Stars Of Memory

Chapter 55

Jīvitaya doesn't sleep that night. She's far too anxious and restless to fall asleep, her mind just keeps buzzing with thoughts and questions. After several hours of tossing and turning, she throws her comforter aside and slips out of bed. She quickly pops her head next door to check on the bunnies, seeing them sleeping soundly. Then she scribbles out several notes and uses her wind to silently deposit them in her parents', Kysanden's, and Iyokú's rooms, telling them where she is going. Once the notes are delivered, she slips out of the palace quietly, heading to the forest.

Once there, she stands in the forest for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then she starts practicing melding her powers together. She whirls and darts through the trees, sending bursts of flame shooting every which way and vines ripping out of the ground to lash at and suffocate those very same flames. She continues to practice until daybreak, when she stops and climbs a tree to watch what the Selemat fleet is going to do when they see no white banner laid out on the field.

She isn't surprised when the fleet sends a barrage of projectiles shooting for the palace and the city laid out around it, but she gasps anyways. Then she lets out a sigh of relief when the barrage is halted by a wall of air surrounding the city in a dome. She shakes her head in order to focus and taps on her chip to make it spit out a tablet. On the tablet, she directs the chip to create drones, which she then sends up to the fleet to analyze and dismantle their weapons. After a few minutes, the drones send back a signal that they have reached the first ship and have successfully infiltrated it. She directs them to the area where the projectiles were fired from and within moments, the drones have dismantled the weapons system and moved on to the next ship. When they return to her, indicating that the last ship has been dismantled, she pumps her fist in the air in jubilation. Then she descends from the tree and returns to the city. She joins the others in the main courtyard of the palace as they look up at the ships.

Kysanden frowns."Why haven't they fired anything after that first round? They normally would have."

Jīvitaya grins. "I dismantled the weapons system that the projectiles came from. I don't know if there are any more systems."

Kysanden nods. "Good. If there aren't any more systems, we can fight them on the ground and have a good chance."

As they wait, a multitude of pods begin to descend to the ground from the ships. The group moves to the outskirts of the city, just barely inside the shield. As they stand there waiting, they quickly accumulate a crowd filled with all the La'Vi. Jīvitaya looks around her and her heart warms when she sees their faces set with determination. She smiles before setting her own face into the same expression. The first pod touches to the ground and Selemats step out of it. Instantly, the crowd around Jīvitaya rushes forward, as if to catch their enemy off guard before they can fully prepare. Before Jīvitaya can so much as take a step, Kysanden is clasping her shoulders in his hands.

"Are you ready?"

She nods, lost for words. Kysanden leans down and kisses her deeply and Jīvitaya's eyes widen, startled. Then she kisses back. The moment is over an instant later and Kysanden presses his forehead against her own.

"Stay safe, alright?"

Jīvitaya nods and Kysanden pulls away from her, joining the crowd still surging onto the battlefield. Jīvitaya follows them hesitantly, unsure of what to do. She's never been in a battle before. As the pods continue to descend, the field is slowly filled with more and more fighting. Jīvitaya soon encounters her first opponent. He raises his arm and points a device at her. Instinctively, she twists away, just as a bar of light whizzes past her, leaving a trail of heat in its wake. He fires again and she twists away, examining the light as she does. She grins and the next time he fires, she wraps her power of fire around it and bends the bar of light to her will, reforming it into a white-hot flame. She sends it back at his device and he fails to dodge it in time.

The device glows red as her flame heats it and he drops it, crying out in pain. The ground swallows it and sends it deep into the earth. Unwilling to kill someone, Jīvitaya sends the ground beneath him dropping away and reforms the soil into a mound over his head once he drops in. She stabilizes it so that it won't fall before moving on to her next opponent. Jīvitaya frowns, realizing that many of her people may have not come to the same conclusion as she did and sends out a message to all the La'Vi, beads of sweat forming on her face at the strain.

"If you have the power of fire, you can turn their devices against them. The beams of light that are shot out of the devices are just concentrated fire, so harness it."

Jīvitaya makes her way through a few more opponents when she is met by the person she wants to see the least. Ilior stands there, and Jīvitaya frowns when she sees that he doesn't have one of the devices she's so quickly become accustomed to re-harnessing for her own use. Instead, he has a whip-like object hanging at his waist and as he grasps it and it unfurls, Jīvitaya gulps and turns clammy with dread. It is the same shimmery rope that Ilior used to capture her the first time. He sees her expression and chuckles cruelly.

"Aah. So you recognize my sindar. Too bad I don't have a Kindashi with me this time, hmmm? Then it would be much easier to capture you and give you to my King. Oh well, the sindar is quite enough to do the job."

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Dang it, now she's fighting Ilior. Are you guys ready for that? To be honest, I'm not and I never will be. Jīvitaya and Kysanden kissed! Who thought that would happen? Are you guys as excited and happy about it as I am? Tell me your thoughts and tell me if you have any questions! Happy reading!

~ Goddess of Fate, signing out.