Young Flame

Our escape from the academy turned out to be much harder than finding our way in. My little trick with the lighting orbs seems not limited to the library. Many mages leave their labs and now chatter in small crowds outside the towers.

This leaves me in a bit of trouble. Once again, I am on the exterior of the main building, holding myself to the stone beside the window I’d climbed through. The issue is the increasing number of mages appearing on the grounds below. There are a lot more ursu around than the empty halls Leal and I walked through would suggest.

I am lucky that I’m not in direct moonlight, so unless I ignite, I should be impossible to spot. Though, with the heavy activity on the ground, I can’t see any reasonable escape.

It is already dark as is. I really don’t want to get caught on Gloria’s bad side by getting back late. She says she worries for me and I’ll feel guilty if I make her wait.

Leal has gone down to see if she can figure something out from the outside. I hope it won’t end up being my only option, but for now, it looks like I have no choice but to be patient.

Now that I think about it, why did Leal act so differently in front of that Orsen guy? Was she scared of him, maybe? No, it wasn’t just him. She acts that reserved around all ursu. She only opens herself to me and her own family. Even with Gloria, I don’t remember her saying more than greetings.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say she feared her own people. Whatever her actual problem is, I hope she will trust me enough to share. If there’s something I can do to help her, I will.

The scrape of the window being pushed out of its stone frame snaps me to attention. I hug the wall as close as I can without losing my grip. Leal is supposed to be downstairs now, and I have yet to see her. Did someone stop her? Do they know I am here? I tense and hold my breath as I see a silhouette of a head poke out the window.

“Solvei? You there?” I hear Leal’s voice whisper.

My shoulders dip in relief as I whisper back. “Yea. What happened?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t find a way to get you down with so many down there. We’ll have to wait until they all calm down.” She says.

I give her an “okay,” and the silence surrounds us for a time.

“What did you do?” Leal asks, and while I know what she’s referring to, I have no idea myself.

“I don’t know. I was trying to distract him by putting out the flame in that orb thing, and suddenly they all turned off. I didn’t even touch the others, only the one behind him.”

“Oh.” Leal says, her eyes widening. It seems like she knows something.

“Oh?”

“Um, did you happen to put out the source of the fire in the lamp and not the fire itself?”

“I put it out, but there was an energy that kept relighting it, so I pulled the fire out of that,”

“Whoa, I thought that was impossible,” she says. “You know inscriptions, yeah?”

“Yeah.” I give a quick assent.

“Well, a network of inscriptions supplies the lamps of the academy. I think you just drained the source of the lamps. Luckily, it shouldn’t take the professors long to reignite. Everyone will be back in their labs soon enough.”

Almost as she says so, a soft glow grows in strength from within the tower across from us. Leal steps back into the now dimly lit building. “I’ll see you at the bottom when everyone is back inside.” And like that, she is gone again.

Sighing, I adjust my stiff arms and legs to a more comfortable position. I just hope there are no more issues tonight.

❖❖❖

I haven’t spoken to Leal since the night of that incident. When I made it home that night, Gloria was furious. I had to spend an entire week in the furnace to make up for it.

The sudden announcement that the population would be moved out of the city come next Bratchina, only made it worse. I had been stuck working, keeping the oven burning for Gloria. She never gave me the opportunity to find out if Leal was going to the same place as us.

The Council declared that the war had become too resource intensive to continue to support the desert city Fisross. They gave each household directions for which city they would be relocated. This announcement had, of course, ignited widespread rumours. I couldn’t talk to anyone but Gloria in this time, but from what she told me — or complained about — there was a common understanding that the war hadn’t been going as well as they were told. Some claimed that the Empire had already annexed the entire northern region of the east landmass.

I struggle to push the heavy suitcase over the high steps of the train. The bag is almost bigger than me, and no doubt heavier. With difficulty, I get it up the first step. I clamber over it and try to pull it up the next two. I almost lift it to the next step when a large — or rather standard sized — ursu brushes by me, knocking me off my feet and dropping Gloria’s suitcase back off the train.

The ursu doesn’t stop. He continues on his way like I was beneath his attention. With a sigh, I lower myself down the steps ready to try again. As I get into position to lift the weighty luggage, a shrill feminine voice stops me.

“What is this? A midget thinks they can travel with ursu? Have your blasted kind not already caused enough problems?”

I turn around, but scuttle backwards as the woman steps far too close. She towers over me, and I freeze as my back hits the train wheel. She bends down until her face is right above mine. I do nothing but stare up at her, unable to back away any further or escape.

The ursu sneers at me. “It’s because of your kind that we are at war in the first place. It’s your fault that we have to leave our home.”

“Leave her be. I’m looking after her.” Gloria’s voice couldn’t have come sooner.

I send silent words of gratitude towards Gloria, who has stepped down from the train beside me. The ursu towering over me frowns. She makes a disgusting hocking sound with her throat before spitting on me and storming off.

The spittle lands in my eye and sizzles. It hurts. Nothing close to the pain water brings, but it still stings. I ignite it, trying to burn away the disgusting thing as quick as possible.

My head lurches forward and the back of my head throbs. I look up at Gloria, who just whacked me.

“No fire,” she says, then picks up the baggage in one hand, effortlessly carrying it onto the train.

I wipe at my eye. The spit is all gone, but it aches, and I can’t see out of it. At least I don’t need to worry about trying to get that heavy bag on the train anymore. I lift myself up the steps of the train and join Gloria in the seat beside her.

Gloria and I are moving to Morne, where Gloria’s parents live. The city was supposedly much larger than Fisross and closer to the capital. I don’t want to leave though. I want to at least have a chance to say goodbye to Leal. We have become good friends during the time I’ve been here, and it feels wrong to leave without her.

I look out of the window, watching the people milling about. I hope to see Leal amongst them, but no matter how many times my eyes pass along each ursu, she isn’t there.

The train lurches, almost knocking me from my seat. We are moving. There will be no chance to see Leal again. I rub at my eye and watch Fisross shrink into the distance. The speed of the train is incredible, traversing what would take hours in mere minutes. I would gush at the experience if I didn’t feel so hollow inside.

“Which city is Leal going to?” I ask Gloria again, hoping I’ll get a better answer this time.

She just sighs at my question. “I’ve told you: I don’t know.”

“There’s a chance she’s going to Morne, though, right?”

Gloria shakes her head. “Unlikely, Calysta’s family lives down south. They’re more likely to have been sent down there.”

It’s so frustrating. This wouldn’t have been an issue if Gloria hadn’t stopped me from seeing her.

“Why couldn’t you have let me see her, just once, before we left?”

Gloria’s eyebrow twitches once before she responds. “Solvei, you need to get control over your anger. You can’t let every little thing make you mad.” She says, before sighing again. “But okay, I’ll tell you. I did it for you. All mages, without exception, are being conscripted. Right now, Leal is probably on the front, making use of her talents.”

Before she can continue, I interrupt. “But she doesn’t even have any spell markings. What could she do?”

“They started speeding up the process due to the war. Look, I did this all for you. I was worried that it would hurt you knowing your friend is at war. You were better off forgetting about her. Everything I’ve said and done was for your benefit. You saw how non-ursu are being treated at the train station. I’ve sacrificed a lot to keep you safe. Are you going to be mad at me for keeping this from you?”

I bite my lip and turn back to the window, spotting the first signs of green in the distance.

“No,” I say.

I can’t be mad at her for trying to help me, even if the entire situation leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Gloria has already shown she’s here for me. She’ll stick by my side even when everyone else turns against me.

I watch the scenery for a while. The sandy desert of the wasteland is replaced with expansive green farmlands with scattered trees and cattle. I’d always wanted to see a sight like this; something so distinct from everything I am used to. But I find I don’t care. The landscape doesn’t move me as I thought it would. If I didn’t have to lose a friend, I would be fine with staying in the boring desert forever.

A laugh from Gloria interrupted my ruminations. I glance at her, but she just waves me off.

“Sorry, sorry. Just thinking about how you get mad over the smallest of things. Don’t mind me.” She says and laughs again. Her voice grating at my ears.

I clasp my hands together, fidgeting with my fingers as I return my gaze outside the moving train. This isn’t the first time Gloria finds my attitude laughable after our arguments. It makes me feel worthless when she does. I’ve learned to ignore it, though. It hurts more to laugh along with her.

❖❖❖

The next few months are tough.

When we make it to Gloria’s home, her parents are not welcoming. They are reluctant to allow even their own daughter to stay with them. They don’t even consider me. Fortunately, Gloria is tasked with taking over management of one of the outer ovens in Morne, so she allows me to sleep in the furnace underneath.

Morne is an almost identical city to Fisross, only at many times the size. While Fisross has only one Continae and associated central clearing, Morne has six. Much of the city looks the same; highly organised in the centre but diverging farther out. Timber is a far more common construction material than stone here, especially in the buildings farther from the centre.

I am shown, rather quickly, that my time in Morne won’t be fun.

The city often experiences rainfall. The first time it falls, I am sitting at the entry to my furnace. The sudden stinging pain in my back sends me sprawling down into the underground furnace for shelter. The pain and sound of the rain increasing in intensity sends me into a panic. I crawl to the back corner of the smouldering furnace, closing the hatch to lock myself away from the water. The water will fill like it did that crevice so long ago. I’m going to die.

I don’t bother keeping the furnace burning. So, Gloria eventually comes to check on me. She opens the hatch and takes one look at the furnace, bare of flames and heat, before exploding in anger.

“Why have you stopped the fire? The food up top is ruined because of you!” she snarls.

“I… It was raining. I was gonna die.”

She snorts and rolls her eyes. “You aren’t going to die. Stop overreacting. The furnace is designed to stop rainwater pooling. You are safe as long as you remain down here and do your part.”

“I don’t want to be down here anymore. I want to go somewhere else,” I say. My voice trembles as I plead. Every day I stay underground, it feels like I am being swallowed ever so slightly more. The walls tighten and the ceiling lowers. The comfort of flames becomes less effective every day.

I am suffocating.

“No. There is no other place for you. This furnace is the only safe place. The rain isn’t the only thing you should worry about. Public opinion has soured far more against non-ursu since we arrived. You shouldn’t let yourself be seen outside the furnace again.” She says before I am once again left on my own in this horrible underground furnace.

I believe her for a while, not showing myself to anyone but Gloria for over a month. But she visits less and less frequently. I start to doubt her. I think it would be fine just to talk to another ursu once. So when the workers come down to restock the coal for the first time in weeks, I can’t help myself. I want to know what is going on outside. I want to know what is happening with the war. Is Leal alright? Gloria doesn’t visit anymore, so I can’t ask her.

So, I leave the confines of my furnace to talk to the ursu piling up coal.

I wish I hadn’t.

I shouldn’t have doubted her. She’s already done so much for me, so why didn’t I believe her?

Now I never leave my furnace. At most, I send out my inner flame to sate my hunger, but never more than that. I’ve long since realised running the furnace with my own heat is far more efficient than letting the coal burn around me.

The war is going horribly, or at least that’s what I assume. Why else would the attitude of the ursu change so wildly? They were such friendly people when I first met them. Loud and unaware of their own strength, but friendly.

Now they are anything but. I am too afraid to leave my cramped tomb. I want to leave. To wander west until I find the desert again, but I am scared. Scared of the rain and scared of the ursu that will find me.

We’d been on that train for hours. If I am going to run back to the wasteland, I will be walking for weeks, at least. Maybe months. And I will have to do it through the homeland of the ursu that hate anyone that isn’t ursu. Land that is also prone to rain.

Of course, that is an impossible scenario. So, I keep the furnace burning, hopeful that one day Gloria will come down and tell me what a good job I’ve been doing. I don’t want her angry at me again.

Now, I spend all my time doing the only thing I can do anymore, improving my control. It is the only thing that takes my mind away from the walls encroaching on me. I lose myself in it, blinding myself to the world around me.

There is nothing else I can do.