The Sparkbringer

Chapter Eight

   Elva and I dismounted our horses before entering the mountain range, patting and praising them. We allowed them to graze while we each took a deep breath and began walking into the mountains.
   We drew our swords as we advanced, an eerie fog settling at our feet. It could have been my mind playing tricks on me, but I could swear I heard distant screams. As we continued further, the rock had large patches of deep red in its natural grey colour, just as King Flameguard had prompted Elva to say.
   Somehow, thinking of the King had made me realize I had gone this whole adventure without using my last name. I thought about telling Elva what it was, but I had come up with a better idea.
   "Elva, give me a surname," I whispered.
   "What? Now?" she hissed.
   "Yes, please," I asked of her politely. "I want a surname from this world and I want you to be the one to give it to me. It would mean more to me if it came from you."
   "I don't really think now is the time," she sighed. "But I will oblige you."
She paused to think for a moment as the fog began to get thicker. I allowed some lightning to jump from fingertip to fingertip, creating a light source for us as it got more difficult to see. Elva glanced over to the sudden light source, and her eyes sparkled.
   "Sparkbringer," she declared. "Clovis Sparkbringer, God chosen Hero."
   "Clovis Sparkbringer," I repeated, smiling. "I like that. Thank you, Elva."
   She smiled back to me, but didn't say anything else. We carefully advanced further into the mountains, and after a short while we came across a fairly large open space containing what looked like a destroyed ancient city.
   "The ruins," I whispered to myself.
   We cautiously walked into the centre of the ruins, our bodies in a defensive battle stance as our hands tightened around the handles of our swords. Suddenly, the still air grew even stiller, our footsteps no longer even making sounds. We stopped moving, spinning around to constantly check our surroundings. The only break in the silence were sudden footsteps, they were heavy, and approaching us.
   "Well well well," a sultry voice came from the direction of the footsteps. "What do we have here?"
   Out of the fog walked a tall woman, her head adorned with black, twisted horns. She was taller than even me by at least a few inches, and her deep red hair reached down to her knees. She was wearing a form-fitting black dress with a leg slit on either side, and swinging from side to side was a black tail resembling a lizard's. Her eyes were piercing, and a deep gold colour, and her hair was pin-straight, sleek, and well kept.
   "Vera," Elva growled, tightening her hands yet again around her sword.
"Queen Elva Frostblade of Faircrest," Vera spoke with a smug grin. "And you must be the Hero I've heard oh so much about."
   "I am Clovis Sparkbringer," I introduced myself, speaking assertively. "The God chosen Hero, and your downfall."
   "Those are some bold words, Clovis Sparkbringer," she sounded impressed. "But I can assure you that you will not be my downfall."
   "Then I will be!" Elva shouted, lunging at Vera with her sword ready to strike.
   "I doubt that as well," Vera chuckled, swiping Elva away and sending her flying backwards with her tail.
   "Elva!" I called, concerned for her safety.
   "I'm alright Clovis," she called back to me. "Don't get distracted!"
   I nodded and turned to Vera, scowling. She grinned back at me, rows of sharp teeth staring me in the face. I clenched my fists around the handle of my sword and ran at her. I evaded her tail and swung at her legs. She parried my attack with what appeared to be a claw on the end of her finger. I jumped backwards and casted a lightning bolt.
   "Lightning magic," Vera observed out loud, blocking my lightning bolt with a strange, shadowy tendril. "Good to know."
   "That's dark magic," Elva was back at my side, scratched up from her fall. "Dark magic is frowned upon, but is incredibly powerful."
   I nodded again and cast a more powerful spell, manipulating the lightning like a rope. As I tried to wrap it around her arms, Elva cast her magic at her feet. Vera simply laughed, grabbing a hold of my lightning bolt with one hand and creating a black wall to defend from Elva's ice. Vera cracked my lightning at me like a whip. It hit me and sent pain throughout my entire body before I flew backwards into a pillar.
   My head was spinning, my vision was fuzzy, my hearing reduced to mostly ringing. I heard Elva call my name, or at least I thought I did, and the following noises were very muffled, pained grunts and yelps. When I returned from my daze, I was bloody and scratctched, and the tips of my hair were singed.
   "You two are weaker than I expected," Vera laughed as I ran to Elva's side. "I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was more than this."
   Elva was on the ground panting, covered in blood herself and baring her teeth. She stood, yelling out in pain as she did. From Vera's back came several of the shadowy tendrils from before, and they came racing toward us. We parried with our swords, both of us stuck in a whirlwind of attacks and parries. Left. Right. Low. High. From behind. Hit. Pain. Right. Hit. Pain. Left. Pain. Hit.
   We were both panting hard, getting tired and also increasingly angry at Vera's mockery. Both of us were covered in blood, scratches, and in more pain than we'd ever experienced. We couldn't get close to her, our magic was useless, I was beginning to lose hope.
   Then I got an idea.
   "Elva, cover me," I told her, the look on my face one of determination.
   "Clovis, you can't," Elva shook her head gently, knowing what I was about to do. "That's the strongest spell in your book, and you've never cast it before."
   "It's the only way," I pleaded. "I have to try."
   Elva swallowed hard and nodded in desperate agreement, running in front of me and forming an ice wall. I sheathed my sword and lifted my hands up above my head, closing my eyes and beginning to cast the spell. Focus. Concentrate. Think. Channel. Feel.
   The electricity flowed through my entire body, jumping around on my fingers and emanating from the rest of my body. Above the ruins, an electrical storm was forming, lightning flickering across the sky and thunder crackling in the echoey clearing. I was breathing deeply, casting the spell with everything I had left to give.
   I thought of all the people I was saving with this one spell. The innkeeper in Amber Meadows, the first person I interacted with in Annora. Jonathan Strongarm, the Amber Meadows blacksmith. Gaia Wildtongue, animal keeper of Faircrest. The child who cleaned my armour in the castle. King Richard of Blackport. The sly innkeeper in Knife's Edge. The wise King Jasper Forestshield of Bridgefall. The little girl we returned safely to Mudwood. King Flameguard of Whitemount. The many citizens of the world who counted on me.
   And most importantly, Elva.
   I released the spell, the intense lightning from the storm all coming down at once and striking Vera. I opened my eyes, their normal hazel colour now glowing white, and watched as my spell pelted the demon from above. Elva was watching in awe, panting from holding the ice wall as long and as strong as she had.
   After the onslaught was over, I waited for the dust and smoke to settle. My eyes returned to normal, the magic in my body settling down. My heart dropped into my stomach when, standing there completely untouched, Vera grinned evilly.
   "That was your last resort?" she asked, mocking us. "Face it, dear children, you cannot defeat me. Not alone, not together, not now, and not ever. If you choose to join me, perhaps I will grant you mercy."
   I took a moment to stop and think. I looked at Vera, then to Elva, then back to Vera.
   "You're right," I raised my chin and swallowed. "We can't beat you. We've lost."
   "Clovis, you're giving up?" Elva was in disbelief as she grabbed my arm. "We can do this, I know we can."
   "No, Elva, we can't," I shook my head, then turned to Vera. "I will pledge my allegiance to you if you give me your word that I can live a comfortable life."
   Elva looked at me, the look that silently asked if this was a trick, a means of regaining some sort of traction in the fight. I shook my head again and her face dropped, a look of pure emotional agony in her eyes. I should feel something, anything, but I don't.
   "On one condition," Vera's grin spread from ear to ear.
   She paused her sentence and began casting a spell in my direction, I wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, and I couldn't find a care in my mind. A dark cloud encompassed me, my armour's steel changing from light grey to black, a hood shrouding my face. And the armour pieces becoming sharp and jagged.
   "Kill her."
   I turned slowly towards Elva, an amused look in my eyes. Elva stumbled backwards, her face filled with fear, disbelief, and despair.
   "Clovis, Clovis what's wrong with you?" she tried to get through to something within me that was now completely gone. "This isn't you, Clovis, look at me! What are you doing?"
   My hands filled with lightning as I wound back my fist. I threw a right hook, punching her to the ground and leaving a small burn mark on her cheek.
   "Clovis, you've lost your mind!"
   "I am perfectly sane," I stood over her menacingly. "The difference between you and I is that I have enough intelligence to recognize when an effort is useless, and do what I need to do."
   "You won't even be here for much longer, please," she pleaded. "This has to be a trick, this has to be!"
   "Lerus told me I will return home when Annora is freed from the evil. If Vera lives, I never have to leave. I can stay here, where I am powerful, where I am wanted."
   "Clovis, please, I beg of you!" Elva was desperate, her eyes filling with tears and her voice shaking. "I love you, Clovis! Please, stop acting crazy!"
   "Oh Elva, and here I thought I was the one living in a fantasy," I chuckled, drawing my sword slowly as I crouched down to reach her face. "Let me tell you a secret."
   I buried my sword into her chest while staring directly into her eyes. She gasped sharply as the tears in her eyes began to fall. I then leaned my face down to her ear, and lowered my voice to a whisper.
   "You don't always get a happy ending."