Young Flame

“You see, my group and I find ourselves in a bit of a pickle at the moment. Due to some unfortunate events, our trusty and reliable mage is gone. Left. Now, we flounder as she searches new horizons.”

The being puts on a dramatic display as he walks by my side. I wanted to walk off and leave him behind, but he doesn’t seem to understand I am ignoring him.

“Without a mage, our most eminent role, our team ceases to function. What is the point of fighting if you cannot advance, after all? We cannot simply take any odd mage, either. No, they must have at least the minimum capabilities of self defence against the atrocities we face. But for shame, uncovering capable mages not chained down by prior obligations is an arduous undertaking.”

His eyes roll upward in his head until they lie right underneath that tiny sentient rodent.

“But Jav tells me you have what it takes. You may not be a mage, but both áed and áinfean can bend hyle to their will. Which means it would be no issue teaching you how to operate the ritual. My only concern is whether you are skilled enough to survive our battles. I trust Jav, but you are younger than my great granddaughter.”

We turn a bend in the road and I finally see my friends ahead. I run off from the rambling man to rejoin them.

“Oi, aren’t you listening?” is the last I hear from him before I return to Kerry’s embrace.

She laughs as I return her tight grip. They won’t be forced to work in that horrible place again. I want no one to experience what Gloria put me through. To know the time they spent in that mill was probably worse than what I experienced is saddening. As I look over some of the bony bodies and hollow eyes of the kids around, I can’t help but feel glad I got here before things got worse for my friends.

I feel bad for the other kids of course, but knowing that they are in pain just doesn’t hit me as that of my own friends'.

“Thank you, Solvei.” Ash says as Kerry and I separate. “I never knew you were so… capable. Sorry for doubting you.”

I shake my head at him. “It wouldn’t have been so easy the last time we met.”

I approach Leslie, who is stretching and enjoying the open — still murky — air. She must have been stuck in there a while.

I drop to my knee beside her and, using my hand to separate the metal cuff from her leg, I melt it off. The heat must have still got through to her as she flinches and I almost fail to stop the hot metal from sizzling her skin. Thankfully, she settles down and lets me eat through the heavy anklet.

I now know why my elders never went for wood and coal themselves. They may say it’s for the sake of the younger áed, but there is no way the taste isn’t the largest factor. This is amazing. It’s more of a heavy flavour than the sweetness of wood, if it even makes sense for a taste to be heavy.

I have to remind myself that the iron is still around Leslie’s ankle, so I don’t just incinerate my way through it.

Once done, I let go of her leg and take the remaining pieces for myself.

Leslie shakes her leg, a grin rising to her face. “Thank you. What now? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m about to pass out.”

I look to Ash. As much as I got them out and everything, I never really thought about what to do afterwards. Where are all these kids going to go?

Ash returns my look. I guess he expected me to have some idea what to do? I shake my head and shrug.

He sighs and drops his head. “I guess we tell them to form groups and find a place for themselves. We might have to resort to old methods if we can’t find a trustworthy place.” He pauses for a moment to look around the black muck covered city. “I think we should move away from here first.”

“Good plan. Good plan. Well, it would be if Joiak wasn’t disgusting everywhere you go.” The six-limbed man steps into the conversation with his small partner still on his head. “Ya see, that business you just burnt down, little lady, was not the exception. That is the norm in this country. Real unfortunate actually, you got a bunch of kids like yourselves trying to find greener pastures outside Zadok, and Joiak is all too willing to put them to use.”

“Now. I have a proposal,” he says and turns to look directly at me. “I can pull some favours and get each of these little kiddies and your friends into a far more friendly country within the pact. There won’t be no working to exhaustion like here. Heck, some of the younger ones might even be adopted into loving families.”

He doesn’t turn, but the eyeballs in his head move out of my sight and he strides away from me as if that is the new front of his body. Jav, on his head, remains facing me.

“I could do that, but it would be incredibly inconvenient for me to do so without reason, don’t you think?” his eyes once more swivel in his head to lock on me. “So here’s the deal. You join my team for a bit and I’ll make sure everyone here gets nice and safe. What do ya think? Good deal, yeah?”

Is he serious? Can I even trust him? He put no effort into stopping that bastard of a man mistreating all these kids… but I guess he also didn’t stop me from tearing through the owner and his men. What is so important about this ritual thing that they need me for it?

“Look kid,” the little jerboa-like person says. “I know my friend can be a bit… overwhelming, but we are really kinda desperate for the help you could bring. I promise we mean no harm to you or your friends.”

I guess it might be fine if it’s just for a little. But I need to make sure I’m not being trapped in some contract or environment like my friends had been.

“Okay, but only if I’m allowed to leave if I don’t like the way you do things.”

“Splendid. Now, we need to confirm if you’re actually qualified.” The man flicks his limbs outwards, away from my friends, creating loud cracks through the air as each limb extends.

“What?”

“You didn’t think it would be that simple, did you? You still have to prove to me you can survive the things we face.”

Jav jumps off his head and surprisingly, a couple of flaps extend from his small suit, letting him glide to the ground.

With his flicking done, all six limbs rest on the ground to keep him upright. Unlike bipedal or quadruped creatures, his limbs all seem equally capable of attacking and being used for mobility.

“So little lady, are you ready for a spar?”

I nod to him and give a last glance at my friends watching over us in silence. Leslie has passed out on the black road and Kerry kneels over her. Ash and the twins watch.

“Just don’t get hurt, okay?” Ash says and the twins nod beside him.

I smile at them. It warms my heart to know they care.

I bring my attention back to my opponent and I walk some distance away from my friends so I can let loose without worrying about them. If this man wants to test me, I have no intention of holding back.

I don’t wait until he’s ready. Immediately, I lash out with a torrent of fire. My inner flame grasps at his torso and I try to burn through his thick, rubbery skin. The heat now able to melt iron hardly does anything. Like with my fight with the general, his skin hardly burns under my assault.

“Disappointing heat for an áed, but I guess you’re still young.”

Is he mocking me? I feel for any openings and find his mouth at the bottom of his head. My flames rush through, pushing to burn him from the inside out.

With a flick of a limb and a slide backward, I find my flames losing their grip on his body. Knocked aside as if they are but a pest.

“I do like your willingness to take what advantage you can, but you’ll definitely need something to focus your flames in the future. There’s just no oomph in your attacks.”

He’s definitely trying to irritate me now. I swipe at him again, raising my temperature as far as I can.

But I don’t come close.

With a push of his limbs, he flies to the side at a speed I can hardly follow. I’m unable to turn my body fast enough to keep up with him as he springs off the ground without stopping.

I jump away from where he is, expecting an attack. But it doesn’t come. Instead, he stands casually behind where I was. His eyes smaller than before.

He glances off the side to his small partner. “Jav, are you sure you weren’t mistaken?”

Jav grins back at him, razor-sharp teeth peeking through his tiny mouth. “Just attack her already, you’ll see.”

He sighs, his torso drooping with the slackening of his tentacles. “Sorry little lady.”

As soon as he finishes his words, alarm bells go off in my head. I throw myself to the side as his limb cracks through the air right where my hand had just been.

I hadn’t seen him move at all.

“Oh? Nice reaction speed,” he compliments, but it isn’t enough to stop him from following up.

A second tears right through my upper arm. It is forced into wispy flames before reforming after a second. The feeling is uncomfortable, but not painful. I attack him with my flames again and try to regain the space between us.

He stands there observing me with widened eyes. “Amazing. I see what you mean now, Jav. Let’s see how far she can go.”

I don’t have time to retreat. Warnings blare in my head from each direction. He’s attacking so many times at once I have nowhere to go, so I brace myself for the onslaught.

Arms, chest and legs; He tears through them all with nary a delay. My body splits open in places for moments before snapping back together. I hear one of my friends scream my name from the side, but I’m too busy to focus on that.

Each impact is an annoyance, but I have no way of stopping them like I did when fighting the General. I don’t have the Void Fog and its creatures to help me this time. What can I do to fight back? Do I just stand here and take the abuse, hoping my body can take it indefinitely?

He’s stopped holding back now. He freely goes for my head as much as he can. I stop trying to pull myself back into a physical form and leave my body’s flames visible to all.

I don’t want to leave this as is. I need to fight back. My flames swirl around me, covering my arms and legs while he continues his onslaught. In a few seconds, I’ve done what I need to.

I straighten under the assault. He can’t hurt me, so I have no need to be afraid of getting close. He is too fast for me, so I just have to hope his arrogance lets me get close enough to do what I plan to do.

I dash forward, glad to see he doesn’t move, willing to take whatever I’ll throw at him. I don’t know if even this will be enough, he can brush off my flames after all, so it might be hopeless. But it’s worth the attempt.

I launch toward his torso and latch on with my newly grown talons. They don’t cut into his rubbery skin, but they give me enough grip that I’m able to hold on when he tries to flick me away like he did my inner flame.

I grew talons from my hands and feet to give me the grip that I just couldn’t hope for with fingers. Well, I hoped to tear into him, but I’ll have to settle with this.

Hugging myself around his head, I struggle to remain in place as he dashes around the area with speed I can hardly comprehend. Once I stabilise myself, I engulf the both of us in flames. I’ve already been shown I can’t really burn through him, so I intend to burn through all the air before it reaches him. He’ll suffocate if he doesn’t breathe.

Through my flames, I notice his tentacles reaching for small pouches hidden between the base of the limbs and the torso. From within each pouch, he pulls a metal encasing for the ends of each tentacle. The metal is some combination of three metals I’ve never felt before and no matter how hard I try to melt them off his limbs, they remain cold.

I feel the difference immediately when he hits me with the metal plates. The ethereal flames of my body spread far from my body with each impact. Too far to reform myself with any haste.

It’s not long before I lose my grip around him and I’m sent flying off his back to the filthy pavement.

“Wow, I’m very impressed. The name’s Remus. Welcome to the group.”

“Huh?” what?

Remus puts the metal gloves back in their hidden pouches and walks toward me.

We’re not fighting anymore?

“That was amazing little miss. I’ve never seen an áed with such a close relationship with fire. Please, what is your name? I mean, I heard your friends say it, but I would like to hear it from you.”

“Uh, Solvei.” Isn’t this a bit too quick of a transition? I thought he was trying to kill me a second ago. I definitely was trying to do the same to him.

“Well, Solvei, I look forward to working with you.”