Chapter 7

  “Eike!?” she cried out, but her words were lost in the thunder of dozens of men rushing past her to join him; brilliant sapphire and shining bronze, the King’s men.

  They met the banners of the white hawk in a violent skirmish, pushing them back up the lane. Eike led the advance, dancing through the onslaught of slashing blades and thrusting spears, decimating their forces. Malachi’s men were in disarray. Their formation broken, they fled, and the city’s guard pursued with wild shouts of victory.

  “Eike!” she called again.

  He turned back to her, smiling.

  “Did you think you could get rid of me that easily?”

  “What are you—You can’t be here!” she shouted, running towards him.

  His face fell. “Don’t say that! I haven’t known you long, but already,” he gestured to the fallen soldiers, “I find myself constantly having to rescue you!”

  “I— They weren’t after me! I would have been fine!”

  He sniffed. “I would think you’d be grateful…”

  She smelt it first. An acrid stench, like burning flesh. It stung her eyes, gnawing at her senses. Then, a crackling hiss, and the air drew back in an icy chill.

  “Do you hear—”

  —The cold steel of Eike’s plate slammed into her torso, and she gasped as her breath was expelled from her lungs. They fell, and where they had stood, jagged blades of azure light sliced through the air. As they crashed to the ground, there was a loud clap, thunderous and terrifying.

  Ears ringing, Fia opened her eyes. Eike lay on top of her, his face just inches from her own.

  “I think that that’s three times now,” he whispered. Then he sprang to his feet.

  In the distance, a woman approached, brandishing a dark staff twisted and cracked like the branch of an old oak. At her back, the red sun set. Falling from its place in the heavens, it bled across the horizon, leaking between the stars. It had begun.

  He rushed her. The air began to burn, but this time, Fia was ready. She raised her staff, and as the splintering light snaked towards him, it was met by a wall of gold. The light hit her barrier like a wave, tendrils rippling over it, clawing at its surface. Eike pushed forward, and the shield flew with him, hurtling towards the mage. He was fast, but not faster than light, and the claws had found a chink. The wall shook as the bolts surged, streaking towards the crack, burrowing deep, and tearing at its core. There was a ringing, a hollow chime, and the wall burst into dust, like sand blowing in the wind.

  Out of the cloud of dust leapt Eike! Sword brandished high above his head, its jagged edge gleaming in the dying light. He swung, whipping his blade downward, arcing towards the woman’s head.

  But from behind the mage, a shadow rose, catching him, plucking him from the sky. A dark hand twisted and terrible.

  “Eike!” She sprinted towards them.

  The woman was speaking. Her words were soft, too quiet to hear. They were meant for Eike alone.

  Then the shadow closed. Sinking its fingers deep into her friend. The brilliant crimson armor he had been so proud to claim crumpled under its weight. His body twisted, contorting to its new form beneath the crushed plate. And she threw him, his lifeless shape crashing to the ground.

  Fia screamed, and the woman turned to her. Her eyes were blood red, burning.

  “You look just like my dreams,” she whispered.

  “You killed him!”

  “Did I?” She smiled, a cold, taunting smirk, “I was just defending myself.”

  A bolt curled from her staff, spearing towards Fia. It cracked against her shield, shattering it instantly.

  “A curious spell,” the woman laughed. “It stumped me at first, but I see its flaw now. Tell me, in my dreams, there was a second girl. Where is she?”

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  “I don’t know what you’re talking about and—”

  —Crack!

  Fia barely got her shield up in time as another bolt flashed. She staggered, and more dust blew in the wind.

  “Do not test my patience, girl! Do you see what happened to your companion? The only reason you are alive is that I need answers. If you fail to provide me with them, then you will share in his fate. Now answer me, where is the other girl?”

  Did she mean Sophie? But her sister was never here… Her mind turned to Ella, her protector. Even now, she felt her mana reaching out, desperately calling for her. But she was with Lina, and Fia would not let Lina face her fate alone.

  Crack!

  White hot pain cut into her shoulder, and she dropped as another bolt burned through the air.

  “The heavens shake!” The sorceress cried. “The world burns, and here we stand, fighting over its ashes.”

  Above them, the sun had faded, and yet its blood still lay splashed across the night sky. And the stars began to fall. Great flaming rocks hurtling through space, crashing down upon the city in waves.

  “There is no time for these games. Tell me what you know!”

  A star fell towards them, but the mage did not seem concerned. With a casual flick of her staff, she sent her shadow flying at it. It parried the rock, sending it careening into the walls below. She watched disinterestedly as it rolled, flattening homes and shops alike.

  That was all the chance Fia needed! Around her, the golden spears of the King began to form, and she sent them flying. But the shadow was too quick; it wrapped itself around the mage, and the spears sank into its void, unable to pierce the darkness.

  The sorceress tilted her head, back still facing Fia.

  “How disappointing,” she droned. “So much still to be learned, and yet it would seem our time is at an end…for now.”

  Lightning splintered from her staff, flying at Fia from all directions.

  Before her materialized wall after golden wall, but the bolts tore through every one of them, filling the road in smoke and sand. She dove. Into the cloud, losing herself in its haze.

  “There is no hiding from what’s coming,” called the mage. “Better to die now, wouldn’t you agree?”

  She remained silent, crouching in the dirt. Her mana was all but spent. Ella had slipped away, there was no longer enough magic to give her form. She could not save Lina, and Ella could not save her. The lightning was too strong, she had no spell to defend from it. The sand swirling around her was proof enough of that.

  And then she saw it. A memory as clear as day. It had been after a great storm. Sophie had taken her down by the ocean. There had been a scar, a deep burn that spiraled out like veins in the sand, and in those veins lay shattered shards of a translucent material. Quartz, Sophie had called it, melted by the intense heat of a thunderbolt.

  She closed her eyes, lost in the murk, and from her staff poured tiny sparkling rocks, and they filled the air. She stepped out into the open.

  “Ah, there you are,” sneered the woman. “Finally come to your senses, have you?”

  “I have nothing to tell you.”

  “Very well. There will be other chances.”

  Lightning flared from her staff, crackling through the air and lashing out towards Fia—then it halted, fractured mid-flight, and shattered. Quartz-laced dust ripped it to pieces, scattering it in a storm of wild arcs. And in an instant, the spell was transformed into jagged shards of glass.

  The blades fell, turning on their caster, and her eyes widened in surprise as they shot through her, staking her to the road.

  A choked gasp, and she looked up, meeting Fia’s eyes. Her face looked kinder now, sadder.

  “See you at the next turn,” she coughed. Then she fell silent, and her body went limp.

  “Eike!” She rushed to him, collapsing at his side.

  He was still. Eyes shut and soaked in blood. From his mouth, a faint, raspy wheeze.

  “Eike! Eike, answer me!” She cried.

  His eyes twitched. “Let’s call that three to two,” he whispered.

  “I don’t know what to do!”

  “You should probably find some shelter… I don’t think I’m going to be around much longer. Besides, if I get out of this, we’d have to call it a draw.” He paused, his breath shallow and ragged. She felt his hand tighten around hers. “I think I’d rather go out on top.”

  Eike was right. He was not going to last long. His breathing was slow, his skin pale and grey; if she did not think of something quick, he would be dead. The whispers in the back of her mind grew louder.

  She began tearing at his armor.

  “What are you doing,” he mumbled, barely conscious.

  “I’m going to save you!” But it was no use. The plate would not come undone. “You’re too heavy!” She cried.

  “I think the armor’s all that’s holding me together now…”

  “I’ll have to drag you, plate and all!”

  She could barely move him. It took all of her strength, and his body shook fighting her for every inch.

  The fires had spread, and now, the entire city was ablaze. It was the only light left. The sky was dark. The glow of a thousand stars, swallowed whole. But she kept on pulling him. The broken plate cut into her palms, but she only gripped him tighter, and she kept pulling.

  “Fia…”

  “We’re almost there! Just hold on!” She couldn’t do it; she couldn’t take another cycle all alone. She had to save him, so she kept on pulling.

  “Fia…”

  “Just hold on.”

  His hand slipped from her grasp, and she stumbled to the ground.

  “Eike?”

  There was no reply.

  “Eike!?”

  She turned back. He lay there. Eyes wide open, glassy and still. There was no light left in them.

  The world was lost. She couldn’t save him. She never saved any of them.

  Everything began to crumble, coming apart at the seams, the far edges of the horizon fading into nothing. Soon, it would just be her… and the shop.

  She left him lying in the street, staggering home through smoke and flame.

  It didn’t matter. None of it changed anything. They…She had retrieved the book, and that was all that counted.

  As the world sank, Fia sat in her great chair by the fireplace, her sister’s favorite nook. Staring out the wide window, she thought of Lina, she thought of Eike, she thought of Sophie, and she was all alone.

  Cycle: Timor 1-3