She didn’t spend too much time in her search for food before she found more greens and berries for their dinner and returned with a bagful. The others were huddled around the low fire and looked up hungrily as Miri returned. She passed out what she had to the group and together they watched the embers float into the night sky as they ate.
“Are you ok Ezra? You’ve been very quiet since we left.” Ralis asked, breaking the silence.
“We’ve all been quiet.” She snapped. Then she looked up from the fire apologetically. “I’m fine.”
Miri very much doubted that. When she had first met Ezra, she had been talkative, despite keeping a dark secret. Since the truth of her parentage had been revealed she had been even more conversational with the group. But that night and the night previous Ezra had been quiet with contemplation, in addition to her new short temper.
“We need to trust one another in all things if we are to be successful with our quest.”
Ezra frowned at Miri and responded with a hiss. “Do you think I’m lying?”
“No, I simply fear that you are withholding the truth.” Miri looked away from Ezra timidly. “We do not understand the power that now resides within you. And you cannot deny that you have… changed since receiving it.”
“I’m still me!” Ezra’s frown had turned into a scowl which she hurriedly tried to master before continuing. “I have the flame under control.”
“But you told Thia…” Browen started before Ezra shot him a glare.
“I have it mostly under control.” She sighed deeply. “It’s a… struggle though. I can feel the flame constantly at the edges of my mind. It won’t win… don’t worry.”
“Are they all going to be like that.” Ralis shivered. “I don’t know if I am strong enough.”
The remaining three, the ones who destiny had chosen to wield the elemental powers, looked solemnly at the fire before them. There were times when Miri felt jealous of the role that the four of them would play. That they would be blessed with the ancient power of her people and be remembered through history as Heroes. She was nothing more than a guide, the one to lead them to the sacred power and eventually the Chaos Gate itself. But since they had learned the fate of Gillian Purrean and of the madness that had enslaved her for eternity, jealousy had been exchanged for doubt, sympathy and fear. Miri was essentially leading her friends to something that would drive them to insanity and to a future that would likely end poorly for them. She felt conflicted. The Chaos Gate needed to be closed, Queen Zarrennia needed to be stopped, but the cost demanded of her new friends was a steep one.
“Thia said that the four powers were, fire, earth, water and wind.” Amri calculated with a determined crease to her brow. “Maybe we should decide now who will get what. That way we will be more prepared when we get to the next Shrine.”
“I am certain that fate has already decided which power you will be bound to.” Miri answered.
Amri shook her head. “Ezra decided to accept the power of fire, fate had nothing to do with it.”
“Fate brought her to that chamber before the rest of us.” Miri replied firmly.
“But she still had to decide.” Amri countered.
“What happened to your lute Ralis?” Ezra suddenly asked.
Ralis’s face fell at the reminder. “It was smashed in the rapids.”
“I’m sorry.” Ezra offered. “We’ll get you a new one.”
He smiled back, never one to let the mood stay sour for too long. “I can still sing, that will never be taken from me.”
Ezra smiled and reached for a stick to stir the embers of the fire but pulled her hand back as her tattoo came into view. Her smile faded as she was reminded of the marks that now curled in fiery green patterns across her skin. She ran her other hand over them. She was still not used to seeing the intricate designs that spread from her fingertips to her shoulder. That was another thing that Miri felt guilty for.
“Does it hurt?” Amri asked.
“Not anymore.” Ezra answered tugging the lengthy sleeve of her shirt to cover it up better.
“Why is it green?” Browen asked curiously. “Shouldn’t the power of fire be red or orange or maybe yellow.”
Ezra’s green eyes flared in annoyance at the question and Miri could not help but notice that they were the same colour that now marked her arm.
“I don’t know.” Ezra replied as calmly as she could. “Does it matter what colour it is?”
“It does not.” Miri confirmed, not wanting the flame to take hold of her friend any further than it clearly had. “What matters is that we have the power of the flame and Queen Zarrennia does not.”
Ezra flinched slightly at the sound of her mother’s name. “She is going to be hunting for us. Nowhere is safe anymore.”
“We will need to be even more cautious as we travel. No more towns, it is too dangerous now.” Everyone nodded in agreement at Miri’s words.
“At least we won’t have to worry about the cold anymore.” Amri encouraged. “And with summer officially here, travelling should be easy.”
“I will try and meditate on our path forward. I am ashamed that I have yet to receive a vision of the next Shrine.” Miri bowed her head.
“It will come to you, it always does.” Ralis beamed at Miri and she looked away shyly, a deep blush to her cheeks.
She had not forgotten how he had saved her life only a few days ago. Their descent down the mountain, as the ancient Shrine crumbled around them, had been brutal. She still had bruises from the icy rapids that they had been flung down. She hardly remembered the ordeal, having been unconscious for most of it, but she did remember waking up with a burning sensation in her lungs and Ralis kneeling over her as she coughed up water. He had breathed life into her, had saved her and she had yet to properly thank him for it.
“Ralis, I’ve been thinking that I should teach you how to fight?” Browen offered with a shy smile. “If we’re going to keep running into trouble, you should probably learn how to defend yourself.”
His voice took Miri from the memory and she looked back up with an encouraging smile. “That is a good idea! We most certainly will encounter further adversity along the way.”
Browen looked excited at the prospect. “And it’ll be nice to get into a training regime again.”
Ralis looked between his friends with a smile that poorly hid his discomfort at the idea. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“But if it means saving your life, you might have to.” Browen noted in a matter of fact tone.
“It’s just self-defense for now.” Amri added then she addressed Browen. “Just teach him to block and protect himself.”
Browen nodded then looked to Ralis for confirmation.
“Alright, just self-defense.” Ralis sighed.
“Now, we’ll need to find something to practice with.” Browen grinned as he stood.
After a moment of searching he found a pair of long sturdy sticks that would act as their swords and handed one to Ralis. Ezra, Miri and Amri watched from the warmth of the campfire while Browen began his instruction. He went over the basics of how to hold a sword and how to stand, with Miri and Amri occasionally chiming in with their own suggestions. Ralis tried to follow the instructions as best he could but maintained an awkward grimace as he held the weapon. The Browen proceeded to instruct him on a series of five block patterns to repeat and demonstrated with his own stick.
Ezra laughed at Ralis’s clumsily attempt to mirror Browen’s movements. “Did we finally find something that you’re not instantly amazing at?”
Ralis laughed with her. “It wouldn’t be fair if I was perfect at everything.”
“Like this Ralis, keep your knees bent.” Browen instructed patiently.
They continued for a while until the call of sleep tugged instantly upon each of them. Browen offered to take
first watch and one by one the rest piled into their respective tents. Miri, Ezra and Amri shared a tent while Ralis took the other one, to be shared with Browen. It was warm and cozy and Miri felt herself easily drifting to sleep as she listened to the crackle of the nearby campfire.
Miri found herself walking through fog and terror quickly took hold of her. The memory of her last fog filled vision still haunted her. She tried to swallow her fear as she moved forward. The fog began to clear and revealed cages all around her, but they were all made of something different. Miri squinted through the fog but struggled to determine what the strange materials were, then she noticed the occupants. Her four friends; Amri, Ralis, Browen, and Ezra. They looked up at her, as if waiting for something, and didn’t seem concerned with the cages that they found themselves within. They almost looked comfortable as they waited for Miri.
Miri was not at all content however and she grabbed for the bars. The cages had no doors, no locks, no lid, or hinges of any kind to work with. It was like they had been built around them. A loud bong rang out then, so loud that the ground around her shook. She looked towards the sound and saw a massive structure rising from the ground. It was a tower with a strange circle on all four sides at the top, a pair of arrows were reaching up towards the heavens, beneath were runes that Miri recognized as numbers in common. She squinted and wondered what the significance of 12 was.
Another sound caught her attention and she realized that she was standing alone in a stone yard with a massive gate before her, the road beyond led to an even larger castle that loomed in the distance. Miri took several steps back; she could feel something evil watching her from the windows of the castle.
All around her was a city full of people all weighed down by heavy chains. None of the seemed to notice her as she walked among them. She felt panicked as she looked for her friends, they were nowhere to be seen among the slaves that walked the city streets.
Then her boot was stuck on something. She cried out as she looked down and saw that she was sinking, the whole city was sinking into a thick and stinking mud. The more she struggled the deeper she descended into the black ooze until it was up to her neck. She gasped for air as it passed over her face. The last thing she saw before the world went black was a red headed woman, with pointed ears and tall white horns that erupted from her brow, looking down curiously at her.
Chapter Three
Amri
Amri had taken the last watch of the night and was listlessly poking at the fire as she waited for the others. Even after more than a month of travelling with Miri, she still felt out of place in the woods. For as many painful memories that Verta had, despite how horrible her life had been there, it was still home. She knew it better than most and could slip from one side of town to the other without ever being seen. That and she knew all the best places to steal from.
Her hand bumped the hilt of one of her twin daggers as she leaned back. A wave of guilt then stabbed her in the gut. Her parents had fought, and died, to try and make the world a better and safer place. They had stood against Queen Zarrennia’s tyranny until their last breath. While she knew that they would be happy to know that she had survived, that she was continuing their work, she dreaded what they would think of the criminal lifestyle she had been forced to adopt after their deaths.
She pulled one of the daggers free and held it carefully in her hands. She hated to admit that they never looked so good. Commander Illian certainly knew how to care and clean for weapons. She ran her fingers over the elegant details that had been obscured by the gradual build up over years of use. The markings reminded her of the strange symbols that had decorated the Shrine. Miri had called them Elven runes.
Amri grimaced as she looked at her dagger in its almost as good as new condition. She wondered if she had tarnished her parent’s memory by not taking better care of them. They had saved her life more than once and yet she had allowed them to become so badly tarnished and stained. In their cleaned state, she could not deny that they appeared more ornamental than functional and she wondered why her parents had possessed such an elegant artifact.
Miri had awoken first and looked thoroughly shaken from whatever dreams had terrorized her in the night. She crawled from the tent and took a seat at the fire next to Amri. Since they had escaped the first Shrine, sleep seemed to have become Miri’s enemy. She looked even more tired in the mornings than she did at night, especially this morning. Amri had noticed her tossing and turning in her sleep, whimpering in the nights since the Shrine. But Miri had never wanted to speak about what plagued her, no matter how many times Amri asked.
“Rough night?” Amri asked quietly, not wanting to wake the others.
“I had a vision last night.” Miri replied, there were dark circles beneath her eyes as she stared into the fire.
Amri sat up a little straighter. “Did you see the Shrine?”
Miri shook her head. “No, but I think I may know which direction we must take. That is, if we can unravel the mystery of the vision I saw. It was… confusing. I wish to wait for the others before I describe it.”
Amri nodded and looked back to the dagger in her hand. On impulse she suddenly asked. “Are these Elven runes?”
Miri scooted a little closer to Amri and inspected the dagger. Her face wrinkled as her fingers trailed across the flat edge of the blade and her mouth moved slightly, silently sounding out the sounds.
“It is... It says strength.”
“What about this one.” Amri pulled the daggers twin from its makeshift holster and passed it to Miri.
“Wisdom.”
The two girls looked at the daggers pensively for a moment as the words were said aloud. Miri turned over the dagger marked as wisdom and searched for another clue as Amri considered what significance the words could hold.
“I had not noticed this before, but these are Elven made.” Miri admired the craftsmanship before returning the dagger to Amri. “You said that they belonged to your parents?”
“It’s all I have left of them.” Not for the first time, Amri regretted not collecting the bundle of papers that had been hidden with the daggers.
“Your parents, or perhaps an ancestor of yours, must have done something great for the Elven Empire to have been given these. The spirit of the Hero truly does flow within you.” Miri smiled warmly at Amri.
“Strength and wisdom.” Amri mused. “What do you think it means?”
“The qualities of a hero perhaps?”
“Maybe…” Amri had never thought too long or hard about her daggers, other than wondering why her parents had carefully hidden them away or why they owned such expensive looking things.
They didn’t have to wait long for the others. Within a few minutes of Miri’s waking, everyone else had gathered around the fire. It was strange that Miri had not left to catch them breakfast as she normally did, and everyone looked to her anxiously. Amri waited for Miri to speak first, giving her the time she needed to put her thoughts into words. Finally, after a shuddering breath Miri addressed them.
“I had a vision last night. I saw…” She hesitated. “I saw a city, with a castle looming over it and something wicked living inside the castle. There was this strange tower with numbers on it and arrows pointing at the number twelve, it made this loud sound that shook the earth. The people of the city were all in chains and then the city started to sink into mud. I…” She shook her head. “That was what I saw last night.”
Amri recognized the clear fear on her face and decided not to push her on whatever she had neglected to say. Not now at least.
“Big castle, egotistical madman inside, pretentious clocktower, stinking swamps.” Ezra snickered. “That sounds like Esper.”
“The Human homelands?” Miri asked curiously.
“That makes sense, it is south east from here.” Browen mused. “But it will take weeks, maybe months to get ther
e.”
“How do you know it’s Esper?” Amri asked, cocking an eyebrow towards Ezra.
“I’ve been there before.” She shrugged. “The people of Frellan act like they’re prisoners in their own city and not many places have clock towers large enough to shake the earth.”
“Also, the mud.” Browen added. “Esper is known for its swamps.”
“About half of Esper is unusable swamp land.” Ezra continued. “It would make a great place to hide an ancient Elven Shrine.”
Miri seemed to perk up at the comment. “I saw nothing of the Shrine but perhaps you are right, and this vision was merely to guide us in the right direction.”
“Other than Esper being south east from here, I’m not sure how to get there.” Browen frowned. “I’ve never been to Esper.”
“I have also never been to the Human homelands.” Miri’s brow creased with doubt, then she looked to Ezra who shrugged.
“I rode in a carriage and we used the roads. I didn’t really care how we got there.” She answered with a roll of her eyes.
“If we pass by another small settlement maybe we can find a map.” Amri offered. “I can be in and out before anyone sees me.”
“That is too dangerous.” Miri replied firmly.
“We can’t just go south east and hope we run into Esper.” Ralis looked to Amri with agreement. “We’ll need direction at some point.”
Miri shifted uncomfortably. “If an opportunity arises then perhaps. But only if the risk is minimal.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“My parents were from Esper.” Browen smiled. “I’ve always wanted to see it.”
Sunken Wind Page 3