Chapter 14
fourteen
Iwatch on bated breath as two guards surrounding Thesix force him to his knees in the mud. Even from this distance, I can see the network of bruises mottling his face, the dried blood at the corner of his mouth. His hands are bound behind his back, probably with obsidian to prevent his magic.
The pain of the sharp rocks digging into my skin through the leathers is barely registering. A keening sound escapes my throat, sounding more like a wounded animal than human.
“Drāhēn?!” Selene grabs my shoulder, trying to pull me up. “You can’t stop now!”
But I can’t tear my eyes away from Thesix. Atlas grabs a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back to expose his throat. Thesix’s eyes find mine across the battlefield – those beautiful light blue eyes now dulled with pain but alive … defiant even now.
“Surrender now, and perhaps I’ll let him live, Drāhēn?!” Atlas shouts, before he gestures towards his men. They grab Thesix as he thrashes against them, tying him to a pole in the center of a platform.
The silver ripple that connects between us pulses like a frantic heartbeat, shining for only our eyes to see. I try to reach into it, for something–anything that can prevent what I know will happen regardless of what I do here or when I try to do it.
“Don’t.” Thesix mouths, his cracked lips barely moving. And for that reason alone … I love him. He would sacrifice himself for me even now.
Atlas notices our silent exchange and laughs, the sound cutting through the battlefield noise like a blade. “How touching! Your twin drop still tries to protect you.” His fingers ignite with a flame as he inches toward Thesix. “You have until the count of ten, Drāhēn?. Surrender or watch him die.”
The battlefield seems to still around me, the sounds of combat fade, the sounds of the war becoming nothing more than background noise as I lean down. My hands dig into the mud, fingers curling around the wet stones and blood-soaked soil. “Please.” I cry into my powers.
“One!” Atlas begins, his voice gleeful.
“Drāhēn?,” Selene hisses urgently. “We can still fight. Don’t give him what he wants.”
“Two!”
“He’ll kill Thesix either way,” she continues, her voice threatening to break while trying to bring me back from the darkness I feel.
“Three!”
A shadow falls over me. I look up to see Kya standing there, her flame-red hair plastered to her scarred face by the rain. Her amber eyes meet mine with fierce resolve.
“Four!”
“I’m here, Drāhēn?!” Kya says, extending her hand to me. Tiny flames dance between her fingers.
“Five!”
The w?ngesk roars behind us, its massive tentacles sweeping through Atlas’s units, but it cannot reach the center where Atlas holds Thesix.
“Six!”
I reach up and take Kya’s hand. Her fire dances up my arm, not burning but creating a steam that rises from my skin.
“Seven!”
A wind rises around us, not from the storm but from somewhere else. I turn to see someone forming beside me and I smile – Nuasis, her form rippling.
“Eight!”
“Sister,” she whispers, her voice like leaves rustling. “I’m here.” She reaches out, her fingers touching my other hand. I feel a rush of the wind she carries floating through me.
“Nine!”
The ground trembles. Cracks appear in the mud around my knees as I feel another presence. Wodthos. His earthen hands press against my back, and I feel the steady strength of mountains flow into me.
“Hello Sister.” He rumbles, his voice like thunder.
They answered my call. I don’t know how or why Tiyo let them, and possibly helped keep Khaysus from coming to Ashonera, but they are here. I have everything I need. Their elements surge through me, filling me with a power I’ve not felt since I first created Ashonera.
“Te–” Atlas starts, but my voice rises higher.
“ENOUGH!” My voice erupts from deep inside, shaking the very air around me.
“You forgot who I am, Atlas!” I say, my voice full of the power my siblings and Kya bestow upon me as I take a step forward.
The mud solidifies beneath my feet, forming a path of stone.
The rain parts around me as I take another step.
“I am she who spoke the first word that birthed Ashonera,” Another step. “I am she who breathed life into the first soul.” Another step. “I am she who wove the elements together to create EVERYTHING you have ever known.”
Atlas’s voice trembles just the slightest, “Don’t come any closer Drāhēn?, I will kill him.”
The elements swirl around me – water spiraling, fire dancing, wind howling, earth rumbling. My gaze locks with Thesix’s. The love I see there gives me strength. He nods his head as if reading my thoughts, and maybe he does.
It’s for him I fight, for him I destroy those that I love. For him, I will do anything.
The flames from Atlas’s hand inch toward him, inching instead of swarming, because the betrayer wants me to suffer, to watch as my lover dies.
I reach my arm out, knowing it’s worthless because my powers can’t reach that far. The flames wrap around Thesix and he screams, the sound echoes all around me. It’s all I can hear, but I can’t look away, and I scream too. A sound of pure anguish that splits the sky.
Ice sprouts from the pain enveloping me, creating a coolness against the heat. Frost patterns spread across my skin, crackling as they meet the fire within me. Calling on the last of Thesix’s power into me as the other elements war inside my body, threatening to tear me apart.
“A lae t neni pe, o a lae pengae pe wae lomo popo ra lae,” I scream into the wind, reaching for the dagger at my side. It’s hopeless. I can’t win this. Not now, not today.
But I can give them one more gift.
The dagger, silver with a light blue larimar stone, comes free from its sheath. I look up to Thesix one last time, his body weathered in Atlas’s flames. His screams have stopped now, replaced by an awful silence that cuts deep. The golden ripple between us flickers weakly, like a candle in a storm.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, though I know he cannot hear me.
My fingers tighten around the hilt. The metal grows cold against my skin. I press the blade against my throat, feeling its edge bite into my flesh. A ribbon of warmth trickles down my neck, pooling in the hollow of my collarbone before streaming lower.
The elements within me surge forward, no longer warring inside of me but unifying just as when I whispered this world into existence – except now with a terrible purpose. My vision blurs, the edges of the world become soft. Through the haze, I see Atlas’s triumphant smile falter.
I drag the blade deeper, maintaining eye contact with him as I do. Not to end my life, but to release what lies within. More blood flows, but it's not to finish me … but to transform everything.
“Sister,” Nuasis appears beside me, her wind lifting my hair as if she can read my thoughts. “Are you certain?”
“Yes,” I say. “Death is not always the end.”
The ground beneath us trembles as Wodthos channels his strength into me. “The north will burn,” he rumbles, understanding my intention without words.
“A prison for those who would destroy what I love.” I say in return.
My blood spreads across the battlefield like glowing rivers, carving new boundaries into the fabric of Ashonera.
I can feel the northern plains of Midaeleia transforming, the land becoming a red wasteland of sand.
Mountains rise from nothing, their peaks sharp as blades against the sky, crafting a border.
Only one path that leads into it, because eventually not all who live there will have had that path chosen for them.
The sun itself becomes thick with heat that will scorch the skin.
My blood wraps around all of those who have risen against me, and Atlas eyes widen as he realizes what is happening.
With a flick of my wrist, I send a wave of blood-tinged water crashing into him, “You chose this path,” I tell him, each word heavy as the last of my magic drains out of me. “Now walk it.”
The transformation continues, my power flowing outward in pulsing waves. I feel myself changing too- something essential draining away from each heartbeat.
“Drāhēn?,” Kya says urgently, her flames dancing around us protectively. “Something’s changing. He's trying to follow the path here now, and if you do this …”
“I will no longer be as I was. But neither will I die. Do what you must to protect this land, Kya.”
Together, our combined power sweeps across the battlefield, lifting Atlas and his followers into the air. They struggle against the invisible force, but it’s futile. With a gesture that costs me the last of my strength, I cast them northward, banishing them to a new land.
My knees buckle, and I collapse to the mud. The dagger falls from my nerveless fingers. Around me, the battle has stopped, my people staring in awe and confusion at what they’ve witnessed.
The darkness claims me as something bright casts a light, bright and unlike my own, but I can’t focus on it. I know one day I will return, but for now I will remain in the rings of the sun. A forgotten memory, a whispered legend.
Because to be known is to be wanted. And to be wanted is to bring destruction.