He lifted their clutched hands up to her line of sight and raised his eyebrows. “We maintain physical contact and focus on the same source of energy, we combine powers,” he explained. “It is common within element. Very rarely done across elements. Now, we are going to bring that magma out of the pool towards us.”
“You are insane!” she snapped, furrowing her brow at him.
He cocked his head as if to dare her to disobey. She could practically hear his voice in her head. This room. Everything he said.
Struggling and straining to stay locked onto the drifting, floating, swirling energy of the magma, she was too afraid to close her eyes as she attempted to pull it toward them. It jumped willingly out of the pit and crawled like boiling blood across the chamber floor.
“It is going to cool rapidly once out of the pit, so we are going to make it do what we want quickly,” Strelzar explained.
“What do we want it to do?”
“This,” he said through clenched teeth, and she turned to watch as the bubbling, gurgling orange lava shot straight up into a vertical fountain, before immediately cooling into a solid rock wall.
She gasped and let go of his hands, rushing over to the wall to touch it, hardly able to trust what she had just witnessed in that flashing moment. The surface was definitely solid, and she felt a strong Earth energy pulsing through it, but it seared her hand and she pulled away.
“It's hot,” she stated, turning back toward Strelzar.
“Yes,” he said through labored breaths, “that's the Fire energy. You have connected with it once, now you can connect with it again.” His shoulder slumped forward in exhaustion, and he placed a hand on his chest.
“Strelzar,” Veria said cautiously, stepping toward him.
“Stay right there! I am fine,” he said.
“You are going to try to lie to me in here?” Veria scoffed, gesturing to the cavern walls.
“Yes, I suppose I am,” he smirked, and with a deep breath and a wince that was hardly detectable, he stood up straight and composed himself. “Now, when we blended powers, I was able to access both the Earth and Fire energy in the magma, as were you. All I did was manipulate the Fire, which is easier to move and shape, and then simultaneously let the Fire energy cool and augmented the Earth energy so it would take a solid form.
“The Fire energy is still in there, though, as you felt with your hand,” he continued. “So now you are going to connect to that and control the Fire element.”
“What!? How?” Veria asked.
“Remember what it felt like, from me and from the lava itself. It is in there.”
“And what do I do if I find it?” she asked.
“One step at a time, love. One step at a time,” he smiled.
She turned back to the smooth wall and placed her hand on it carefully. Immediately, it burned her delicate skin and she jerked back. “Does it always do this?” she yelled.
“Not to those who are accustomed to the Fire element, no,” he answered. “It's not real, either. Look at your hand.”
Flipping her hands over to check her palms, she realized he was right. Even though it had felt like she had cupped her hand over a torch, there was no evidence of burning or injury to the skin.
“That is just the energy, and since you are an Earth Mager, I would assume your body is fighting the Fire energy,” he explained.
“Then what do I do?” she asked. It sounded hopeless. Why was he making her do this if she was just going to reject the other element?
“It's a fight, Birdie,” he said. “You win.”
She sighed and went to place her hand on the wall again, but his voice stopped her before she made contact.
“Start with one finger,” he suggested.
She followed his advice and placed just her pointer finger on the wall. It felt like she had stuck it into a flaming pit. She cringed but took deep breaths and told herself that it was not real. It was just the energy. Connect with the energy...
“Do you know why most Magers never gain control of more than one element?” Strelzar posed, rhetorically. “Because they cannot make it past this step. The step where your inner energy has to reconcile with an opposing energy. It is painful, difficult, and many think that it will diminish their abilities in their primary element.”
“Does it?” Veria asked.
“Would I have been able to do that if my powers had been diminished?” he asked, pointing at the wall.
“You are much more powerful than I am,” Veria argued.
“I am more educated and experienced than you,” he corrected. “But you discredit your abilities for one reason, and one reason only. You are scared.”
She inhaled sharply, and began to form a rebuttal, but he continued speaking.
“Fear is what stops everyone else from progressing. Fear that they may be changed when they explore and innovate. Fear that things will never be the same,” he said. “The truth, which is an area I think you like to dabble in, is that we should be afraid of staying the same. We should be afraid of not doing everything we can to put ourselves in a place where nothing else can have power over us. And to do that, we must change, and adapt, and advance. The only thing that diminishes your power is believing there are limits to it.”
Veria could not tell if it was the rousing of Strelzar's words or the energy from the wall, but she was completely filled with a gratifying warm pulse. It reminded her of the spice tea Daloes used to give her.
“I believe the burning has stopped?” he asked. She nodded. “Good, now place another finger on the wall.”
Veria did, and the flesh felt singed at contact, then throbbed with momentary pain, but she breathed through it and focused on his words. To give in now would be to let fear have power over her. And she did not want anything or anyone to have power over her anymore. That must have been the deep desire he had plucked from her mind and her thoughts. She did not recall it ever being a conscious intellection, but apparently she had felt that way enough to make it deeply rooted inside her.
“As you grow accustomed to the energy, place more of your hand in contact with the wall, and then we will proceed—and this is the important part,” he said, seriously. “No matter what happens, do not let go until you are completely drained of energy.”
“What is going to happen?” she asked, placing all of her fingertips against the wall. Her insides felt like her outside—a stifling, glowing heat filled her, but it was no longer painful. It radiated like steam and filled her with vitality and strength.
“Well, I am going to say a lot of crazy and ridiculous things, and I am going to tell you completely different things than what I am telling you now,” he explained. “This is what you need to listen to—what I am saying right this moment. Do not let go of that wall. Do not disconnect from the energy until you have exhausted it.”
Flattening her palm against the rock, she was hit with a rush of heat. She felt like her entire body was on fire, but it did not hurt. She felt powerful, invincible. She felt like a flame herself, like she could consume and destroy anything in her way.
“Congratulations,” Strelzar grinned, “you are in control of Fire energy. Now, you are going to use it.”
-IX-
“Hear my desires,” Strelzar instructed. “They are the Fire's version of truth.”
Veria could feel what he wanted, filling her head and her thoughts without even having to search for them. He wanted power, and knowledge, and death....her, he wanted her. He wanted to lock the door and stay in his palace forever, and he wanted her to stay. He wanted to rip the nightgown off her skin right this instant and shove her against the wall—he wanted companionship but he also wanted to be alone....he wanted to to stop living, living was tiresome and so tedious after so long—then he wanted to make her scream....make her more powerful than he was....make her entire body tremble...
She lost focus and her heart pounded. His desires were not only vivid in her mind, but they flipped back and forth between wh
at he wanted right now and what he wanted deeper inside of him.
“Control it!” he snapped, as she visibly faltered. “Desire will eat you alive if you do not filter it out! Pick one and focus on it. This is what you do already, with truths and lies, correct?”
She nodded, and tried to filter out the deeper desires, and focus on a new one, a fleeting one, the one he had at present: resist her. Physically, he went rigid. Mentally, he wanted nothing more than to resist what she was about to do to him.
“Remember what I did to you when you came here?” he asked through a tight jaw. Veria nodded. “Do it to me,” he ordered.
“How?” she asked.
“You create the desire using the Fire energy, and then you transfer it to me,” he said.
She started to think of all the things she wanted to do to him earlier. How she had wanted to stay in the bed for another day, or week, or longer. But he had somehow composed himself while she had sat there, naked and seductive—how had he resisted her? Why had he not wanted her so badly he could not keep from throwing her down and having his way? And now she had the opportunity to make him insane with desire for her, and she was afraid to do it.
Fear, she thought. Useless fear. She latched onto the Fire energy, and the desire she wanted him to feel and she focused it on him and prepared to watch him succumb to it.
He laughed. He was always laughing at her.
“Very good,” he chuckled. “Very impressive! You learn quickly.”
“But it's not enough!” she protested.
“Veria, I am the greatest Master of Fire this world has ever seen,” he said. “You are not going to beat me with my own element without having to fight for it.”
He infuriated her. All of his toying, and enigmatic statements, and the laughing! And she still could not believe that he was able to not only resist her earlier, but resist her now! She let the flames of anger add to the energy pulsing through her and every muscle in her body tensed as she again projected her fabricated desire on him.
This time worked, and Strelzar lurched as if he had been hit in the chest.He growled under his breath, a deep rumble of primal rage in his throat.
“Better,” he smiled, though he kept his teeth clenched. “Mmmmm...much better.”
She watched in awe, but tried not to lose focus, as one of the magma veins in the cavern wall erupted and sent fresh molten rock flowing toward them. Strelzar took several strides back, so there was distance enough between them for the little stream of boiling, hot lava. It remained tight, and followed a straight line, so it was obvious that Strelzar controlled it.
He was creating a barrier. He needed a barrier to keep from acting on the desire.
“Go again,” he commanded.
Again, with all the energy, and rage, and power she could muster, she willed him to want her like he had never wanted any other woman in his very long life.
Satisfaction swept through her like brush-fire as he arched his back and his neck craned back. He moaned her name. “Veria....”
Her heart pounded, but she stayed focused, letting her own desire for him compound her power.
More. He needed to want her more.
With a sickening thud, his knees hit the hard stone floor, and he roared like an animal. She lost focus for a split second, worrying if he was okay, but regained it quickly, remembering his instructions to not let go, no matter what. His chest heaved rapidly and he ripped his shirt from his skin.
“Alright, stop,” he growled. “Come over here and we will go upstairs. Come on, love.”
No matter what.
His spine contorted and he writhed around, another desperate moan escaping him. “Veria! Get over here now!” The stream of lava hissed and spit between them, and widened so that neither of them could cross it in one leap. “I...I cannot take this...” he sighed, breathing in rapid, ragged bursts.
He stared at her voraciously, like he were a lion, and she was the injured prey. Panic flooded his face as he tried to figure out how to get across the stream he had created. She must have had complete control over him. Not only did he look like he did not know what to do with the lava stream, he also looked like he did not even remember creating it to begin with. Desire for her had completely consumed him.
“Stop this!” he bellowed, pointing at the barrier between them.
She ignored him, continuing to focus on the flame of desire she had created.
“Veria! Please!” he cried in frustration, clenching his fists. “I will die if I cannot have you right now.”
His eyes were wild and deranged. Maybe she had driven him past the point of manageable desire, and into the realm of madness. He snorted like a bull, and his stare remained fixed on her. She was extremely thankful for the barrier, as she could hardly imagine what he would have done to her at this point if he could get to her.
“You are mine!” he shouted, filling the cavern with his booming voice. He gasped for air before yelling again, “You will do what I say! Now come to me before I decide to punish you for your insolence, Earth wench.”
She cackled hysterically and threw her head back. He roared in anger, his breaths turning to huffs and puffs. Then he begged again, his voice strained and broken: “Birdie, I will give you whatever you want, just have your way with me. Stop torturing me and take me now!”
Groaning, and panting urgently, Strelzar fell forward onto his hands so he was on all fours.
“Take me!” he howled in maniacal agony. Then he clutched his chest and slumped onto his elbow, pain replacing the crazed desire in his eyes.
Veria's heart skipped a beat, and she jerked her hand away from the wall.
“No!” Strelzar coughed, still grasping his bare chest and fighting for breath. “Put it back.”
She ignored him, and let the energy from the mountain reclaim her focus. She latched onto the Earth energy, flowing through the stream of molten rock, and tried to push it away, make the stream thin enough so she could jump across, but it did not budge.
“How do I do this?” she snapped.
He ignored her, and shook his head in disapproval.
He had let the solid form of the rock overtake the heat of the lava when he created the wall. All she had to do was make the Earth energy she was locked onto into a solid energy instead of a flowing, liquid form. She closed her eyes, and focused all of her strength on stopping the flow of the molten rock. It began to slow, stopped its incessant swirling and bubbling, and as it became still, it radiated with more Earth energy, joined with the rock of the mountain, and then became completely stagnant.
Upon opening her eyes, she saw that the stream of magma had solidified into smooth rock, blending with the existing cavern floor, with barely distinguishable lines between old and new.
She dashed the distance between them in anxious leaps, and dropped to her knees at his side, placing a hand on his back.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“You should not have stopped,” he groaned. “I was about to offer you all of my wealth and a number of small kingdoms.”
“You own small kingdoms?” she laughed.
“No, but I was not going to let a small detail such as ownership get in my way,” he said. He winced as she helped him sit upright. The hand that clutched his chest relaxed and he transitioned to massaging the area tenderly. “That was good. Very good, love. We will go again tomorrow.”
“Are you crazy?” she snapped. “I am not doing that to you again!”
“Do not take pity on a rich, old man. Take him for everything he's worth!” Strelzar joked.
“I feel a lot of things for you, Strelzar, but pity is not one of them,” Veria stated. “I heard your desires—you want to die, and I am not going to be involved in your contemptuous death wish.”
“If you have the misfortune to live for over two hundred years, you will look upon death a little more favorably than you do at this moment, I assure you,” he said. “But I certainly do not want you to be involved in my death, and
definitely do not want to die right now. I have too many plans involving you,” he added, his voice regaining its smooth, beguiling tone. He reached for her face, but she slapped his hand away.
“Now you do need to rest,” she ordered. “And you have not eaten anything the whole time I have been here, so you are going to do that, as well.”
“You are infinitely less fun when you worry about other people,” he tried to insult her as she helped him to his feet.
“And you are infinitely less fun when you insist on expanding my tutelage,” she sighed, and escorted him carefully up the first few steps of the spiral staircase.
He turned on her abruptly, and jabbed a finger in her face.
“You do not use natural state, which is a terrible mistake, as you have absolutely no way to incapacitate an enemy if you need to,” he hissed, gravely. “And if you continue to run around with your hard elementals, that is exactly what you will have: enemies. Everywhere. I just showed you how to put up some defenses, since you have left yourself with nothing but clumsy attacks and silly little truths.”
She was silent for a few moments, taking in what he said. “And what do you want in return?” she finally asked.
“Nothing! I want you to not get yourself killed, that is what I want!” he answered. He inched his face in toward hers, and closed the gap between their bodies, as well, regaining enough energy to stand without her support. “I want you to recognize how powerful you are,” he crooned softly, his face nearly touching hers, “and then make everyone in the world recognize it, too.”
Her heart quickened and chest pounded as he fondled the strap of the silk nightgown, his fingertips grazing her dewy skin, still sticky from the sweat and steam.
“Any demonstrations of gratitude you may feel compelled to show me will just be a pleasant surprise,” he murmured, brushing the strap completely off her shoulder and letting his forehead rest against hers. She closed her eyes and prepared for his attack, wondering if there was any residual of the maddening desire she had inflicted on him. But, abruptly, he pulled away, and she opened her eyes to see him ascending the spiral staircase with ease.
The Second Talisman: (Book II of the Elementals Series) Page 8