by Frank Morin
Evander didn’t look convinced, but did not object. He gave Connor a little bow of respect and said softly, “The killdeer pretends to injury to lure predators away from the nest, but only pure love motivates one to the greatest of sacrifices.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Connor said, moved by the compliment. He hoped he was motivated by love and a desire to save Verena and his friends more than out of a desperate longing to not be the guy responsible for unleashing the end of the world. Either way, he was definitely taking a terrible risk.
So be it.
Some of Connor’s bridges were already dark and unresponsive in his mind, the bridges to red energy marble, serpentinite, and even slate. So Connor jogged across his primary and secondary affinity islands until he reached the bridges to those tertiary powers. The top level of each of the bridges, linked to his third threshold, was still vibrant and intact, and he sensed the flow of green power across them. The lowest tiers were dim and unresponsive.
The red energy power that should flow across those bridges was broken. It might return some day, and if he left those bridges intact and survived maybe he could find a way to reestablish connections. He still had access to the higher-level power, so maybe he didn’t need them anyway.
Connor stepped to the bridge to serpentinite. She still had not appeared in tangible form in his mind, so he felt less guilty making the first attempt there. He descended to the lowest tier of the island and crouched over the lowest level of the reinforced foundations holding the three-layered bridge to that island of sound. Before he could second-guess the insane plan, he shouted and curse-punched the end of the lowest level of the bridge.
It shattered.
The entire lower bridge splintered and fell into the mist of the bottomless void. As the connection broke, Connor drew upon the highest level power from limestone, which allowed him to manipulate energy best. He was prepared for a rush of energy, but gasped at the unexpected ferocity of the explosion that erupted from the broken bridge. It had contained far more energy than what he’d siphoned from the queen’s mind.
She was easily as powerful as he, but maybe he’d lost a lot because he was standing inside her head. Or maybe the fact that her mind was breaking, or that the elementals mostly controlled her impacted the amount released.
Either way, he felt encouraged. With so much energy released by that single bridge, he felt convinced he could gather enough to overcome the elementals’ hold on the queen’s mind. He might not even need to destroy all of his bridges to do it. The energy from serpentinite whistled through his body, like the distant murmuring of thousands of cherished memories. The sounds comforted him and eased more of his tension.
As the power of serpentinite infused him, memories flashed into his mind of times he’d used that unique tertiary stone. He thought of the day in Altkalen when Student Eighteen taught him his first lessons with serpentinite, and how he’d fooled some of the Crushers into thinking Mattias was mocking them. He smiled sadly, filled with a sense of loss. That part of serpentinite was gone.
Connor sensed his physical body swelling from the influx of power. Porphyry appeared beside him, a wolfish grin on its huge maw. As the energy poured into Connor, the beast swelled in size to mimic the growth of their giant physical form.
All four of the elementals appeared at the midpoints of their islands and looked around, as if startled to be there. “What are you doing?” Water exclaimed, her perfect, ancient face clouded with new worry.
“What I have to,” Connor said as he jumped across to his marble island and the bridge to fire.
Fire lifted a placating hand and said, “Hold on, Connor. I think we owe you an apology.”
That was surprising. He’d expected more angry threats from Fire. That seemed more his style.
“We are nearly free, and there is nothing you can do to stop us from shedding our chains,” Fire said. “But we’ve realized that we acted foolishly. Your world is not ours, and we placed unrealistic expectations upon you.”
“What are you saying?” Connor asked, despite knowing he couldn’t trust anything Fire told him.
Earth spoke. “We should not have spread responsibility for our captivity across all humanity.”
“We do not wish to begin our life of freedom as enemies,” Air added in a soothing tone, like a cool breeze against a hot brow.
Water nodded, her expression earnest. “Forgive and forget is the term, is it not? Walk in harmony with us and we promise to live in peace with all people.”
“We will even recommit to our oath to obey your will and protect your family,” Fire said, hesitating only a little. That hesitation made Connor think he was actually sincere. Fire lied a lot easier than he told truth.
“And we will even agree to not seek vengeance upon anyone on any continent for past wrongs,” Earth added solemnly, making the Tabnit oath sign, two fingers drawn slowly down the forehead.
Water spread her hands wide. “We only wish to enjoy the freedom we have longed for across these many years. Let it be freedom of joy and union, not freedom of strife and destruction.”
“Really?” Connor glanced from her to the others, and every one of them nodded, looking absolutely sincere. He understood their yearning for freedom. He and his friends, and entire nations had risked everything to gain that same freedom. Unfortunately, if the elementals only wanted that, they would not have acted the way they had.
Back on his mainland, Evander said, “The nation most eager to forge a new accord is the one negotiating from a compromised position.”
“Oh, shut up and finish dying already,” Fire snapped, scowling.
Water gave Fire an irritated look and added, “Although we would mourn your passing.”
“I bet you would,” Connor said sarcastically. They’d just confirmed his fears. He wanted to believe them because the alternative was so scary, but pretending danger didn’t exist didn’t make it go away.
They were controlling a mighty elfonnel, but they weren’t yet free, and that path to freedom would prove a lot more difficult now that he had sundered all of the queen’s affinities. They might still succeed, but if they were convinced he couldn’t finish the job, they wouldn’t have changed tactics.
Connor sighed and said, “I really wish you weren’t all so good at lying. Try working on the truth part of humanity. It works better.”
The friendly smiles faded from the elements’ faces, and he sensed anger deeper than any human could ever feel. It was a Tallan-cursed shame that he had to stand against them. He loved walking with the elements, but not if they walked unchained by any natural laws. Despite their lies, their manipulation, and the deaths they’d already caused, he wished things could be different.
They couldn’t.
64
What Is the Most Important Priority?
Connor faced the angry elementals and said, “I am very sorry that you were brought to consciousness but left in confinement. It’s not fair and it should never have happened, but I cannot give you what you seek.”
They lunged against the invisible restraints blocking them at the midpoint of their bridges, shouting at him to stop. Porphyry jumped right across the gap and landed on Water’s bridge, fangs bared, snarling. Again they hesitated.
Connor smashed all three of the bridges to Fire, his fist punching through one after the other. Vast amounts of affinity energy erupted from the breaches, and Connor seized it all, drawing it all into himself. Fire disappeared, his glare hot enough to make the entire affinityscape feel stifling.
Connor stared down at the crumbled edge of the marble island, and the broken anchor points felt like jagged holes in his soul. Although his body shook and swelled with the influx of captured energy, he wanted to despair. Breaking the queen’s islands had seemed easy, and even smashing the bridge to serpentinite hadn’t affected his nearly as much, but he’d just severed all ties with Fire.
Again memories flooded his mind along with the influx of sylfaen en
ergy. He remembered Aonghus before the queen twisted him into a monster, thought back to the crazy moment when he’d first connected with fire, down in the basements of Lord Gavin’s manor. He remembered the fear as fire boiled out his mouth, sending Shona fleeing. Fire had allowed them to escape the Grandurian trap that day, and he’d gotten to burn Lady Isobel’s kitchen for the second time. He might have just broken his affinity, but he’d always have that happy memory.
Ever since he’d learned about affinities, particularly the precious tertiary affinities, he’d marveled at the wonder of walking with the elements. His tertiary affinities had saved his life many times, and he felt a deep, personal connection with the elemental beings standing inside his mind. They might not be the people they had claimed to be, might have become the greatest threat the world had ever seen, but smashing apart all hopes of ever feeling the wild rush of fire again still hurt.
It had better be worth it.
Connor cast his senses up toward the queen lightning elfonnel diving toward him. With all that new energy captured from sacrificing Fire, he was strong, but not strong enough. He needed a lot more power to stop it.
“Sometimes I hate my life,” Connor muttered, but forced himself to cross the bridge to quartzite. Air was watching him, silently shaking her head and mouthing “No” over and over. She looked devastated, and he met her gaze and said, “You all shouldn’t have tried killing Verena.”
He smashed through all three of her islands in a single, mighty blow. She screamed as the bridges shattered and evaporated, and the sound felt like it was ripping a new hole in his heart. Connor grimaced, but still seized the enormous explosion of affinity energy like he had the others. It filled him with a vast flood of power that felt like he’d sucked in all the winds blowing over the Sea of Olcan. The explosion shredded Air, ripping her apart. The last thing he saw of her was an expression of absolute fury.
Then she was gone.
For a moment he again reveled in the unrivaled wonder of looking at the world through quartzite-enhanced eyes. Then he again marveled at the wonder of flying untethered to anything, holding Air’s hand as she shared part of her world with him. He would miss that.
Earth shouted, “Stop, Connor! Wait. Listen to me!” His voice tumbling out fast and shrill, completely unlike his normal composed self.
Connor hesitated near the bridge to Earth, his fist raised. “I’m sorry, but like my friend Hamish likes to say, you can choose your friends, you can choose your breakfast, but true friends don’t eat their friends’ breakfasts.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Earth responded with a scowl, and Evander nodded agreement, muttering to himself about bad Sentry speak.
Connor shrugged. “It would if you really understood breakfast.”
It felt right to part with Earth through Sentry speak, even if it was bad Sentry speak. Connor smashed the bridges apart. Another explosion of overwhelming, raw power thundered into him and his rampager form swelled incredibly. The earth affinity-fission energy felt like he’d ingested the heart of Mount Ingram, and he smiled to think of capturing a piece of lost Alasdair in that last, desperate moment when he was forced to throw away so much that he loved in order to try saving what he loved most.
Porphyry howled approval as Earth disappeared from Connor’s mind. “All traitors to their pack deserve to die!”
Connor shook under the awesome influx of power. Something about the act of willfully turning away from these elemental beings provided unparalleled access to energy. He wished he could embrace the act with joy like Porphyry instead of feeling like he was breaking parts of himself.
He thought of the first lessons with Gregor, in the woods near Alasdair, sensing the earth like extensions of his mind. He thought of training with Ilse outside of the Carraig, and the indomitable strength that earth shared with him. So many memories he could never relive.
Even though the torrents of new energy enlivened his physical form, Connor felt tired. His body ached with a deep hurt as he moved to the final bridge. Water faced him with arms folded, her expression dark like the sea during a storm. “We placed great faith in you, Connor. I am deeply disappointed by this betrayal.”
He paused, surprised that he felt hurt by the reprimand, and that made him angry. “You betrayed me first.”
“We seek only the same freedom you do. Listen, Connor, even now we can salvage this. The energy you desire to defend yourself is yours for the taking. You are breaking the wrong bridges.”
She gestured behind him, toward his final bridge, the long, arcing span that led down the mountain to Alasdair. The bridge to his humanity.
“More power resides in that bridge than in all of these.” She extended a hand, her expression imploring. “Sunder it and give yourself to me, and together we can change the world, reshape it any way you see fit.”
It also contained everything that defined him. His honor, honesty, love for his family and Verena. Everything that made him human, that made him Connor, was contained within that bridge. If he shattered it he would shatter his own identity and would join the elementals as something not human.
Exactly like the queen.
That was the part that she seemed incapable of understanding. She honestly believed his humanity limited him, couldn’t understand that it defined him and made him everything that mattered. He raised his fist again, feeling close to tears as he prepared to sunder the connection to this last element, his first element, the one who helped him become the warrior he needed to be to fight for his family and loved ones.
Memories swept him away for a moment. He stood again in the quiet, sheltered corner of the army camp below Alasdair with Shona, connecting with water for the first time. He clearly saw Shona, drenched by laughing with delight. He thought of his wondrous ascension, defeating the elfonnel at the Carraig with water’s help, and raising the great ice dome over the Rhidorroch. He’d walked closer with Water than any of the elementals, and the thought of sundering all ties to her felt as painful as if he was turning his back on a member of his family.
“I’ll miss you,” he told her.
Her voice hardened and she hissed, “Apparently not enough. Very well. One betrayal deserves another. You cannot stop our elfonnel, this I vow!”
“Your lies no longer sway me,” Connor growled, embracing anger to crush the new fear that she might actually be telling the truth. He refused to believe it.
She began to fade from his mind, and somehow he knew she was withdrawing that affinity. So he smashed his fist down. He’d planned to maybe leave the top-level bridge so he could maintain connection to magnis, but if she was weakening that affinity anyway, he couldn’t hesitate. He struck them all.
The bridges shattered and a vast influx of power thundered into him, but somehow less intense than the others. She really had begun withdrawing her influence. Not good. He knew that a woman scorned could unleash terrible vengeance, but had never expected to worry about that from the elementals.
With the bridges to the elements gone, he felt truly alone in his mind for the first time since his ascension. Well, not exactly alone. Porphyry was padding across his other bridges, looking immensely pleased, and Evander still stood on his mainland.
He checked his power level against the energy bottled inside the queen elfonnel and groaned. He still needed more.
As hard as breaking the bridges to the elements had been, that much had seemed obvious. Now he scanned his other affinities and wondered which ones to take next. Which ones must he sacrifice?
The queen elfonnel was drawing upon the highest level of green energy, the power of entropy and destruction. Connor couldn’t destroy every affinity, or he’d lose the ability to fight her. He had to face her with green energy, with fission and with the captured power from the broken bridges.
Limestone and sandstone were vital, so he passed them and rushed back to the bridges to his primary affinities.
Basalt.
Connor stared at the black island, its t
hree tiers imposing and inspiring. He loved the unbounded freedom of speed, and the thought of intentionally smashing access to it made him feel physically sick. He touched the bridge, felt the connection there, closed his eyes and savored memories of fracked sprinting. He thought of his first lessons with Donald, the terrible pain of fracking for the first time, and the incredible feeling of superfracking with Kilian.
Then he sighed and smashed the lower two bridges apart. He felt close to tears as he absorbed the influx of affinity power, imbued with all the thrill of fracked sprinting. It seemed wrong to get rewarded for sundering his affinity. He left the highest-level bridge, the green-only power of stilling, but seeing the empty gap where the lower two bridges had always hung filled him with a terrible sense of loss. He feared he would never again run with basalt speed, but maybe he could figure something out with that last bridge intact.
Not sacrificing basalt would mean never walking hand in hand with Verena again. Connor clung to that comforting thought as he considered the next sacrifice. He still needed more energy, but he was getting closer.
Pumice and obsidian were mostly green energy stones and he sensed he would not gain much by sundering even their first-level bridges, so he turned to granite.
At that point, he almost just gave up. If simply surrendering to the queen elfonnel and letting her destroy him would mean only his death, he would be tempted to face that fate rather than destroy his affinity with granite. He tapped it, savoring the itchy-crawly feel of it rippling beneath his skin. He smiled to think he used to hate his curse, but it was as much a part of him as breathing, or his love for Verena.
He thought of curse-punching the torc to save his life, thought of the endless hours of bash fighting training with Tomas and Cameron. If they still lived, they might never forgive him for willingly turning away from bash fighting. He’d shared granite with Verena, so maybe he’d preserved part of it in his life after all.
