Frozen Flame

Chapter 36: Elena and Him

Fire Temple

His face was soft and peaceful, as if he'd left all the cares of the world behind. His arms were gently laid beside him and his eyes were beautifully shut. His slender body was slightly curled; a perfect image of gentle sleep. Or at least, it would have been, if Elena hadn't been gripping his arm and staring at him concerned - like he would never wake up.

Svorn's placid face was perfectly still; not even a muscle twitched. The only sound to break the calm was Elena's frantic murmurings.

"Svorn, Svorn, Svorn, Svorn, please be alright, please..."

Her eyes halted on the blue, glowing object lying forgotten beside her. She reached out to it, picking its delicate form from the ground and holding it in front of her like a baby. Her eyes intensified as she stared at it, then back to Svorn, then back to the object, then to Svorn again.

Could she? Could she do it? Was this what Svorn wanted? Was it why he had come here? To consume this thing? To put this... object inside his body?

But...

Didn't he know what it did? Didn't he... Maybe he did. Maybe he knew exactly what it did. Maybe that was the reason he wanted to do it in the first place. Maybe he didn't care about the consequences.

Oh, Svorn... Why do you do this to yourself?

But as much as she hated it, she knew the answer to that question: because the other option was too horrible to comprehend. Or so he told her. She didn't actually know what the other option was, only that he was terrified of it. And if Svorn was scared of something, it must be truly terrible.

She lowered the blue, pulsing, circular object in her hands and looked at him, scanning her eyes up and down his body before resting on his wound.

Could she do it? Could she actually put this thing inside Svorn?

Her glassy eyes flickered open and she shuffled forward until she was hovering over him. Yes, she could. She would. Because she had to.

Balancing the pulsing ball in one hand, she fingered open his mouth so that it became a dark tomb. She then gently placed the object in his mouth and closed his mouth over it. He instinctively swallowed, his throat bobbing as the ball slid down. She hurriedly skipped backwards, holding herself upright and worriedly pulling away from him.

She traced the blue light's descent before it disappeared under his ribs and stopped over his stomach. It paused for a second before fading to nothing. The seconds felt like minutes, like hours, as she waited for his reaction. And then it came.

His chest flew upwards and his hands grasped at empty air. His legs bent and snapped; his face contorted in pain. Severed screams soared from his mouth and his eyelids shot open, revealing bloodshot, terrified eyes. The whites of his eyes grew until the completely covered the green and black originally covering a third of his eye.

Yet, he was not aware.

And that, perhaps, was the only way Elena could console herself into believing she had made the right choice.

A brilliant blood-red light started pouring from his old wound. It lit up the space surrounding him, casting rays of red through the air that would have been beautiful if not for the screams following them.

The light wobbling, almost as if it was about to die; however, it came back just as strong as previously, only this time it was purple and gradually becoming bluer and bluer. A few moments later, it was the same colour as the object that delved inside him.