by Sky Corbelli
Chapter 46
Providence
The rest of the day slipped idly by, Ezra occasionally leafing through the thunder-struck propaganda he'd inadvertently brought with him. They took turns keeping watch, each looking out for a few hours at a time.
The sun was just beginning to set when Ezra suddenly sat bolt upright. “I've got it,” he whispered. Mat and Sarah looked over with mild interest.
“Would you like to share it with the rest of the class, Hawkins?” Sarah asked dryly.
“The fire,” Ezra said excitedly. “I know how we can find out who caused it. We just ask!”
“Oh?” Mat said, voice amused. “And who are we gonna ask? Are you already on a first name basis with this god, or Earth or Lightning or whoever it is?” He idly nudged The Will of the Elements with his foot.
“No, I mean, we ask the fire-kissed! The one who stopped the fire, what was his name... Stephen!” Ezra announced proudly. “If there was another fire-kissed involved, maybe he, I don't know... felt something.” He beamed at his teammates.
“Okay Hawkins,” Sarah said, serious voice belying merrily dancing eyes. “I like this idea. So what's the plan? Wait, wait, don't tell me... we march down, find this kid, explain who we are with everyone looking on, and then ask him directly if he thinks that maybe there's another fire-kissed around burning the place to cinders?”
“Well, that wasn't exactly–”
“No, hold on, I got it!” Mat interrupted, snickering. “We go down there, in the dead of night, and we... wait for it... we throw a bag over his head and carry him off! But you're saying, 'Hold on Mat, he's a fire-kissed, he'll just toast us the second we jump him.' Well, I've got that covered too. You see, we soak the bag in water. Get it? Water, so that he can't use fire!”
“Fine!” Ezra threw his hands up in disgust. “I was just trying to be helpful, but I can see that you two would rather just sit around here until–”
The door to the bell tower creaked open. Holding a long, heavy looking tube, Stephen the fire-kissed walked into the room. Everyone froze. The boy's eyes locked on to the obviously high-tech railgun next to Ezra.
The team burst into motion. Mat lunged forward, disarming the fire-kissed and sweeping his legs with blinding speed. The dart gun Sarah had just finished re-assembling leaped into her hand as she sighted and fired in a smooth motion. Stephen fell heavily to the floor as his legs flew out from under him and the dart hit home. The Sanctuary team blinked at each other.
Mat cleared his throat and said hopefully, “I need to ask the Haldis girls a few questions about the fire too. It would help if all three of them were naked.” He looked around expectantly, then sighed in disappointment. “I guess that's not working anymore.”
“Huh,” Ezra said, looking at the young man on the floor. He picked up the tube Mat had skillfully removed from the young elementalist's person and carefully opened it. Inside he found... a telescope? “Huh,” he said again.
“Well... that... huh,” Sarah agreed eloquently.
Ezra's brain finally caught up. “Okay then, uh... Mat. Do you have anything that will bring down a fever?”
“I don't think you're hallucinating, man,” Mat said wonderingly. “Or maybe I'm hallucinating too. You might be on to something with the fever–”
“No, not for me, for him. I have a theory that if we can lower his core temperature, we can essentially prevent him from using his powers. I read about something like it in a mission report, where a fire-kissed melted through a frozen lake. His people pulled him out, but he couldn't call up any fire, at least for a little while. The villagers chased him out of town.”
Mat snapped his fingers. “Got just the thing.” He started going through his medical kit mumbling to himself about body mass and average temperature.
“Good. Sarah, how long will he be out? Can you tie him up securely before he comes to?”
“Um,” Sarah blinked away her confusion. “A normal person would be down for eighteen hours, give or take, depending on body mass. But... with how hot he is I bet he'll burn through it by morning. So yeah.” She uncoiled a length of rope from her pack and went to work. “I think I can manage.”
“Right, good,” Ezra leaned down to check the boy's pulse. Strong and steady. “Interesting... looks like his powers are linked into his conscious mind. He feels much cooler than he should now that he's out.”
Sarah glanced at Ezra as she secured one of Stephen's arms, then shrugged. “I guess. Still feels pretty warm to me.”
Ezra nodded absently, lost in thought.
==
Stephen woke shivering. That was probably for the best. “Who are you people?” He looked around wide-eyed. “W-what are you doing here?”
“Calm down, no-one's going to hurt you,” Ezra said. “We just need to ask you a few questions.”
The fire-kissed focused on Ezra, teeth chattering. “Wh-why am I so cold?”
“To prevent misunderstandings,” Mat muttered from his position with the railgun, watching the road. Sarah remained silent, standing behind the bound young man, crossbow trained on his skull.
“Stephen, please, we don't have a lot of time,” Ezra said quickly. “We need to know about the fire that you stopped. Can you tell me how you did it? Was there another fire-kissed out there who was controlling it?”
“Another... no, I-I don't know. It was like... Oh Mother help me, I don't know anything. Please you have to believe me.”
Ezra took a deep breath. “Okay, let's start at the beginning, then. When did you realize you were a fire-kissed?”
“Um,” Stephen swallowed hard, “it w-was during the firestorm, I guess. Y-you see, I star-gaze. I come up here on clear nights with m-my telescope.” He suddenly started twisting around. “You didn't break it did you?” he asked in genuine panic. “I-it's been in my family for generations. Please, is it okay?”
Ezra scooped up the telescope case and popped the top open for Stephen to see. The young man sagged in relief. “Oh thank Fire and Earth. W-where was I? Oh, right, star-gazing. I was sleeping late b-because there was going to be a m-meteor shower. And Fire, she came to me, in a dream... so b-beautiful. She s-said there was no time, then she...” His face flushed and he squirmed awkwardly. “She k-kissed me. And then, i-it was like I was on fire. I m-must have fallen off the bed, 'cuz I woke up all sweaty, a-and stumbled outside.” The blood drained from his face as he spoke. “Everything was b-burning. The sky, it was all smoke and ash, and I could feel the f-fire coming. I tried to push it back, b-but it was just t-too much. I tried, I did... I just w-wasn't strong enough.” Stephen looked up, eyes pleading.
“That's enough, that's good, thank you Stephen,” Ezra glanced back at Sarah, who shrugged her shoulders. The kid was clearly a mess of guilt. Well, it was something, at least. Stephen probably wasn't responsible for the fire, and if it had been the work of a more experienced fire-kissed they would have most likely overwhelmed him in short order. Ezra wiped his brow.
“We've got incoming,” Mat said softly. “Holy... something out there is really hot. And it's... it's like the same temperature all the way through, no excess heat bleeding out at all. That's gotta be her.” Mat deftly switched the scope from thermal to visual. “Struck me, she's in some kinda palanquin or something, bare-backed slaves carrying it on poles and everything. I can't see her at all. It looks like she's got... four, eight, sixteen... at least sixteen guards, and they're marching in good order.”
“What are you t-talking about?” Stephen asked, teeth still chattering. “Who's coming?”
“Quiet,” Ezra hissed, watching Mat anxiously.
“Wait, wait, two more and... thundering hell, they're wearing these ridiculous full body black robes, cowls and everything. I know it's not as hot as it was yesterday, but it's still blighted warm out there. Something's off about this whole thing though... I can't put my finger on it... it's like...” Mat froze. He didn't even breath for at least ten seconds. “Bad things happen. Oh god, bad thin
gs happen,” he whispered rapidly under his breath. “Sarah... Sarah you need to come look at this.”
Ezra cleared his throat meaningfully while Sarah stared daggers at Mat.
“Struck security, you need to see this now!” He jumped to his feet, drawing his bolt-thrower and leveling it on Stephen.
“N-no, please I d-didn't-”
Mat kicked him in the head. “I'm not joking around here.” His voice was calm, level, and deadly serious. The fire-kissed slumped to the side, unconscious. “Sarah, go look in the strucking scope.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “All right, all right, I'm looking.” She laid her crossbow down and sighted along the scope. “I don't see them, they passed behind a hill.”
“Give it time,” Mat said, worried gaze still locked in the direction of the Besmirched expedition.
Ezra checked Stephen's pulse. Still alive, just knocked out again. Well, he hadn't hoped to get much more out of the young man anyways...
“Okay, they're coming around the hill. Looks like your count was accurate, still no visual on the fire-kissed. Yes those robes are ridiculous, Mat what am I supposed to be looking for here?” She turned and glanced back at Mat, exasperated.
Mat returned her stare in steely silence. Sarah made a disgusted sound and put her eye back to the scope. “They're maybe three or four minutes away at the pace they're going. At least the blighted guards are keeping step like halfway competent military and holding their guns...” Her breath caught in her throat. “Their blighted guns,” she whispered. “Thundering hell, those can't be their guns.”
“What?” Ezra asked, confused. “What's wrong with their guns?”
Sarah looked up at him, horrified. “Their guns were made in Sanctuary.”