not alone on the large twin-sized cot. Sitting by my side and leaning over me with one arm propping himself up on the other side of my legs is a shirtless god of a mortal. Xayben leans over me, his sculpted muscles ripping with sweat. The hard edge of his features like carved marble, his unevenly cut hair flopping across his forehead as a worried line creases his brow. His strange mark swirls across his face and accents his brilliant violet eyes. 

"Hey, there she is." He smiles softly, reaching out to dab my forehead with a damp cloth that feels cool against my burning skin. My body is pulsating as I devour his frame, licking my cracked lips as I finally meet his gaze. His lip is turned up in a sly smirk that physically radiates through my bones. I groan inwardly. How I wish he would actually kiss me all over with that mouth.