The Spark

by Taylor Gibson

  “He told me it was like trying to read a mind. He never knew the art of telepathy, so he had to try and understand the signs with his own mind, like you. My mother never told him anything until he finally gave up and confronted her as you have confronted me on this day.” She went on to tell her tragic tale, “I was an infant when we traveled to a world in the farthest reaches of the galaxy to meet a distant relative. The planet’s name was Marigo. It was there that my father lost his manhood to a horse’s rear hooves; squashed them to uselessness.” I cringed at the thought and felt a powerful sympathy pain enter through my own. “Yeah, anyway,” she continued, “the two of them returned to Imga I with me after treatment. My father constantly moaned in agony until I was two. That was when he and my mother started to argue. My mother wanted another child, but since my father was incapable of conceiving, due to his accident, she knew that the only way she could bare another child for them was to have an affair. It was not as though she wanted to betray him, but she didn’t have any options to go by. She never once went out to find another man to do the job because she knew that she’d regret hurting her husband. She attempted countless times to ask him straight out, but he never could listen. She started giving him allusions, as I had tried on you, but never did he catch any of them, just as you failed to. It isn’t your fault, Jon, really. It’s just part of life. That doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed, though.”

  I began to understand that making signs and indirect references to needs and desires was a way to circumvent around the fear of asking head on. I knew the feeling my wife was having. I gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead to ease her stress. I felt guilty even though she didn’t exactly blame me for the neglect. After a moment of silent kissing and hugging, Sellina got up and walked into the kitchen with half a smile on her face before leaving the room. She then prepared to fix Molli Su a quick lunch for when she got home. She cooked a small bowl of chicken soup with a plate of homemade treacle tarts for desert. As she raced to finish the soup and tarts, I had to make a few errands to the general goods store before I picked Molli up from school. On my way over the hills, I reflected on the conversation I had with my wife and remembered all of the times I could have sat down and spoken with her about the internal perils she was facing. I soon realized there were too many as I could recall.

  ***

  One disaster usually leads to another. I’m nearly nine hundred and ninety years old, so I should know.

  ~Aloli-Ta Äbaka

  The minions of Jobik persisted, but I didn’t allow them a bit of a chance in winning. This city needed to be purged of the jaqa filth before I could join Sui and George back home. There were a few lesser soldiers left outside the walls after about two hours of slaughtering and blood spilling, and I wasn’t even breaking a sweat. Many of the jaqae who were patrolling the city from the inside were coming out to fulfill my wish; all holding some dimension of magick ability. I didn’t care how long it took for me to finish the job. I would be satisfied to kill every last one of them if I could!

  After some time, I suddenly became nauseated more so than I already had been from being around these creatures. I drew energy from the wind around me to overcome my elderly weakness. There was something worse than a jaqa lingering around in the area and it knew I was nearby. It was a higher member of Exitius who was leading all of these jaqae. It knew that I was out back. My spear went through the hearts of many demons, spraying black all over the grass and my beard. Their blood was like tar, or some type of black oil, but it was toxic to the natural environment. It yellowed and browned the grass on impact and slightly stung my flesh like impotent acid.

  As I skewered several more jaqae, I began to happily realize that the more I killed, the more difficult it was to kill the next. I was finally receiving the challenge I was hoping for. Perhaps the leader would offer me a fair chance at a good fight. I may have told Sui that I was too old for major fights with experienced foes, but I never once said that I didn’t like a good challenge. Though I was happy about the increase in difficulty, I began to worry about myself.

  I fought nearly seventy of them and butchered every last one. It was only when I killed the seventy first that the rest of the lavender skins, who swarmed like wasps at me, were much more talented than the ones before. They were the elites; the same in rank as the ones I fought back on Imga XII with Diruiyal and his followers. I was eventually going to be forced to flee and escape. There wasn’t much hope for me if I stayed to take them all on like this.

  “I’m warning you!” I shouted.

  The lot of them rushed after me with their weapons drawn and made several killing blows, but they all missed as I shuffled around the crowd and stabbed a few of them in the back. I slithered behind each of the largest of the brutes and cast curses on their legs that turned them into worms. I was able to break my first sweat in this battle when I started to thwart the incoming blows of the jaqae’s heavy weapons with protection runes. I counter attacked, dodged, and rejected countless attacks from the enemies until I eventually embraced one of their weapons. I was cut right in the side, tearing my silken robe and my shin right under it. I cringed from the blow and shouted, “I warned you!”

  With a force I didn’t even know I still possessed, I shot another blast wave through the ground and knocked down every jaqa around me, killing about half of them. I needed a real fight, and that was exactly what I was being given. I took on the rest of the jaqae and killed a majority of them. The remaining ten were so skilled that even I wasn’t sure if I could handle them alone. Before I could make another move against them, I noticed the appearance of a familiar enemy. Each one of the jaqae stopped to admire him and taunt me, knowing about the last encounter I had with him years ago.

  It was Dragoon, the ram-horned weapon master, with the tactics only a coward would use in war. He stood there behind the jaqae, with his six-fingered hand in a gauntlet raised to halt them. He unsheathed a blood-red sword from one of his many sheaths hanging off of his leather belts and pointed it directly at me as he walked through the isle between the slimy demons. The sword he carried was the same one he used to defeat me the last time we fought. It was maroon with a black aura around it. The magicks it held were so evil that I was incapable of fully blocking the power that coiled around my staff and entered my body. The sword was infused with dark magicks, having the ability to drain its opponent’s energy more and more with every strike. He looked at the hundreds of bloody jaqa bodies lying in the grass.

  “Äbaka, why must you leave such a mess for me when you know that I’m not going to clean it up?” said Dragoon in a taunting tone, as he drew closer with the tip of his blade. “I just wanted to rid this city of its filth and replace it with my master’s greatest troops. But now you’ve gone and ruined that, now haven’t you?”

  “If this is the best you can muster, then Exitius is already in the ground, Dragoon.”

  He shook his head and took out his largest blade. It was almost as big as he was; larger than Sui’s blade even was. He could wield it with his left hand as if it was weightless, yet dramatically raised it as if it weighed a ton. Just before I became two pieces, I leaped back and watched the blade collide with the ground, creating a quake and a fissure that chased me until I eventually tripped. I saw Dragoon coming after me, dragging his giant sword and raising his blood-red sword, going in for the kill. I quickly raised my foot and kicked it away from his hand, which gave me enough time to stand up and make my first move against this opponent.

  I whacked him in the head with the ruby of my staff. Just as I was about to cut him in the eye, I was stopped by another leader of the jaqae, a female demoness with a voice almost as masculine as my own. It was an unpleasant surprise to see another enemy of mine that I had defeated once before. Her name was Lamia; named after the race of snake people for being so agile and cold like a reptile. I went in with my staff like a lance to pierce through her, but she threw off my attack with a s
piked flail, hanging off a pole, at the same time I made my move. I immediately picked up a dead jaqae sword from the ground and used it to slice through her thin leg. With a shriek as hideous as her face, shifting from beauty to hog-like dreadfulness, she kicked me over to fall on Dragoon’s back before I could strike her again. She had claws like a bird’s talons and the venomous maws of a serpent. She stretched her mouth open from ear to ear as she prepared to take a massive bite out of my back with a spine chilling hiss. Before she could strike, however, an ally of hers ruined the moment.

  No, it was not Dragoon beneath me recovering from the blow I dealt to his skull, it was a dragon. Yes, a firedrake! It had broken free from the nearby monster cages the enemy had brought with them. It was a beast that they used for battle, but the power of a dragon is far too great to control, even in the largest of combat zones. I thought of Sui and George as I rose off of the ground and prepared to slash at a distracted Lamia. I knew those young mages needed me, so I planned to end this fight as quickly as possible, even if I had to stoop down to Dragoon’s cowardly methods. As I took the blade and cut Lamia’s arm clean off, I was grabbed by the heel and dragged down to the blood-soaked grass. Lamia was now limited in strength and I was back on the ground in front of the dragon’s face. Dragoon stood over me and pressed his heavy boot on my back while the large, red firedrake watched. When I turned over and lifted my head to see who was over me, I saw a hoof belonging to Lamia. Then there was darkness for what seemed to be about five seconds.

  When I woke up, I felt horrid sensations going through my spine. I was chained to a table; my wrists shackled behind my back. I felt a cold iron was being stuck straight through my back; and how I cringed when I felt it pierce through on the other side. I opened my eyes and found myself not on the outskirts of Shi Shii, but in a dimly lit gods-awful torture room as large as a coliseum inside. I knew I was still on Imga I by feeling the presence of the three cores deep beneath the surface, but the question was: where? Here, there were thousands of men and women of different races being put through unspeakable torture. It smelled like rotting flesh and wrought iron. Nothing could be heard other than bloodcurdling screams and pleas for help; while no one came to save us. I was on a table of copper being interrogated on Sui and George’s whereabouts, but I was far too weak to speak to any of the surrounding men.

  “Tell us where they are and we’ll make your death as swift as the blood rushing down your back!”

  That voice, it was the voice of Dragoon. I wondered if Lamia was there as well, but as I was limited on mobility I was unable to turn my head and check behind me. I could only see the shadows of three beings, two standing on either side of me. When I moaned and didn’t answer, I felt a razor sharp claw dig into my lower back and hook under my spine, gently tugging on it. Lamia’s voice hissed in a deep tone as I screamed in agonizing pain.

  “Tell us where they are, now!”

  Sui and George could not continue their mission without their previous memories. I knew it was time to give them back their lives, but as long as I was in this hellhole, there would be no way to help them. If Sui was going to fight Jobik, and if George was going to assist her, then there would be no success for them, and all life in every dimension would ultimately cease to exist. I took their memories to prevent them from committing sins that would jeopardize the agenda set for them. It has only been about a half a year since I did this, and yet I am missing from their lives at the moment they needed me most; the moment I needed them most. There was only one way that I was going to get out of this torture chamber alive, but it would spark the first of the final battles.

  In the Fancore, on the planet of Imga I and worldwide good versus evil would commence in a war that would determine the fate of life entirely. This was where the start of the Fancore War was about to begin. The only thing I had to do first was give these villains the answers they wanted so that I could set myself free and return home to Sui and George before the enemy had a chance to reach them first. With the extra training I provided for them in the few months after I brainwashed them, they would be exceptionally more advanced than what they were before the brainwashing. When they recall the spells I taught them before as children, then they will be ready to take on many new enemies that they wouldn’t stand a chance against otherwise.

  “Tell us, wizard,” Lamia demanded, tugging harder on my vertebrae.

  “Rïdeneer!” I winced, “they’re in Rïdeneer! If you go now, you can catch them! Just please release me!”

  After they stood there in shock for a moment, Lamia’s talon released my spine and all three of them walked away, but not before the voice of Dragoon echoed in my ear, “You can lay there and die, wizard. We’re through with you.”

  Relieved, I let out a sigh and looked around me as much as I could to see if I could find a way out of here. After giving the enemy the answers they wanted, I found a pick lying on the table beside the one I was shackled to. I used telepathy to pick it up and stuck it in the locks holding the magickally reinforced chains. I then picked it with a knife I had slipped deep up my sleeve. As I nervously tried to unbind myself, Lamia and the mysterious third creature started conversing in the distance about a plan to capture the two mages in Rïdeneer. I was ready to make my escape from the chains strapped around me on the iron bed. As soon as I was free, I stood up and took down multiple guards who tried to stop me on the way out of the huge, dome-like structure. Before I left, I saw who it was that was sticking the needle in me. I didn’t recognize the orc. He was a young Valinu-Orcish male with the tusks of a full grown. Lamia and Dragoon ran after me, but I was too quick.

  I slipped out of the torture chamber, looking left and right under a blaring sun that nearly blinded me, and ran away. The massive red dragon from Shi Shii was soaring about and spotted me right away as I stumbled down the crumbled stairs of stone. It swooped in my direction and breathed a hefty load of flame, which I deflected with a massive, blue-casted shield of energy. When the flames cleared, I darted down the steps of what appeared to be an ancient ruin in Groungus, now occupied by Exitius for torturing their enemies. The dragon did not stop perusing me, so I proceeded to use drastic measures. After calling out to my staff from the storage in the ruin behind me, I grabbed it to do battle with the massive, winged lizard and show that despite all my years, though I grew frailer by the hour, I still had enough power to slay a vicious monster such as a firedrake. The winged monster loomed over me in the air, staring me down with those reptilian eyes. I could hear the three demon’s footfalls behind me. This was it, do or die!

  ***

  Love is a journey that never ends. There are moments when we flee, but with love, there is no backing down.

  ~George Gibson Goodwill

  We jogged for hours along the jungle floor, fleeing the southern city as Sui’s forefather had ordered us to do. Along the way, we came across several apex predators, and not one of them attempted to make us into a meal. We inhaled the warm air of the summer and the muggy atmosphere nearly made us sick. The vapors rising off of various fungi caused our skin to itch and our eyes to burn. Venturing through that jungle was a horrible experience.

  Eventually, both of us became worn out as darkness fell over the canopy. It began to rain, so we stopped and rested under the protection of giant leaves. They were quite softer and cooler than I had imagined, and with the moist ground beneath us, we were able to absorb just the right amount of water elements that were needed to replenish my magickal power. Lightning flashed and thunder screamed and roared, causing an uneasy slumber for us both. The storm settled by the middle of the next day, although we had already set out in the morning. Sui benefited from the heat that rained down on us. Each morning we would wake up feeling ripe and energized for about two days and a night on the journey through the jungles.

  Sui started to worry for her forefather, and even more for the folks back home. Neither of us knew what we were going to face in Rïdeneer,
given the circumstances of Shi Shii being marauded as it was. I constantly fretted the thought of my family in North Shimbia being purged from their home, and many nightmares about a burning house interrupted my sleep. It was not easy for my mind to accept that the city not too far from them was being destroyed. Sui and I were alone in these jungles where any danger could be the end of us; however, she didn’t have any concern for our safety. I understood her passionate heart that cared so much for her family above herself, but she could have at least used some of that kindness for ourselves, as we were sleeping under panthers that were peeking down on us with burning eyes and unpredictable plans each night. The wet jungles drooled on us as an ogre drools on his struggling victim before devouring it alive. I supported Sui through those two days on our way back home and ensured that we wouldn’t be gobbled up by the wild things. When we finally made it to the Crosscc plains, the sweet air almost choked our lungs again, having been among the misty land of shadowing wilderness for so very long.

  Crosscc plains welcomed us with gray skies and thunder crashing over the hills. There was a great evil coming for us. The storm of oppression streaking above the hazy sky was the only key we had to predicting what was to come. Whether from his desire to crumble all life, or his menacing drive of pure malice and hatred over Sui’s existence, the flame of Jobik was coming for us with haste.

  ***

  The spark is spreading. A flame comes on the wind and there is no known way to extinguish it, other than a single woman. And I am that remedy.

  ~Sui Bane Ozborn

  When we crossed the hills of Crosscc, we spotted many crossicutes soaring high above with fear of the coming storm. George didn’t stop to consider grabbing one for a ride back home as I did. He started running faster and faster, knowing that we didn’t have much time left before the heart of the storm arrived. There were clouds forming darker and blacker as the increasing moisture in the air fell down as rain and hail. The beasts of the land and the birds of the sky all started to squawk and screech in chaos as they made for the small ferns for cover. The larger ones were forced to endure the blistering winds and the heavy rain.