After the evening conversation with Mattias concluded Amara forced herself to go back to bed, and ended up falling asleep much faster than she expected. And she dreamed.
She was back in Shiloh, walking through the center of town on an early fall day. Her neighbors idled about in the village square like they always did after the day's work had been finished. But as she looked on they began to vanish one by one, translated out of existence by some higher power. Before long the square had been emptied out, and she knew somehow that the rest of the village had been, too. But it didn’t bother her because the person she’d been looking for hadn’t been among them.
She then found herself at Evander’s home, and chose to enter it via the back door. Familiar laughter echoed from inside. When she stepped in Evander and Mattias were seated at the dinner table, having a lively conversation like two old friends.
The dream ended when she sat down with them and Evander reached out for her hand. She awoke to the muted noise of a food vendor impatiently calling out their wares on the street below her window.
Her worry over what the coming day held in store had been unexpectedly tempered by just how strange her dreams had been. It was hardly her first night full of bad dreams, but this time had been so unsettling that she felt a strong sense of resentment at herself over it. Unsettling dreams were definitely not something she needed on the eve of a battle she really might not walk away from.
After stewing over her dreams for a little while she forced herself out of bed and began to prepare for the day. Fresh clothes and a quick run through of her hair with a brush preceded the act of laying out the various things Mattias had included in her rucksack. She decided that she wouldn’t need most of what she’d brought, including her extra clothes, the bedroll and the rucksack itself. But the small bag of cookies would come along as a snack—why not?—and the lighter was pretty much a given.
Feeling a bit more confident, she repacked all her things and stepped out into the hall. Evander opened his door at almost the same time as she opened hers, and they nearly ran into each other leaving their rooms. He had his bag of javelins slung slantways across his back.
“Hey,” they told one another at the same time. It might’ve been awkward if not for Evander’s immediate follow up question.
“What the hell happened last night?”
“Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me! The explosion up at the castle! I heard you talking with Mattias for a while before you went to bed, what did he do?”
“I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Bafflement filled his expression. “...It really didn’t wake you up? Jeez. You’ll sleep through anything.”
“Well if there was an explosion then why didn’t you come check on me?” Amara asked, irritated.
“Because you didn’t check on me and nothing else happened,” he shot back. “Also, I wasn’t about to go into your room in the middle of the night.”
She nearly snapped at him before the full implication of what he meant dawned on her.
“...Oh. Well, I don’t know what happened. You ready to go?”
He shifted the bag on his back a little before giving her a nod. “Ready as I’m gonna be.”
She returned his nod, and turned for the stairs. Evander followed along.
The skies were clear when they stepped out into the street, and for once Lucyra’s air didn’t feel quite so heavy with moisture. The whole city seemed to have dried out quickly once the clouds had finally cleared out. In the rain, Lucyra’s colors had been drab and somewhat dull, but beneath the sway of the late summer sun the city had gained much more color. The cobble of the streets had taken on more of a gentle grey-brown, and the red hue of the brick buildings lining both sides of the street contrasted quite beautifully with the cloudless light-blue sky overhead. Interestingly, the people walking along the street still wore their raincoats, perhaps because they knew better than to trust Lucyra’s weather.
Amara’s gaze passed over the trickle of people walking past them. Evander seemed to be doing the same beside her, until he went still for a moment and pointed at something high above and directly across from the inn. Mattias had retaken his raven form and perched himself on the high windowsill of one of the four story buildings across the street.
He took off the moment Amara made eye contact with him, flying swiftly up the street against the flow of traffic. Evander let out an aggravated scoff, then looked to Amara. She agreed with a roll of her eyes.
“I guess we’re following him,” she said.
“Like always.”
Amara set off down the street, moving at a quick pace to try and match Mattias’s speed. Evander joined her without another word of complaint.
They kept intermittent contact with Mattias as he led them further into the city. Whenever they lost sight of him they’d rush off, only to eventually spot him again flying away in a completely different direction. It quickly became something like a game. They’d inevitably lose him, and the next little while would be spent rushing about in search of him until he suddenly reappeared.
The only indication they had that they weren’t just aimlessly wandering through the city came in the change that overtook the neighborhoods they walked through. The houses began to seem a bit more run down, and potholes appeared with surprising regularity in the street. The people they passed all walked with noticeably more haste, as though they had all been struck by a sudden urge to be somewhere else.
An overwhelming smell of salt and dead fish soon began to wash up the street, and before long gull calls and a faint crashing of waves sounded from their direction of travel. Food vendors appeared along the street, offering various kinds of fish and colorful crustaceans to crowds of interested people.
“We’re near the docks,” Evander said unnecessarily.
Mattias appeared overhead once more, cruising over the nearby building tops, but instead of floating over the street he swooped down into a secluded alleyway nearby that Amara had hardly taken notice of. They hurried after him, boots splashing in small puddles that had somehow managed to survive the sun thus far.
The alleyway smelled like standing water and washing soap, and it was barely wide enough for Amara to walk through. She turned to look back at Evander and saw he’d been forced to angle his body to the side in order to keep going, but he seemed to be keeping pace. He met her gaze for a moment before being surprised by something ahead of them.
“Look!” he said.
When she turned back, a tremendous white glow had appeared around the corner several paces ahead of them. Amara rushed ahead, rounding the corner only to nearly run face first into Mattias. He’d clearly just transformed back into human form, and quickly stepped backwards out of the way to avoid colliding with her.
“You follow well enough,” he said, adjusting his robes.
He’d led them into a dead end. The high walls of three tall stone-brick houses towered around them. A sizable metal sewer grate had been positioned nearby, presumably to accept water from the storm drains which fed into it.
“I preferred you in bird form,” Evander said. “Were you just naked? Where’d that clothing come from?”
Mattias raised an eyebrow at him. “I left some here earlier, of course. And your interest in what is beneath my clothing is noted.”
The immense eye roll Evander gave him in response was so dramatic that Amara couldn’t help but smile.
“What happened last night?” she asked.
“Hm? What do you mean?” Mattias replied evasively. “Everything happened. And nothing! Are you ready for the sewers?”
“This’s how we’re getting inside,” Evander said.
“Yes. The guards are on high alert, so it would be wise to expect resistance.”
“They’re on high alert,” Amara said, frowning. “Great. I’m sure that has nothing to do with whatever you did last night.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,” Mattias said, extracting a small lantern from his robes. He then walked over to the sewer grate and bent down to open it.
“Climb down, now. Nevermind the rats!”
A ladder led down into the sewer, the bottom of which looked to be at least ten feet below ground. Evander moved to climb down first, but before he did he stopped to look at Amara.
“It’s going great so far,” he quipped, then began to climb down.
Mattias seemed to take some offense at this, and turned to Amara. “I think we’ve done perfectly well in getting here, don’t you?”
“Mattias,” she said. “Don’t make me regret placing trust in you.”
For the first time ever he seemed to be taken aback, and she began to climb down without giving him a chance to respond, uninterested in hearing him attempt to defend himself.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The sewers were not quite as unpleasant as Amara had been expecting, though there had been some areas which definitely matched her expectations. Most of the rooms they entered were empty, for the most part, with very few critters. Cobwebs had been plentiful, but beyond that the sewers had seemed more dusty than disgusting.
What had truly taken Amara by surprise was just how confused the layout of the sewers were. Even though Mattias had said he’d helped to design them, she wondered at just how he could’ve possibly known where to go. There were no directions posted anywhere, and the rooms themselves didn’t seem to follow any sort of logic. One room would be a huge, empty hall which seemed to serve little to no purpose, and the very next room would be long, narrow, and full of strange, rusting machinery. They came across a river of flowing sewage only once, and that at least had been something she'd expected to see.
She gradually lost track of time as they trekked further into the maze of rooms, but Mattias seemed sure of himself no matter what they came across, always moving ahead without the need to pause and consider. When they entered another long, narrow hallway she tried to ask him a question about the sewers, but he quickly shushed her.
“Don’t assume we’re alone down here,” he said quietly.
“What does that mean?” Evander whispered.
“It means don’t assume we’re alone,” Mattias scowled. “Fool.”
“What should we be looking for then?” Amara asked. “This place seems totally dead.”
Mattias expressed disappointment with a few clicks of his tongue. “For shame, Amara. I expected that kind of silly question from him, but you?”
He clicked his tongue again, then turned about to keep going. After only a few steps an odd mechanical clicking noise erupted from the ground by his feet.
“Ah,” he said.
A great rumbling sounded from above the room, and without warning two enormous black iron grates fell from slender compartments hidden within the ceiling. They slammed down with a tremendous crash behind on both ends of the room.
Amara and Evander both winced at the noise, and after taking a moment to look at the grates they turned angry glares onto Mattias.
He gave them an indifferent shrug. “Traps are new for this area. Shabboleth has been busy, I suppose.”
Evander let out a sigh and immediately marched towards the gate blocking the way ahead. He placed both hands on the metal and began to pull it apart, only to let out a yelp of pain and release it moments later.
Amara rushed over to him, but he waved her off.
“I’m fine! The iron just turned scalding hot when I put strength into it.”
Mattias walked over to the grate beside them, and gave it a light scratch with his thumbnail.
“A material which reacts to force by heating up,” he said. “Immense strength really is a common power among the Destined.”
More rumbling sounded from overhead, then suddenly halted. Moments later the entire ceiling fell towards them as though it'd been set loose from the walls holding it up. Amara reacted by throwing her hands up above her head, and Mattias instantly moved to shield her. Evander also threw up his hands, and let out a mixed grunt of pain and effort when he made contact with the ceiling. He’d just barely managed to stop it from crushing them.
“It’s pushing down!” he soon said through gritted teeth.
Amara pushed her way out of Mattias’s hug, shouting at him.
“Do something, you asshole!”
“Me?” he asked incredulously. “Why don’t you do something?”
“This is your fault!”
“You would’ve been trapped here with or without me!”
“Stop arguing with me!!!” she screamed. “For once in your life just shut up and be helpful!!!”
“And why do you expect me to be able to do something? You are the one who just spent a whole week of your life in training, figure something out!”
“Are you—”
What he was getting at clicked, and she sat down right at her feet, shutting her eyes to focus.
If it’s pushing down then someone must be doing the pushing, she thought. And if they’re down here they’ll need a lantern to see what they’re doing.
She tried to center herself on her sense of smell, searching for any hints of smoke or fire in the air. Mattias sat down across from her.
“Whatever you’re doing better be quick!” Evander said, straining.
“Remember the incense,” Mattias said. “The way the smoke rose from it into the air. Those floating and burned particles contained tiny embers you might be able to use.”
Amara shook her head. She reached out, but only felt the flame from Mattias’s lantern sitting on the floor where he’d left it nearby. The flame within it responded to her, but there was no fuel outside of the lantern for it to consume. And the rest of the area around them felt totally inert.
“I only feel your lantern! There’s nothing else!”
The ceiling above them cracked and groaned. Evander let out an urgent grunt, and Amara heard the ceiling fall a few more inches before he managed to stop it again.
“Stop searching around us,” Mattias said. “Look outside of the room.”
“How can I?! I can’t control fire if I don’t even know where it is!”
“Flame exists in the exact same context as you do.”
The words gave her pause.
That’s right, she remembered. We’re equals to the same thing.
She reached out beyond what her body could sense, her mind seeking out unknown extensions of herself like fingers grasping in the dark. The physical layout of the sewers was irrelevant to the Pattern.
Something rose from the darkness as she reached, reacting to her will by reaching back towards her. She placed all her attention on it, and discovered a flame. It could’ve just been a projection from her own emotions, but she could’ve sworn it felt eager to obey.
“I’ve got something,” she said.
“Yes, I can tell.”
“I don’t know where it is, though.”
“Stretch out with it. Flame always needs kindling—use that to gain some idea of the location.”
Amara frowned at how impossible it sounded, but what other choice did she have but to try?
Fire doesn’t have senses, she thought. But it does have desire.
She analyzed every part of the flame, feeling out what it was capable of. The heat itself seemed to react almost independently, as though it only had a mind for what was next to consume.
Inspiration struck her, and she followed the heat as it radiated out from the lantern. She could feel it weakening so quickly as it left the flame. But there was still a measure of control.
A gasp left her as her senses suddenly overloaded. She could feel everything the heat made contact with in the environment around the flame, though it was far too weak to act out its desire. It was like barely brushing against something cold and unknown in the dark, but nevertheless she could feel it.
A room took shape in her mind, with jumbled objects wavering about inside it. Humanoid shapes bent over something wheel-like at the far end of the room, pulling in unison against some odd appendage.
“I see people,” she said. “They’re pulling something.”
“Destroy whatever it is,” Mattias said instantly. “But don’t kill the people. We might need—”
“Screw that!”
Amara centered herself back inside the flame, and commanded it to engorge itself on the fuel. The increased heat and pressure blew the lantern into pieces, freeing the flame from its glass prison. She immediately sent it to spread out wherever it could, and within seconds the entire room was in flames, including the people at the wheel. She could feel everything in the room now with near-perfect clarity. It had a single door off to the lantern’s left, and there wasn't much else in it except for the wheel, which she could now see was a massive, mostly wooden contraption. The four people in the room were soldiers, all panicking and rushing about madly as the flames coated them from head to toe for consumption.
The fire was most eager for the easy fuel which made up the contraption, and she allowed it to focus there. After only a few moments of this Evander’s voice sounded from back near the rest of her body.
“It’s finally stopping,” he said with tremendous relief. “Thank god.”
“Don’t kill them all Amara,” Mattias warned. “We can get information on any other traps—”
“It’s too late,” she said. And it truly was—all four of thesoldiers had already become little more than burned piles of ash and fused metal spread across the floor. “Sorry.”
“Ah, well. You did a decent job for being under so much pressure.”
“You were tracking me the whole time,” she said, opening her eyes. “How?”
“Now that would be telling.”
Mattias regained his feet, and pulled Amara up to hers. The ceiling had descended far enough to force him to duck his head a bit.
Sweat poured off of Evander’s brow, and he wiped at it with his forearm while breathing a huge sigh of relief. If Mattias had to duck his head, Evander was practically bent over at the waist.
“What the hell did you guys do?” he asked, panting. “Not that I’m not grateful.”
“It was all Amara,” Mattias said. “She saved your life.”
“But not yours?”
A grim smile crossed Mattias’s face, but he said nothing.
“Can we get out of here, please?” Amara asked anxiously. “I don’t feel safe under this thing.”
“We’re pretty much stuck, aren’t we?” Evander replied.
Mattias turned about and approached the iron grate which had barred their way. He grasped it with both hands, and to Amara’s shock easily heaved it upwards.
Evander was astonished. “What…! How did you do that?!”
A censorious smirk crossed Mattias’s face as he turned back around. “The trick, young man, is to not mind the pain.”
“You could’ve got us out of here the whole time,” Amara said, outraged. “You were just trying to scare us!”
“If you learn to rely on me you won’t be able to accomplish anything on your own,” he said. “Now, hurry along. More guards will be coming to investigate.”
“Unbelievable…,” Evander muttered as he walked past Mattias. Amara simply shook her head while following Evander out.
Mattias dropped the gate once they’d passed into the next room, and it slammed down behind them.
“Fortunately we were already close to the bottom levels of the castle when all that happened,” he said.
Evander sniffed at the air. “I smell smoke.”
“Yes…the room which controlled the trap should be nearby.”
They soon reached a three-way intersection, and Mattias abruptly halted. He then looked at a nearby wall, and reached over to push against it. A door-shaped opening appeared in the wall at his touch, swinging inwards, and a huge column of black smoke instantly billowed from it.
Amara and Evander tried to disperse the smoke by waving it off, coughing as a large gust of it washed over them. Mattias didn’t seem to mind.
“This is at least two dozen feet away from the trap,” he said, clearly impressed. “Well done indeed, Amara.”
When the smoke finally cleared out enough, she stepped forward to take a look into the room. It’d been almost exactly how she’d visualized it, minus the tremendous black-brown scorch marks spread across every surface. The contraption which had driven the trap sat on the far end of the room, a charred pile of blackened logs and melted iron.
“I didn’t know I had it in me,” she said.
“She can control any fire, anywhere?” Evander asked. “Is there even a word for that?”
Mattias tapped a finger to his lips, thinking. “Hmm…flamesense.”
“Is that really what it’s normally called?” Amara asked.
“No, I invented it just now.”
An odd noise began to echo down one of the hallways of the nearby intersection. Mattias immediately moved over to investigate, and Amara watched as he abruptly pulled his head back. Something metallic and shiny shot through the air where his head had just been, landing with a clatter in the opposite hallway.
Amara and Evander rushed over to Mattias’s side. A small knife now sat on the floor a good distance down the hallway. On the opposite end, perhaps only forty feet or so away, stood Hippolytus, flanked on both sides by at least a dozen guards. His eyes narrowed with determination the moment Amara’s gaze found him, and he reached down to pull another knife from his belt.
“Run!” Mattias shouted, and sprinted off down the opposite hallway. Evander and Amara ran after him, and a burst of angry, commanding shouts erupted from behind. A tremendous clamour of metal against metal and rushing footsteps followed soon after as the guards gave chase.
When she reached the knife, Amara bent down and scooped it up almost without breaking stride. If the guards managed to figure out how she’d killed the others she would need some other way to defend herself.
