Celie walked quietly down the empty town streets, towards the inn, residents watching from behind their windows and shutters, none seemingly having the courage to come out into the street. The young girl held Celie’s hand tightly.
The girl then turned to Celie and said, “I thought I was going to die.”
“Me too,” said Celie honestly, squeezing the girl's hand.
“We were lucky that nice man turned up to save us,” The girl continued.
Nice man, Celie thought, not likely. But it was nice the man had turned up.
At that point the inn came into view. There was a man standing outside the front door, looking pensively around.
“Daddy,” the girl cried and ran off towards the inn.
The man scooped up the little girl in his arms and hugged her close to him. Celie smiled to herself. The first genuine smile in a long long time.
...
It was a good few hours later when Tiel tapped his small earring and said, “Father.”
There was a long pause before he heard “Tiel, what is it?”
Great, Tiel thought, I interrupted him in the middle of something. But it was too late to take the call back now. “I have some news that may interest you,” he said.
There was another long pause before Marsh’s voice came back through the earring. “This had better be good.”
Tiel hoped it would be. “I’ve just got back from fighting a fire affine and strength affine. Nothing too unusual in that,” he added, “except this is the second time in as many weeks I’ve seen Terrons fighting alongside Kolle.”
Marsh’s ears perked up. “Go on,” he said.
Tiel went on, “I’m in Madeen. There is not a Temple of Aguilar within miles of this little town, yet the fire affine that attacked me was clearly a member of this order. His room was practically a shrine to Aguilar. I searched for some kind of artifact or something that would give him power over the Kolle, like we saw with the staff, but it seems the Kolle fought for him willingly without any magical aid.”
“Hmm,” Tiel heard Marsh murmuring in the earring.
“But what I really need to tell you.” Tiel added is what the Kolle said when we questioned them. “They were not very coherent but they were clear on one point, the Dreyma is coming. I’ve never heard of the Dreyma but both the Kolle I interviewed were adamant that the Dreyma was coming.”
Tiel was met with silence at the other end of the conversation. He waited patiently for Marsh to say something but nothing came back. “Do you know this Dreyma?” Tiel asked into the silence.
Marsh ignored the question. “Tiel, it is of the utmost importance you get me the enduro and speed spark as soon as possible and get yourself back to the Capital. It is time we had a little chat.”
The line went dead.
Tiel shivered into the cold night air. He wasn’t cold but something about the conversation with his father sent a chill through his body. But there was nothing for him to do, except carry on and get the sparks.
As Tiel reentered the inn, he saw Celie being toasted again by the patrons of the inn. Tiel had to admit doing something positive for a change felt good, but he was wary of becoming too attached to the feeling. It wouldn’t be long before he was back killing again and being vilified by all around.
The young girl immediately ran over to Tiel as he entered and said, “Teach me another word.”
Tiel had already shown the little girl two ice spells that evening, yet she wanted more. He had to admit she learned quickly, having already mastered the two previous incantations he had shown her. Adding to the ice ball she already knew.
Tiel smiled and crouched down to the girls level, “Watch this,” he said.
He whispered a short phrase and made a small movement with his fingers. The girl looked around frantically trying to see what Tiel had done. But nothing looked different, everything was the same to her.
“What, what, what?” the girl said excitedly, “What did you do?”
Tiel shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe it didn’t work,” he said and raised his hands in a gesture of not knowing.
The girl frowned but from the slight smile on Tiel’s face, she guessed he was lying, “Tell me, tell me,” she said, still looking around trying to see what he had done.
Suddenly the gentle murmur of voices in the inn was broken by a deep booming shout of, “Tiel.”
Bolo stood up from the table and banged his beer down with considerable force on the table. Causing all eyes in the inn to turn and look at him. Despite banging his cup hard on the table, not a single drop of beer escaped the rim. “Tiel. Get me another beer now before I break this cup over your puny head.”
Silence followed the big man's outburst as all those watching tried to understand what had brought this about. To clear up any confusion, Bolo held his beer cup upside down. Nothing came out despite the cup being almost full of beer.
The girl looked at the cup for a heartbeat not quite sure what was going on, then it clicked and she gasped and clapped her hands in excitement, “Teach me, teach me, teach me,” she began pleading with Tiel.
“You had better get Bolo another beer first. He doesn’t look very happy.”
To emphasise the point Bolo growled, “Beer, now.”
The girl scampered off to the bar to get Bolo another cup.
Tiel was starting to smile to himself when he noticed both Alona and Celie looking at him.
“What?” Tiel said. “I’m not a monster.”
As the inn settled back to what they were doing before Bolo’s interruption, Celie turned to Alona with a serious expression on her face. “What if the girl was not an ice affine?” she said, “What if her affinity was to fire, earth or air.” Celie paused not really wanting to say what came next but continued anyway, “Would Tiel kill her?”
Alona looked at Celie, “It depends if he thought she was strong enough to carry the spark.”
“And if he did think she was strong enough?” Celie pressed.
Alona looked away and said softly, “You already know the answer.”
Celie put her head in her hands, “How do you live knowing this. I don’t think I can.” Celie confided. “I’m scared every minute of the day he will ask me to kill another innocent person. I don’t think I can live like this. I don’t think…’
Alona grabbed Celie’s hand and squeezed. “You did something great today. You saved a young girl and reunited her with her father. Today is a good day. Don’t spoil it.” She looked at Celie with a serious expression, “You asked how I live with this. Well, I live for days like these.”
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...
