by Rosie Scott
Most surprisingly, an Alderi woman darker than most sent to assassinate me stood beside the human. They shared the same height. Her skin was a deep mixture of warm purple and black. She wore dark armor like that of the assassins who often hunted me down; it was lightweight and meant for quickness and flexibility. As if to further prove she was an assassin, two black dagger handles stuck out of sheaths on her belt. The Alderi was thin but also shapely with a figure like an hourglass. She hid most of her skin, however, like it would curse her to allow any of it to see sunlight. A black hood was tugged up over her head, almost hiding chin-length black hair and an androgynous face. Solid black eyes holding a mixture of mischievous curiosity and intrigue lingered in their stare and rolled over me from head to toe, like she either found me attractive or sized me up for a fight.
These three people were interesting and mysterious enough without considering the fourth who had me paralyzed with shock and walked toward me with all the confidence in the world. I felt light-headed, for I stopped breathing once the inhale refused to slip past the lump in my throat.
Kai Sera strode across the long grasses like she owned them and could make them bow to her will. Her pace was slow, methodical. Calculating. Her fiery hair glimmered gold in the unrelenting High Star sun until it flickered like flames. Despite the heat she wore it down, and it swished across her mid-back as she walked. She wore a nice lightweight set of armor, but it wasn't as prestigious as I remembered Terran's being, nor did it have the standard Chairel green. It was only black. In the six years since I saw her last, Kai had grown from a juvenile into a woman. Her svelte body blatantly lied about her inner strength. A modest chest aided her perfect confident posture, but she had a natural sway to her gait by virtue of shapely hips. Bulky silver rings adorned most of her fingers. Other than a military satchel, she carried nothing. Golden eyes bored right through me with a hesitant but curious expression.
Just like that, I've become undone. The walls I'd so carefully erected around my heart cracked like spiderwebs at their bases. All the bravado I'd convinced myself I had when it came to facing her dissipated until I felt like a pathetic juvenile. My heart thudded so hard against my ribs I heard it. I wanted to recoil into my hood, if only that meant I could avoid the inevitable and slip by her unnoticed.
Kai stopped just meters away from me. For the moment, she said nothing, only looking over the skeletons that stood beside me like loyal guardians. There was no fear in her golden eyes. Only curiosity. As the skeletons met her stare, I took the time of distraction to tilt my face further down in my hood and sharply inhale as quietly as I could. As new oxygen fed my greedy lungs, the lightheadedness dissipated in a flush of warmth.
Those intelligent metallic golden eyes flicked to me. Wandered over my chin and upper neck to linger like they did years ago. Back then, I hoped her stare to be one of attraction. Now, I simply didn't know what the hell to think, so I thought nothing. I only stood deathly still as Kai looked over my armor, noting its silver adornments, the scythe still dripping with blood, and then my rings. She seemed most interested in the skull ring on my thumb. I wondered if she somehow connected it to the mercenary I looted it from years ago.
I swallowed hard and finally spoke, repeating the same words to her I offered to every mercenary group that had ever come to kill me. “Leave me at peace, and no harm will come to you.”
Kai seemed surprised at hearing my voice. Perhaps she'd forgotten it. She hesitated a moment, and her shoulders quivered back a bit like she shivered. She replied, “I promise you, I mean you no harm. I witnessed the—”
“Serans mean me nothing but harm,” I interrupted with irritation as I realized she meant to manipulate me. It was as I always feared. My words to the sole Seran survivor from the fight seasons ago came back to haunt me. I taunted Sirius to try harder. Despite his absence and distance to Kai throughout our friendship, he must have found out later on how close we'd been. What an ingenious idea it was to manipulate my emotions to make it easier to capture and kill me. Sending mercenaries and armies after me hadn't worked, so he sent the only person left alive I loved.
Ingenious, I mused again, mentally hearing her words repeat on her husky voice and becoming frustrated with how it affected me even still. Cruel.
I blurted impatiently, “Just admit you are here for the bounty your father put upon my head and be done with it.”
Kai stilled. Blinked. Once, twice. Her golden eyes flicked to the forest and then back to the pale skin of my upper neck. Thoughts fought for prominence behind her gaze before she breathed, “Cerin.” It was an exhale of relief and a bewildered statement all in one.
“You could be an actress, Kai. You sound surprised.” I tilted my head slightly with challenge. Kai had always been intelligent, but she had to know that I wasn't stupid.
“I am surprised,” she replied, her eyes rolling over me again. “I'm shocked, actually.” Kai hesitated, and her eyes widened with sudden realization. “By the gods, it all makes sense now.”
I said nothing.
“You must have practiced necromancy at the university,” Kai prodded. “They caught you, didn't they?”
I huffed dryly and allowed my impatience to form my next words. “I have no time for your act,” I insisted. “Get it out of your head that you're going to capture me, or prepare to die. I have no plans to return to Sera.”
A guarded expression took over the curiosity on her features, and she quickly replied, “Neither do I.”
I glanced over Kai's shoulder without moving my head as I realized her companions slowly approached us from where they had stayed back in the forest. They seemed concerned for her welfare, like they hadn't counted on my threats. That confused me since Sirius sent them here to kill me.
“Like hell,” I retorted, calling out Kai's lie. “They welcome you there.”
Kai's eyes flashed with offense. She straightened and replied, “They used to welcome me there before I refused my duty and escaped. Don't pretend you understand who I am today, Cerin, when you haven't seen me in years.”
That felt like a punch in the gut. In a cloud of silence, I repeated her words in my head, trying to understand them. Refused her duty? What duty? My mind stuck to one word in particular: escaped. If Kai told the truth, what had she escaped from?
“You're right,” I finally agreed. “I don't know who you are, and you don't know who I am.” Though I stood still, my heart roared in my ears in a desperate request to ask Kai for more. My brain cursed my heart's stupidity and warned me against getting involved.
My heart won.
“Humor me, then,” I said. “Why are you here, if not for my bounty?”
“Not for you,” Kai answered bluntly, before glancing east toward the Cel Mountains. “I'm headed to Whispermere. I have reason to believe I have biological family there.”
Whispermere. I remembered the mysterious cult village I visited by accident before going to Brognel, with its submissive men and domineering women. I also remembered just how interested Kai was in finding out her origins since she felt unloved and unwanted in Sera.
A pang of sympathy sliced through my chest. I remembered proposing she find her birth parents so she could understand her magic skill. Perhaps find a cure for her short lifespan. I had also suggested using necromancy to reverse magic's draining effects on her health. And here Kai was, still speaking to me as skeletons surrounded me like she barely noticed them. Was it possible my friendship and advice had affected her more than she let on? Was it possible that Kai was truly as open-minded as she seemed all those years ago? Was it possible...
I cut those thoughts short and finally replied, “I have been to Whispermere. If you have family there, you may not like what you find.”
Kai frowned. “You were there? Why?”
“I move around,” I replied vaguely, unwilling to give away more than necessary. “I was there. They wouldn't let me in, but they didn't banish me like most. They allowed me to trade with them outside the gate a
nd sent me on my way.” I paused, frustrated with how much I babbled on in her presence. “It's neither here nor there. The fact remains that you are on this personal mission, and yet you stopped to speak to me. Why?”
Kai huffed like her answer should be obvious. “Because I just witnessed one man single-handedly demolish an army of orcs and come out of it no worse for wear.” It was as if seeing me use illegal magic wasn't even a consideration to her. In six years of using necromancy I hadn't met someone so fearless and openly accepting. “I like to surround myself with capable people. I wanted to ask you to join us.”
I had little time to feel the genuine shock from that statement before the Celd archer abruptly stepped forward and grabbed Kai's arm. “Kai, you must be jesting,” he protested. “Former friend or not, he is a necromancer. You would doom us all.”
There it was. That was the response I expected from any normal person. Not acceptance. Expectation of isolation and banishment.
“You forget that I am a necromancer as well,” Kai retorted, giving the Celd an even stare.
“In name only,” the Celd argued. “You do not practice.”
“As I'm sure Cerin wouldn't if he would ever be discovered,” Kai reasoned. I had flashbacks to being a juvenile when she defended me from ridicule. “And besides, I am already on the run from my father. It is not like I'm still on the good side of the law.”
On the run from my father. Those words swirled around my head, followed up by the just-as-important admission that Kai considered herself a criminal. Could it be that my intuition guided me to salvation rather than utter ruin? What if our paths crossed just to join?
My brain overrode my heart to remind me pointedly, It is a ploy! This is all said to manipulate you!
The Celd broke through my thoughts to argue with Kai. “You are on the run from him because you disobeyed his orders and fled recruitment to his army. A much lesser charge than harboring a necromancer!”
I could believe Kai disobeyed Sirius's orders. That amused me. It seemed Kai had grown more rebellious over the years. It was a welcome development. Sirius deserved every bit of resistance she gave him. What I couldn't believe was that Kai refused to join the Seran Army. Years ago, that had been all she talked about. Her only future, she once told me, was in warfare.
“I told you weeks ago, Silas, that you were no longer under my father's rule,” Kai said authoritatively. Silas. The name repeated in my thoughts a few times before I remembered where I had heard it before. Silas Galan, I mused, connecting his fancy armor emblem to the memory of Kenady taunting me that royalty attracts royalty. Kai's lover. It made sense. The concern in the Celd's eyes was intimate, personal. Kai continued, “If you disagree with my decisions, feel free to cut your ties with me and go.”
The two stared at one another. Silas's gaze was concerned, panicked, worried. Kai's was defiant, unrelenting. A flash of crippling attraction rolled through me from her audacity before I quickly dismissed it.
It is a ploy, my brain warned.
Kai is just as you left her, my heart argued like a desperate plea.
Finally, Silas broke away from Kai's stare. “Do what you must,” he murmured, conflicted, dropping his hand and standing back more guarded than before.
Kai turned to face me. For the first time, I met her gaze directly, no longer hiding within my hood's protective embrace. Warm sunlight hit my lower face. We stared at one another for a moment. Those golden eyes burrowed straight into me, finding the tragedies and dark secrets I'd collected over the years. She visibly swallowed, and emotion clouded her eyes. Was it sympathy? I didn't know. I wasn't good at reading expressions. Corpses often had none.
“Join us,” Kai requested. On her courageous, husky voice, it sounded like a command.
“What do you offer?” I asked, stalling to have time to think.
“A cut of the money we make, all loot we acquire.” She blinked and added hesitantly, “Work. Adventure. Friendship.” A slight tinge pinched her cheeks as if she found the last word embarrassing.
I smirked, finding her sudden vulnerability endearing despite my best efforts not to. “You must think I am so quick to trust.”
“No, I can see you're not,” Kai admitted. “That hurts me, given our past.”
Our past. She said it like our innocent friendship and flirtations left as much of an impact on her as they did on me. A desperate longing cluttered my chest. Kai offered me everything I lost and so vehemently wanted.
I am no longer that innocent and humble child. I am a broken man.
How much did Kai know about what I'd been through? After seeing me wield necromancy, she knew I was a criminal. But her distance from Sirius indicated she wasn't privy to all his dealings. Of course, she had never been close to him years ago. Had she any idea how wanted I was? Had she any clue all the things I'd had to do, all the people I'd killed to survive?
Even if you accept my necromancy, you may not accept my crimes.
If this was all a ploy to capture me and take me back to Sera, it worked flawlessly. All it took was Kai hinting that she accepted me despite my sins and offered me everything I sorely missed. In her presence, my mind that teetered on the edge of insanity took a step back into safer territory like I had some hope of reclaiming a life of normalcy. She was my greatest weakness.
“I do accept it, though,” Kai went on, as decisive as ever. “I will earn your trust. In the meantime, if you ever suspect anything in the slightest, you are free to leave.”
Then, I made either the greatest mistake or the best decision of my life. While staring directly in Kai's eyes to judge her expression, I waved my hand casually in the air, and the skeletons dispelled. A mixture of emotions passed through her golden orbs as the bones clattered to the ground. Relief. Happiness. And one particular emotion I'd once been so acquainted with but hadn't felt in years, the same emotion that desperately crawled on broken knees toward my blackened heart and begged me to reconsider banning it from my life.
Hope.
Deciding to join Kai when I couldn't trust her intentions could get me killed, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let her go. I told Kai years ago that no matter what she decided to do, she had the drive and skill to do it well. If she told me the truth about rebelling against Sirius, our goals aligned far more than I ever could have hoped for. With Chairel's most-wanted criminal necromancer and the mage of the six elements teaming up, there would be no limits to what we could do.
“Very well,” I agreed, noting that it was relief and excitement, not anxiety, that flooded through me once I said it.
Kai smiled that beautiful smile, though this time uncertainty tinged it. My hostility had caught her off guard, but courage kept her trudging forth regardless. Why did she insist I join her? To finally gain Sirius's favor by helping him defeat me, or because she honestly wanted to befriend me again after all these years? For now, there was only one thing I knew for sure.
This could get interesting.
✽✽✽
Thank you for reading Cerin Heliot's origin story! If you already read the completed Six Elements series, I hope his criminal uprising was just as savage and interesting as you imagined. If you haven't read the Six Elements series, Cerin's story continues in Fire, Book 1. The Six Elements is a military epic fantasy series that follows the War of Necromancers through Kai Sera's eyes, from the events that serve as its catalyst (Fire, Book 1) to its bloody and world-altering conclusion fifteen years later (Death, Book 6). A teaser of Fire is included after the timeline!
Please consider leaving a short review! It supports the making of future Six Elements books and helps other readers discover stories they'll enjoy. Thank you so much for your support! You can visit my website at www.rosiescottbooks.wordpress.com for additional Six Elements content including fan art, interviews, and exclusive behind-the-scenes lore and world-building details.
Coming up next in Fire (The Six Elements Book 1)...
Kai Sera is the greatest asset of war th
at exists. In a world where most mages only have the ability to wield one element, she wields them all: fire, earth, water, air, life, and death. Though she is raised as royalty by an adoptive father at the prestigious Seran University of Magic, he refuses to put her skills to use in his army, so Kai breaks free of her bonds to go on a quest of adventure and self-discovery.
One simple quest will turn into a life-changing phenomenon for Kai and her companions. Beliefs are challenged. Old secrets are unearthed. Legal lines are crossed. Loyalties are divided. The seeds of rebellion are planted. When it comes time for Kai to face the truth, a legend will be born.
Click here to continue to Fire: http://amazon.com/dp/B0761NN4YK/
Rise of a Necromancer Timeline
407 – Rise of a Necromancer begins (14th of New Moon)
410 – Cerin Heliot and Kai Sera become friends (23rd of New Moon)
410 – Kai discovers she can wield six elements. (New Moon)
410 – Kenady Urien reports Cerin to authorities. Cerin flees Sera (79th of Dark Star)
411 – Cerin makes it to Thornwell. Cerin's first leeching high triggers during the battle with the Twelve. Learns the fate of his parents (3rd of High Star)
411 – Cerin visits Whispermere (39th of High Star)
411 – Cerin acquires his scythe (45th of High Star)