by Jeff Kish
“Fight it!?”
“Listen, this might be a long shot, but maybe I can freeze it to death,” Jem says in a hushed voice. “I need to get close.”
“Ah, so the queen bee is an ice queen?” Fire snickers. “Just give me your dagger and I’ll carve this thing up in no time.”
“You want to use this?” Jem asks as she flashes her broken blade. “I already tried.”
Fire is uncharacteristically shaken. “That thing did that…?”
“It uses an elemental blade, so it will cut right through a dagger!” Di explains. “We have to use elements to battle it.”
“What the… but my elemental blade doesn’t do that!” Era argues.
“Not the time, Era!” Jem chastises. “Just keep your blade sharp and you’ll be fine, right?”
Era’s heart sinks as he’s reminded he lost the dirt when Fire kicked him down the stairs. “I… uh… I don’t have it…”
“Then just hold the light and be a distraction,” she barks as she flips him the rune. “Here it comes!”
Having formed three bladed appendages, the creature advances toward the clustered group. Di’s arms tremble as she raises them, palms extended, forcing the air in front of them into a shield. Era places his hand on her shoulder to help calm her nerves. Swallowing hard, she forces her legs to move as she trots forward to meet the threat head-on.
Fire watches the display of bravado in disgust. Her plan had been to sit back and wait for a chance to sneak by, but watching the three advance in front of her makes her burn with anger at the prospect of being protected.
The beast barrages Di’s shield with its three arms. The girl winces as she focuses on the critical task of maintaining the barrier. Jem shouts, “Break!”, and she and Era split off, running in opposite directions from Di’s protection. The creature, choosing to split its arms, presses one down on Di while shifting the others to follow the two thieves.
Era works to keep the light centered on the beast while he dodges strikes from one of the arms, grateful its powerful attacks are slow. With it being made entirely of water, Era notices that the light refracts and illuminates the entire target regardless of the angle. He keeps moving in hopes of at least keeping one arm distracted, longing to contribute more effectively.
Jem runs to the giant water blob, keeping an eye out for the inevitable attack from above. When it comes, she dodges and dives in, and she starts freezing the water the moment she touches the creature’s body. As the ice creeps around the outside of the mass of water, a new fourth appendage takes a swing at the oblivious ice elementalist. Just before it hits, Fire sweep kicks Jem’s legs out from under her, causing the blade to narrowly miss her head.
“Get up!” Fire yells as she dives backward, narrowly avoiding a strike from another appendage.
“I need Di!” Jem calls back as she gets to her feet.
Fire glances back across the cavern, barely finding the air shaper in the darkness, who’s still holding back the single arm pressing against her. Dashing to the girl, she slides underneath her barrier and barks, “The ice queen needs you!”
Dripping with sweat, Di manages a grunt to acknowledge Fire’s request, but it’s evident she can do nothing about it. Reluctantly, Fire heaves herself atop the air wall and kicks at the giant appendage, but her foot just sinks into the water, its consistency like mud against her boot. She yanks it out and gives a glance to Jem, but she’s not making any progress, instead spending most of her time dodging multiple attacking arms. Letting loose a battle cry, Fire jumps up and brings her good arm down hard on the watery tentacle. Her bare hand penetrates the arm, chopping it off at its tip and releasing Di from its hold.
Free from the pressure, Di releases the shield and collapses to her hands and knees. Fire, who had been standing on the shield, freefalls next to her with a yelp. Resisting the urge to smack the girl, the mercenary wastes no time yanking her to her feet and dragging her toward Jem.
“How… did you break it?” Di gasps, but Fire gives her no answer.
When Era sees Fire leading Di toward the creature, he tries to run back to rendezvous with his allies, but the water creature slams one of its arms directly in his path, cutting him off. “Why aren’t any of us water shapers!?” he screams in frustration as he reverses course.
As he runs, he notices a substantial amount of dirt where the water arm last struck, and it occurs to him that it can only shape a single element. Any dirt that works its way into the water is quickly expelled due to the creature’s inability to control it, which means it’s actively depositing piles of earth as it moves. The water creature lifts an arm to ready an attack, leaving a fresh pile of mud behind. Era dodges the strike and scoops up enough dirt to form a knife. As he continues to move, he drags his small blade along the ground in an effort to draw more into it.
Meanwhile, upon reaching Jem, Di immediately raises a large shield at the base of the creature to protect Jem as she works on freezing it. Several smaller protrusions form and attack the transparent wall.
Fire cringes as each strike against Di’s barrier echoes loudly throughout the chamber. She watches Jem’s slow progress and shouts, “No way will this work. At this rate you’re just feeding it more water!”
“Got any better ideas!?” Jem retorts.
Di looks past Jem into the belly of the beast, noting the hovering mass is only supported by a thin pillar of water from underneath. “Jem! The pillar… breaking it should make the creature collapse!”
Jem and Fire glance at the pillar. “Consider it done,” Fire calls out. When she dashes under the hovering main body, though, smaller appendages form to protect itself. They whip out at Fire, forcing her back until one wraps around her ankle and trips her as the other appendages form themselves into blades. Helpless to defend herself, her trapped foot comes free as Jem grabs the appendage at its base and freezes it through, and they duck behind Di’s barrier before the smaller blades can slice at them.
Fire stoops to one knee as Jem bends over, out of breath. “How did you think you were going to cut through that? With your bare hand!?” Jem screams. Fire ignores her and hides a wince as she rubs at the leg still crying out from her injury at the bluffs. Jem turns to the air shaper and says, “Di, we need you to come with us.”
A hard SLAM echoes out as the creature brings its three arms down as a combined club of water, flinging Di backward and leaving Jem and Fire unprotected. The club reforms into a blade and comes down on the dazed Di, but Era zips in and deflects the attack with a massive dirt sword.
“Miss me?” he calls out.
“Era! About time!” Jem cries in relief.
The creature splits its arms once more and resumes its assault. Era intercepts one arm and then another as they continue to barrage him. Having his own elemental blade, he defends each strike without concern of the blades slicing through him, though the strain from such shaping takes its toll.
Fire joins him, running to his side and watching for an opportunity. As Era meets a blade, she slides past him, leaps into the air and comes down on the tentacle, chopping it clean through. Era is momentarily awestruck by the feat, but his attention soon returns to the other arms.
“Era, light!” Jem yells, and Era obediently flips the rune back to her. “Let’s go!” she cries as she grabs Di and drags her under the belly. Di extends her palms upward, providing a ceiling that the small tentacles harmlessly strike. Arriving at the central column, Jem grabs the water and starts her attack.
“You need to freeze it all the way through!” Di shouts as she maintains the shield. “Any amount of water inside will keep it up!”
“It’s too thick!” Jem replies as she continues to apply ice, her energy almost exhausted as Di, Era, and Fire hold the creature at bay. She grunts and screams as she forces the ice further and further into the column. Just as she’s about to black out from the effort, it freezes all the way through.
Instantly, the giant orb of water comes crashing down on Di and Jem
, knocking them hard into the ground as the creature loses its form. Its appendages fall off as the entire mass rushes around Era and Fire’s feet, but, just as it appears the waters are dispersing, a central glob of water pulls together in the middle. The creature, despite losing most of its mass, manages to display new life by pulling in much of the water from the ground. It also sucks Jem and Di into its mass and traps them within its watery confines.
Now half as large as before, the creature again raises its body on a small column of water, and this time it displays much improved mobility. Di and Jem struggle in vain within the water, trying to escape but unable to gain any momentum. The water inside is spinning at a high velocity, dizzying its prisoners while creating a strong current within. Jem freezes it from the inside out, creating chunks of ice that float to the top and fall out, but her efforts are clearly going nowhere.
Era grips his large blade, realizing Jem and Di don’t have long before they drown. Illuminated by the light rune swirling within, the creature again creates bladed protrusions and attacks its remaining opponents. Era and Fire split up, each trying to get in close, but the arms keep the two from approaching.
Desperate for time, Era charges in recklessly, deflecting attacks and swinging hard at the base of an arm, chopping it off. As another of the blades meets his own, he looks at his trapped friends and sees a large, floating object near the top of the swirling mass of water. He strains his eyes to see what it is until another arm forces him to retreat. “Fire! Something is in there!”
“I know! Your friends!” she shouts as she nimbly dodges an attack.
“No, something else! Something floating in the middle!”
“In the middle?” Fire mutters, spotting the dark object floating effortlessly amidst the currents. Locking onto the target, she zips toward the body, hoping to jam her fist in far enough to make contact. However, a tentacle of water lashes down and wraps itself tightly around her feet. It yanks her into the air as every blade accelerates to impale her, but Era slices cleanly up through all the arms at once, turning the weapons into a harmless spray of water as Fire crashes to the floor.
Using his momentum, Era swings around and cuts down on the creature from above, pressing into the water with enough strength that he makes contact with the object. The moment he does, the mass of water again falls, washing out along the cavern floor.
Jem and Di hit the ground, gasping and coughing for air. Overcome by his exhaustion, Era’s legs buckle as he releases his weapon, which instantly disintegrates. He swoons to the side, but Fire rushes up and catches him under his shoulder. He looks at her gratefully as she helps him to the wet floor. “You sure do get lucky,” she mutters as she sits next to Era and massages her injured arm, not sure whether she should be relieved or angry she was again saved by the amateur fighter.
Di rolls to her back, still coughing. “Please tell me it’s over.”
“I thought… I thought that was it for us,” Jem pants. “How did you take it out?”
“I struck something floating in the middle,” Era explains. “That was it. It just died when I made contact.”
Jem snags the light rune from the floor and shines it around until she spots it. Di’s eyes widen as she jumps to her knees and frantically crawls over to examine it. Shaped like a disc, the rock is about half the size of a carriage wheel. A deep gash stretches across the edge of it, indicative of where Era’s blade sliced it. “No way,” she whispers in amazement.
“What is it?” Jem asks as she leans over Di.
Di can hardly speak as she squeaks out, “This thing… It was a rune!”
Era’s jaw drops. “A rune!? I didn’t know they could do that with runes.”
“They can’t,” Di insists.
“Well, clearly they can,” Era retorts.
“No, Era, they can’t! This technology is way too advanced, even for Three Pillars professors.” Unable to take her eyes off it, Di mutters, “What I wouldn’t give to take this back to them.”
Jem snatches it and holds it close. “Well, they’ll have to pay a pretty penny to see it.”
“Jem!” Di shouts, offended.
“What? We almost died fighting that thing! There’s no way I’m giving it up for free,” she says as she studies it. “Ummm… Di, there are no symbols on this thing. Aren’t symbols needed? You know, for programming and all that?”
“The symbols are there, all right.” Di snags the light rune and points it at the disc, illuminating hundreds of thinly engraved rings concentrically marking the disc’s front side.
“Nice try. You’re saying a bunch of rings is all it takes to program something this big?”
“Look closer.”
Jem peers close, shocked at what she finds. In actuality, each ring is a string of tiny characters, so small and close together that, without close inspection, blur together to form a solid ring. “Th-That… That’s…”
“It’s not possible, I know! That’s what I’m saying!” Di insists.
“No, Di! This thing will make me rich!” She puts it to her lips and kisses it with a loud smack, adding, “Sorry Di, you’ve been replaced as my new favorite thing!”
“Jem, you can’t sell it! You have to-”
“It’s settled, Di. Might as well accept it.”
As the two girls bicker, Era glances to Fire, who removes her bandanna to let her damp hair fall. She wrings out the cloth in a fruitless effort to start drying herself. Era blushes, now seeing a stark contrast to the cold-natured assassin. Water drips from the hair plastered to her cheeks, and her toned arms are defined through her soaked sleeves. “H-Hey, thanks for helping us,” he squeaks. When she glances at him, he quickly avoids eye contact.
“Don’t think too much of it. I was forced to do it,” she responds frankly.
“Well, sure,” he agrees, “but you could have run after the monster fell apart the first time. You stuck around and helped me save Jem and Di.”
She slaps her wet handkerchief on her knee in surrender. “You saved my life. I owed you that much.”
“So you do have a sense of honor!” Era chides. Glancing back toward his partner, he lowers his voice and says, “Look, I know Jem’s not going to be good with the idea, but-”
“You want my help? Then tell the ice queen yourself,” she snaps. “For being so useful in a fight, I can’t believe how spineless you are when it comes to that girl.”
Era shrugs. “Hey, she’s my boss, but I’ll talk to her if you’re still willing to work with us.”
Fire glares at him. “Look, if not for my arm, I’d have no problem capturing you three. And I’d do it! I’m just looking for a way to make a venni after all this.” Glancing away, she mutters, “Thirty-five percent, right?”
“Sorry, offer’s lowered to thirty.” Fire looks back with a flash of anger, but Era says, “Should have taken the offer before you sucker kicked me down a flight of stairs, threw me in a hole, and had your life saved by me again.”
“I did accept your stupid offer! You reneged on it!”
“Sheesh, do you want me to leave you in this cave?” Era asks with a flat gaze. “Because that’s what it’s sounding like to me.”
Fire starts to protest, but she realizes Era is the only person who can get them all out. With a sigh, she relents and says, “Fine, whatever. But if you don’t pay up, I’m definitely killing you.”
“Fair enough.”
Chapter 11
Era holds a long plank of earth as his companions climb out of the cavern one at a time. Holding the form over such a long distance is exhausting, so he decides to sit down and take a break before climbing out. He releases his hold, and the dirt rains down to the rock below.
Standing on the basement floor once again, Jem kneels and examines the disc with the light rune. “Pretty impressive,” she mumbles to herself.
“Is there any chance that thing can come back to life?” Fire asks. “That rune spawned a killing machine.”
Di shakes her head. “I
don’t think so. Runes that have their programs erased or otherwise marred like this one become expensive doorstops. I think we killed the… well, whatever that was.”
‘Yeah, thanks to Era,’ Jem thinks as she shines her light down at her partner, wondering when it was he became so formidable. Were it not for him, she and Di would certainly have drowned.
As if reading her thoughts, Fire mutters in a hushed voice, “You undervalue him, you know that? If not for him…”
“I-I know that!” Jem says in defense. “He’s strong, I get that. But he’s not smart, and until he is-”
“Uhh… ladies? I can hear you,” Era reveals from the cavern below, causing both Fire and Jem to awkwardly stop mid-conversation.
However, Jem leans forward and says, “Era, you’re alright. Thanks for saving us down there.” Era blushes in the darkness and absent-mindedly scratches the back of his head.
“So Di,” Jem says, changing the subject, “did you grab enough rune shards? Just remember I’m not carrying those for you in my bag. It’ll be heavy enough with my big one, here!”
Di looks at the crumbled rocks in her hands. “The symbols on these are almost entirely eroded. I’m not sure they’ll have any value whatsoever to the Academy.” Glancing at the large rune at Jem’s feet, she whines, “Come on, just let me have that! You’re not going to do anything with it!”
“Except make tons of money!” Jem exclaims. “But hey, I’m impartial. If the Academy can offer up some venni, I’m all for giving it to them.” Di sighs, knowing she won’t be able to budge Jem’s stance.
Ready to make his exit, Era again solidifies the dirt into a long beam and scales it. Hand over hand, he works to maintain the form of the earth with each grip. When he gets near the top, Jem reaches down and helps him the rest of the way. The moment he releases the plank, it loses its form and crumbles into the cavern below.
After brushing himself off, Era collects his courage and looks Jem in the eyes. “Jem, I know I’m not the smartest person in the world, but I have a good feeling about bringing Fire along. I’ve pledged part of my share to her, and I’d like it if… No, I mean to say… I’m hiring her services.”
