I stared around the enclosure and wondered how true that statement actually was.
Use your Pyrkagia, the Earth suggested. Together we are stronger.
I hoped that meant strong enough to combat a horde of Gi.
I gathered firewood and dried leaves for a fire, then set about collecting berries and nuts for my dinner. I didn't have it in me to search out a stream and attempt to capture fish. And although, should I have requested, the Earth would have provided further nourishment in the form of some other edible animal for me to cook, I thought I'd asked enough of it for one day. Berries and nuts would have to do.
I set the wood in an appropriate fashion for a fire and stared at it for a long minute. This was it. The moment I actively accepted I was part Pyrkagia as well as part Gi. It took an awful lot more courage than I had expected. So much had happened today. Hell, so much had freaking happened in the past few months, I was on information and transformation overload.
But I needed warmth, about as much as I needed Pyrkagia to help the Earth keep the Gi away. I couldn't afford to be hesitant, to be unsure of what I could achieve. I may question what I was becoming, but I didn't have the luxury to question what I could do.
My life had altered beyond recognition, with me along with it. I just had to do what I needed to do to stay alive.
I stretched my hand out over the wood pile and watched as it shook with tiny tremors. Nothing happened, just an increase in trembling, now rising up my entire arm. I sucked in a deep breath, rolled my shoulders and muttered, "Here goes nothing," under my breath.
Burn, I instructed the Fire and a spark flared from the tip of my fingers and lazily drifted down into the twigs and dried leaves at its base. Within a second the fire roared to life, so much more impressive than had I attempted to light it with a Zippo.
A laugh escaped my lips, a smile spreading them wide. "Way cool," I murmured into the flames.
Heat washed up my face, Pyrkagia congratulating me on my first command.
"Thanks," I whispered, settling in to stare hypnotised into the flickering yellow-red glow.
A hiss. A crackle. A change in pitch, and then...
"Casey? Oraia, is that you?"
Oh dear God, not again.
Chapter Seven
And The Hits Just Kept Coming, Didn't They?
"Don't run!" Theo's voice sounded out from the flames of the fire I had just lit.
"This isn't real," I whispered, backing away from the warmth of the glow and staring blindly into the darkened forest that surrounded my makeshift camp. "Where are you!" I shouted, my fists clenched, my breathing ragged.
I couldn't run again. I didn't have it in me. I'd have to stay and fight. But the thought of what had happened last time, sent my stomach rolling and my head spinning. I was too tired for this. Too beaten down. Too damn alone to go on much longer.
"I don't know how you're doing it," Theo in the fire said evenly, "but you're communicating though Pyrkagia flames."
"No," I shook my head from side to side, staring accusingly at the fire as though it was its fault for tricking me in such a harsh fashion. "It's Hederin," I explained, to myself, to whoever was channelling the essence and making me believe this cruel joke was real. "I know what you're doing!" I shouted. "It won't work. He's dead."
"Casey?" Theo sounded distressed. My heart broke again for the millionth time.
"I can't do this anymore," I whimpered, a sob following up that wretched acknowledgement.
"Oraia," he murmured. "Please tell me you are safe."
I glanced around the clearing. Still no Gi Guards. Why were they waiting? Why weren't they chuckling in dark humour, enjoying the mortification and angst on my face? Cowards!
My eyes automatically came back to the flames of the fire, which licked higher and higher into the air, as though responding to my stress level.
Are they here? I asked the Fire.
You are alone, it replied. We shield you. You are safe from physical harm.
I sank back on my butt astounded. So much to take from those simple words. The Gi Guards weren't here. Weren't close enough to use Hederin. Fire and Earth protected my clearing from detection. All good news, all welcomed.
But I couldn't help notice the choice of words Fire had used. You are safe from physical harm. Mental? Emotional? I was on my own, there was nothing my Stoicheio could do about those.
A breath of air escaped me as dawning comprehension entered my frame. I started to shake. A full body tremor. Uncertainty and excitement duelling inside my stomach, making for an acidic cocktail in my gut. I rubbed it absently, as I continued to stare almost blindly into the flames.
Theo. Was it possible the Hederin, Davos had used to make me see Theo's death, was an actual illusion, not just an hallucinated vision of what had transpired?
"Theo, is this real?" I asked the flames and heard his distinctive rumble of laughter.
"Sweet little Gi, this is real. I don't know how you've done it, but I'm standing in front of my fire in the parlour of my home, carrying out a Pyrkagia communication with you."
"I watched you die," I said, my voice beyond shaky.
"Cassandra. I am a Prince of Pyrkagia, it takes more than a spindly vine to sever my head."
Ah, there was the Theo I had come to love with all my heart. Arrogant, princely, superior.
I started to cry. Full body sobs that racked my frame, wrenching achingly poignant sounds from deep inside, pouring copious tears down my cheeks, and threatening to consume me.
"Oraia, please. I'm fine. I'm healthy. I'm safe." A pause, his voice stronger, harder. "Are you safe?"
I couldn't answer him at first. Too far gone in my convulsive sobbing to stop it now. Theo waited. The flames continued to crackle and hiss. Heat from Fire wrapped around me, the soothing scent of Earth centred me, but it took several long seconds for me to finally gain some semblance of control.
"Theo," I murmured, my voice cracking on his name, my throat so raw, my heart not much better. "I'm in trouble, Theo," I added, my words barely audible above the sound of the wood burning.
The fire flared brighter for a second and then Theo's voice urgently demanded, "What sort of trouble?"
Oh, freaking hell. Where to begin?
I still couldn't quite comprehend that this was real, that Theo was talking to me through the flames of a fire. But what had I just been thinking? Don't ask why, just trust what I can do. And I could command both Gi and Pyrkagia Stoicheio. Therefore I could potentially communicate through the flames of Fire like I'd seen Theo do back in Auckland city.
I still had no idea how this had happened, but similar to the unanswerable question of why, I just had to push past the confusion and doubt and do. It had to be related to Noah calling me an Aether, but for some reason I felt it necessary to abbreviate my story for Theo right now. Fire was new to me. I'd been let down by the Earth, could I fully trust the ability of Fire to keep this conversation secret?
I couldn't chance it. Not yet.
But there was some of what had happened I felt safe in divulging. And this was Theo, my Theo, I needed him like I needed air to breathe. Distance would never halt that desire. He'd said the same thing back in Auckland to me. "You are my Thisavros... Nothing can change that. Not the rules. Not the fact that you are Gi and I am Pyrkagia. Not even distance."
And he was my Thisavros too.
The rules had changed, the world Theo and I thought we'd lived in had altered. Gi were after me. Alchemists were after me. Pyrkagia was not the safe harbour it had once been. But Theo was mine. And somehow we'd been given a second chance. When I'd thought him dead for three months, mourned him for three months, and then had him returned to me through the flames of a camp fire in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.
My heart hadn't stopped racing, but now it swelled with joy instead of being cut to shreds with pain.
"I'm in the middle of the Amazon, trying to make it to Manaus on foot," I started, somehow feeling his anxiety through the lick of heat
from the flames. "The Gi thought me an imposter." He swore in Greek. "I've been their prisoner for the past three months."
Holy freak fire show. The flames roared up to the treetops, crackled and hissed with Theo's outrage.
"What did they do?" he demanded.
I didn't reply. The absence of my answer was answer enough. I heard Theo's shout of unmitigated anger. I felt the heat of his rage. Over all of it another voice sounded through the flames.
"Miss Eden, keep the fire burning. He just needs a minute and he'll be back."
Aktor. Theo's sweet old butler, there to help calm his irate master and soothe my frayed nerves.
I nodded, aware he couldn't see me, but unable to voice my compliance aloud. I dug my fingers into the soil at my sides and let the Earth wash through me. And waited.
The flames continued to fluctuate with whatever was happening on Theo's side of the world. They flickered differing colours of red, yellow, orange, scarlet and gold. Truly beautiful in their splendour, despite the reason for their unusual colour combination.
Minutes ticked by, longer than Aktor had suggested. But I had nowhere else to be. No one else to turn to. So I waited, eventually standing up and stretching my muscles, and pacing around the edge of the fire.
The flames had settled at some point and I was aware it was just an ordinary fire burning through wood. I gathered some more dry kindling and added that to the flames, ensuring the fire would burn for as long as Theo and Aktor needed it. Fully prepared to forgo sleep in order to keep this tenuous link to Theo alive.
My stomach growled out of hunger, even world altering, life changing events, couldn't keep the need to find sustenance at bay. I nibbled on nuts, sucked the sweet juice from berries and continued my march around the camp fire.
Exhaustion came half an hour after Theo had flipped out. I settled in a ball on my side, letting the Earth cup me and Fire keep me warm, and waited with half closed eyes. My wait eventually paid off, the flames flared briefly, the crackle of wood burning changed pitch, and I sat myself back up rubbing my blurry eyes.
"Cassandra," Theo said out of the flames. "Oraia, are you still there?"
"Yes," I breathed, a sense of incomparable relief washing through me.
"I'll be in Manaus in just over one day."
Simple words. A short sentence. And my world suddenly shone so much brighter.
I wiped at stray tears and forced myself to reply.
"I should be there by then," I said to the flames.
"I'm sorry I have no way of offering you more support. Are the Gi tracking you?" he asked.
"They've caught up once already." My stomach flipped at the memories of that encounter. "The doctor who helped me escape was captured, I think. So far, I've kept hidden from them." I offered a small smile he wouldn't have seen, but hopefully heard in my voice. "I'll avoid them. I have my talents."
"Oh, sweet Gi, don't I know it," he purred, making heat lick up my cheeks at his sensual tone. Silence as we both reminisced. Then, he added, "Are you injured, Casey. Has your Stoicheio replenished?"
I couldn't risk talking about the Alchemists calling me an Aether. And although anyone listening in would know I'd tapped into Pyrkagia Stoicheio to talk to Theo right now, confirming I'd had an Awakening experience, similar to my Gi Awakening in that pit of dirt, was a chance I couldn't take. For now, all communications via this method needed to be vetted, carefully phrased, not to give any enemies material to use against me.
Theo wasn't an enemy. Never was, although at times we'd been set on that course unwillingly. But full disclosure of what had happened would have to wait until I met him in Manaus. Keeping my lips sealed was one of the hardest things I'd done to date. The desire to shed the load, to share the burden with my Thisavros, was intense in its pull, in its temptation.
But I was not safe, and the more I dragged Theo into this, the more unsafe he would become too.
"I'm recovering from injuries," I finally admitted truthfully. "My Stoicheio is making a difference every day I am back in touch with it."
"They cut you off from Gi?" he asked incredulously. He shouldn't have been surprised. He'd once threatened to do the very same, when he first found out I was Gi. Athanatos are very paranoid creatures. He worked through that urge, once he'd realised I wasn't an imposter or agent of the Gi sent to Pyrkagia to spy.
I chose not to remind him, instead I said softly, "I'm free now, Theo. Let's just concentrate on the next few hours until I can be in your arms again."
A sound so pained came through the flames, as though he had been suffering this entire time along with me. It made a corresponding burst of pent up agony slip from my lips. The Gi, and in particular the Basilissa, had done a lot of damage. But I refused to let them win.
We would get past this.
"Very well, Cassandra," Theo said finally. "Stay safe and get some rest. This time tomorrow light a fire and Aktor will communicate with you. I'll undoubtedly be landing not long after. But in case I'm held up, Aktor will be there to talk to you in my stead."
"OK," I murmured in reply, not wanting to end our fire talk, wanting to stay up all night and listen to his voice, hear him speak, feel closer to him than I had done for months. I wanted to know what he'd been up to. How he'd managed to recover from the Gi attack. How the Gi had escaped retaliation from the Pyrkagia. There were so many questions to ask, which he could have answered easily through the flames of this fire. But there was one question that kept springing to the forefront of my mind, wiping out all the rest.
How had Theo drowned his sorrows? I knew him, even though I'd only known him intimately for a few days before I'd left. I'd crushed on him for so much longer than that. Watched his every move. Fallen deeper and deeper with every interaction. Until in the end I had a pretty good idea of how the three thousand year old Theodoros Petropoulos behaved.
And unlike Aktor, his much older servant, Theo chose distraction to deal with the hurdles that arose during his long life. Who had he used to distract from the pain of losing me?
So, I didn't ask any questions, for fear that one would burst free before I could stop it.
"Safe flight," I wished him instead, praying the next few days would go quickly.
"Oraia," he murmured. "I have missed you, my sweet little Gi. You have no idea how much."
If it was half as much as I had missed him, thinking him gone from me forever, gone from this world forever, then it would have been too much. At least he'd known I lived, and had thought I was being cared for by kin.
I was picking he was going to have a sleepless night, dealing with the knowledge of my reality.
"I've missed you too," I said softly in answer. A simple statement which I could have ruined with so many more words of the heartache and pain I had suffered. I clamped my lips shut. Theo didn't need to hear them. He probably already knew.
"My Casey," he whispered as the flames flared briefly and began to wane. The communication about to be terminated. "I love you, Oraia. Eternally."
I didn't get a chance to reply, the flames settled and crackled, changing tone and letting me know he had gone. He'd done it on purpose. Maybe fearful I didn't feel the same anymore and wouldn't return the sentiment. So much had happened, I couldn't blame him that doubt. But was infinitely grateful he'd worn his heart on his sleeve and said the words I so needed to hear.
I promised myself, they would be the first words he heard from my lips when I saw him again.
I watched the fire burn slowly for a few more minutes and then fatigue took over. I'd experience a gamut of emotions today. From fear and terror, to shock and surprise. To an unbelievable amount of wonder and relief. And now, after such a roller-coaster of a day, I needed sleep, and the only emotion that really counted.
Love. My love for Theo. Which was no longer a fool's love, no longer a love never to be requited. But a true love of two souls meant to be together, despite hurdles, despite rules and the parameters of the world they were stuck in. Love that transcends
all.
And hopefully, conquers all.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face, vaguely aware that the battle ahead for both Theo and I was not yet won. Not by a long shot.
I became aware that fireworks were exploding in the sky in a multitude of iridescent colours. Electric blue. Dazzling white. Flame red. Sunburst yellow. Vibrant green. Laughter from an invisible source sounded out in my mind, as the dreamscape coalesced around me. A huge bonfire sat in the middle of a farmer's field, sparks floating up in dizzying patterns into a blackened night sky.
I'd seen this bonfire before. In a book my grandfather had given me when I was young. A book titled, Heat And The Properties Of Fire.
I spun around searching for my dead grandfather, knowing instinctively that he'd be here. That he'd appear real and alive. And that he had a hell of a lot of questions to answer. I may not be able to trust the sanctity and security of my Gi Stoicheio right now, but something told me these dreams were entirely different, and entirely true.
An impossibility, but then much in my world now days was impossible, yet true.
"Gramps," I said when I saw him walk out from behind the larger than life bonfire. He looked the same as he did in the last dream, when he stood beneath the boughs of a Moreton Bay Fig Tree. Much the same as he did the day before he died.
Greying blond hair, swept back off his almost wrinkle free face. Smooth, stubble free cheeks, blue dancing eyes, and a wide, amused grin on his lips. At sixty, he'd appeared forty-five. Never ageing the same way my grandmother did. A fact she continually bemoaned, until he was lost at sea and she realised image was never as important as life.
"What's happening to me?" I demanded, not waiting for him to speak.
He chuckled, a rumble from deep inside his chest. A sound so familiar from my childhood it brought back sudden memories of sitting in his workshop, playing with his wood carving tools, as he told my brother and I stories to pass the time. I realised now, with dawning comprehension, that those stories were about Elements. The Earth and all her beauty. The Fire and all its magnificent power. The Air and all its complex controls over the environment. The Water and its essential part in the world's balance.
Elemental Awakening Book Bundle Page 34