Elementally Bound: Part 2
----- Extraction -----
In the distant sandstorm vortex, the form of a woman could be seen in its epicenter, her shapely body silhouetted by the desert sun. Instantly Ember knew this to be Demitra Naja Nyimah, her absent lover. She reached out, tried to call out, but found she had no voice. She couldn't move, couldn't advance to the woman; Ember was completely helpless.
The swirling tunnel of sand morphed, loosing its color, turning white. It was snow. A torrent of ice and snow continued to revolve around the figure. She appeared differently now: no longer the same shape she was before and her eyes glowed a vivid blue. A sudden bolt of lightning dove from the sky, striking the woman from above. She stood accepting the electricity, made no move to stop it, and seemed to relish in the event.
Ember again tried to walk toward the woman, yet her legs remained still, though this action seemed to alert the mysterious figure. At once, the storm, the lightning, the woman stood mere inches away. The woman reached out, and Ember found her own hand reaching out as well, on its own. It quickly ignited, fires pouring forth from every pore. She tried to control it; tried to pull it back, but it was futile.
Fires flew toward the woman from Ember's reach, striking the woman's bare chest. It illuminated the shady figure, revealing it to be the ice queen, Valandra Naja Thaljia. She accepted the flames just as she did with the lightning and absorbed it within her being. Ember could feel the energy drain from her; the fires within waning. Until they were completely gone.
The flames vanished… as did Ember.
___________
A pink spiral appeared and swirled into existence within the circular archway as the transportation gate activated. Through it, Valandra stepped, Ember hoisted over her undamaged shoulder. She walked down the cavern corridor and into a small laboratory. Auran technology and gadgets adorned the walls and platforms, with a variety of experiments, bubbling liquids, and creatures within cylindrical chambers in various states of decay. On an empty platform, Ember was deposited, a bit more frost was created to ensure her slumber. Valandra then placed the extinguished fire sword on a separate platform.
"Not there!" came an irritated nasally voice. A small Asura approached. Her small lime eyes peered unscrupulously at the sight of Valandra. "Already disrupting my work! Why I ever agreed to assisting you is unfathomable!"
Valandra glared at the little Asura. "You'll watch your tone, Kievaa, or you forfeit your prize."
Kievaa folded her arms and took in a breath. The bangs in her face hid her eyes from the towering human, but one wouldn't have to see them to know they rolled. "Ah yes… My prize. Well," she began as she walked over and grabbed a small portable control hologram pad, "this 'prize' better be worth it; I haven't aligned myself with that lich's lofty ambitions, I just want his secrets."
"In exchange for your services, Kievaa… Let's not forget that part of the arrangement."
The Asura wobbled past the human, almost pushing her out of the way. "Yes, yes. Let's just see what you brought." Her attention turned to the unignited flame-sword, wisps of smoke slowly trailing from it. "This is something, isn't it? You got it off the flame wielder? Very interesting…" Kievaa began examining it.
"It is a formidable weapon; one which my opponent channeled her powers into. If there was a way to replicate it…"
"Oh, so I can just fabricate blades now? What do you take me for, a weapon-smith? I deal in necrotic magic, not arbitrary sword design."
Valandra folded her arms, stared down at the Asura for a moment. In her time in Tyria, she'd learned a thing or two about the little creatures: while they were talented beyond reason with the synergy of technology and magic, most had an ego that dwarfed that small stature. "Well then, if you're not up to the challenge, I suppose…"
The bait worked; Kievaa fumed. "Just… Just leave it here. I'll examine it and make something better than this skritt-discovered junk. And speaking of junk," she was on the move again, now wobbling over to an unconscious Ember. "This is the being you sought? This?" She picked up the woman's arm, dropped it, watched it fall limply, clearly unimpressed. "She's the source you sensed? This one?"
"She is more than her appearance, Asura. The fire that burns in her is like nothing I've experienced. Fire Djinn hold only a fraction of what I experienced when I fought this one. Thus, it is not difficult to speculate as to why I was drawn to her: she may very well be the most powerful fire wielder ever to exist."
Kievaa poked Ember. "That remains to be seen. Still, it should prove interesting, regardless of the outcome; as long as I get what I need."
Valandra turned, began walking back to the lab's portal gate. "You just complete your task; I'll see to it you get the knowledge you seek.
"And you're not going to stay for the big reveal?"
"I must go see to this," Valandra paused, pointed to her shoulder. The ooze had began to coagulate, but flowed like tree sap down her bicep.
Kievaa salivated. "Perhaps I should instead go with you," the desire plainly infused in her words.
Valandra continued down the corridor. "Just do your job, Asura."
"Bookah," she cursed and spit in Valandra's direction.
---- Sometime Later ----
Clouds passed quickly overhead as the Tyrian sun began its decent below the distant horizon. Anyone working in the isolation of Kievaa's lab would not notice, however: there were no windows or portals of any kind. The room was illuminated, as it always was, by arcs of electricity, various bioluminescent body parts in jars, and hexagonal tiles with bright green energy running their borders. A victim of the timeless lab and her previous comatose state, Ember's head spun as she slowly came to consciousness and tried to make sense of her surroundings.
A large green eyeball greeted her. Ember yelped. Pulling her head away from it and focusing, Ember could see that attached to the eyeball was a large ocular device, affixed upon an Asura's head as she bent over examining her. "Damn demon rodents," she mumbled.
Kievaa wickedly grinned a sharp-toothed grin. "Rodentia? Not likely, bookah. Perhaps you get Skritt and Asura confused? I suppose your limited intellect could confuse simple things such as that. We will definitely have to test your intellect, indeed."
"Or you two aren't that different…" Ember retorted, tried to sit up, and failed falling back upon the examining table.
"Oh you are a feisty one, aren't you?" Kievaa looked at her holopad. "Oh yes! I see the energy spikes already!
"You haven't seen me feisty," Ember growled, attempted unsuccessfully to sit up. Something was binding her. "Let me up, and I'll show you just how feisty I am!"
Kievaa smiled, still looking over the data. "Oh, I shall; not that you'd be able to do anything to me." She then bent down to Ember, tapped on a small digital apparatus which was affixed to her ear. The gadget hummed at her touch.
"The… the hell?"
"Inhibitor chip, you see. It means," she spoke slowly, as if to a child, "you can't do things I don't want you to do."
Ember was livid. She convulsed for a moment, attempting to move any part of her body she commanded. Nothing obeyed. "Oh when I get up, I'm gonna punt you! You and that ice queen… and Papaya Joke!"
Kievaa suddenly burst into laughter. "Papaya… Oh that's rich! A bit low-brow and on the nose, but still pretty clever, considering the source!" She wiped a tear from her small lime-green eye, then pressed a button on her pad. "You can go ahead and set up now, fire-bookah."
Ember grumbled as she sat up. Standing was not possible.
"Oh, I know it's not ideal," the Asura said, seeing the woman struggle. "But, you simply must admire the work I've put into your extraction suit! While I may not be into aesthetics as much as a former krewemate of mine, I believe I've given it a bit of flair!"
Ember blinked. "Extraction… Extraction suit?" Her attire had been replaced with an elaborately tight-fitting outfit of obvious Asuran design, holograms plastered throughout. The whole suit glowed a neon-red. Under different circumstances, Ember may have actually liked the wardrobe change. "What do you mean extraction?"
"Oh, yes! Allow me to demonstrate. This will cause incredible pain, but you'll get used to it; I simply must show you how it all works! Go ahead and stand up. Stand and heat your core, fire-bookah."
"And why the hell would I do that?" she asked, but her body obeyed the command; she could already feel her temperature rising.
Kievaa watched the readings on her pad, her smiled widening, filled with glee. "Yes! Just like that!" she squealed.
Ember grunted, but followed reluctantly in-step behind Kievaa. Her instincts screamed, but her body felt compelled to enact the commands as they were given to her.
"You see… you are a power beyond measure. (Why it chose such a limited intellect to imbue is beyond the Eternal Alchemy!)" Kievaa mused.
"Because it cooks people from the inside out otherwise." Ember used words of swords, the only weapon at her disposal.
Kievaa paused at a large console, beyond it a column of holograms. "Ah! See? That's just it! You're able to harness it - albeit with sometimes explosive results! But still, you harness it, and this extraction suit…" she said, gesturing toward the holo-chamber, which prompted Ember's entry. "This will harness the energy you've collected! Relish in the genius of the simplistic design!"
Ember peered at the Asura from inside the chamber. "Yeah, then you'll have bunch of useless power. You put it into someone else, they'll turn into a husk!"
"Oh, no, you see, the power can be transferred into another; as long as that vessel is strong enough to contain it. Do you think you are the only one who can wield such power?" The Asura flipped a switch on the console after pressing a few buttons. The cylindrical suspended holograms began to revolve around Ember.
"You think that ice bitch can? She'll kill… herself…" Suddenly Ember lost her voice and gasped, as the machine began wrenching her body from the inside. Her eyes grew wide at the pain. It took considerable strength to simply stay conscious, but she wasn't about to give her captor the satisfaction.
Kievaa looked over the readout, then pressed another button. The machine buzzed louder, amplified at the Asura's whim. A bolt of electrical energy shot out from the top of the apparatus, landing on a node in the back of the suit. At once the chamber was filled with a heat-induced glow, as the machine siphoned her essence. Ember doubled over, groaned and dropped to one knee. The pain was more than most would be able to stand and Kievaa was reluctantly surprised the woman hadn't already passed out.
Test completed, she pressed a button, stopping the process. The holograms ceased their revolving, and the lightning crackled out of existence.
Ember couldn't move. Even without the Asura controlling her, she felt as though she could barely stay awake, let alone move her body or fight the suit. She felt utterly defeated as she panted for air.
"Oh, this is wonderful data!" Kievaa exclaimed at the exciting readouts. "However, it will take a while for your power to charge back up, it seems, according to this. But, we can plan for that accordingly. We'll simply do another extraction!" The Asura paused for a moment, scratching at one of the two buns atop her ebony hair. "In the interim, it may be good for you to go out; explore… build up that power again, before you're recalled for another extraction."
"And what keeps me from just killing you?" A guttural growl came from Ember.
"Oh, you really are a slow one, aren't you? Inhibitor chip!" she exclaimed in sing-song.
Ember tried to stand, fell back to a crouch. "I'll… I'll get it off."
"Oh, if you attempt to remove it, you'll instanctly be teleported here, and the machine's set to do a full extraction, to the point of termination. Granted, not the ideal situation: we'd much rather extract the power slowly… Gotta get every last drop," she said, slithering her tongue around a pointed finger with a smirk.
Ember's eyes narrowed, her mind racing, gears grinding, trying to think of some way to elude her situation. "So I'll just run away."
Keivaa exhaled, annoyed at having to explain each detail to the dim-witted simpleton. "You'll have a keeper."
"A keeper?" Ember was on her hands and knees, still attempting to stand up on her own accord.
"Yes, and don't you try to incinerate her; the inhibitor will see you remain in check. And besides, as it stands, you can help test my prototype to her fullest potential. She's got to prove her worth, otherwise, I may just let you incinerate her!" The vile Asura giggled at the thought.
"Mmhmmm." Slouched and wobbly, Ember had just made it to her feet.
"Then, we'll do a few extraction! Would you like to be alive to witness the 'ice queen' gain all that you are?" Kievaa maniacally laughed. "Of course you would! I'll make sure that happens, you know, before I completely drain the life from you. Now begone, I have much data to analyze. You'll find your keeper just beyond the lab. Should I draw you a map, or do you think you can manage to find it?"
Ember limped slowly toward the exit, cursing the entire way.
To Be Continued...
