Awaken Online- Flame

by Travis Bagwell

  “I take, and I give in turn,” Bilel shot back, his mana flaring powerfully. “A necessary evil. You know what it is that I fight… what the Seer did to me. You must if you read my writings. She took everything that I loved and cared about. Sic’d her sycophants upon my family and the librarians. Burned them to ash. And for that, I will return the favor a hundred-fold,” he roared, flames wrapping around his body but not damaging his pale skin.

  Finn could see it now so clearly. In his desperation – his rage and anger – Bilel had tried to steal the goddess’ relic. It was a chance to heal himself, to fulfill his mission. His eyes flitted to the staff in Bilel’s hand. “You stole the relic, hoping to cure yourself. What happened? Did they lock away the other piece in the vault?”

  Bilel’s eyes blazed as he turned back to Finn. “Indeed. I lured the relics out of hiding with a simple ruse. I brought the acolytes an ailing man – an illusion of my own crafting. I only managed to secure the staff before the high priest stowed the gem away. And in my anger, I shoved my hand into the mana well.” Finn’s eyes widened.

  “I have never felt power like that before. It nearly consumed me,” Bilel whispered, his gaze going distant. “I was forced to vent it – spew it across the sands. And even still, it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough to melt down the walls of that unholy abomination.

  “So, I buried it instead,” he growled.

  Finn swallowed hard, staring into the face of this man’s pain and rage.

  He had read the journal. He knew what the Seer had done to him. If anyone could understand Bilel’s pain, it was Finn. The anger and hatred. The hunger for revenge. That willingness to pay any price. Finn had felt that before. Still felt it now – in the wake of his wife’s death and now with the Seer’s bargain. But look at what it had cost Bilel? It had driven him to taint his own body, strip away his own soul.

  What price would you pay for your goal?

  Abbad’s words drifted through his mind then. Finn’s gaze flicked to the librarian. He stood there calmly, watching the exchange with those stoic, unblinking eyes. A boy conscripted by a demon – trained by Bilel himself. A man who now yearned for freedom, but couldn’t break the monster’s chains. That conversation outside the palace, it hadn’t been about Finn… it had been about Abbad.

  More dominos were tumbling through Finn’s mind.

  He could see now what Bilel had built up over more than a century. The guilds, the purge, the staff clutched in that man’s hand – an incomplete half of a divine relic. The staff must not have been enough to cure him, perhaps only slowing the disease. So Bilel had sent adventurers down into that pit to recover the other half from a vault that they couldn’t unlock.

  At least… not until Finn had come to this world, with the Seer’s mark on his hand and the demon’s servant ready and standing at the gate. Bilel had created the competition among the guilds to trick him. To mislead him. It had only ever been about Finn – about making certain he entered the Abyss. Bilel needed him to open that damnable vault.

  The demon had been planning this for a century.

  And he had paid a heavy price, an ocean of blood – residents and travelers alike –spilled for the sake of his revenge. Sacrificing his own body. Subjugating generations of people. Twisting and corrupting a boy into little more than a slave.

  “Look at what it all cost,” Finn murmured.

  Bilel’s eyes shot to Finn, confused – questioning.

  “Look at the price you paid for your own revenge!” Finn demanded more forcefully, meeting the mage’s swirling eyes. “You had to kill hundreds. Thousands. You imprisoned generations of mages, harvesting their mana to grow stronger. Feeding the crystals into that staff in your hand. I suspect you used their energy to help fight off this disease of your own making. And for what? A chance at revenge?”

  “Collateral damage,” Bilel hissed. “What are the lives of thousands when the gods manipulate and feed off hundreds of thousands more? They died for a cause, for the possibility that future generations could be free of the gods’ tyranny.”

  The mage stabbed his staff at Finn. “And do you think yourself any different? I know the Seer’s ways. I’ve studied the prophecies for decades. I knew you would come to this world long before you did. You killed hundreds of your own kind, endured pain and agony, burned out your own eyes. You have sacrificed for something as well.”

  Bilel leaned close to Finn. “What has she promised you? What carrot has she dangled in front of you?” he whispered.

  Finn’s eyes widened, earning him a harsh chuckle from Bilel.

  “It doesn’t matter. Do you think she will follow through? Truly grant you what you want? Are you really that blind? She will keep moving the goalposts, leading you along by the nose. Stupid cattle that trudges along to her whims. She will lie and mislead, and you will swallow up her promises like a good little sycophant. Just as those acolytes once did.”

  The demon leaned closer. “It is the end that is her focus, never the means. All she cares about – all she has ever cared about – is mana. Passion. Regardless of whether you win or lose, your actions have created a truly fantastic crop that is now ready for the reaping.”

  A wave in the direction of the market. “Surely you’ve seen it, the way the residents look at you – like a messiah, a prophet. They live for the day when they can see me overturned, and the Seer has positioned you as a symbol. She can use that. I can only assume she wishes to bolster her power for the fight that she knows is coming,” Bilel offered, shaking his head and backing away. “Not that it will do her much good now…”

  Finn swallowed hard against the lump in his throat, struggling to refute Bilel’s words. And yet, it felt like there was a kernel of truth there. The Seer hadn’t told him about the Emir, the prophecy, or the relic. His thoughts kept returning to what she had done down in the pit, enemies aligned against them, and a vault standing beside him. How she had forced him to give her free rein to alter their bargain…

  To open a vault she must have known was locked…

  To recover a relic that she must have known he would hand to this creature…

  His fists clenched, his fingernails cutting into his palms despite the bindings of air mana. She had promised him Rachael!

  Bilel watched him, those glowing eyes piercing Finn’s soul, watching as his mana flickered erratically. He whispered, taunting and insidious, “She doesn’t care about you. Only about the power that you can create for her. The passion you can inspire in yourself and others. And once she’s done with you – burned you up – she will cast you aside. A husk of your former self,” he hissed, waving at his own body.

  “Is that the goddess that you would serve?”

  Only silence met that question. Finn didn’t know how to answer. He could feel helpless despair curling in his stomach. He could see it now. The Seer had set him up to fail – to fulfill her own prophecies and inspire passion in the Khamsin and residents of the city. Neither she nor Bilel would honor their promises. Why would they?

  Everything he had gone through had been for nothing…

  I’m so sorry, Rachael, Finn pleaded helplessly, squeezing his eyes shut.

  “Ahh, you see it now,” Bilel murmured. “I can see it written across your mana. The shadow of despair coiling through your soul.

  “Unlike our game of stones in the garden, this one is not fair. The board was set long ago, the pieces arranged meticulously. Your kind are merely visitors, tourists. In this game, you are nothing more than a pawn – to be used up and expended.”

  Finn opened his eyes to see that Bilel had drifted closer. “But I will avenge you. You have given me the last piece that I need. The final move that will allow me to finally claim my revenge.” His gaze drifted to the gem in his hand.

  With a swift gesture, Bilel raised the crystal and set it in the open socket at the top of his staff. A blinding flash of orange light spewed from the relic, spilling across the room, and filling every corner of the great hall. The e
nergy was so intense that it left spots in Finn’s vision and created a lingering cloud of mana through the throne room.

  Once the light began to clear, Finn could see that the staff was now whole, a fire burning in the gem along the top of the weapon and flames curling up its length. It glowed brightly in his sight, a pillar of flame.

  “Oh, my beauty,” Bilel crooned. “With you, I can once again be whole. We can wage our final war… but first, first, we need to feed you.”

  The mage turned and pointed the staff at the guards standing along the sides of the room. Tendrils of flame arced from the gem and wrapped around each man’s body before they could react. Their eyes bulged and limbs writhed, their mouths opening to scream but no sound escaping as the fire plunged down their throats.

  In Finn’s sight, he could see a kernel of fire flare to life along each man’s Najima, the power growing with each passing second. It seemed to be consuming their mana, fuel for the fire that raged through the soldiers’ bodies. And that fire only continued to spread, twisting and consuming them.

  No… transforming them…

  The soldiers’ arms and legs elongated and stretched. Bones broke and contorted. Muscle thickened and stretched. Soon enough, fiery orange veins riddled the limbs. As the fires reached their head, each soldier’s face melted away – flesh and blood sloughing off on to the floor, even as the underlying bone stretched and reformed into long muzzles.

  As the transformation completed, more than a dozen creatures lay along the floor, the walls singed and stained with blood. They rose slowly, shaking themselves – wolf-like creatures made of rippling muscle and flames that licked along their limbs. They turned to look at Bilel, and Finn saw fire burning in their eyes.

  “They call them hell hounds,” Bilel said, his voice colored with excitement. “Believe it or not, this once used to be an honor – a privilege. The staff feeds off the passion in their hearts, claiming their memories and their fire for itself. Men and women used to line up for the opportunity. It was said the staff could cleanse one of heartbreak and suffering, of any pain. Instead, they become incarnations of fire, their energy feeding the staff.”

  Finn could see the truth of his words, thick bands of fire mana arcing away from the hell hounds and funneling back into the staff in a torrent of energy. The gem glowed brighter and brighter. Then Bilel activated the staff once more.

  The energy coiled around his body, washing his limbs in purifying flames. His arms and legs began to thicken, growing in size and his skin regaining a normal fleshy appearance. He cackled, the sound a mixture of triumph and pain. And yet as fast as the transformation began, it suddenly petered out, the flames extinguishing abruptly.

  “What is this?” Bilel demanded, looking down at himself. As the flames disappeared, the transformation stopped, leaving thicker limbs, but his arm and legs still insufficient to hold his weight. His skin quickly paled again, the healthy hue fading rapidly.

  He was still a toothless, soulless monster.

  Bilel glared at the staff. “It must need more mana. More power. It is no matter. I can always harvest more. There are plenty more where those soldiers came from.”

  Then his attention shifted back to Finn, noting the fire mana curling through his body. “In fact, you would do quite well,” he crooned, stepping closer.

  “I bet your energy would go a long way toward powering my staff. What do you say, Finn? How would you like to join the fight? The Seer failed you… betrayed you. And you destroyed her temple. Fully and finally. But you could help me go so much further. Together, we could annihilate her completely.” That glowing staff hovered in Finn’s vision now, swirling rainbow eyes drifting beside it.

  “Abbad told me that you lost your wife. I know of the pain of loss myself – my family, Renquist, the librarians. It hurts, doesn’t it?” Bilel whispered, false sympathy coloring his voice now. “A weight that never fully goes away, sinking across your heart like lead. I could take that away from you?”

  Finn shook his head ever-so-slightly, struggling against the air mana that coiled around his body. After watching Bilel convert those guards and in the face of his thin promises, Finn’s wavering resolve had hardened. Maybe the Seer had screwed him. Maybe Bilel had a right to be angry – a right to question the gods’ motives…

  But he still refused to follow this path.

  “I don’t want to forget my pain,” Finn croaked.

  “And while I may not understand the gods’ plans, the price for your revenge is too high,” Finn continued. “You talk of lofty goals… of freeing people. But you haven’t done this for them, you never have. Your research… your hunt for magic? It has only ever been about you. Your passion. Your pride. And you’re oblivious to the pain and suffering that your actions have caused.”

  He raised his head to meet Bilel’s swirling eyes, Finn’s gaze defiant. “You’re no better than the Seer.”

  Rage contorted the demon’s features, pulling the white skin taut and a whistling howl escaping the gaping maw where his mouth should have been. “Fine. If you will not join my cause gladly, then I will take your power by force,” he growled.

  Bilel reached forward and grabbed Finn’s left wrist, flames already coiling away from the staff and across the demon’s body. That fire soon seeped into Finn’s skin, burning up his arm like lava.

  It felt like he had plunged his hand into the well again. The power raged through him, overwhelming and unstoppable. It filled his Najima, and the energy expanded – feeding on the power that swirled within Finn’s body. The pain was excruciating, and his eyes squeezed shut, his body shuddering as the fire burned through him. Consuming him. Stretching up his torso and licking at his neck. Finally, it wrapped around his head.

  As it did, Finn felt the world wash away…

  He was suddenly floating in a dark void, facing off with the staff.

  The golden weapon was awash in flame, ripping the fire from Finn’s body. He could feel the relic preying upon his passion, picking apart his memories. They flitted through his mind’s eyes – his memories of Rachael, each one awash in flame and burning away into streamers of energy that raced back to the staff. And yet with the good went the bad. He felt the energy tearing away at his grief, his pain, his hardship – at a decade of despair. The flames fed on his passion and grew ever stronger.

  And in the wake of that destruction, Finn felt…

  Free.

  Like an insurmountable weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Like the fires had burned out a poison that had coiled around his soul.

  He almost hadn’t realized how heavy that burden had been or how deeply that poison stung. What it felt like to be free of it – to simply… not care anymore. A decade of pain and soul-wrenching hurt had left him a crippled, hollowed-out version of his former self. Despite what he had said to Bilel, he did feel a sense of relief at finally being able to set down his burden – to get closure on the loss of a woman that had meant everything to him.

  Within only moments, the flames had nearly consumed it all, creating a wall of fire that towered above him in his mind’s eye with the staff embedded in its depths. Finn was left standing on the other side of that abyss. Floating. Free. Unburdened. His fire dim and barely flickering as the last traces of his energy were torn away.

  For just a moment, Finn considered giving in completely…

  What did he stand to gain by fighting anymore? The Seer had betrayed him. Abbad had betrayed him. Bilel had the relic. He and his companions were doomed – standing before a creature that had spent a century devouring the mana of the mages that passed through his city. And his wife was dead – she had been for a long time. He had even let the pain of her loss continue to hurt others. His children. Julia. Was he really much better than Bilel?

  Why not simply give up? Give in?

  A final memory came to him then…

  He could see it now, Rachael being sucked out of that harsh, jagged hole in the wall of the car, being pulled out into the void.
Her hand outstretched, begging silently for his help. If she was pulled through, he knew she would be gone – destroyed completely. Already, flames ate away at the edges of the scene, burning and consuming, raging through the car.

  He saw her mouthing that same unknown message to him once again.

  And, this time, his mind supplied the words.

  I love you

  Those words echoed through him… through the void… above the crackling of the flames. In that moment, he considered what he would lose if he let her go. If he gave up the hurt and the pain, he would also be giving up everything good about Rachael. Those happy memories. He would lose her completely, what little he still had left. He couldn’t accept that – wouldn’t accept it. If keeping some small part of her meant bearing the agony of her loss, then he would welcome that pain gladly. With every fiber of his being…

  In that moment, something inside himself snapped.

  NO! Finn roared.

  The flames froze, and Finn could see himself standing there, a single man facing a blazing inferno, the flames fed by his memories and his passion. He knew Rachael rested in that fire – his fire. It was his pleasure and pain. His happiness and heartbreak. Raging passion and the flickering edge of his own despair. It was his love.

  And it was all that he had left of her.

  THIS IS MINE!

  Finn stepped into the flames without hesitation. The fire pushed back at him, hungry and demanding. Yet he refused to be cowed – refused to be broken. He kept stepping forward, plunging into the fire even as it ate away at his soul. His eyes were only on the glimmering, golden staff in the center of the blaze.

  GIVE HER BACK!

  His fingers curled around that hilt…

  And the fire responded…

  It swirled around him, pushing its way back into his body and soul. It filled him once more with that fiery power. He could feel that horrible, crushing weight return. The sadness and heartbreak. But with it came other memories. Of Rachael. Of his children. Of their life together. His wife’s face, her smiling eyes…