As they arrived at the little house, they could hear voices inside. Tiel wasted no time blowing the door off its hinges with an icy blast. Each of the affines, including Celie, was in a state of heightened awareness, expecting a fireball to come flying through the doorway at them. But all they saw was three shocked women preparing an evening meal.
One couldn’t have been much older than twenty, another was clearly the young one’s mother given the obvious family resemblance. The final one was an elderly woman. The mother stepped in front of her daughter to protect her, the mothering instinct still very strong.
The blowing off of the door from its hinges had caused a small crowd to begin to gather outside the house, as other villagers came to see what was going on. Tiel often had an audience for his work. He would prefer otherwise but people always seemed to want to watch.
“Move aside, please,” Tiel said to the mother. “I would speak to your daughter.”
The mother just stood there holding her daughter tight. The young woman to her credit tried to persuade her mother to move aside but the mother wasn’t having it.
“No, no,” the mother repeated, wrapping her arms tighter around her daughter.
Bolo then walked up to the mother and moved her aside. The mother flailed at Bolo, screaming. Bolo hadn’t hurt her but the screaming was too much for the daughter, who suddenly let loose a line of roaring flame straight at Bolo.
The flames however disappeared harmlessly on contact with his body. Tiel was quite impressed at the intensity of the fire, the young woman had thrown. The ice shield he had thrown up around Bolo had taken a fair bit of Celestial energy to maintain. But to Tiel’s disappointment the heat of the flames had been a little too easy to diffuse, for the affine to be using a spark. She could, of course, have been holding back her true power but the look of intensity on her face and the sheer rage with which she had thrown the fire at Bolo suggested to Tiel she had in fact given the flames all she had got.
So it looked like the young woman was just a powerful affine and not a sparked affine. But there was only one way to be sure and Marsh liked Tiel to be certain.
Suddenly roots rose from under the ground appearing around the feet of the three women in the house holding them in place.
“Now,” Tiel said. “I hope we will have no more sudden outbursts,” addressing the young woman. “The consequences will not be pleasant if there are.”
The mother was screaming hysterically.
Bolo repositionsed his hand over her mouth muffling the screams.
“Thank you Bolo. That is much better.” Tiel said, no longer wincing at the loud screaming noises.
Turning to Celie, Tiel said, “Do you remember what Alona said I was going to do here.”
“Murder an innocent villager,” Celie said coldly.
“Yes. And what did I say,” Tiel continued.
“Nearly right,” Celie replied.
“You do have a good memory,” Tiel smiled. “Now. Why do you think she was nearly right?”
A look of horror crossed Celie’s face.
“That’s right, Celie. You are going to kill the fire affine, not me.”
The mother was screaming even more hysterically under Bolo’s hand.
On hearing her fate, the young woman made a desperate attempt to launch fire at Tiel. But Tiel was more than ready and a spray of ice flew from his hand encasing the woman completely from head to foot, before the flames even left her hand.
Tiel could feel the young woman trying desperately to escape, but Tiel maintained the ice in place easily. He did allow the ice around her head to melt a little so she could breathe. Her mouth, however, remained frozen shut.
The old woman had not moved in all this time and just stood impassively watching Tiel, a single tear running down her cheek.
Tiel noticed the woman looking at him and said, “I take no pleasure in what I do but I must do it all the same. I’m sorry for your loss.”
The old woman said nothing.
“No.” Celie said firmly. “I will not kill this innocent girl.”
Tiel looked at her. “Yes, you will.”
Tiel walked up behind the young woman and placed his fingers lightly on her ice encased shoulder. The girl tried to start screaming in pain as Tiel channelled the cold into her, but her frozen mouth meant all that came out was a muffled agony sound.
Tiel looked Celie in the eye and said, “You know exactly what she is feeling right now.”
Celie looked in horror at the poor young woman.
“Only you can end her suffering,” Tiel continued.
Celie was totally distraught, she could remember vividly the feeling of the cold pain and how she would have taken death at that time to stop the pain. Anything to stop the pain.
“Stop it,” Celie screamed at Tiel and in a swift motion pulled an arrow from her quiver and released it. The arrow flew fast and true. Straight past the young woman’s head straight at Tiel.
The arrow was headed exactly where she had aimed. Tiel’s head. However, it had never reached its target. It was stuck fast in a shield of ice. Celie screamed and charged at Tiel but found her feet held fast by roots that had risen up from the floor. She couldn’t move.
And all the time the young woman continued to scream, her stifled screams. Agony was written all over her face. The poor girl's veins stood out from her temples, her eyes darted widely from side to side. The pain must have been incredible.
Tiel just stared calmly at Celie, saying, “Only you can end her pain Celie. Only you.”
The attempted screams of the woman were wrenching at Celie’s heart. Celie was going crazy. What could she do?
And Tiel just stood there. Patiently torturing the poor woman with his cold agony. Tiel continued to stare at Celie. “Only you,” he whispered. “You are the reason she is suffering now. Only you can end it, Celie.”
Celie’s mind was in uproar. She didn’t know what to do. The pain on the woman's face was terrible, but she couldn’t draw her bow to end it.
It was Alona who eventually broke through to her. “Please, Celie, please don’t let her suffer anymore. Please end this.”
A moment later the young woman seemed to writhe in what seemed the most intense pain yet. Celie could do nothing else. She reached into her quiver and let fly. The house suddenly went quiet.
Celie closed her eyes and collapsed to the floor, horrified at what she had just done.
Tiel released the ice around the young woman and lowered her dead body gently to the ground. An arrow, sticking from her head.
No spark had appeared above her heart, as she'd died. He nodded to Bolo who released the mother, who immediately collapsed next to her daughter on the floor.
Tiel quietly placed a bag of silver coins on the table. He knew it couldn’t repay what he had just done but it was something. The old woman hadn’t moved through all of this and was still just watching, tears running down both sides of her cheeks now.
Tiel could also feel the bile rising in his throat as he noticed the old woman and thought about his actions. But he pushed it back down and held his head high as he walked out the house past the shocked villagers. No-one said anything. They just looked at him, the way you might look at a monster.
Alona and Bolo followed. Bolo carrying an unconscious Celie in his arms.
YOU ARE READING
Chasing Sparks
Fantasy[Completed] [The Affinity Series: Book 1] The affinities are echoes of magic from a time long past, giving enhanced powers to those that have them. And for any affines that bond with a spark, their powers are increased. One such sparked affine is Ti...
