The Fall of the Society

Chapter 39: Phoenix Rising

Rose was sitting tentatively next to him, hanging on everything he was telling her. Her eyes were wide. Sid was happily surprised at the interest she was showing in his tale. The sun had set, casting the world around them into darkness, the only light was coming from their small campfire. He took a break from talking and recovered his bag. Inside he had a multitude of rations, canned soup, unusual types of fruit, and a few bags of jerky. Placing the cooking rack back on the fire, he placed the soup in a small pan before sitting it on the rack. He handed Rose an apple and a bag of jerky while waiting for the soup to heat up.

"We had been traveling together for a while, when we entered a mountain range during the winter. The cold did not bother either of us much, so we thought nothing of the conditions. As we were hiking, the weather took a turn for the worst, while we were moving along a deep gorge. Gwen was head strong and fearless. Despite my protest, she wanted to press on. Foolishly I agreed, but only if I could take the lead. We were about halfway across when she slipped, I was just out of her reach. She was in a free fall, and there was nothing I could do. I thought she was going to die, so I only had one thought, to go with her."

"You jumped after her?" Rose asked quickly. "Were you sure you would survive the fall?"

Sid shook his head, "I truly had no idea how my body would handle the fall. I knew I could survive a large amount of injuries, but I had never tried something like that before. As she was falling, she twisted to look up and saw me following her, and to my disbelief she smiled. It was in that moment she accepted she was going to die and closed her eyes. Next thing we both know; she was completely encompassed in a bright orange aura. The feeling swept over her and she opened her eyes, which were blazing even more brightly than the rest of her. She began to slow, and I fell directly into her embrace. Pain shot all over my body as the flames engulfed me, but we were no longer falling. Instead we were moving parallel to the ground, rocketing along the gorge. Her flames were magnificent, and before long my pain had vanished, though my body was still taking damage. The entire process was amazing, flying was something only birds and insects did at that time, and people that had powers were incredibly rare. Up until I met Seralynn, I thought I was the only one, granted it was a lot harder to get news from different regions at that time."

"Her abilities never manifested to the extent that yours have, but they always surfaced in times of great need. We faced many situations in which had her abilities not protected her, she would have surely died. Her discovery of this did not keep her from pushing herself to greater lengths in our travels. She began taking risk at every opportunity. Our travels became much more exciting, as now that she was capable of doing whatever she wanted, I followed her with great devotion. We faced many things together, including being ran out of many villages for fear that she was a witch. Many years passed and this is how we spent them, and we found that she was no longer aging."

"Eventually she grew tired of traveling and wanted to create a home and start a family. So that is what we did. We settled in an area near Suralon and had many children. They grew up and none of them appeared to have any special powers, but they lived happy lives and had their own children. Unfortunately, Gwendalynn had an incredibly challenging time watching her offspring grow old and die and it weighed heavily on her. After two generations she asked if we could move on as she could no longer bear to experience the loss. We began traveling again, but her desire to continue living had been greatly diminished."

"Over the following years, her depression grew. The separation she had demanded did nothing to stop her thinking about our children. I was powerless to change how she felt, no matter what I did, things continued to spiral downward for her. A short while later she expressed a desire to die, she wanted to sleep and never wake up. After making this wish known, she began spending her time lying in bed. She had stopped talking and eating, but she was unable to pass on. I did my best to take care of her, but I could not stem the flow of tears she was now issuing. The hope within me that she would eventually move beyond these desires extinguished. I decided the best thing I could do for her at this point was help her with what she wanted. While she slept, I began looking for ways to do so."

"I researched many plants, experimenting with different poisons, but nothing worked. She would drink them willingly and her powers would prevent her death. This did nothing but cause her to sink deeper into despair. I stopped looking for something to help her die and began trying to find a way to negate her powers. My research led to nothing, as no one had ever tried to remove the powers from someone and succeeded. A couple town magistrates and preist had attempted to cleanse a few people of minor powers, but all their attempts were for fruitless and they ended up killing the people claiming they were from hell. Hoping to get a better understanding of how powers work, I began testing my own abilities. I drank all the same poisons that Gwendalynn had drank, which at first caused me to get sick, but I always recovered. It got to the point that my body no longer reacted to the toxins, I healed too quickly. I was also able to go even longer periods of time without sleep or nourishment. It was in this time that I grew my abilities exponentially. I found I could do things I had never even dreamed of. My strength, intelligence, and speed all grew immensely."

"All of my research and attempts thus far, while beneficial to me, had been futile in helping Seralynn. She was still lost in misery and I was unable to end it. I was losing hope that I would ever find something to help her. This did not dissuade me from trying though, and I redoubled my efforts. Having exhausted all my external resources, I looked within myself and began meditating many hours a day. It was during this time that I found I could actively control every aspect of my body if I wished. I developed a new power, the power to stop my healing. If I focused hard, I could keep my body from healing itself for a brief period of time, if the wounds were not life threatening. Any wound that would be considered life threatening I was unable to stop the healing."

"Gwen no longer acknowledged my presence, so I headed out once more in search of people with powers. These people were exceedingly rare, but I eventually found some. I followed any rumor I could find, stopped in each pub or inn I came across. I even paid attention to every bounty board I found, in hopes of listings for people that were considered witches. The first one I found was a man with incredible strength. Rumor had it that his skin was hard enough to deflect any attack and he had killed an entire detachment of soldiers by himself before stealing all the wealth from a nearby town. My search was a selfish endeavor, so I was incredibly happy to find out this man was what some would consider a monster. It made what I wanted to do much easier. I finally managed to track him down to his lair in the midst of a dense forest. The advantage was mine however as I knew what he was, and he did not know about me. He believed I had been hired to bring him in and laughed at the fact only one person had come in search of him."

"I managed to get him to talk to me for a while, finding out that he had developed his abilities while on the battlefield for the town that he had robbed. He figured the people that had sent him to what should have been his death should forfeit their wealth due to their selfish heartlessness. His willingness to share was a combination of his belief that I would soon be dead, and that he continually drained flagons of ale during my visit. The man was slightly taller than me, but not much broader. He had shaggy dark hair and thick wiry facial hair. "The world belongs to the strong," he said before standing and focusing his narrowed eyes on me. "And no one is stronger than I," he continued as a malicious grin spread across his face."