Angst shot Dallow an inquisitive look. “Ice,” Dallow yelled.
The fist of glassy ice crashed into a breach already dug out of the cliff base. Bits of ice and limestone shattered on contact, and Angst threw a shield of air around everyone on the platform. They continued to watch as fist after icy fist smashed into the side of the cliff.
“Do you see what you have done?” the earth element asked.
Angst shook his head. How was this his fault? He eyed his friends for feedback, each of whom tried to say something. The thundering onslaught of waves and the giant, icy hands ripping away limestone made it too hard to hear them.
“I think we’ve seen enough,” Angst yelled, placing his armor-covered hand on the statue’s hip and pointing up with his other one. She neither reacted to his hand, nor chose to acknowledge his comment.
“This has been going on for over a month,” the earthly maiden said. They could all hear her clearly, as though the sound had travelled through the ground, up their bones and directly into their skulls. “You can only see a small amount of the damage from up here but, far below, the undercurrents are pulling away at the limestone foundation. It won’t be long until there is another sinkhole.”
As the sound came to them through the earth, Dallow rubbed his temples vigorously, while Jaden pressed the palm of his hands against his ears.
Angst yelled again, this time rapping on Earth with his knuckles as though knocking on a door but she didn’t even look at him. After nothing happened for several moments, Angst tired of waiting and decided to act. He lifted glowing hands and concentrated on their stone platform. It began to rise up the cliff side, returning to the top. The statue quickly turned in surprise. Her shoulders reared back and she tilted her head in apparent frustration with Angst, while at the same time smirking slightly at his persistence. The stone stopped moving, and pain sliced through Angst as she resisted his push.
“I will return you to the surface when I am done,” the maiden said. The platform began to lower again.
“We’re done now,” Angst said, setting his jaw as he braced himself.
With a deep breath, he used air to push the stone platform away from the cliff, and the maiden’s face contorted in pain. They were now floating high over the water, their platform no longer making contact with the ground. This took all his strength, and he wouldn’t be able to maintain it for long.
“Don’t!” There was panic in the maiden’s voice, and he looked up to find her eyes wild with concern. “I can’t... You need to stop this, Angst. You’re hurting yourself!”
A slight burden lifted as Dallow’s eyes turned white with concentration. An orange aura surrounded Jaden’s hands as he also began to push. Together, they moved the platform out of the sinkhole and back onto solid ground. On contact, the platform exploded, throwing everyone away from the edge.
“Air! You dare to use air against me?” the maiden roared. She held her hands in front of her, as though braced for attack, and the ground around them shuddered in fear of her anger.
Hector landed lightly on his feet while everyone else crashed hard back to the ground. Hector sprinted toward the statue, a large steel hammer swinging in his hand.
“Hector, no!” Angst yelled, and Hector skidded to a stop. “That won’t be necessary.” Angst walked up to the stone maiden until they were almost toe-to-toe, and looked up. “What’s going on? What’s all this about?”
She seemed torn, as if deciding whether to continue her attack or answer Angst’s question. Eventually, she shook her head and dropped her hands. “Humans,” she said to herself. She kneeled, lowering her giant head to make eye contact. “I’m actually here to ask you the same thing.”
“Ask me what?”
“What is going on? What have you have done to make the element of water so angry?”
Angst shook his head in disbelief, his eyes wide with surprise. He didn’t know the answer, and attempted to shrug in his armor. He looked back at his friends still scattered about and picking themselves off the ground.
“Maybe if you explain what this is about, what you are...” Dallow stood, brushing himself off. “If we understood, maybe we could figure out why water’s angry.”
“What I am? You already know that. I am the physical embodiment of everything earthly.” The maiden sat and crossed her legs as though preparing to tell a campfire story to children. She held out a hand and a miniature mountain grew from it.
Angst took several steps back to stand with his friends and take it all in.
“I am the mountains that keep volcanoes from erupting in Vex’steppe. I am the ocean floor,” she explained, while a tiny version of everything she said appeared in her hand, “and the shore that contains all the water in the world.”
“She’s not doing a very good job of that,” Angst whispered to Dallow.
She raised an eyebrow but continued. “I am the largest diamond and the deepest cache of gold in Ehrde.” An enormous diamond appeared and was quickly replaced by a stream of gold embedded in her palm. “I am that which is coveted by all nations more than anything else. Land.”
She stared off again, seemingly absent from their story time. The maiden winced slightly, but otherwise said nothing.
“How is this even possible?” asked Rook. “We’ve all heard of elements. But element people? That’s absurd.”
Her focus returned after several moments. “Yet here I am, to fight the battle once more.”
“Battle?” asked Hector.
“The elements are always at war, young human. Waves and wind erode my walls, wildfires eat oxygen, magic wreaks havoc on everything, and I change over time, adjusting to their warring ways.” Her carved face seemed upset as she continued. “Every two thousand years we find ourselves in corporeal form and the war escalates. We have always had our warriors. Water always fought with her gargoyles. Fire attacks with dragons. Air uses the cavastil birds you fought so adeptly in Unsel. Magic...well, that depends on the day. Most recently, magic attacked with the Vex’kvette. I have my gamlin.”
A gamlin—three feet tall and covered in rocky quill-like protrusions—hopped out of the ground and into her palm, its long claws clicking loudly as it landed. Scar immediately began yipping, the hair on his neck and butt hackling, and Angst shushed and petted him reassuringly. The gamlin’s strangely human face scrunched as it made a loud horting sound at the pup before diving back into the ground like a fish returning to water. Scar ran over to the spot, his tail wagging cautiously as he sniffed with intent.
“Since the arrival of humans, the battles have become more...interesting. Millennia ago, we agreed that when we became corporeal, we would imbue hosts with great abilities, allowing humans to fight the battle for us.”
“Hosts? Like Aereon?” asked Rook.
“And Ivan,” Angst added somberly.
“Yes,” the maiden agreed with a loud, grinding nod, “but when you destroyed Ivan, when you captured magic, it changed everything.”
“Of course it did,” Angst said with a sigh.
“The others are no longer fighting the battle with their hosts,” she said sadly.
“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing,” Tarness said. “Now you have to fight the battle yourself instead of using us humans to do it for you.”
“You do not seem to understand. When I am in this form, fighting the other elements, I attack with mountains. I split the ocean floor wide open to drain the seas. Fire creates volcanoes everywhere. Air becomes unbreathable, changing to smother fire. Water becomes glacier and spreads across the lands,” Earth said, wild-eyed. “We choose to fight with humans to keep Ehrde from being destroyed. This battle will be the end of everything you know.”
Tarness whistled low and loud. Dallow and Hector shook their heads with incredulity. Rook lay back down and stared up at the sky. Jaden seemed unconcerned—his fingers were spread and cupped on the ground as he focused on something else entirely.
“Then how do we help?” asked Angst.<
br />
“You have caused enough problems already,” she replied. “Anyway, you do not have that long to live.”
“What do you mean?” asked Dallow, the shock on his face mirroring their friends.
The earthly maiden stared at Angst for several moments, as if waiting for him to answer the question. Angst squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head. Somehow, in the back of his mind, he already knew.
“Removing his bond with the foci is killing him,” Earth stated. “Without it, he will be dead before the battle has begun.”
“No,” Hector said in disbelief. He marched over to Angst and gripped his friend’s shoulder.
“You’re saying there’s nothing at all we can do?” yelled Tarness, his face filled with anxiety.
“This is beyond your human abilities,” she said dismissively. “You should go make peace with your loved ones and prepare for the end of all things.”
“Wait one minute,” Angst said, holding up a defiant finger. “If you think we’re just going to lie down and die, you’re mistaken.”
“What exactly do you think you can do, human?” she scoffed.
“I’ve taken out one element,” Angst growled. “I’ll re-bond with Chryslaenor, find more foci for others to bond with, and we’ll bring the battle to you and yours.”
The ground about Earth vibrated, and the giant statue winced as a palm-sized chunk of stone popped out of her arm. It landed with a mucky splash and quickly melted into the ground. Left behind was an ashen, smoldering lesion framed by several cracks. She blinked, her eyes widening in surprise as she covered the wound on her arm.
“It looks like you may need our help after all—” Angst said.
As if struck by lightning, Angst roared in pain and grabbed his head with both hands. Scar yelped as though someone had stepped on his tail, and they collapsed to the ground, writhing.
“It has already started,” the earthly maiden said in a crispy voice.
14
Rose tripped down the dark hallway, cradling her bleeding hand at her waist and pressing her other hand against her eye. She hated arguing with the princess—it felt like betraying Angst—but Victoria could be such a bitch. Their arguments were becoming more frequent and, after each fight, her headaches got worse. This time it wasn’t just a headache though. It felt like someone had crawled in through her ear and was trying to push her brain out through her right eye.
Rose stumbled as her feet led her down the hall, but she had to get away from Victoria. Away from the look in her eyes. She hadn’t meant to try to steal the princess’s health, but it was nigh impossible to control the hunger gnawing at her mind. The pain throbbing behind her eye had almost pushed her to violence. She’d come within moments of knocking Victoria to the ground and forcing her to give up health. The princess had barely saved herself. When Victoria had stabbed her hand, she’d looked at Rose with shock as if she knew...something. That was impossible, of course, but then why stab her? It made no sense.
Rose whimpered at the wrenching pain in her hand as blood streamed from the wound. Why wasn’t it healing? The castle walls were her friends just then, propping her up when she felt like collapsing. Rose didn’t know where she was going, and didn’t care as long as it was away from Victoria. Minutes passed, and the pounding in her skull continued. She braced herself against a stone corner and looked back to make sure the princess wasn’t following. Maybe she was there and Rose couldn’t see her—a thought that made her panic and stagger down the hallway faster.
She turned a corner to arrive in what used to be the main hallway before Magic tore through the castle and destroyed everything in its path. This was the place. This was where she needed to be. The pain subsided, and Rose was able to stand upright, though she still held her eye. She walked through the large entrance.
Chryslaenor looked weary. Angst had knocked the giant blade askew, and it leaned heavily to one side. The black lightning was gone, as though someone had put out a fire, leaving only the faintest blue hue—the light the sword used to emit when Angst was in danger.
Why was she here? There was nothing for her here. She turned, taking a step from Chryslaenor, and pain exploded from every pore. Two steps closer to the sword and the pain abated. She licked her dry lips. Nervous sweat from her palms made the cut sting. If she could only steal a quick heal right now, she would have the strength to pull away.
“Are you lonely? You could’ve just asked,” Rose said mockingly to Chryslaenor. She inched closer and felt even better. “I suppose a brief visit couldn’t cause any harm.” Rose shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I’m starting to sound like Angst. ‘What could possibly go wrong now?’” She would never admit it aloud, but she wished he were here. Rose leaned away from Chryslaenor experimentally, and the pain tickled the inside of her skull. “No, this really isn’t a good idea. I should go find the crazy physician. Maybe talk to Dallow when he gets home.”
Rose tried to move away again but, after a single step, grimaced in pain. Even so, she took another, fighting the unknown assailant. She whimpered with every inch, but, in the back of her mind, she hoped that if she could get just far enough, she would break free. With a deep breath, she leaped toward the entrance, but was stuck. An invisible wall barred her path, and she screamed in anguish and agony. It pushed her closer to the sword.
“You couldn’t just ask nice?” she shrieked at Chryslaenor.
A loud clatter at the entrance preceded two soldiers.
“What’s going on in here? We heard a scream,” said the taller soldier.
“Miss Rose, is that you?” asked the short, stout soldier. “You shouldn’t be in here. It’s dangerous.”
Rose reached out to the soldiers for help. Her arm felt as though it was on fire, and she tried to explain but the only thing that would leave her lips was another scream of pain. She turned away from them as the wall pushed her within ten feet of Chryslaenor. The blue glow seemed to dim as a cloud of darkness hovered near the floor. A low dangerous hum resonated from the sword. No longer under her control, her hand reached for Chryslaenor. Black lightning stretched from her eye to the end of her fingers, tickling and burning as her arm as it hungrily sought the great sword.
The soldiers moved toward her with caution. “Please, Miss Rose. Please come with us.”
She gritted her teeth in pain and determination but, no matter how hard she fought, she couldn’t stop the dark lightning from wrenching her hand open. It blazed and burned through her finger bones, curling them tight around Chryslaenor’s hilt. The dark lightning shot in streams from her eye, wrapping around her arm and embracing the blade. Blue lightning from the foci grappled with the dark, exploding on contact and showering the floor with bright balls of glowing debris. Rose was petrified that she might be bonding with Chryslaenor, but this was nothing like Angst had described. This was a battle, as though she held together two magnets that didn’t want to meet. The dark lightning and dark cloud had encompassed the blue light, snuffing it out. Rose wanted to vomit as her body convulsed, rejecting the darkness. The fight was brief—the old sword seemed weak without a true wielder. Slowly, ever so slowly, she was forced pulled the blade free from the floor.
“I’m sorry, Miss Rose, but we have to stop you!” the tall soldier warned. He looked over at his partner. They hesitated, but then nodded and ran to tackle her.
The hunger was now all consuming. The battle had sucked her will dry, and she could feel her life fading away. She wanted to collapse, but the darkness wouldn’t let her. The lightning that forced her to heft Chryslaenor now turned her to face them. She didn’t want this. Rose wasn’t close to either of the men, but she knew who they were. Knew their families. When the men leaped at Rose, she held up her free hand like a talon.
With a thunderous crack, the dark lighting leaped from her fingertips and froze them mid-jump. The shock on their faces turned to pain. They screamed as their cheeks sank into their skulls, and the skulls collapsed into their armor. Their energy a
nd life flowed into her like a prisoner’s first taste of sunlight. Bits of burnt soldier, bones, and armor clattered to the floor. Acrid smoke wafted quietly. Rose stood straight, once again healthy and strong. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she lowered her hand.
“That was just the heal I was looking for,” she said in a gruff voice filled with relief.
Rose shook her head, horrified by her own reaction. This wasn’t right. Where had that come from? Had the darkness affected her so much that she’d enjoyed killing them? Those men hadn’t deserved to die.
She tried to let go of Chryslaenor, but her hand remained attached to the hilt of a blade she couldn’t even lift. The darkness inside urged her to the doorway, and with each movement, drank her strength. Her life trickled out to become the lightning that wrapped around the heavy weapon and drove them both forward.
Rose took a reluctant step, and then another, until she was finally walking at a somewhat-normal pace. The sword dragged loudly behind her, the tip of the blade ripping up bits of marble flooring as it was forced to move.
She wanted to cry for help, desperate for her friends, but she knew what would happen to them if they came. How long would it be until she needed another heal? She was already becoming hungry. She had to get as far away from Unsel as possible before more people died.
“Chryslaenor!” Angst yelled, still clutching his head. “Rose!”
Dallow rushed to Angst’s side and dropped to the ground. “What’s going on, Angst? What happened to Rose?”
“We need to get home now,” Angst said, shivering in spite of his armor and feebly trying to roll to his stomach.
Angst looked at Scar, who was shaking and whimpering loudly. The pup had a glazed look in his eyes. When Tarness rushed over to pick him up, Scar snapped at him before passing out.
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