Bloodline of a Tempest

Chapter 17

When she opened her eyes, there were Terra and Cay by her side. She was on her plane on a small clearing next to the lake. Cay kept his hands on her face, whispering healing chants.

'I am fine,' Nema pushed his hands away. Sitting up, Nema saw an unknown man standing a bit further away. Aves was also there, sitting on her hillock, looking like a wilted tulip.

Nema wondered was Castor disappointed with her too. Now everything was making more sense.

'We do not have time, Nema,' Terra said.

'I know.' Nema nodded.

'This is going to hurt,' Cay said.

Everything hurt.

'They killed Orrel and others because of me,' she said. 'Castor knew I was in the dungeons again. The Watchers executed them. I could not stop him.'

There was a smell of smoke, and Nema saw how Cay came to stand in front of the other man. 'Erridan,' Cay warned him.

The mage he called Erridan was a fire-feeder too.

Erridan's eyes were on Nema. She could not decipher the emotion behind them, but he took notice of every inhale she made.

'I could not stop him,' Nema was no addressing him, but the mage never responded.

She winced at the sound of the hooves. Nema turned and saw the riders emerging from the forest.

The White Watchers. They were tall, hooded in their silvery cloaks, and their stallions looked like they were made of wind. There was something undefined about their shape. You could stare at those beasts for hours, and you could see nothing beyond the light. They formed a wide circle, swinging their ropes in the air.

Like lassoes made of light, the ropes found their way around Nema's body keeping her immobile, her body suspended two feet above the ground. She felt no discomfort.

The mages stood on four corners of the world and the ritual began. Terra was the first to step out. Each time one of the mages finished the chant a wide ring of light closed around her form. The rings kept closing, each a few degrees apart, sharing the same center above her chest until a sphere started forming. When they started chanting in one voice, the space between the rings started filling up until Nema was inside a glowing ball of light. The air inside crackled with electricity.

The runes on her skin were now moving faster and faster like passages in a book. And when the fire mage finally spoke his chants, she felt the pain again – his every word felt like it was burning into her skin. She was clenching her jaw. Her chest felt tight, and she couldn't breathe in.

By now, she was supposed to get used to pain, but she didn't.

Something inside of her was building, like the air under the pressure, trying to find a crack where it could find relief.

'Please!' Nema moaned. 'I can't endure it for much longer.'

In one moment, there was a strange silence as if she were submerged under the water. Her heart stopped beating, and the scream that had broken out of her body was so strong, it took her soul with it. She couldn't feel her limbs anymore, as if she was floating ten feet above the ground, looking down at a girl inside the sphere being pierced with rays of light like with arrows.

The light emanating from her body was burning so bright the forest was illuminated like in the middle of a summer day.

When she opened her eyes again, Nema could not move.

'Nema, do you hear me?'

Nema wanted to respond, but it felt like her entire body was covered with a layer of dried clay.

'Nema!'

'I hear you,' she breathed out.

The mages were staring at each other with looks of disbelief.

'She survived,' Terra said.

'She survived,' Aves tried to smile. She was so pale she looked like she was going to die.

Even Cay was smiling. 'This is the first time we succeeded,' he said.

'There were other times you did not?' Nema sat up. She was shocked by the lack of any residue of pain. She felt good. She felt more than good. That did not happen often.

'The others did not survive,' Cay said.

'The other Asteralts?' She asked, thinking about the man who had died on that plane.

'Castor is hunting you all over the land for centuries,' said Aves. 'He is feeding on our magic and the new worlds.'

'He will take you again,' Nema whispered to the mage.

Aves waved her hand. Her beauty as if it had wilted away. Nema refused to imagine what he had done to this perfect being. 'We saved what was left of our magic for this moment,' Aves said. 'We have a bit more time until you finish this world. He will kill us after it anyway.'

Nema looked away. 'But he said... He was there when my mother...'

'Nema,' Aves said, 'he was the one who rode into your village with his army of darkness. He killed your parents.'

'Both of them?' Nema's hand shot to her chest.

'I am sorry, Nema,' Terra said.

The ground was vibrating under her feet.

'Nema, easy,' Terra said, 'now the light inside of you is so strong you could destroy all of it. We need this world.'

Suddenly all of this seem so devoid of reason.

'Why am I doing this?' Nema asked. 'He will find us sooner or later. Why?'

'Because he is feeding on worlds,' Cay said. 'And if you finish this world, he will leave our people in peace for an entire century. If you fail, this little magic that is left in Atria will be devoured, and we will cease to exist.'

'Why don't you fight back?' She asked.

'He can not be killed,' Cay said.

Nema was looking at them. 'Anyone can be killed,' she said.

Erridan grinned. 'You were raised by a fire-feeder.'

Nema shrugged. 'It is what he always said.'

'We have tried, Nema,' Aves said. 'For centuries we have tried and...'

'And failed,' Cay said. 'We have failed, and now we do what we can.'

'Now we feed the monster.'

'Nema,' Terra approached, 'your kind lives the longest, and once this is over, you will have hundreds of years to live in peace. But for a while, you will stay here, like we have stayed, protecting those outside, and when he finds a new Asteralt you will be there to help him set his powers free.'

Their words brought no comfort – en eternity spent in a cage only to embroil another being in a never-ending circle of misery.

'They died for nothing,' she whispered,looking at Erridan.

'No,' Erridan said. 'They preferred death to dungeons.'

Nema felt the same. She preferred he killed her today rather than to live her anguish forever.

Erridan took a step closer. 'The fire lives here.' He pointed at her solar plexus. 'Set her free.'

But Orrel was right about her – there was no fire inside of her, not even a flicker.

They tried everything. Erridan explained every little nuance and did everything in his might. He tried to scare her into doing it, he tried to make her do it, but Nema couldn't. Even Aves tried to help, but that part of her was unreachable.

'I am sorry,' she said, defeated after the last hope was lost.

The sands were running out. Five of them were standing on the plane of her dying word waiting for darkness to come after them.

Nema could feel the life abandoning the forest. She was too angry with herself to cry.

Now Castor was going to kill all of them one by one before he returns to hunting of what was left of Atrians with magic blood.

'I will take my leave,' Erridan was the first to stand up, 'the barrier will not last much longer.'

The four of them build the wall that made them invisible to Castor. He, like all predators, only reacted to movement and agony. But the barrier would start giving way soon.

'I want to be with my men,' he said, 'when he comes for us.'

'No,' Nema got up, 'I am going with you. I gave my word.'

Erridan shook his head. 'Orrel's death released you of your oath.'

Nema looked up, frowning. 'I do not go back on my word.'

'You know what he will do to you if you set us free,' Erridan said.

Nema nodded.

The fire-feeder was watching her. 'Inside of you runs the blood of our most valiant king. Maybe there is no fire in you but you are one of us.'

Nema nodded.

The blood of their most valiant king would hardly save her from what this king is going to do to her.

'You are going with them,' Nema said to the other mages.

Terra nudged Aves. 'You have to. You are too weak.'

'You should go too, Terra,' Cay said.

'And you?'Terra asked.

'I will stay with her.'

'No,' Nema said. 'You know what is going to happen. You can not help me.'

'But I...'

'Cay,' Nema said matter of factly, 'there is just me.There is no one out there who would mourn my death. We tried and we failed. It's over. You go and I will stay.'

When they opened the door, instead of the corridors there were only ruins of the fortress. On the center of it was a barred hole where the dungeons were.

'Where is the castle?' She asked looking about.

'This is the castle,' Cay said. 'Now when you have the power you can see. It was all Castor's mirage. He uses the magic from the blood of our people he gets from smugglers to maintain the illusion.'

'The Reflections?'

'Energetic holograms he uses to manipulate his victims. He knew he could get anything he wanted if he promises that you will see your father.'

'But he has my family tree,' she whispered, still struggling to believe all of this was an illusion made of a psychopath.

Erridan's face hardened. 'He has your family tree because he had spent centuries hunting you.'

Nema's nostrils flared. The ground shook again.

This time none of the mages tried to stop her.

They entered the dungeons. In the pitch-black dark Nema's runes were shining like hundreds of candles. It the moment wasn't so desperate it would be beautiful.

This time she didn't have to call upon her fear. She just had to immerse in her rage to open a portal. The reality split and Nema easily held it in that state until the mages and the last of the fire-feeders crossed on the other side. Once she was done, Nema climbed up on the deserted yard and sat on one of the stones, staring at the starry sky.

There was nothing around her. Seren was once Atria's greatest stronghold. Now there were only a few stones left of the ruins with only the south wall still left standing with a window that framed a piece of the indigo sky.