Kingdom of Fire and Fate

Chapter 7 - Investigations Arise

Warmth pooled through her body as she looked around Asterfall. The trees were charred stumps, the buildings were demolished and burnt to a crisp. Elizabeth slowly circled around, taking in her surroundings, overwhelmed by the sounds of the screams and cries for help by the people around her.

As far as her eyes could see, everything was burning. The flowers, the trees, the people. Everything was on fire, the people burned, no one to help them. A voice gasped out from behind her, "You did this. Why did you do this to us? We helped you." She whirled around to see Warren, his body covered in burns. His skin was pale and lifeless, his eyes hallowed, a walking corpse.

She tried to scream for him but he just kept crying out, "Why did you do this? Why did you do this?" As his body slowly burned more and more until he crumpled into ash at her feet. Theo ran to him, crying out his name. His body was burning, crumpling to his knees a few steps before Warren. Theo's hand stretched out to him, just barely grazing his fingertips across the ash before he burned away to ash himself.

She tried to scream but nothing came out. The fire closed in, consuming everything, including herself. It burned, it hurt, she was on fire, everything was on fire-

She woke up with a gasp, sitting up on her bed. The sheets were tangled around her like she was struggling around, some of her pillows laying abandoned on the floor. She stared down at her hands, looking in horror at the charred blanket under her. The dream scared her magic out of her, she burned her blanket in her sleep.

Elizabeth quickly shoved the duvet off of her, wincing as her cold feet touched the ground. She kicked her feet into her shoes before she shuffled out of the room to the library. Everything was eerily silent, she had only just taken a nap so she didn't know where everyone was. It should be lunchtime by now, at the very most almost dinner time, but the headquarters was empty.

She padded softly down the hall, looking around for any signs of people. The walls were illuminated by soft torch light, causing shadows to flicker across the pastel walls. Elizabeth ran her hand across the walls as she walked, her eyes catching the clock on the wall. Six-thirty in the morning is what it showed, causing Elizabeth to stop mid-step.

Seventeen hours...

Seventeen hours!

Her mind went a mile a minute as she tried to figure out how she slept so long. She knew that she had gone through a lot in the past few months, but she never expected her body to need to rest for that long. Maybe it was because now she had a comfortable bed, or maybe because now she felt comfortable in the headquarters. Either way, she could not believe that her body made her sleep for that long to recover.

That didn't matter to her at the moment, she could deal with the repercussions of sleeping the entire day away later. Elizabeth crept towards the library, trying her hardest to be as quiet as possible so she did not wake any of the hunters. The door creaked open softly, the torchlight illuminating all of the books that lined the many shelves that filled the room. The shelves were alphabetized, so she easily wove through the shelves to find the section with the books that started with the letter 's'.

Her fingers skimmed the covers, her eyes glancing over the covers until she found the one she needed. Her soft breathing was the only sound that could be heard in the room.

Sharpening weapons safely, no

Shields and swords and how to use them, no.

Stamina and strength, a hunter's guide, no.