Azra of the Burning Sands (Genesis Project)

by Arlin Fehr

  Gentle Current lead the way, he seemed to be leading them towards a light in the distance. Azra found it difficult to see in the water. He could only see a few feet in front of him, but he could see the light. It was like seeing a full moon through the mist. He moved toward it, a ghostly light shimmering through murky darkness.

  They got closer to it, and Azra gasped as a pillar of stone loomed out of the dark to his right. His guides went onward unerringly, obviously capable of seeing the course ahead much better than he could. They angled down, and turned upright, setting down on what appeared to be smooth stone. His guides let go of his arms.

  He was very close to the light now. He could see silhouettes through the gloom standing between him and the source of the light. He could feel a tingling in his body. It was the same sensation as when his power began to surge uncontrollably, except it was not growing out of control, it was a mild sensation. Nevertheless, it made him uneasy.

  Gentle Current stepped out of the gloom, flanked by two tall creatures wearing chain chest pieces with blue gems inlaid in a holder on the centre. The gems glimmered softly.

  Standing between him and the source of the light, Gentle Current brought the stone he was holding up to his shrouded face. The stone began to glow again, and Gentle Current lowered his arm again.

  ‘Child born to the sky, we stand before the Heart. We seek your assistance. These are the keepers of the Heart. They saw your essence as you sat upon your island with your companions. We sensed you were in danger, threatened by a great beast. We had to rescue you. We felt you had the key to the heart within you,’ Gentle Current said.

  'The beast wasn't under your control?'

  'No child of the sky. We follow the beast, and watch it, but we do not control it. It leaves us in peace.'

  ‘Are you the Nehhom?’ Azra asked through the glob on his face.

  ‘We are the children of Nehhom. Our mothers came from the seas of Nehhom. We desire to return,’ he said.

  The two creatures with the gems on their chests made some noises. It sounded like low distant wails. It was like nothing Azra had ever heard before. It was haunting and beautiful, and he had nothing at all in his life to compare it too.

  ‘The keepers desire you to step forward,’ Gentle Current said, standing to the side and beckoning towards the light.

  Azra took a step forward. It was hard to move, the water dragging on his body and pulling at him as he tried to walk through it. He wished he knew how to swim. In all his yehvs, he had never thought it important. A Baron of province that was mostly desert, and an accomplished Mahgic user, it had never seemed important.

  Now, though, there was some regret as he pushed through the water.

  There was another of the haunting wails. Gentle Current raised the hand holding up the stone.

  ‘Follow the keepers to the Heart, child of the sky.’

  The two creatures turn around and started to walk towards the light source. Azra slowly moved toward them. As they walked, he noticed another stone pillar in front of him. He could see the shadows of more pillars in the noticeably lighter water.

  As he drew closer to the source of light, he noticed the water was less murky in this area. He walked past the pillar and stopped, the water was now crystal clear. He could see a ring of pillars around a central area. There was a domed roof of stone being held up by the pillars.

  There was a ring of other creatures like the two with the gems on their chest. There was one standing between each of the spaces between the pillars. They all looked towards the middle of the clear area in the water.

  In the centre sat a large blue crystal. It was on a raised dais, and shimmered with an internal light. Azra felt the familiar tingle in his body intensifying; he had noticed it as soon as he stepped past the pillars.

  The crystal was sharp and jagged. It was generally round, with jutting shards sticking out from around its centre. It didn’t seem to be actually touching the dais, it was being held aloft by an unseen force. Azra tried to look for Mahgical cues, but his powers weren’t responding to his will as they normally did. The tingling was overpowering, but seemed to have stabilized. It was hard to concentrate on much of anything with the oppressive feeling racking him unceasingly.

  Azra noticed Gentle Current walk up next to him. One of the keepers turned and looked at them, opening its mouth and letting out more of the haunting wail like song that Azra suspected was their language.

  ‘The keepers have seen the turmoil inside you.’

  Azra looked at Gentle Current. ‘Turmoil inside?’

  More song from the keeper, Gentle Current translated through his stone, ‘Turmoil. Like a storm over the sea. Like the mixing of the river and the ocean. Aspects of the Sun and the Sea are within you. As one gains strength, the other must flow in strength or risk being destroyed.’

  Azra looked back at the crystal. ‘Why do I feel strange near this thing? Is this the Heart?’

  Gentle Current nodded, his shroud rippling with the motion, ‘This is the Heart of the Sea. You feel the power of its aspect. It is one of the aspects within you.’

  Azra’s Mahgic was primarily based around fire. Every Mahgic user had a chosen element or school, and some of them contrasted sharply with others. Fire and water would be two such contrasting schools.

  Normally when one picked a school and started training, the contrasting elements would be impossible, or at least very difficult, to use. A fire user wouldn’t be able to manipulate water. A water user wouldn’t be able to manipulate fire.

  ‘I’m a Wyzard of Fire. How can I have the aspect of the sea within me?’ Azra asked.

  ‘The aspect of the sun was what you chose. The aspect of the sea was what you were born into.’

  ‘So what do you want from me?’ Azra asked cautiously.

  ‘We are the keepers of the Heart. We followed it here long ago, leaving the seas of our Mothers. It was drawn here by the calling of an unknown stranger. We seek to return to the seas of our Mothers. The heart can take us, but it does not wish to leave. It is kept here by a great tide of strength. You can help us free it from its trap.’

  ‘How long has it been here?’ Azra asked, a dark feeling falling over him.

  ‘Three thousand of your yehvs. Many generations of our kin have joined the eternal sea without tasting of our ancestral waters. The sorrow of our ancient ones affects us all. We feel the pull to leave like the pull of the tide. Will you help us Child of the Sky?’

  Azra was quiet for a moment. ‘Will you help me? My... kin is in danger. The daughter of my sister has been trapped by a Sorcerer from another world. He uses her danger to get me to help him. He told me to find the Nehhom.’

  ‘Someone seeks us from a different world?’ Gentle Current asked, as the two keepers that had led them in turned and faced the crystal. Each of the other keepers lining the chamber took a step forward.

  ‘Yes, he called himself Shakla. He looks like a snake.’

  ‘Please picture him in your mind, Child of the Sky,’ Gentle Current instructed.

  ‘Very well,’ Azra said, unsure as to what they were doing. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together. In his mind he thought about Shakla. It was hard to concentrate with the tingling all throughout his body.

  He recalled the picture of Shakla ridding atop his black lizard into the courtyard of Jarridon. The same day this whole chain of events had started. As he did, he was aware that the keepers were speaking. He paid them no heed, as Gentle Current didn’t seem to be translating for them.

  His mind’s eye locked onto the image of Shakla. Then, the tingling in his body flared up, and was suddenly gone. He found himself watching Shakla, not a memory of him, but the living breathing being.

  Shakla had one of the desert Raiders held against a pillar of their desert fortress, and had his powerful jaws wrapped around the man’s neck and part of his shoulder. The man was struggling and groaning in pain. Corpses were scattered around Shakla, their blood staining the sandy floor aro
und him.

  With a sickening crack of breaking bone and the sound of tearing meat, Shakla tore his prey apart with his jaws. The Raider’s body fell down onto the ground face first, letting out a gurgle as he fell. The body writhed for a moment before falling still. Shakla swallowed his mouth full of flesh, before turning around.

  Two Raiders looked at him warily from a distance, swords drawn.

  ‘Mongrelsss! I gave you purpossse! Thisss isss how you thank me?’ Shakla spat, flecks of blood flying from his mouth.

  More Raiders were filing into the room, weapons drawn. ‘We did not throw off the shackles of servitude just to hand them to another,’ said one of the Zharin Raiders.

  ‘I could dessstroy you all,’ Shakla hissed darkly.

  Azra willed himself close to the ground, to get a better view.

  Shakla looked at where Azra’s perception was and his eye’s narrowed. ‘Ssso... You’ve found them... Very good, Asssra. Now come home.’

  The Raiders looked around at each other warily, some of them drew bows, pointing them at Shakla. One of them pointed his sword at Shakla threateningly.

  ‘No more tricks! Be gone from this place and never return.’

  Azra recoiled as Shakla looked at him and smiled a toothy grin.

  The Raiders were getting more uneasy.

  One of the bow wielding men let an arrow fly.

  With a ripple of motion, the sand on the floor was kicked up by an unseen wind, and the arrow was thrown off course. The other Raiders let fly their arrows, and room became a flurry of wind, blowing them off course. Shakla began to walk toward Azra. Azra backed away slowly, trying to will himself back to his body, back to the sea.

  ‘Come home, Wyzard. Come home while you ssstill have a home to come back to,’ Shakla said, hissing softly.

  Two of the sword wielding Raiders rushed Shakla, but as they got close, the Sorcerer outstretched his hands towards them, and they were thrown off their feet by two blasts of furious air. The other Raiders wavered, and started to flee the room.

  Shakla walked to where Azra stood and put his hands up, palms towards Azra. The air became hazy, and Azra felt a piercing pain in his head. His vision went dark. He could hear Shakla hissing.

  The hissing was slowly replaced by the mournful wails of the Nehhom, and he felt many clammy hands feeling his body and face. He felt something wet and unpleasant on his face and in his nose. He began to struggle, pushing the hands away and reaching at the thing on his face, as his vision came back to him.

  He was lying on his back, surrounded by Nehhom. Gentle Current was standing upright, his shrouded face looking down towards Azra. Azra realized that he had started to pull away the glob that was letting him breath underwater. He stopped struggling and lowered his hands.

  ‘What happened?’ he managed to say.

  ‘The Children of Nehhom now know who seeks us. He who seeks is known as Shakla. He is known to you. He knows the Children of Nehhom, though we do not know him,’ Gentle Current said, holding his stone over the circle of Nehhom faces surrounding Azra.

  ‘He is why I need help,’ Azra said, pleading. ‘He’s cursed my Niece with a powerful Mahgic unlike anything I’ve seen before.’

  ‘If you swear to help us move the Heart, we will help you save your kin,’ Gentle Current said.

  Azra closed his eyes for a moment. He saw Shakla in his mind, but this time his jaws were biting into Kia. He shuddered involuntarily. He took a deep breath, calming himself, and then said, ‘I swear it.’

  The Deadlands

  ‘You are learning the Fire aspect, Azra... fire flows, yes, but you try to treat it like... water... Fire is not Water, they are in opposition. Your theory is not sound and your execution is sloppy. Do it as I say, or you will never learn the proper way!’

  -Miriahnu, Azra’s Mahgic teacher, when Azra was still an Apprentice

  DEADLANDS – NORTH SHORE OF MILLA – ASH SEA

  Kia and Cina stood back while Jahnyz stood on a rocky cliff, overlooking the Ash Sea. She had been standing there for some time. Kia was aware of Vosco’s men standing some distance away, watching them.

  When Jahnyz had awakened from her monster induced sleep, she had been groggy and confused. She had said that there was something wrong with her Mahgic. Though Vosco’s healers had looked her over, none of Vosco’s band were Mahgic users themselves. Phips had suggested that Jahnyz could use some fresh air. Every sailor knew strange things happened near the Ash Sea, but few people knew what, if anything, the effects of the beast’s toxic spray was.

  Vosco had agreed to let them outside – under guard of course – and Jahnyz had stood on the edge of the Ash sea for about a half urrh, seemingly doing nothing.

  Presently, Jahnyz turned around and motioned for Kia. Looking at Cina for a moment, Kia walked towards Jahnyz.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ Kia asked, stopping next to her.

  Kia looked out at the Sea. It stretched out past view, with jutting rocks showing they were close to an edge off to the left. The surface was calm, and there was no wind.

  ‘Odd. I feel odd. There’s something here that’s making it difficult to use my Mahgic,’ Jahnyz said distantly.

  ‘We’ve told Vosco what he wanted to know, he’s promised us passage to Nolmi when he next leaves here. We can get you back to the kingdom and have our healers give you a look over,’ Kia said.

  ‘The next time he leaves, it’ll be to hunt the monster. We’d be better off on foot,’ Jahnyz said angrily.

  ‘You don’t know that.’

  ‘He’s impetuous and impatient. Not unlike Azra,’ Jahnyz countered, ‘and that didn’t do him any good.’

  Kia straightened stiffly. ‘My Uncle is alive,’ she said with some venom.

  Jahnyz looked at Kia gloomily. ‘How do you know? Are you capable of finding him with Mahgic and didn’t think to tell us? Can you see with your mind’s eye that he’s safe? How do you know? You can’t know! None of us can. All we know is he was taken,’ Jahnyz said angrily, ‘and now we’re stuck in an inhospitable part of the world under the watchful eye of a notorious bandit.’

  ‘So what can we do?’ Kia asked.

  ‘That’s not for me to decide. With Azra gone, it’s Cina’s call now.’

  ‘I think it’s my call actually. I am a Princess, and I know what I want done,’ Kia said.

  Jahnyz looked back out over the sea. ‘And what would that be... Princess?’

  ‘I want to get you well so we can try to look for Azra,’ Kia said.

  Jahnyz shook slowly. ‘I have tried to look for Azra using my Mahgic, that’s what I was doing when I came out here. This place makes it difficult. My vision was drawn to the sea, but I couldn’t find him. Everything is like looking through a thick fog. There was a great light and nothing but fog. I don’t even know which way the light was coming from.’

  ‘Then we’ll look for him the old fashioned way,’ Kia said.

  Jahnyz sighed and turned to Kia. ‘As much as I’m sure you’ve heard this from Cina already, our priority needs to be you. If our mission cannot be completed, we must protect you. The Sorcerer won’t wait forever. We have to get you back to the capital and have the court Wyzards try to get rid of that snake.’

  Kia turned around, looking away. ‘Azra didn’t recognize the kind of Mahgic used to link it to me. What makes you think the court Wyzards can?’

  ‘Azra is far from the only Mahgic user on this world, nor is he the most powerful, or the most knowledgeable,’ Jahnyz said. ‘He frequently came to the wrong conclusions during his own training.’

  Kia took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She was still coming to terms with what all had happened. Hearing Azra’s apprentice speaking like that about him was not making it any easier.

  Kia looked over at Cina, who was still watching them from afar, and then at the guards watching them. ‘Recover quickly, Jahnyz, we’ll need your strength if we are to make it home again.’

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kia saw Jahn
yz nod. Kia walked back towards Cina.

  ‘Let’s go back to the caves, Lady Cina,’ Kia said, beckoning. ‘Jahnyz can come when she’s ready.’

  Cina nodded, and they started back to the caves, two of the watchmen falling in behind them.

  They walked until they were at the path leading back to the caves. They stopped, as Vosco, and two more bandits, stepped out of the cave.

  ‘Ladies, a lovely day isn’t it?’ Vosco said with a smile.

  ‘Yes. It’s a nice day,’ Kia said stiffly.

  ‘Were you busy, or would you care to join me for a walk?’ Vosco asked.

  ‘We were just heading back,’ Cina said quickly. ‘We have things to discus with our people.’

  Not looking away from Kia, Vosco said, ‘As much as I’m sure you have many important things to discus, and many things you’d like to tell me, the invitation was not to you Lady Cina.’

  Kia saw Cina’s jaw clench as she visibly repressed her reply. Kia looked at Vosco carefully, though he was smiling, his eyes did not share the mirth of his mouth.

  ‘I will accompany you on your walk, Vosco,’ she said, a lump in her throat.

  ‘Excellent. Let’s go,’ Vosco said, walking past them.

  Kia turned and followed him, struggling to keep up with his sure-footed march over the uneven ground. As soon as they reach higher ground, she saw the guards with them spread far apart and take up a moving perimeter around them.

  Vosco slowed down, and Kia caught up to him.

  ‘What’s a Princess like you doing with a snake like that?’ he said suddenly.

  Kia felt herself pale. None of the group had said that she was Princess to any of Vosco’s men. She recalled the conversation with Jahnyz, but didn’t think any of Vosco’s men had left to report after that. She wasn’t sure if it was bluff or not, and if Vosco knew she was a Princess, it might make their arrangement difficult to maintain.

  She realized Vosco was looking at her, waiting for an answer.

  ‘I... I picked up the snake from an unwanted source. I can’t get rid of it if I wanted to.’