She cut off the energy and smiled amazed as she looked back, down the long feathery spine of Showl’s back to gaze at the disturbance she had left behind. The icy waves glittered in the evening sunlight, immortalizing Showl’s wide wingspan and the speed with which they traversed over the salty waters. She wasn’t alone, at the back of her mind she was acutely aware of a comforting and constant presence, encouraging, and an obvious friend. A conscious that was alien yet familiar, a stranger yet someone she knew almost as well as herself…
Slowly the world around her became black again and she found herself yelling in protest as it slowly vanished before her eyes along with all the sensations. The spirit of flight and speed were gone and the wind no longer embraced her, the air was tasteless. The fingers of her right hand felt the cold touch of ice rather than the electrifying energy she had tasted only moments ago. But the power was still there, she could feel it, buried deep within, seeking escape from its prison, pleading to her to believe in its might.
She desired the return of that energy, the freedom and excitement the sky promised, the unwavering friend she had detected, and the power to change the world…
I want that, I want all of it. If it is was real, any price I must pay is well worth it.
Something shifted, sparked, changed, no words could place the aesthesia as her hand sunk into cool matter.
Ange gasped and opened her eyes, gazing in amazement that her fingers were half way submerged into the ice, like the water had frozen around them. Curiously she dipped her hand deeper to the wrist, amazed that she could feel the frigid element shifter around her skin as if it were a part of her, it wasn’t even cold. It felt normal, absolutely natural to be a part of the frozen liquid.
She glanced up to Showl with a triumphant smile.
His eyes regained a flicker of life and he gave her a small smile, pride evident in his gaze.
A roar like thunder rang through the growling of the snowstorm. Ange sense of urgency spiked as terror latched onto her, making her skin crawl.
She glanced a moment behind them to the dark storm of the night, nothing was visible, even with the steady glow of the sword’s gemstone.
The thrumming of wing beats vibrated through the very air towards them.
Ange grimaced disturbed and returned her gaze to the ice, sinking her arm further into the magical ice, she gazed horrified that her arm wasn’t long enough, her fingers were still a few inches away from the blade’s hilt.
Another roar filled the air, filled with rage, as Ange glance back. Sora’s dragon head broke through the raging storm, entering the sill air surrounding the clearing. Her jaws parted as she let out another unearthly roar down upon them, the light of the sword’s pommel illuminated her fangs, her frontal canines glimmered black like obsidian while the rest of her long teeth were the shade of ivory.
Ange gasped and plunged her shoulder and side of her body into the ice, her fingers transgressing the last few desperate inches to the reach the grip of the hilt. She puffed relieved as her fingers encircled the cold material and she squeezed tightly.
The ice crackled like shattering glass as webs of cracks splinted from her hand to the surface.
Ange gasped shocked as she was pushed back by a blast of energy, the light of the gemstone grew in strength. The ice broke away with a sharp echoing whistle that screeched throughout the clearing. A beam of light shot towards the heavens with a resounding scream, lighting the night and parting the clouds instantly in a wide diameter half the size of the clearing as a shockwave rocked the air around them. The light arched over them, forming a barrier of silvery blue that repelled the enraged Sora with a yowl of fury.
Ange stare up amazed then looked down and gasped startled, realizing she was hovering over the ground with no obvious reason. Upon her chest, something glowed beneath her clothes, she unbuttoned the neck of the simple long sleeved shirt and gazed down to her birthmark surprised as she realized it was emitting light, steadily. As she shifted her gaze away from her floating feet she turned to see the sword hovering straight ahead as the shattered ice spiraled around it in a collage of crystal fragments ranging from the size of her head to the minuteness of her pinky finger. They gleamed and fractured the light like a sumptuous chandelier made of diamonds, sparkling the ray of light surrounding the sword with blinding radiance.
The beam of light dissipated, breaking apart and bringing the world around them to darkness once more, the jewel continued to glow like a sol gem as the glyphs upon the metal slowly grew lit. A quiet chanting seemed to ring around the clearing, echoing in Ange’s ears in a haunting melody of words she could not understand.
Ange watched on in wonder and confusion, further away, on the opposite end of the sword, hovered Showl appearing relaxed and transfixed on the sword. His gaze was empty and as Ange gazed closer she gasped in horror.
His golden eyes were orbs of honey yellow in his face, his pupils had vanished.
Two shards of ice split away from the twirling wall of ice fragments orbiting the sword, one glided gently towards her as the other made its way towards Showl.
Instinctually she felt compelled to lift her left hand towards the piece of ice. She stared at it bewildered as the thin sliver of ice gleamed fiercely as it twirled for her hand. She hissed as the shard slashed across her palm.
In disbelief she watched as her blood seeped from the wound, slowly trailing away and hovering in a scarlet stream after the shard as it propelled its way back to the cluster of ice. She tore her eyes off the trail of blood and looked over to Showl, his gauntlet hovered in the air beside him as blood also leaked from a cut on his palm, his face still void of reaction and cast in wintery blue.
Ange frowned, wondering the purpose of the blood as she watched the two shards of ice slowly sink into the gem of the sword’s pommel. A single drop of blood from each stream broke away, perfect crimson spheres as they float towards the stone. They splashed onto its surface of the crystal, webbing out before sinking slowly into the clear gem. The crystal’s blue glow became sanguine, sparks flung themselves from the sword, bouncing off the ice around the blade with fierce hissing as the light grew in intensity, like Rubor had fallen out of the sky before them. The clearing was bathed in the color of blood.
Ange snarled as a burning pain clawed at her chest and palm, she glanced down to see her birthmark glow a fiery red.
As quickly as the intense pain had arrived, it vanished, leaving her birthmark to glow a dim blue. The cut on her hand was gone as the blood lashed away from her like a startled snake.
Puzzled she looked back up to see the red glow also leave the crystal, the stream of her blood twisted and twirled around the sword’s cross-guard, accompanied by Showl’s blood. Ange shivered as she gazed at the crimson liquid as it began to fold and dance around the blade, slowly making its way to the ground.
As she followed it her eyes darted to the ground were a small depression was cut into the smooth stone floor. Her eyes trailed from the perfect circle and followed marks across the tableland that she had failed to notice before, delicately carved into the perfectly circular clearing.
The blood mixed together before pouring into the small imprint, the carvings engraved throughout the clearing suddenly glowed from below them in brilliant red. Ange snarled as a painful twisting filled her chest, in her heart, and quickly crawled throughout her body, her head burned as an echoing void seemed to break and chasm throughout her silent thoughts. A cool energy lapped in through the gap, swirling and frosting over the burning and quickly flowing throughout her mind and body. The opening solidified in state, permanent, and through it, Ange could sense another presence, encouraging her to be calm, that the pain was over, and that it was there to protect to her always.
She sighed feeling comforted by the reassurance, more than certain that the presence was none other than Showl, just like in her earlier vision. At the same time, she felt like she had been intruded, like everything private about her person was out in the open to
be seen and judged.
Ange snapped her eyes to Showl before her eyes involuntarily tore her attention to the floating ice as it trembled in the air around the blade the fragments merged into one another to form ten large gleaming ice spikes that paused in their rotation around their point of origin as beams of light rose up to surround them. Suddenly and violently they plunged to the stone floor, among ten circle contours that ringed around the sword.
They merged into the light, changing the light’s crimson shade to a celestial blue, flowing the markings with new and vigorous light that curled throughout the plateau slowly.
Ange gazed about feeling more bewildered then before, rings and lines spun into brilliance as claw-like glyphs upon the floor began to glow fiercely as if blue fire glowed from beneath them. The chanting that had pervaded throughout the ritual thus far grew in strength till it sounded like a storm raged within the dome of light and magic.
Glyphs around the pool of blood grew brighter and slowly other characters from the center of the ring pulsated with the same light down to the outer ring of enchantments. Ange flinched as a cone of light imprisoned her over the ring she had been floating over. She reached out and met a solid barrier as her fingers touched the strange light, a static charge stung around her fingertips where her skin met magical resistance. She could barely see past the glow of magic to see the blood pouring climbing out of its pool in canals carved toward her ring. As she looked across she noticed Showl was also wrapped in a wall of light.
She looked back down, her eyes fixed on the blood that rushed towards her, lapping the stone floor with its deep ruby substance. It flowed into the ring around her feet, slipping through the barrier without resistance, the smell of rust and salt hit her nose strongly.
She grimaced frustrated and wondered what more she had to endure before the ritual was complete. She intake shocked as drops of blood rippled up as if gravity had vanished, hovering up to her. Soon the remaining amount of blood was hovering around her body in specific coordinates over her skin. As she gazed closely to the drop of blood floating before her eyes she noticed that the ruddy liquid was encircled with frost. Delicate ice crystals formed astonishing patterns around the droplets, something the naked eye should not have been able to see.
“Ack!” she hissed as an itching razed across her chest, she snapped the rest of the buttons away and gazed down at her birthmark. She froze as the blue marking began to move.
That’s impossible! She thought with mental rejection.
The five designs in between each segment that split the pentagram shifted. Claws extended and heads arched toward her, stirring and opening their jaws and twisting their bodies. Each one was a unique dragon, she could distinguish specific elements tied to each dragon as they curled and slid across her skin away from the birthmark’s center. Blue patterns took shape and curled around the dragons’ body as they glowed cerulean.
The first dragon brimmed with lively energy, at the edges of its figure leaves and blossom seemed to flourish and die as it climbed up to her neck and she felt its spiritual energy trail over her skin as it rested on her forehead. The second dragon clockwise to the first rippled with liquid and ice as darkness licked from its sinuous length and it curled around her arm with an icy touch as it came to rest on her left palm. The dragon that followed burned across her skin and blazed with flames and light while it thrummed with violent energy as it thundered across her skin to her left foot.
The dragon that continued was dense with matter, earthy stones and crystal decorated its body as it walked over her body with warmth and strength as it crawled to her right foot. The last dragon wisped with air that curled in delicate curves, stars seemed to twinkle where is flowed over her arm with a cool sensation to her right hand.
A jarring shock surged through her body and limbs as she felt her body snap in response and lock as her head jerked up and her arms flew out straight, away from her sides, her legs seized and she realized her body had taken the rigid shape of the lines within the pentagram. The song in the air grew frenzied and electricity seemed to hum in the air.
She could not move, not even if she wanted to.
The coagula blood hovering over her body rushed forward, she winced and shut her eyes expecting it to splash across her skin.
Sensations of warmth and cold began to collide across her skin as ripples of energy began to dilate outward where each drop touched, even under her clothes where she had thought the cloth would have protected her.
Burning began to race across her skin and she gasped, opening her eyes in the momentary shock that grasped her. Across the clearing she heard Showl bellow in pain.
Focusing her eyes straight forward past the sword as Showl’s previously void expressing was suddenly contoured, his golden eyes were slits in his face. Echoing in the darkness of her thought she felt disembodied pain, it lanced through her with a shock like lightning, causing her to flinch.
She felt the pain recoil as if it was being suppressed and she realized with a pang that she was feeling Showl’s agony as it were her own and that he was desperately trying to spare her of his suffering.
She gasped and looked down to her left hand as blue coils, symbols, and lines began to draw across her skin in shimmering light. Even with her little knowledge of magic she could sense their purpose.
Seals.
Binding contracts that where being imprinted even as deeply as her soul. She could feel their energy creep deeply under her skin, stroking her bones with a wintery chill and frisson through her mind. She could feel each individual line trace itself across her face and as she watched them glow under her clothes she frustratingly wondered what the words said.
Slowly they drew themselves back to the origin over her chest, each dragon crawled across her skin, leaving patterns of lines behind them as the intricate seals followed them to her chest. Swiftly the lines finished in elaborate forms and glyph that marked all the way to her birthmark. Another jolt passed through her body, seeming to originate from her chest yet from no particular area in her body. Something inside her body snapped, like a bone had broken only without the pain, a chilling and electrifying energy began to tingle throughout her body, trapped under her skin. She recognized the sensation in an instant.
Mana.
It was free of its prison where she had never known it had even existed and now sought to be free of her mortal vessel. The energy grew to an overwhelming volume, she felt as if her body was going to burst from holding it in.
Suddenly, she felt acutely aware of the moister in the air, the chill in the wind, the water under the earth, the sea far to the north to her left, the snow on the peaks, and the clouds in the sky. They all called to her, beckoned for her attention and thirsted for her desire.
The power slowly subsided with the newfound sensitivity to the liquid in the world, reminding her that that was fluid could also be solid with just a little cold...
She was baffled she could sense her power and the water around her and understand it like her instinct to breathe. Its importance, and its connection to her, like it had always been a part of her, even if she had never realized it till now. She had been born with the power, it was hers to use.
The knowledge was gratifying and she smiled and let out the breath she had been holding in at the realization that she had been born for something greater.
She felt that it was just at the edge of her fingertips to cap over the entire world in ice if she wanted to. She held the power to freeze over everything and turn the world into a barren landscape in the blink of an eye.
She sensed Showl’s concern at the direction her thoughts were taking and she giggled, giddy and amused by his disquiet.
Great, body tattoos now too. She thought with a grimace as she looked at the decorative lines over her hand and fingers, losing her amusement.
The lucent markings stopped glowing and quickly faded as the five dragons settled in their original places under her collarbone and grew inanimate.
&n
bsp; Ange gazed bewildered and relieved as the lines faded and her birthmark stopped emitting light as she regain mobility of her limbs. Slowly she fell to the earth, her feet touched the packed stone beneath and the prison of light vanished in a flash like the setting of the suns.
The stone floor’s etched markings dissipated as the light vanished from their depths, circling in reverse to the source of their energy source.
The sword continued to float above the ground, the mist residing and the chanting grew silent. The world was silent as the clouds above continued to twirl about the barrier. Ange grimaced and wondered where Sora was hiding behind the clouds waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce.
Thinking of the dragon she returned her gaze back to Showl, realizing she could no longer sense pain pouring through their connection. He sat crouched, panting, his skin lucent with sweat and through their new bond she could sense his fatigue and worry as his eyes scanned the clouds as she had done a second ago.
Ange didn’t feel any different, Showl had explained her body would undergo change. But nothing seemed to have manifested. She felt exactly the same as before, except now she could feel Showl and power sleeping deep within her body, she had only but to reach for it and set it loose. Though she didn’t have the slightest idea how.
Suddenly nervous, she realized Sora and her Dragonbound were still a threat, hovering just over the cloud cover. Ange’s magic was free but that didn’t mean she was a match, she knew that well as her instincts quaked with fear.
She took a step towards the sword and Showl, feeling slightly relieved the barrier around the clearing still held as she flashed her gaze back to the sky for a second before she froze as she watched her sword hover towards her.
Sky Warriors: Poleuthan's Thief (Sky Warriors Saga Book 1) Page 18