by Frank Morin
As the channel up from the earth’s core widened, more and more magma pressed into it, driven by the incomprehensible pressures so far underground. He was still getting carried ever higher within the heart of the first explosion and must have reached a couple thousand feet, with no signs of slowing.
Earth sighed. “Such a sacrifice must be repaid in full.”
“I’ll help you in any way I can. Just help me today,” Connor pressed.
It was so weird holding a conversation in his mind with the elements while his body was riding the heart of an unprecedented eruption. He couldn’t breathe, but felt like he could hold his breath a lot longer still. He wasn’t sure if that was because he was still tapping pumice, or if it was a side effect of his ascension he hadn’t explored before, but he appreciated it. The molten elements were flowing all around him. If his connection to his affinities wavered at all, he’d be incinerated in a heartbeat.
Fire drew closer, his eyes burning, his expression eager. “Very well, Connor. We’ll help you, but in your current form you cannot hope to wield the power to succeed.”
“So what do you suggest?” Connor asked, although he suspected he knew the answer, and it chilled him.
“To do this, you must surrender to me and cross the final bridge to join us.” As he spoke, his eyes burned with white-hot flames. He looked eager, almost frantic. That seemed a little strange, since he seemed to be enjoying the eruption so much. Why get so excited to stop it?
Connor didn’t have time to care.
To stop the eruption, he had to become fire.
Release an elfonnel.
Most who attempted to raise an elfonnel never returned. He thought back to Redmund and Camonica, sacrificed by Dougal to raise elfonnel to attack Granadure. Dougal had planned to sacrifice Connor the same way. The titanic elemental battles that resulted had destabilized the continent. The queen’s action today threatened to destroy it altogether.
What choice did he have?
No choice, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t search for a way to protect himself. So Connor tapped porphyry again.
The beast instantly leaped into his mind, visible to him as clearly as the elements. It padded close to Connor, but faced the elements, and it growled at Fire, looking like it wanted to strike. Again, the beast seemed to make Fire uneasy. None of them were really there, so it wasn’t like Porphyry could actually harm Fire. Connor didn’t understand it, but hoped the presence of Porphyry might help improve his bargaining position.
Connor willed the beast to calm and it turned to him. “Danger, Pack Leader. This one seeks to consume you.”
“I know. He has to, or I won’t be able to stop this.”
Fire said, “Release your other affinities and take my hand. Now is the time, Connor. Do you surrender to me and choose to accept your role as my champion?”
Porphyry’s presence didn’t seem to be helping much, and Connor didn’t see any way out. He really needed to understand the weird behavior of porphyry, but he’d worry about that if he survived, and if his mind didn’t end up more cracked than it apparently already was. Aifric might have nineteen women in her head, but Connor was talking with his affinities and having to deal with drama between them.
Connor steeled his nerves and forced himself to meet Fire’s eyes, which were burning with crimson tongues of flame. “I agree. Let’s do this.”
Fire laughed and his mouth opened impossibly wide, filled with white-hot flames. He lunged forward and those flames enveloped Connor.
Porphyry lunged at the same time, plunging right into Connor as the flames enveloped him.
Connor’s world transformed into living flames. They burned into his mind and consumed him from the inside out.
In that moment, Connor ceased to exist.
90
A Monster within a Monster
Connor blinked open his eyes and rose on shaky legs. He stood in his mindscape, which had transformed into islands and bridges again. He found himself on the last island, facing the long, triple-layered plank rope bridge leading to a distant island made entirely of living fire. The cool air was still and completely devoid of scents.
Fire stood near the center of the top layer of the bridge. He’d shed most of the human form that Connor usually envisioned him in. Still roughly man-shaped, he was made of densely packed flames, pulsing faintly from thousands of individual flickers.
Between Connor and Fire, standing at the midpoint of the gently swaying bridge, stood Porphyry. In full rampager form, it crouched on the bridge, barring Fire’s passage. Its low growl competed with the soft crackling of flames as the only sound in the otherwise empty mental expanse.
Connor rubbed his face, trying to remember what happened. It all came back in a rush and he gasped, “The queen! The volcano!”
Fire looked past Porphyry and beckoned Connor closer. As Connor stepped onto the bridge, Porphyry glanced back and said in its rough, growling voice, “Danger is close, Pack Leader.”
“It’s all right. I need to unite with Fire or we’ll never control this disaster,” Connor replied. He wasn’t sure what had gotten into Porphyry. He had always imagined it like a beast in his heart just as he imagined the elements in human form. When the elements claimed their forms, he had welcomed the progression since they offered so much knowledge. He wasn’t sure how to react to Porphyry also assuming a full identity.
“Release the beast. The bridge to that affinity will prevent full bonding,” Fire said.
And suddenly Connor could feel it. Although Porphyry was manifesting in rampager form on the bridge between him and Fire, he could feel a link through it back to a separate bridge that linked him to porphyry, and from there back to himself.
If he still had a self. He couldn’t feel his body, wasn’t sure he still had one. Elfonnel stepped beyond their human form and took on the form of the element that gave them life. He wasn’t sure if the human body remained buried deep inside the elfonnel, or if it was simply consumed, only to be reformed when the Petralist stepped back into normal life.
Porphyry growled again. “The pack is stronger when we hunt together.”
“Has anyone else maintained affinities when raising an elfonnel?” Connor asked as he approached the midpoint.
Every step closer to Fire seemed to reinforce the bridge, making it stronger. He could feel the heat from the distant island, along with a growing desire to rush across the remaining distance and leap into the flames.
Fire beckoned encouragingly. “You can only reach your full potential and take your place as my champion by crossing the bridge and surrendering your other affinities.”
“Our champion,” said the unexpected voice of Earth from his left.
Three other bridges suddenly ran parallel to the one where Connor stood, before twisting to extend away to separate islands made up of the different elements. Water, Air, and Earth stood near the midpoint of each bridge, watching Connor intently.
Fire snapped, “Of course all of ours. Don’t confuse the boy.”
Connor liked seeing all of the elementals so close. He hadn’t realized he might be able to access any of the rest of them while uniting with Fire to raise the elfonnel. Porphyry swiveled its powerful head to take in the newcomers and its growl deepened. Connor wouldn’t be surprised by reluctance to losing its connection with him, but he sensed so much more. Porphyry felt true animosity toward the elements. What could possibly cause that?
“What about the queen? The eruption?” Connor asked, glancing around but still unable to sense anything outside of his mental space.
“We will take care of it shortly,” Fire assured him.
“How? Why are we wasting time standing on bridges?” Connor demanded, trying to control his fear for his friends’ safety. Had any more of them gotten caught in the unprecedented eruption?
“No time passes here. To the world, the transition will appear instantaneous,” Fire said, his voice comforting.
“Really?” He’d noticed tha
t conversations with the elementals took far less time than they would in the real world, but never had they passed instantaneously.
Water said, “We stand within your mind. Don’t get distracted by unnecessary details. Release the beast and cross to Fire and become our champion.”
Porphyry growled again, crouching a little lower. Connor clearly read its intent to fight any attempt to remove it. He didn’t understand its belligerence, but maybe it was a good thing he’d tapped it when he did. Without Porphyry’s presence, he didn’t doubt he would have already rushed across the bridge and leaped into the flames.
Was that a good idea? Was this moment of surrender to the elementals what the queen feared?
He wanted to trust the elements. They’d helped so much since his ascension, but he couldn’t ignore a flicker of worry. Porphyry was his only potential lifeline, but would the presence of the beast destroy his ability to raise an elfonnel? If so, he would have to cast Porphyry away, despite the potential cost, which could mean losing himself forever.
Definitely not an option that was high on his list of preferred outcomes.
“Will I remain myself enough to deal with the volcano and the queen?” he asked. Kilian had said it was extremely difficult to remain self-aware when surrendering oneself to the elements. If porphyry allowed him to keep his head, he welcomed it.
“Just cross to my island, and I’ll take care of everything,” Fire assured him in a soothing voice, reaching out toward Connor.
Porphyry growled louder and snapped at the extended hand. Fire retracted it with an annoyed look. Porphyry said, “Do not abandon the pack. None hunt as well as we do.”
It had a point. Porphyry had helped Connor overcome all of his most trying challenges. Without porphyry, he would have succumbed to Dougal’s mind control or fallen to the elfonnel at the Carraig. It helped him defeat Martys and save his family, and without it he never would have stilled Merkland or defeated Harley.
All of the elementals spoke in unison. “Let go your other affinities. Send away the beast, and become our champion.”
He couldn’t fail to raise an elfonnel, but he didn’t dare turn his back on porphyry. So he said, “I don’t think I can break free now. Please, let’s just do this.”
Fire scowled at Porphyry, but Water said, “The boy is not ready to take his full place among us today, but the day is not far off. Help him today, or we lose everything.”
“So be it,” Fire said with a heavy sigh. “Today was a singular opportunity.” He fixed Connor with a grave expression. “You will learn your duty, and we will hold you to it.”
That seemed harsh. Connor didn’t like his tone, but he was already committed, so he didn’t call Fire on it. He said carefully, “Please help me today, and I promise to keep studying until I understand how best to help in the future.”
Luckily Fire didn’t complain about the cautious wording, although Air scowled, as if reading his intent. Fire threw out his hands and shouted, “Then rise, child of the living flames!”
The mindscape winked out and Connor’s world transformed into fire.
He blinked open eyes the size of houses as he became fully self-aware. His pitiful, weak body was gone, his puny human existence but a disappointing memory, little more than an unpleasant dream.
His life was so much more! He was fire, standing within the heart of the greatest volcano in the world. It was fitting, and he flexed a body the size of Mount Murdo. He looked out through the eruption and the world was tinged by shades of red. He saw all colored by how much heat it produced. Instead of blood, his body thrummed with the pulsing of a volcano’s heart.
Laughing with unparalleled might, he ascended and rose out of the still-expanding eruption to stand atop the explosion. His body coalesced into a form worthy of him, a giant with arms bigger than the mighty Macantact. His lower torso merged into the vast pool of molten lava still exploding up out of the ground, fusing him to the great river of fire that extended all the way back down to the very roots of the earth.
He spread his mighty arms wide and his senses expanded in a rush. The land and air were so saturated with fire that he felt everything. More lava was exploding up through a dozen smaller fissures that ringed his central eruption by a couple miles. The entire area was shuddering, on the verge of a general collapse that would open the fissures into one enormous gap to allow billions of tons of molten destruction to blast into freedom and cover northern Obrion.
Yes. He could sweep across the continent, riding the flood of molten life and create an entirely new world. The old would burn, as all things should. He would build all things new out of the devastation of the old.
Like Alasdair.
The memory of his beloved home destroyed by the eruption triggered when the queen first arose flashed into his mind like a bolt of lightning. Connor shuddered and came awake, his thoughts rising out of the torrent of heat and fury that clouded his thoughts.
“Don’t hesitate. Embrace this moment and we will show the world what we can do together,” Fire urged.
“I don’t want to destroy everything,” Connor protested. It was hard to think, and the visions of sweeping the world with flame and destruction returned, enticing and exhilarating.
Then a blanket of impenetrable resolve settled over his mind as Porphyry awoke and padded into his thoughts. “Pack Leader chooses the hunt and the quarry,” it snarled at Fire.
Fire was no longer restricted to human form, but he surrounded Connor, infusing every part of him. Connor felt his sigh and the thought rose up through the torrent of superheated flames that made up Connor’s heart. “Forgive me for getting carried away. You are right. We will of course continue as we agreed.”
Connor’s giant face shifted, taking the form of a rampager. He grinned. It felt appropriate. Fire swept closer, and Connor’s mind fused with the elemental, although he maintained a grip on his own thoughts through the connection with Porphyry.
He became Connor-elfonnel.
Exulting in his dominance, Connor-elfonnel plunged into the eruption, laughing as he swam through the inferno. It was still building. His transformation had taken only a second.
A lot could happen in a second. Lava and ash continued blasting up from the earth’s core, superheating the air. The devastation had already consumed the rough land where they had staged their attack. All of the Juggernaut spheres had been consumed. Miles to the east he sensed the insignificant flying machines and a pack of puny humans.
Connor-elfonnel didn’t ignored them, but through that tenuous thread back to Connor, he recognized them and celebrated their safety. Kilian had indeed saved the Juggernaut pilots, and he was working with Evander to wrest the might of the eruption.
Puny humans would never succeed, Connor-elfonnel laughed. They thought themselves mighty, but their efforts to corral the devastation was a waste. They pulled but a fraction of the ash from the air, sucked bits of heat out of the fringes of the eruption to cast it back into the core.
Only he could control such an eruption. Again visions of riding the wave of lava swept through his mind, nearly swaying him, but again the tiny link to Connor resisted.
Huffing in annoyance, Connor-elfonnel bared his fangs and set to work. He plunged his fiery arms back down into the eruption, seizing the magma and willing it to stop spreading away from the central fissure. He reinforced that fissure to prevent it from opening wider and reached all the way down through the miles to the earth’s core.
Not even he could block the titanic pressure casting the magma up through the break the queen had made. That enraged him. Nothing should challenge his might.
The core was a vast pool of energy and molten metal, and he sensed it had always existed and forever would. He couldn’t tame it, so he would cap the breach to bottle up the fiery power that dwarfed even his might.
Seizing the waves of magma and bringing them in close added to his bulk, and the incredible volume of molten material bounded by his constraints forced the mountain
beneath him to grow with astonishing speed.
Already the explosion had burst up over two thousand feet. Now as he held the blast in, the mountain grew faster still, as was fitting. He threw back his giant rampager head and laughed.
This time the thunder-chuckle erupted in truly epic fashion. It sounded like a rampager growl, magnified a million times, and it reverberated across the land like an earthquake through the air. The puny humans, Evander and Kilian, both looked startled.
They would look afraid soon enough.
He seized the rain of molten fire erupting from the smaller fissures, pulling them back in, preventing them from rising high into the air like they wished. He was wielding enough power to reshape half the continent, and although the Fire part of him allowed the Connor part to control their efforts, he still yearned to unleash everything, the temptation like a slow pulsing deep down in his gut.
First, control the eruption. Then. . . . Well, who knew?
As the lava continued to boil forth, he shaped it, forming an enormous peak over the central fissure and smaller peaks in a ring around it. Then he seized the heat and drained it away, helping to cool the vast mass of superheated stone faster. Otherwise it might have taken months to harden.
That built up a lot of heat, and for a moment he wondered what to do with it. Where to release it for the best result?
That’s when he felt the queen rise out of the ground to the north.
91
The Worst Splitting Headache Ever
The sight of the queen shocked Connor awake within the Connor-elfonnel just as his enormous, fiery form rose to the top of the volcano and swiveled toward where he sensed her. Through the constant rain of fire and swirling ash, he easily spotted her.
Queen Dreokt had reattached her sundered lower limbs and looked mostly intact. She must have figured out how to access the higher order of fleshcrafting, despite the dearth of regular healing power. She had covered herself in a suit of earth, and stood facing Connor-elfonnel, her expression twisted into rage, and her words carried easily to him.
