by Jeff Kish
Era makes another dash for the complex, but Fire once again rallies from her fall and lands in front of Era. “How are you doing that?” he shouts in frustration. He looks over the edge, finding an extensive ice structure hanging from the platform, complete with slick slides and ramps she can use to propel herself. “You’re… You’re making all that!?”
“My turn,” she growls as she charges, creating a shield from ice which she uses as a plow, ramming into Era and forcing him backward. “How do you like being plowed?” Fire screams as she shoves him back to the tunnel on the far end of the chasm.
“I wasn’t the one who did it to you!” Era contests as his feet slide off the ice and dig into the tunnel’s dirt floor. Fire gives him a final shove, and he stumbles backward into the darkness.
“I know. It was the ice queen,” she says, stone-faced as she dissolves the ice shield. She places her hands on the ground and says, “Good bye.”
Era realizes her intent too late as she forms a wall of ice that seals the tunnel’s exit, ensuring the element is dense enough to keep him trapped within. He frantically slashes at it with his sword, but the ice fails to so much as chip from his efforts. “FIRE!” he screams as he chops furiously. “I HAVE TO SAVE HER! LET ME OUT!”
From the other side, Fire closes her eyes and maintains the barrier. “Sorry, Era,” she says quietly. “You lose.”
* * *
The commander creeps down the stairs in pursuit of his target. When he arrives at the next landing, he holds his hand out toward the hallway’s entrance and closes his eyes, pausing for several moments before descending once again. After repeating his ritual, he steps into the darkened passageway, lit only by a few fading light runes, and he gawks at the number of doors that litter the hall. Still, he tests each one as he passes by before finding one to his satisfaction.
“I know you’re in here,” he announces as he enters the dark room. “Your current betrays you.” Now zeroing in on a row of desks, he blasts them with a hurricane-like force, flinging them in all directions and forcing Jem from her hiding place. She races around the room’s perimeter, using the piles of equipment for cover as she approaches, her Crystalcutter at the ready. Ignorant as to the nature of her blade, Talkem confidently brings his sword up to defend the strike, but Jem cleanly slices through the steel and gashes his arm, eliciting an astonished cry. She swings back around, but he’s able to connect with a powerful gust which sends her careening backward.
“You foul dog,” he grunts, pressing down on his fresh wound. “I did not escape prison and survive two runic assaults to be stuck down by discarded trash!” he shouts as he unleashes a barrage of winds at her, which force her back into the wall.
Jem tries to break away, but the pressure from the wind is too strong. She’s powerless to even lift her blade against the force of the gale, and, through squinting eyes, she finds her opponent rushing at her with his broken sword extended. Out of desperation, her hand slides to her pocket, where she withdraws one of Kama’s runes as Talkem’s blade approaches her heart.
A bolt of electricity arcs to Talkem’s sword, sending him flying backward as his blade clatters along the floor. Freed from the winds, Jem charges the fallen commander, but he rips Crystalcutter from her hands with a powerful suction force, elbows his surprised opponent in the gut, and trips her to the ground alongside him. He rolls onto Jem and presses his long fingers around her throat, his blue-gold eyes feral.
Choking, Jem grabs Talkem’s hands and freezes them with all her might. With a howl, he releases his grip, and she kicks him off. She gasps for air as she climbs to her feet, but the commander yanks her back by the ankle. She flings another rune into him, this one igniting his clothes as it makes contact. He furiously beats out the flames as Jem darts from the room.
Racing down the stairs, she collides into Ospif between the bottom two floors. Disdainfully, he shoves her back and gripes, “What the blazes is-”
“He’s going to kill us!” she shrieks.
“W-Who?”
“The commander! Run into the tunnels!”
“Outside?” he asks as she pushes past. “B-But those runic friends of yours are enjoying a fierce battle out there!”
“When did they get outside?” she grunts as her panic mounts. “Can you fight?”
“Fight a commander?”
“We have no choice!” she urges as she runs into the hallway, beckoning for him to follow. She just hopes the lout will prove useful.
* * *
Era shapes the last of the dirt away, completing the shaft as he drops into the tunnel below. Having seen the layout of the tracks, he knew he could cut down to the ground floor if he dug at the right angle. However, as he brushes himself off in satisfaction, a hand reaches out and taps him on the shoulder. When he swings around, Fire grabs him by the arm and throws him down.
“You’re too predictable,” she says.
Era slams the ground and pulls a sword from the earth. “I’m done messing around, Fire,” he warns.
“Because you haven’t been trying until now?” she asks. “The ice queen’s command took care of that. You just can’t keep up with a two-armed runic.”
“Yes, I can!” he cries. “I know I can beat you.”
“You’re always looking down on me!” she screams as she grapples him, shakes his sword loose, and flings him against the wall. “Judging me, forcing your naïve ideals on me.” She slams her hands on the ground and creates a wave of ice that crashes into Era, pinning him against the wall and leaving only his upper-body exposed. He reaches to the wall for more earth, but she shapes the ice to enwrap his arm and hand, ensuring he is unable to access his precious element.
“Fire, please!” he begs, pulling frantically on his trapped arm amidst the sting of frostbite.
The ice runic hops onto her sculpture and strides toward him. “Everything will work itself out? You’re such a fool. I can’t stand you, and yet, somehow…!” She squats in front of him and encases her fist in ice. “You lose, Era. You failed,” and she throws her fist at his forehead.
His desperation peaking, Era feels a crawling sensation, starting from his toes and working its way upward. As Fire’s attack closes in, he instinctively tries to bring his missing arm up to block the attack. And, somehow, the attack is blocked. He opens his eyes, shocked to find that he really did bring his arm up to defend the strike. Before him is an actual limb, attached to his left shoulder and comprised of condensed earth.
Equally surprised, Fire reacts by kicking at Era’s head, but he moves his new limb to defend that strike as well. The appendage moves intuitively, as if it were his real arm. Fire winces from kicking the dense earth with her bare foot, giving Era an opportunity to test his new hand by pressing against the dirt wall and, finding no impedance to his shaping abilities, creates protruding pikes from the ground to shatter the ice around him.
Fire stumbles backward in disbelief. “What is that?”
Era flexes the strange appendage. “It’s my arm,” he says in awe as he feels where the dirt grafts to his shoulder. “My GOOD arm!” He shapes the limb into a sword, finding it as adaptable as any earth sword he has ever formed.
With a mischievous grin, Era slams his right hand onto the wall’s surface, and the ground itself begins an assault as pillars of earth lash out at Fire. She dances to dodge the strikes before she aims her hands down and forms an icy barrier at her feet. As she keeps her focus on containing the earth below, a beam of solid rock extends from the wall nearest her and hits her in the side. She stumbles off her ice, and small threads of earth enwrap themselves around her ankles.
Realizing how disastrous the environment is for her, Fire manages to crack the bindings just in time to meet her opponent’s arm-blade with her own icy weapon. Fire pushes away and flings ice spikes at Era while retreating toward the open chamber.
Era forms a short wall to deflect the projectiles and hide himself from view. Before Fire can exit the tunnel, the entrance begins sh
aking violently as rocky planks lurch out from the walls, extending across the entrance and effectively sealing off her escape. In the dim light, Fire turns back to her opponent and heaves a boulder of ice into his shield. The ice easily crushes it, revealing a hole where Era once stood.
Before she can react, the earth at her feet rips open, dropping her into a gaping pit. Era appears from an opening nearby and plants his hands on the ground to seal the hole and trap her within, but he meets resistance. Frost creeps out from the pit, crawling along the ground until Fire rides a rising pillar of ice from the depths, flinging spikes as she lands. Era shields them with his new arm as she sends a wave of ice his way. The ground below lifts him to the ceiling in an instant, where he latches his arm to the roof and swings over the ice. He lands and meets Fire’s blade once more.
“Getting cold in here,” Era notes, able to see his breath.
“I’m just getting warmed up,” she sneers.
“That comment… was actually pretty cool,” he admits.
“Your advantage is slipping.”
“Is that another pun?”
“You squandered your chance!” she cries as she heaves another attack. “You’re always so cocky. When were you going to save your partner?”
In response, he strikes back hard enough to cause his lightweight opponent to stagger backward, and he seizes the chance to break for the entrance.
“That’s it?” she calls out, giving chase. “You’re just going to run away again?”
“You still haven’t realized it?” he calls back, suddenly turning around to face her.
She frowns but has little time to ponder his words. The ground at her feet begins to shake, and she braces herself for whatever attack he’s mounting. However, it soon becomes evident the tremor isn’t localized. “What are you doing!?”
Sweat drips from his brow. “Same thing I always do. I’m digging a hole.”
The earth violently cracks apart as an enormous sinkhole appears, and Era extends his earth arm to the roof as the entire floor falls. Fire makes a lunge for him, but he reels himself upward, avoiding her grasp as she falls helplessly into the dark abyss.
Era doesn’t dare to pause for breath. He knows Fire will recover from the surprise assault, and he rips open a crevice above so he can hurry to his partner’s aid.
* * *
Talkem steps into a dark room, and he grips his shattered blade tightly as he creeps forward, waiting for his eyes to adjust. Something about the wind doesn’t feel right to him, though there can be no doubt she is in this room. In frustration, he blasts the clutter of chairs and boxes stacked against the wall. He moves to a pile of old machines in the corner and fires a powerful shot that blows Ospif from his hiding place.
“I-I-I give up!” Ospif cries, his hands in the air.
Talkem suddenly realizes why the air felt strange to him; there were two in the room. Hearing rapid footsteps, he swings around to find Jem barreling down on him with a heavy machine on her shoulder, and she heaves it into him at short range. The weighty projectile knocks Talkem hard to the ground, but, though reeling, the skilled commander fires a blast of wind that takes Jem’s feet out from under her.
Worried about getting double-teamed, he aims his hand back at Ospif, surprised to find the petrified student has made no attempt to take advantage. Mercilessly, he blasts Ospif with a powerful force of wind, and his body flails helplessly into the air before coming down on a pile of rubble, where he remains motionless.
Jem takes advantage of the momentary distraction by flinging the last of Kama’s runes at her adversary. The ice rune unleashes its full charge into Talkem’s arm, and he roars in shock from the sharp sting. Jem heaves the same machine to her shoulder, hoping to smash it over his head, but Talkem hits her with a gale’s force of wind that sends her tumbling backward until she smashes into the doorway.
With her body screaming in pain, Jem retreats toward the stairs, and she hears the commander shout a ferocious howl as he gives chase. Her heart pounds like drums in her ears, and the clamoring of Talkem’s pursuing footsteps terrifies her. She darts from the stairwell at ground level and bursts into the open cavern. However, her linear trajectory makes for an easy target, and Talkem shoots a precise blast of wind at her feet. She stumbles and falls onto the dirt, scraping her arms and face against the rocky surface.
Scrambling to her back, she discovers the commander is already on top of her, his scarred and savage gaze locked on his prize. Tears stream down her cheeks as she shuffles backward, and she closes her eyes in surrender as his broken blade, flickering with the light of the overhead runes, is thrust at her heart.
Nimble rods of earth instantly enwrap Jem, deflecting the blade before it can find its mark. Bewildered, Talkem turns his attention to the approaching runic, but Era raises a tendril of dirt that jams itself into Talkem’s stomach before another flings him to his back. The runic wills the earth to move, and a rocky spike impales his opponent from behind.
The commander coughs and gasps as his strength weakens, and he finds his killer glaring at him with cold, unyielding eyes. “Too… cruel…” he groans as his body slumps against the hard earth, and he breathes his last.
Chapter 29
Era exhales, not even realizing he had been holding his breath as the commander’s life faded. He releases his hold on the spike and allows it to crumble, leaving thick, blood-soaked dirt in the open wound. He turns to Jem just as she dives into his arms. Era grasps her and holds her close. “Are you alright?”
She nods while clinging to him. Her tears flow freely as she digs her face into his chest and sobs.
“I’m so, so sorry. If I’d been even a second later…!”
Suddenly, she jerks back and asks, “Wait, do you have two arms?”
He laughs. “Yeah. Seems I can do that now.”
Still shuddering, she wipes her eyes and peers around the open cavern. “Is it over? Where’s Fire?”
“She’s back over-” Cutting himself off, he grabs Jem by the shoulders and swings her around as the ice runic appears from one of the train tunnels. He morphs his arm into a blade and shouts, “Fire, stop! He’s dead!” Yet his opponent fails to yield.
Jem looks to their dead adversary in a panic, wondering how they can negate his final command. However, before her eyes, the brilliant blue sphere appears from Talkem’s hand with a flash of light, and it rolls away from its lifeless wielder.
Fire abruptly stops just before engaging with Era, her mentality restored. Not realizing the situation, Era steps into Fire’s path, slugs her across the face, and throws her to the ground. He forms a club and prepares to continue the beating, but Jem jumps on his arm and pulls backward. “Era! She’s snapped out of it!”
He looks at Jem quizzically before studying Fire with a suspicious eye. “Are you sure?”
Fire lies on her back, massaging her cheek while staring at the lights above. “Just do it anyway,” she pleads, wishing desperately to escape her embarrassment.
He glances back and forth between them. “Should I?”
Jem sits on the ground, suddenly dizzy from exhaustion. “Why should I care?”
Era still isn’t sure. “Just grab her orb, Jem. That way we can be certain.”
“NO!” they both shout at once.
“What?” he cries. “After all that, you still won’t-”
“I have been humiliated enough for a lifetime,” Fire growls as she gets to her feet. “The ice queen will not be my-”
“GET OVER YOUSELF!” Era screams, inches from her face. “We’re both RUNICS! We wanted the power and this is the price. You’re still hoping no one will find your orb?” He points to the binding chamber’s broken window, high above. “There are more runics out there, Fire. Someone will come, and then you will be owned again, and then we will have to fight again.” Growing quiet, he adds, “And I, for one, never want to fight you again.”
For the first time Era can recall, tears come to Fire’s eyes. “Fine,”
she mutters before retreating.
Era watches after her in astonishment. “I think she just agreed,” he says.
“Doesn’t matter,” Jem replies. “I can’t take it, Era.”
“You too?”
“Shut up!” she barks. “I just… I wanted out. I was ready to be out, but you wouldn’t let me!” On the verge of panic, she cries, “He wanted to kill me for your control, Era, just like I said would happen! How many more will come after me? Especially if I have two.”
“I know it isn’t what you wanted,” Era says quietly, looking to Fire’s waiting orb. “It’s just that… we really have no choice, you know?”
“He almost killed me, Era,” she says, squeezing her eyes shut.
Using his new arm, he thumps his chest and says, “You won’t have anything to fear, Jem. I mean, it’s to your benefit to have two of us defending you.”
Her eyes fall to the deep blue sphere. The thought of taking a second runic fills her soul with dread, and, yet, there exists a comforting truth about Era’s words. The ancient construct’s beautiful color invites her in, as if calling to her, promising to fulfill her desires and qualm her fears. “Will I really be safe?”
He cracks a smile. “Who could possibly stand up to runic versions of me and Fire, right?”
Slowly, carefully, she reaches out with the tip of her finger until it makes contact. The orb pops and vanishes in a flash of light, leaving the stinging, searing pain on her palm, which now features two runic symbols on it.
Era clears his throat and asks, “Can I see it?”
At first she hides her palm, as if in shame, before extending it for him to see. Era’s symbol is embedded at the lower left of her hand, its radius the size of a coin. Fire’s appears at the base of her palm.