Flames (Book 3)

Chapter 15: Aron

A/N: Thank you so much for 6K reads, guys! I'm so flattered that all of you would stick with me all the way to the third (technically, fourth) book! 

Also, my book is going to be published next year! Follow me and The Polyethnic Publishing on Instagram for more frequent updates on Glitches and all the other wonderful books that The Polyethnic is publishing! Thanks, once again. I couldn't do this without all of your support! 

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The once calm, relatively uncrowded hallways of the Flame base looked like they had just been hit by a tsunami. 

Lady Myers had delivered the announcement that we were about to be under attack just that morning, and as soon as the news had reached the ears of the masses, any semblance of order in the underground facility had quickly faded. 

Flame families huddled in the jam-packed passageways, bags and small children alike strapped to their backs. I watched from a high balcony along with the Order, directing FAWD members to various pathways as needed. 

Approximately a fourth of the Flame's three thousand resident members had been successfully evacuated, and the remaining three fourths were moving at an alarming pace. With the few hours we had left in the day plus whatever amount of time Viviana had managed to buy us, we would have ample wiggling room to make any extra arrangements needed before the Ice Guards arrived. 

I flashed a slightly guilty look at the humans lined up across from me, as one of them, the youngest, caught my eye. 

It wasn't fair to force them to leave after everyone else. They were possibly the most important people in the base. Though I trusted the Order to get everyone safely out of the hideout, it made me a bit nervous to save the priceless Glitches for last. 

The little human girl continued to look at me with wide, believing eyes. It was then that I recognized her as Viviana's friend- Kelly. I felt utterly and totally useless under her innocent stare. It was like she expected me to sprout wings and fly her back home. 

Seeing her reminded me of her companion and protector, the brave princess who had put her life on the line to make this evacuation possible only a day earlier. 

"Do you think she made it?" I asked Lady Myers, who looked surprisingly calm in the middle of the stream of chaos that her rebellion had become. Her red hair was tied back in a simple bun and her eyes were light and dreamy. It was clear that her mind was far from where we were, probably drifting somewhere in the depths of her wise, philosophical mind. 

"I know she made it," she sighed softly, rubbing the Flame tattoo on her wrist as a small smile graced her features. 

"Before she left, you told us both that it was a suicide mission. And, I can't say that I disagree." 

"The definition of a suicide mission entails that the average warrior- Flame or Imperial- has virtually no chance of returning from it with their life. Viviana is neither average nor a warrior." She let her eyes close for a second, before flaring her Aura and raising her arms. I knew this rather expressive gesture very well. She was about to tell a story. 

"Saralee and I like are the Yin and Yang of the Lessaenite Empire," she began. "Different as night and day, but always harboring pieces of each other deep within ourselves. We are beings as old as time itself- eternal symbols of good and evil who will live on long past the perishing of our physical bodies. Living to an age as advanced as we have gives one a very different outlook on the world. To us, everything is startlingly temporary. We remember when the greatest trees were seedlings, and when the greatest cities were villages of straw huts. People, to us, are like shadows. They come, they go. Here, however, is where the Queen and I differ." Eleanna Myers sucked in a deep gulp of air, as if drinking it. 

"To Saralee, this means that she is greater than all of these fleeting beings. She believes it is her right to control and manipulate them as she wishes. My case is quite the opposite. Seeing how ephemeral human lives truly are in the grand scale of things makes me cherish them more, and value the beauty in each one."

"I don't need your protection, eternal being," I spat, angered by her condescending speech. You didn't have to be a three hundred year old Iceheart to know the world! At age eighteen, I knew more about fate and the universe than most Lessaenites could hope to ever learn in their lifetimes. 

I had carved out that bitter knowledge through years of toil, hardship, and fear. No rebel leader, no matter how great, had the right to discredit that. 

"I do not want to protect you," Eleanna laughed. "You are the last person who requires protecting. You are young, but strong. The bond of light between you and the princess is strong. I have not seen such a bond since Saralee and Fenorel- before they were poisoned by the Iceheart Serum. You will find your way, not necessarily with each other, but for each other. And, you will meet at the end. In life, or in death." 

"Please, don't make it worse," I bit my lip, thinking of our forbidden kiss and the exhilarating feeling, that came with it- the feeling of breaking Lessaenes' longest standing law...with her. "You know as well as I do that what I did was wrong."

"Oh, Aron," Eleanna tilted her head back and laughed for a straight minute, as if that was the funniest thing that she had ever heard. "What is right, and what is wrong? They are but perceptions, concepts created and perpetuated by intelligent species in order to form a standardized code of conduct. So, tell me, Aron, is it wrong for a Rhenan to love a princess?" 

"Yes," I nodded with surety. "Yes, it is." 

"But, we're rebels," I added with a sly grin. "Isn't our sole purpose to do things that are wrong?"