The Borealis Prophecy

Chapter Twenty - Copper Lighter

While we ambled in the skies, we were watching as they fell shattering around the Kingdom like falling stars. This gave me no pleasure, it was simply to protect us.

These Rogues were in the state I left Seraphina in, except I covered her in an extra layer of granite rock so I'd never have to see her face.

Now we were standing before the Fire&Ash Kingdom, a name that fit it well. The Kingdom was carefully built above the foundation of a dormant volcano. The Kingdom drifted upon the magma and rivers of lava that swelled within the caldera. Now the Fire&Ash Kingdom was bordering sinking and disappearing to ash.

The outer structure of the igneous rock foundation that once held resilient to the conditions, now tumbled. The clouds were mostly constructed of the gases that the volcano emitted. The sky was shrouded in an array of deep reds and sun kissed yellows.

Ric and I crawled through a broken window on the second floor after climbing up the crumbling walls. The walls were made to glow as we walked along the walls.

We strolled down the old halls of the palace until we stumbled across a small red door that was decorated with the Fire&Ash Borough's crest, the same one that was slapped onto my back. The crest was a sparkling gold that was chipping as the red paint was peeling backwards. We opened the door and had to duck inside. Ric first, making sure there was no one waiting on the other side, and I followed after. My eyes were greeted by a warm earthy atmosphere, something the Fire Borough not only forbade but also was unfamiliar with it. The room was a beige with wooden décor. To my left was a small brown wooden crib with my name in gold engraved on the frame. A small giraffe with red markings laid in the dusty crib.

"Well, I wasn't expecting this," Ric said quietly.

I nodded as I looked at the hanging monkeys and the small painted silhouette of birds that travelled across the far right wall into the ceiling, "me neither, but this is definitely the room we're looking for."

Ric asked me what we were looking for, and I explained to him that we were looking for a little box. We both found that the baby's room was attached to a rickety looking staircase that led to the master suite. Ric followed my gaze and started up the stairs. I looked around the baby's room, wondering where the little box may be kept. A small oak desk was sitting beside the crib. I pulled out some of the drawers and emptied them, slowly growing impatient.

My eyes peered over the crib until a flash of copper appealed my eyes. I lifted the mattress and underneath was a rectangular box laid on my left, closest to the bars of the crib. The small copper box matched my lighter brilliantly as my name was engraved upon it as well. I tried to open the box but it was locked. I fished the copper lighter out from my backpack when I saw a small hollow octagon carved into the box; which was the size of a small watch battery. I thought something else would fit inside better. I pulled out my lighter and started banging it against the oak wood until the glass plate broke apart. I unfastened the small silver figure from the lighter and placed it inside the small indented shape. It was a perfect fit. The box clicked open and inside sat a letter, folded with a green wax seal, sealed with the Earth&Rock Borough's crest. And a tiny sharp looking rock that was shaped like a full heart.

I lifted the letter from within and blew off the dust that gathered from the years that it laid here untouched.

I wanted to open the letter but I knew we needed to move quickly or else someone might find us, and we didn't necessarily want to be found. I threw the letter back inside, locked the box up again and threw it in my bag. I called upstairs for Ric so we could get moving and bring down the final wall, the wall that guarded earth from the four Boroughs, but he didn't answer.

"Ric?" I yelled, but still there was nothing but a silent buzz.

A cold chill crept through me, shattering my bones as I stepped on the first rickety wooden stair. My hand brushed along the dusty black railing as each step highlighted the stairs true age. The very last stair creaked and a voice almost as eerie as my mother's whispered from the shadows.

"Hello, Aurora," she said.

Cayenne stood behind Ric who was sprawled out in front of her. Cayenne's eyes were hollow and dark. There was no doubt in my mind that she was reborn as a Rogue. This was horrifying for me, the worst thing that Seraphina could ever do to me.

Ric's eyes were sealed shut and my heart sunk as I searched for signs of life. I couldn't see anything passed the peeling, charcoal black skin that was still sizzling from a Fire&Ash Elemental's touch. Cayenne's eyes were dark, and spiraling with her invigorated element.

"Cayenne, no," my voice cracked, "Cayenne what have you done?"

It was quiet between us as she tapped her foot with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at me with hollow empty eyes and then she finally whispered, "I'm going to kill him, Aurora. And you're going to watch me do it."

I covered my eyes as Cayenne's element exploded the windows with giant fireballs. My element flashed and the Borealis light blanketed me from the destruction. She was holding a jagged, meter-long shattered broken glass over Ric's chest and lodged it into him. I heard the violent crunch of his ribs before my brain could functionally react in time to help him.

I grabbed my Elemental blade from its sheath and the blade, in one swift motion caught ablaze. I lodged the sword towards her but as she stood straight, barring her eyes into mine we both knew I couldn't do it.

Cayenne was just a child and I loved her. She grabbed the sward by the blazing fire and held it over her heart, "Do it."

She was taunting me, "Do it, Aurora."

My eyes teared up as she smiled defiantly. I dropped the blade and shook my head as the tears began to fall from my eyes. Cayenne started to talk but all I could feel was one of the worst heartbreaks I've ever felt in my entire life. This was the worst backstab I've ever felt, and poor Ric didn't even have a chance.

"Are you even listening?" Cayenne snapped as she dropped down to my level, and glared at me, barring her teeth in a spine-chilling smile.

I shook my head as I wiped my swollen eyes and brushed the tears against my pants. I looked into Cayenne's empty cold eyes, where there use to be the innocence I'd never see again.

I placed my hand over her cheek as my stomach turned in a recoiling resentment, not towards her, but towards Seraphina who got to her first.

She was no longer my carefree, loving Cayenne. She was a Rogue, driven by hate and murder. My left hand touched her face and her hard shallow eyebrows widened as my Borealis light froze her from the inside out. I cried louder as her voice uttered my name in her unconscious innocence.

"I'm so, so sorry, Cayenne," I cried loudly hoping that my Cayenne would hear me, "Please... Please forgive me."

As her body became a solid crystal bust, I dropped to my knees and cried for her, hoping that she was no longer in pain or a slave to her own body. I hoped that she was already moved on long before the Rogue disease took over and that she was never a prisoner in her own body.

I crawled over to Ric who laid motionless with a giant glass shard impaled in his chest.

My hands trembled as they rested around the impaled object. I whispered his name as I sobbed more, wishing that I could just rewind time to when it was good.

I yanked the shard of glass from his chest and felt the bones in his chest crunching more. I threw the shard of glass as far away as possible and it shattered against a far off wall. I slipped my shaking hands under his shirt and placed them over his open wound. I used what Elijah taught me of the healing properties of the Water&Ice Borough to sustain him while I carried him outside. I planted my hands within the soil of the Fire&Ash Kingdom's ground and there sprouted the herb that would cure him. I plucked a rose red peddle from the plant and placed it inside his wound. His skin turned a rosy red, which as far as I remember was a good thing. I smiled as I choked back my sobs.

"Ric? You there?" tears rolled onto his neck as I leaned over him. There was just the bitter answer of silence that was between us.

"Ric!" I screamed louder as the silence was deafening, "Please, just wake up!"

But he didn't wake up, and I lost him forever.