Fire of Life (Fiery Soul Series Book 1)

Chapter 21

Tracy rushes around a slightly warm pool area and feels a splitting headache that's only getting worse. While the coach had time to prepare, there was much to do without Arthur's general help. Despite Rebecca pitching in, the science to arrange every detail with the optimized effort was her departed colleague's forte, which got the thing set up in no time. Although the paperwork is finished, the equipment needs set-up and testing before the first race.

Unfortunately, the headache worsens as she moves along, and forces her to drop to one knee. Once she takes a moment to collect her wits, she'll head for some relief. Then, a striking pain storms right through her brain and her body convulses. All muscles seize and cause her to fall to the floor with the world going black.

After a moment, the world returns, but with the utter destruction of the pool building. Tracy's fear of the seizure forced her to destroy everything, which includes Rebecca. However, the outside shows the damage that goes on for miles with fires and earthquakes populating the scenery.

She runs through the door, but it takes her straight to the streets of Oakland Township; an apocalyptic view, complete with a trail of bodies and debris. The limited amount of living citizens run towards her in abject terror. Tracy saw the exhaustion and torn clothes, which suggests the group ran for a long time. Further ahead, cracks in the earth chase the crowd and swallow them into a river of lava. The horrific scream makes her sick, but more deathly sounds echo ahead of her.

She continues towards the central park and sees the hollow shells of Eric and Bria. Black eyes and veins show the corruption of their bodies, but their actions of torturing people show an absence of soul. Eric drowns his victims with floating water balls, and Bria roasts her victims alive. Then they look at each other with utter disgust before going to their respective thrones. They take peasants from a pit and degrade them with sexual acts, which nearly tips the scale for Tracy's gag reflex.

Then, a familiar hand grabs hers, and she turns to see Rebecca. A white aura surrounds her, which forms a portal between the alternate versions of the township. Despite the terrors surrounding them, Rebecca smiles at her.

"Trust me."

She guides the professor through that portal, and the world goes white. Finally, Tracy wakes up on the ground as Rebecca shakes her. Although it feels like a dream, the white aura still surrounds the swimmer, which makes the older woman question what it means. Despite the trust in Rebecca, the supernatural world can be cruel to humans, which isn't something a mancer subjects people to. The nature of the attack gives a clue to what happened, but she doesn't know how Rebecca pulled her out. Until more information is available, the professor decides to leave Rebecca in the dark.

"Are you okay?" Rebecca asks.

"Yeah, the headache got the best of me," Tracy answers as she omits large sections of the truth. "Be a darling and get me some of those gel caps in the medicine cabinet."

Although she still has a headache, the real reason she sent Rebecca off is for a few more minutes of reflection. The only person she's familiar with that didn't show was Emily, which she associates with the ground quake. Despite meditating in her apartment, Tracy cannot find the geomancer, but Emily sending that vision stays ominous.

The other problem is the distance. While mancers can summon up their will and use their natural element to send their thoughts, it's very brief. The only message she deciphered that night was that Emily is in trouble, and someone is studying her. Any other details would've gotten lost. Their telepathy also needs proximity, so that limits that possibility. However, there are a few dangerous augments that come to her mind, but she isn't sure which it is yet.

Rebecca interrupts her pondering with a glass of water and pain medicines. After putting on a brave face, Tracy swallows the gel caps to ease this side effect of the augment. A tinge of guilt hits her as she knows she wasn't entirely honest with Rebecca, but she doesn't want anything to hurt her. The supernatural is a dangerous world for someone as sweet as her.