The Spirus

by JB Trepagnier

  “I’m better rested now,” she said. “I need all of you to leave except Volaris, Terros, Fluvis, and my grandfather.”

  Oris got upset and ran his fingers through his long, blonde hair. He normally kept it back with a leather strip, but whatever had happened when they went back to his chambers together, it was loose. Volaris didn’t want to think about what might have happened between the four of them.

  “I can feel everything you do now. Why would you connect us if we can’t hear your plans?”

  “Because I can already tell you’re going to try to come with us anyway and I’ve already told you that you have to stay. I can’t protect that many people and some of you will die if you try to come with us!”

  “You’ve managed to do all you’ve done so far, but you can’t protect one extra person if I come?”

  “No, I can’t! I’m still part human and I can die. You felt my limits earlier today when we all needed to sleep. You need to accept you will not fight this battle with me. I’m not telling you this again. All of you need to leave now.”

  Volaris didn’t know if what she said struck a nerve or he was feeling something from her that caused him to back down. They all left, grumbling under their breaths that if they were to be married to her, she shouldn’t keep secrets from them. When she was sure they were gone, she finally sat with them. Volaris wondered if she would connect them to her too and they would get the same gifts their sons received. She must have seen the look he was giving her and explained to him the light would not come again and even if she connected them, they wouldn’t be like their sons. She refused to talk about what she had done anymore and was looking at her hands like she didn’t want to speak. Maybe now she was ready to tell them how she intended to end this with just the five of them.

  “The conversation we heard about the boat…the boat is getting close. In a few days, we will meet them on Idric and end this. You will need to train. I saw how the old Tempris died. They tried to fling fire at each arrow. There’s another way. If the four of you stand close enough, you can create a heat wall around you that will burn their arrows before they pierce you. You won’t get close enough to their swords, but you may need to help me make them hot enough for them to drop them. You’re not there to fight or die. You are only there to stop them long enough to listen to me.”

  Volaris had questions and he was sure Terros would yell again, but he could see his face in deep concentration, like he was trying to make the heart flower rather than get angry with her again. Fluvis finally spoke first.

  “You’re going to end this by talking to them? I don’t think you understand. Volaris and the Farkhi have been watching them for years. They can’t be reasoned with and they want you and the rest of us dead. How are we supposed to do any of this on Idric? You’re the only person in our history who has had magic there and it’s because of who you are.”

  “That will change. All of you I’ve gifted using the light have it in you now and can use magic on Idric, like me. They won’t expect it and we will catch them by surprise. They think it will be an easy kill. I’m hoping to surprise them enough that they will listen to me.”

  Volaris put his hand on her arm. “You can’t reason with them. They won’t listen to what you say and will try to kill all five of us. I’ve been watching them since before you were born.”

  “You knew I wanted to do this without hurting anyone. This is how. They are this way because they don’t understand. I will make them understand and I will give them a choice. Peace will come and I hope none of these humans will have to die.”

  “I don’t understand,” Volaris said, shaking his head. “You heard what they want to do to you when they catch you. You heard what they want to do to us. They hate us. They want us dead and they want to keep you in a cage.”

  He was surprised to see that impish smile come back on her face and didn’t think it was appropriate during this discussion. “We can’t go by boat. They’ve stopped running because of the weather and it’s faster to fly. They’ll be so shocked, they will have to listen until the four of you have to stop them from reaching for their weapons.”

  They all started asking her if she was going to gift them again and Volaris could see Terros concentrating because he knew he didn’t want to be more than Theran and was still angry Oris was now like her. Volaris still didn’t think it was appropriate, but she laughed. “None of you have gone with me when I swim. I can also change myself like the creatures in the stories Belisarus told me. You will all fly on my back to get to Idric.”

  Volaris didn’t speak while everyone was talking to her at once. He had a feeling Belisarus kept her entertained growing up by telling her wild tales and old stories Volaris didn’t know since he refused to tell her he was her grandfather until after she left. He had no idea what she intended to become that was large enough for all four of them to fit on her back. He couldn’t swim with her and didn’t know what she became underwater. Fluvis apparently knew and kept trying to tell her that the only reason she was safe underwater the way she swam was because of Neptis and if she intended to fly them the same way, they would all be in danger. Terros was arguing that he had never flown before and he didn’t want to start on her back. Joron only looked at her sadly and asked if she had thought this through all the way and wasn’t putting herself in danger.

  She asked all of them to stop talking. She told all of them they would need to call the men she had changed and she would call Leodos. They would need to bring their bows because tomorrow, she would be teaching them to burn arrows and melt metal before it hit them.

  She stood up and walked away and Volaris just sat there with more questions. She had said from the beginning she didn’t want to hurt anyone. Her plan had so many holes in it and all of them could be hurt with arrows flying at them tomorrow. He didn’t understand why she didn’t want to hurt any of the humans after hearing what they wanted to do with her when they found her.

  Leodos

  Leodos and Esylle had gone back to their chambers and he was shocked she was not upset about this morning. He still didn’t like what he had heard and thought she shouldn’t have gone to Oris’ chambers. He was pacing the room while Esylle lounged on the bed and she asked him what was wrong like this morning hadn’t happened.

  “You’ve accepted what you heard this morning and what she did?”

  “I don’t like it, but she says it’s supposed to happen. Now that I can feel her, I don’t want to know what it feels like when you tell me I’m pushing her away.”

  “I’d rather you push her away on this. She can’t marry three boys and if what she said to Oris to calm him is that the four of them will sleep in the same bed, she can’t do that either. I don’t want to be in the room next to her thinking about it!”

  She got out of bed and slipped her arms around his waist. “I don’t want to think about it either. This is why she didn’t want to tell us. I think it’s going to take the two of us longer to get used to it than those three boys. I think they are just so happy she’s chosen them, they don’t think about what it means.”

  “What are we going to do with her?” he asked, resting his head on her hair. Since this morning, he could now smell things that he couldn’t before. Esylle normally smelled like jasmine, but now he could pick up other things that he wouldn’t have been able to smell before under the jasmine. When he got close to Lisana, she had the same underlying smell that Esylle did. She didn’t wear perfume like her mother and he couldn’t pick out the heady scent coming from her.

  “I don’t think we can. She’s going to leave soon to fight a battle she won’t tell us about. I have a feeling she’s telling my father what he needs to do and the only way we will get an answer is if we ask him.”

  He was about to speak when Lisana opened the door and came in. He couldn’t help it and told her he was glad she came back here instead of going back to Oris’ chambers with the others. He asked if she would please sleep in her own chambers with her mother until after
she was wed and he would try not to comment on what she needed to do. He was surprised she didn’t get upset with him and only told him that he may need to argue with Oris, Neptis, and Sono about it. He stopped her and asked her what she wanted to do. She confessed she didn’t know and didn’t intend to tell anyone until much later.

  She quickly changed the subject, like she didn’t want to discuss it anymore and told him he would need to be outside in the cold with his bow tomorrow, but that he could warm himself now so it didn’t bother him. He couldn’t imagine what he would need his bow for now and tried to refuse when she told him what she intended him to do with it. Esylle was trying to calm both of them while they argued.

  “If this is your plan, I demand to come with you to protect you. I don’t think you’ve thought this through and your mother told me what they want to do with you.”

  “You can’t protect me from everything. Even though you are like me in some ways now, I’m still stronger than you are.”

  To prove a point, he walked over to her and looked down at her. He towered over her by nearly a foot, but she had never been scared of him, even from the beginning. He picked her up and held her over his head, trying to prove to her that even though she had all of these gifts, she was still a small girl and he could easily overpower her. She couldn’t burn him now and he knew she wouldn’t use the light to hurt him. She didn’t struggle and she still wasn’t afraid of him. She laughed and asked him what he was doing.

  He set her down and hoped she would be serious for a moment. “Autar, who I imagine was the general you overheard, is my height and outweighs me by at least sixty pounds of sheer muscle. If I can overpower you like that, what do you think he will do to you? You’re still a tiny girl and part of you is still human. You have this notion in your head that you don’t want to hurt anyone. If he gets close enough to hurt you, he will kill you because you don’t want to hurt him.”

  “The only reason you were able to lift me was because I let you and I can’t burn you anymore. He can’t get close enough to hurt me. I didn’t say I refused to hurt anyone. I said I didn’t want to.”

  “I think you don’t want to enough that you’re going to endanger yourself and everyone else you bring with you and I demand to come with you.”

  He watched two flames dance in her eyes as she crossed her arms and glared at him. “My mother has already lost my father. What do you think it will do to her if I allow you to come and something happens to you because you think you can protect me better than I can myself?”

  He grabbed her shoulders and tried not to get angry with her again, but he could feel heat rising in him again and tried to concentrate on the flower Esylle had taught him. “What do you think it will do to your mother to lose you after finding you again?”

  “She’s not going to lose anyone because I will do what needs to be done and you’re staying here!”

  Esylle finally spoke and told her if she needed a fire wall to melt arrows while she delivered her message, maybe it was best if both of them went with her to add more fire. Leodos thought it was going to push her away again, but she threw up her hands in frustration and flopped into the chair by the bed.

  “You keep talking about losing me. Have either of you thought I don’t want you there because I don’t want to lose either one of you now that I’ve gotten to know you?”

  She wasn’t trying to block them from feeling her now. He could feel frustration and weariness coming from her. It wasn’t the same as this morning when she really needed to sleep. He couldn’t tell if everything she had done and everything she needed to do was finally wearing her down or if she just didn’t want to have this conversation with them. He finally just asked, knowing she may either make herself into a cat again because she didn’t want to talk anymore or she would leave them to run. He could try to stop her now and didn’t think she should be outside where the human army might find her.

  “I tire of telling Oris and now you that you can’t come with me. If I let you come, he will insist,” she said with her head in her hand.

  “I don’t understand,” Esylle finally said. “If you need fire to help you, why don’t you need all of us? You’re putting yourself in danger again and I don’t like it.”

  “You don’t have to like it,” the girl snapped. “You just have to stay here and accept it.”

  “I’m older than you and have been using fire longer. You need more than four bodies to protect you while you try to speak if you don’t want to take another arrow. Leodos was only one when he shot at you and there will be an entire army there ready to capture you and kill the others.”

  Something was racing through the girl’s mind. He could tell she was in intense thought, but he could only feel her and not read her mind. He hoped she was considering what Esylle had just told her. Esylle was right. She needed more people there with fire for what she was wanting to do. He heard her tell Oris she didn’t think she could protect him, but they had all of her gifts now aside from being able to give them to other people.

  “I will only allow the two of you to come if you do exactly as you are told and don’t try to stop anything that needs to happen. I won’t be able to protect you in the form I take when I’m delivering my message. I will be adding to the fire, but you can’t move past me or you will die. I’m only allowing you to come because what my mother says makes sense, but I don’t trust either of you not to do something because you think I’m in danger. You’re going to have to stand there with everyone making fire. They may shoot arrows at me, but they will burn before they pierce me, so you have to stay where you are and let them shoot at me. You won’t like it. I won’t be hit. I promise all of you, no harm will come to me, nor anyone else there.”

  Leodos hoped that calmed Esylle and he would be able to just stand and watch while arrows sailed towards her. It didn’t calm Esylle at all. As much as she said she didn’t want to feel what the girl felt when she pushed her away, she did it again.

  “My family has been marrying humans for years. We’ve been hiding ourselves for so many years until you came. You can’t reason with them.”

  “Part of you is human, as am I. You loved Leodos before you met my father and he was human before I changed him. The four humans that traveled with us are not bad and only sought to protect me. They aren’t all bad, they just don’t understand where they came from. If they don’t understand and do not accept the choice I give them, they can stay on Idric, or I’ll do what I have to. Don’t ask me what that means,” she snapped, cutting Esylle off.

  “If you don’t want to talk, at least come eat with us. You’re hungry and your stomach is empty because you slept through lunch. I won’t ask you about what happens and I promise to do what you tell me when we go with you.”

  The girl stood and she was blocking them again. She agreed to go eat and Leodos’ stomach was also feeling off because hers was rumbling, even though he had eaten lunch. She warned both of them on the way out that they needed to be well rested tomorrow because she would be teaching them to burn arrows. Leodos had been sleeping better than he normally did since they got here and Esylle slept in his arms and now they slept with Lisana. He didn’t want to ask who she would be sleeping with tonight. She must have felt something from him because she turned and answered his question. She told both Leodos and her mother since it bothered them so much and they still needed time to get used to her choice, she would be sleeping in her own chambers while they were here.

  Joron

  Joron had been trained to use fire longer than anyone and he didn’t understand how she intended to burn steel from arrows. The wood was easy and he thought it would be easier to stop the arrows the way she told them had been done before. He didn’t think forming a heat wall like she was wanting to do would accomplish anything except fill all of them with arrows and get her captured.

  As soon as he walked onto the beach, he had to let the heat in him bloom so the cold wouldn’t bother him. He couldn’t do anything about the strong wi
nd that never seemed to stop blowing. He joined the others and was trying to teach them how to make the cold better when his granddaughter appeared with the four humans holding their bows. None of them looked like they wanted to shoot at anyone.

  Lisana came and joined Joron and the others. She said she could teach them because she found out Esylle took Terros’ fire. She asked all of them to place their hands on her and not form the flower this time. She said to only try to control it in the sense that they allowed it a few feet in front of them. The fire she sent to him was greater than anything he had ever held before since he had to hide his gifts for so long. He tried to remember if he had held this much as a child and was still learning, but it had been so long.

  She called at them to concentrate and hold it when she finally let the flow stop. She asked them to remember what this felt like. They stood in a line behind of her. Esylle had told him she knew what form she must take to deliver the message, but she didn’t seem like she wanted to show them today. She stood in front of them and held her arms out. He couldn’t see anything after that because she erupted into flames that shot out of her arms as long as the line they were standing in.

  He could hear her, over the crackling of flame, calling for the men to shoot arrows at him. Leodos had somehow got her to agree to let him join them and was standing next to him. He could make out the men with arrows calling her that they didn’t want to shoot. She called to them that they needed to shoot at them now so they could learn or risk them being shot when they left. She tried to reassure all of them they would not be hit. The men called that they were shooting and apologized if anything hit them.

  Joron tried to brace himself and he looked over at Leodos who had his mouth set at a grim line. He tried to concentrate on the extreme amount of fire he was holding and not let it slip. He had never been seriously injured before aside from cuts and scrapes. Even when he was being trained to use a sword, they were easy with him and always let him win. He knew she could and would heal him if he was struck and closed his eyes and waited to be pierced by an arrow.