Order of the Fire Box Set

by P. E. Padilla

  If we survive. “Okay. Just commune with it?”

  “Yes,” Molara said. “I’ve already set it up. Commune with it, lend it your power, and that of everyone else around. Then, will it to activate.”

  “Will it to activate.”

  “Yes.”

  Kate cursed inwardly. The entire human race was depending on her ability to commune with an item she had never seen before a few minutes ago. The last time the Purple had asked her to do this, she had been unsuccessful.

  “Okay,” she said. “Visimar, are you ready?”

  “Go.” He jumped up next to her, seamlessly taking over in cutting down the demons ahead of them.

  Kate knelt next to Molara’s device, placed at the threshold of the gate. She had to force her eyes from the masses of demons trying to pour through the gate at her, including a group of six demon commanders that were pushing their way to the front.

  Kate reached her mind out to the device as Molara had taught her with the firestones. There was something there, but she couldn’t quite grasp it, as if she was squeezing a cake of soap in her wet hands.

  “Hurry,” Molara said.

  Kate growled, but put her mind to reaching the item. There! She caught hold of it with her mind and tried to make it part of her. It seemed to wiggle and shiver, but she was able to latch onto it. She let out a small breath.

  “The commanders are almost here,” Molara said, breaking Kate’s concentration and almost making her lose the connection with the item.

  A grunt and loud curse from Peiros almost completely dashed her focus, but Kate maintained control.

  Mentally reaching into the device, Kate found that it seemed familiar somehow. As she imagined taking it inside herself, she became aware of a great source of power, surrounding her and in close proximity to her all across the battlefield.

  She finally understood.

  Willing that power source to flood the device, she commanded it to activate.

  The world turned brilliant white, and Kate’s perception of everything dissolved.

  42

  “Kate,” a voice said. “Kate?” Was that Molara?

  Kate felt like a stone wall had fallen on her. Multiple times. She was only able to get out, “Ugh.”

  She was lying down. How did that happen? Her head was cradled on something soft. She cracked her eyelids and blinked up at a pale face framed by dark hair, with a tiny gem dangling from her forehead. Molara.

  The Purple swept a lock of Kate’s red hair from her face and smiled at her. “You okay?”

  “Ugh,” Kate repeated. She moved her head to look around and realized the soft thing her head was resting on was Molara’s lap. “What happened?” She remembered suddenly that she had been in battle. She tensed to leap to her feet, but a strong hand on her shoulder held her down

  “None of that,” Captain Achard said. “Relax. We’re…safe.”

  “Safe? How can we be safe? We’re surrounded by demons. We have to get the device…” She trailed off, trying to remember what she was saying.

  “Come on, sweetie,” Molara said, kissing Kate’s forehead. “You can sit up, but no trying to jump around, okay?”

  “Deal,” Kate said. The pressure on her shoulder eased, but it only highlighted the fact that she was sore everywhere. She was also pretty sure she had wounds all over her body.

  Kate closed her eyes as she sat up, hoping it would hold the dizziness at bay. Once in position, she opened them again and gaped.

  She was sitting right where she had been when she tried to activate Molara’s device. She put her hand out and touched the smashed frame of the gate to Hell. The doors were damaged, too, and leaning precariously nearby, but she couldn’t see anything through the spaces between the pieces.

  “It…it’s broken?” she asked. “Is it destroyed?”

  “No,” Molara answered. “Not completely. It’ll be decades before any of the demons can get through it again, though, I think.”

  A thought entered Kate’s mind, and she swung her head from side to side. She regretted it instantly. A wave of dizziness came over her, and she held her breath and closed her eyes until it passed.

  When it did, she looked—slowly—back to Molara. “Where are the demons?”

  “The ones that aren’t trapped on their side of the broken gate,” Koren’s rough voice said, “are dead. That device killed every one of them from here nearly to the edge of the battlefield. The remaining few were quickly taken apart by the Red.”

  “Then why are we not dead?” she asked.

  “The device doesn’t harm humans,” Molara said. “It was basically a firestone bomb. I think you were affected by the backlash of all that power, so it knocked you out. I don’t think it did any physical damage to you, though. Do you feel well—you know, except the obvious dizziness, weakness, and the dozens of cuts all over your body?”

  Kate laughed. “When you put it that way, then yes, I feel fine. Can I get up? I want to look around.”

  “Sure, but be careful. It wouldn’t do to have the hero of yet another battle fall on her beautiful face in front of everyone.”

  “Everyone?” Kate asked as she got to her feet.

  “Yep,” Molara said with a smile. “Pretty much everyone.” The Purple pointed out toward the fortress.

  A sea of Red, though not as large as it had been, stood at attention, all of them looking at her. She turned slowly to look behind her, but saw nothing there that would merit that kind of attentiveness.

  Beyond the edge of the plateau in Gateskeep, the Cebetians seemed to have given up and were being rounded up by the Galetian forces. On the command platform, a handful of officers stared at her.

  “We might as well start heading back,” Kate said. “There’s nothing more for us here.”

  The others formed a half circle around her, leaving the front open so she could lead them. Visimar’s bloody bandage made Kate wince, and Koren and Aurel were limping, but all of her friends seemed to be there, though all of them were wounded. Aurel had his mask off and was smiling at her.

  “My mask,” she said, feeling on her face, though she knew it wasn’t there.

  “I have it,” Molara said, holding it up. “I don’t think you need it right now.”

  As the small group made their way forward, the entire field of humans snapped a salute at her. She hadn’t even heard a command.

  She found that tears were rolling down her cheeks. “Uh, I think I do need it,” she said as she took the mask from Molara and strapped it on.

  The trek across the field and down the stairs seemed an effort on par with the worst battles she’d ever been in. Kate only wanted to curl up and sleep—after washing and maybe getting some bandages—but Pello Sirakov requested that she meet with him and some others in the council chambers in the Command Center. With a “yes, sir,” she and the others headed there.

  It took her a while to navigate the stairs and make it to the location. Still, she arrived before anyone else, others seeming to wait to allow her to lead them.

  While waiting for everyone to arrive, a few of the healers worked on cleaning and bandaging Kate’s wounds and those of her friends. Only Molara escaped without moderate injuries, and even she had a few slashes from stray demon claws to mar her perfect skin.

  Finally, they were assembled. The fortress commander and the secretary general, the only two remaining Guiding Council members, were joined by Valerio Fiola—whom Kate thanked profusely for his help—all of the remaining higher-level officers, and Molara. The Blacks who had stood with her to activate the device were allowed to stay as well.

  “It goes without saying,” Pello Sirakov said to Kate, “that we owe our lives and the very existence of the human race to you and your team. There are some things we don’t understand, however.”

  “I’m with you,” Kate said. “I’m still confused about some things as well.”

  They first discussed the presence of the two armies that had arrived. The Cebetians, it was ap
parent, had sided with the demons and were out to destroy the Order. The armies of Galette were due to the work of Valerio and Molara. Those explanations were straightforward.

  “What I don’t understand,” Kate said, “is what happened with that device.”

  Valerio Fiola gestured to Molara. “Molara, would you care to explain?”

  Molara’s face colored prettily. “Sure. I can do that.

  “I recently learned some things about the firestones and the origin of the Order. I had to translate the references, but eventually, I was able to figure out what wasn’t specifically written.

  “When the Order was founded, the mages at the time did not have the great magics of ages past. They had their own kind of power, but they had to be a bit more creative than just pointing at something and being able to destroy it.

  “After years of work, they discovered a power source that would be suitable to enable them to make, not so much a weapon, but a shield that could replace them constantly casting protection spells. That power source was human will, and the shield? It was the original firestones.

  “The first were small personal stones. They worked to refine their designs and learned how to make them more efficient. Then they turned their attention to creating something larger.

  “To create these bigger variations—the same large stones we have in this fortress and in Faerdham today—they gathered blood from a council of the greatest leaders of the time. I guess you could call it the precursor to the Guiding Council.

  “With the blood mixed together, they were able to harness the very essence of the human spirit, with all its strengths—and weaknesses. That original mixture was used to create the first large firestones. Using these, they were able to weaken the demons in a wide area so that they could be killed.

  “The mages were working on weaponizing the magical technology when the first of many rebellions occurred within the Order. The reasons are not clear, but somehow a group of humans, and probably some demons, killed every last mage the Order possessed, and destroyed all their records.

  “Very little in the way of records survived, just a fragment here and there. What really tipped me off was an obscure account in one of the demons’ own books of them destroying any chance that the humans could further develop their weapon.

  “I put this information together with the peculiar way Kate was able to interact with a firestone chip that had come from one of the large stones here at Gateskeep. I used that chip to grow the device itself, the one we used to break the gate.

  “When I tested Kate for an affinity with the small gem, it showed some resonance when she tried to commune with it, though she thought she had failed.

  “You see, although we make firestones—I do the work myself, in fact—we still don’t understand them well enough to match the ancient stones. The trick was that in order to utilize that power, both of the stone chip and of the human spirit of everyone in proximity, I needed blood. Not just any blood, but blood from the original group from the start of the Order.

  “I’m not sure what the path is, but Kate has at least some of that original blood within her. I could make the device, but I couldn’t activate it. Only she—or at least someone else descended from those first leaders of the Order—could. It’s something of a legacy.”

  “Wait,” Kate said. “You based our whole strategy on a hunch about my distant ancestors?”

  “Not a hunch, Kate.” Molara answered. “I was relatively certain from the tests we had performed that your blood was what we needed. It was a risk I was willing to take. You saw what was left in Hell when we activated the device.”

  A shiver ran up Kate’s back. “Yes. There was no way we could have survived the assault from all those troops, even if the armies of Cebet and Galette both were on our side.”

  “So there you go. I bet our entire existence on you and your legacy of fire. It seemed to work out well enough.”

  Kate groaned.

  “Incidentally,” Molara continued, “this all folds into the reason we call it the Order of the Fire. Not the Order of Fire, but the Order of the Fire. The fire, the source of our strength and our protection, is human will, as expressed through the blood of our founders in the firestones. Over the centuries, there have been all sorts of explanations as to why we’re called what we are.

  “Pretty metaphors notwithstanding, this is the reason for our name.”

  “That is…interesting,” Pello Sirakov said. “And you maintain what you said earlier, Molara, that it will take decades before the demons will be able to reopen the gate?”

  “Yes. I don’t believe it can be totally destroyed, but with the damage to it, I expect it will be close to a hundred years until they will bother us again. At least several decades.”

  “Then it seems we have a little time to rebuild the Order and to train it accordingly.”

  Nods and soft affirmations followed the statement.

  “However,” the Fortress Commander said, “there is still the matter of the Guiding Council. I have spoken to the secretary general”—he motioned toward Halie Askona—“and we agree that the Order needs a strong leader, one who will uphold the mission, and more importantly, the honor, of the Order of the Fire.

  “As such, we would appoint Kate Courtenay to the position of the Supreme Commander of the Order of the Fire, effective immediately. She may preside over the proceedings to fill out the rest of the council.”

  Kate had hardly been listening, thinking of what it would take to rebuild the battered Order. When the last statement registered, she snapped her head up. “What? No. You can’t…I can’t be…I’m too young and inexperienced.”

  “What say the rest of you?” Sirakov said.

  As if it had been planned, each person in the room spoke in order of their position at the table.

  “Aye.”

  “Aye.’”

  “Aye.”

  And so it went, every one of them agreeing, some with smiles and other with nods, all of them without hesitation.

  “What say you now, Supreme Commander Courtenay?” Sirakov said with a smile.

  Kate sighed. “I will accept—sure that you will change your mind once you’ve thought about it—with one condition. I want Major Phrixus Achard not only to be reinstated and promoted, but to take command of and tasked with increasing the size of the Black Command.”

  “Agreed,” Sirakov said immediately. “We already discussed begging Phrixus to return. It is being recorded and will be announced this evening. Until then, with your permission, Supreme Commander, we can adjourn. Perhaps the council can meet tomorrow to start selection for filling the empty chairs.”

  Kate nodded numbly, and a burst of conversation broke out. She was patted on the shoulder by several people and hugged by Molara. It seemed that after holding her breath for more than a year, she could finally breathe.

  This is going to be a rough road, she thought as the noise seemed to dim in the presence of her thoughts and plans. But then, the roads to all worthwhile places are rough.

  Letter to the Reader

  Dear Reader,

  So, what do you think? Kate didn’t end up being very bad off, did she? From outcast to one of the most powerful people in the entire Order of the Fire. Not bad at all.

  I’d like to hear what you thought of the story. Ideally, if you would be so kind as to write a review for the book (and for the other two, since I’m assuming you read those before this one), that would be fantastic. That way, not only will I know what you think of the story, but others will, too, and it may help them to decide if they want to read the Order of the Fire series.

  What do you think will happen next? It seems sure that Kate will take charge and fix many of the problems in the Order. She has already made a good start by insisting Phrixus Achard be reinstated and promoted. It will be a difficult task to rebuild, but they have time. Or do they?

  I can’t promise another chapter in the greater tale of the Order of the Fire in the near future, but w
ho knows? There may be more stories of the Order that need to be told. Only time will tell.

  In the meantime, if you enjoyed the OoF series, you might also like my Harmonic Magic series and the Song of Prophecy series (though this one only has one book out so far; I’m working on the second right now). Check out the links in the back of this book (if it’s an electronic copy) or go to the Books section of my website at pepadilla.com for more information.

  I really appreciate you sharing in Kate’s adventures with me. I have several projects in-process right now, so be sure to check back at my website or your favorite bookseller for more of my books. If you want to make sure you don’t miss any new releases, it’s as easy as a click to get my PEP Talk newsletter. Flip a couple more pages to see what freebies I’m offering my subscribers now. Thank you. I hope to see you again very soon.

  P.E. Padilla

  Author Notes

  To be completely honest, the Order of the Fire series was a different sort of story for me. Everything from the way I handled the worldbuilding to the amount of detail I included (or didn’t) was different than many of my fantasy books.

  The books I have written so far in the fantasy genre are mostly epic fantasy, books close to three times the length of Call of Fire. Epic fantasy is much more detail-oriented than the sword and sorcery type of books in the Order of the Fire series.

  Also, for most of my fantasy books, I have a fully fleshed out world in which the story takes place. There are kingdoms and ethnic groups and languages, all the things that, to me, make a story seem as if it’s happening in a real world. With OoF, the world is much simpler, at least to begin with.

  I wasn’t sure at first how much I’d like this style of story, but I ended up enjoying it, and as I wrote in the Author’s Notes in Hero of Fire, my editor liked it, too. Still, it took some getting used to. I had to squash my natural inclination to describe everything (which also makes the story longer). I know different people have different feelings about the amount of detail that is acceptable, so I stretched my writing muscles, as it were, to cater to those who don’t care as much for fine details in this series.