Elementally Bound: Part 5
----- Tether -----
Ember groaned, gritted her teeth and slowly pushed herself up. The pain was immense. Every fiber of her being cried out with a foreign scream.
Valandra stirred, sat up and dizzily blinked, trying to make sense of the predicament. The same gut-wrenching feeling was present in her, as well. She dusted the ash and snow from her hair, immediately noticed her wings of crystal ice shards absent. She held her pounding head as she carefully picked herself up.
"Listen here, you little ice-bitch… I'm done playing!" Ember was on her feet. She reached out to Valandra, called forth the magic that would incinerate her: a fireball of scorching flames. What came was a small mist of water. She blinked at her fingertips. "The… The hell?"
Valandra sprung to her feet, turned to face Ember, attempted to conjure a torrent of ice to vanquish her. A few sparks came from her hand, barely enough to light a fire. Valandra stared at her hand in disbelief. "What did you do, you fire-bitch?"
Ember looked exhausted. "I'm pretty sure you can't blame the kidnapped for what goes wrong! What the hell did you do?"
"Me? You… You stopped the transfer from completing! You blew up the damned machine!" Valandra yelled as she attempted another spell. This one puffed smoke from her hand, sent the woman a few steps back.
"Of course I did! You were trying to kill me!" Ember scowled increduously. She waved hands at her foe, expecting a stream of fire. Happy snowflakes playfully danced around.
Valandra cried out in frustration, rushed and lunged at the woman. Both toppled back. Her hands were locked instantly around the woman's neck, "I don't need magic to kill you for what you've done!" She tightened her grasp and squeezed. Suddenly her blue eyes grew wide, feeling unseen hands around her own neck, choking the life from her. Bewildered, she let go, held her own throat in shock.
"Get off me," Ember grunted, rolled out from under the woman.
Valandra fell away, astonished. "I… I felt that!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, me too," Ember scoffed.
The woman in blue shook her head. "No… I mean… I felt my own hands around… my own throat." A sidelong glance was cast to Ember. "Try to keep up."
Ember sat up rubbing her throat. "Sorry; almost being killed multiple times makes it a little hard to focus."
"I was doing you a favor," Valandra retorted sharply.
Had she not just been strangled, Ember would have laughed. A barely audible chuckle surfaced. "How is killing me a favor?"
"It is better than being Awakened." Conviction was in her voice, yet her face flashed a disdainful expression, if only for a moment. "You know nothing. Death is a release. There are things far worse than death…"
Ember stood and dusted herself off, annoyed with the snow as it landed.
Valandra also stood, doing the same. She grimaced at the ash, the thickness on her arms like mud. "And, your power would have been put to good use after your death. Not squandered away, as it has been in its current host!"
"Yeah? Because you just love Joko, huh, ice cube? For the first time, I'm glad Demitra is gone. She would be crushed by what you've become!"
"Don't you dare speak her name to me!" Valandra struck Ember with an open fist, the impact landing solidly. Instantaneously, the same hit was felt on her own cheek. She had to take a step to keep from falling over at the surprise.
Ember staggered backwards from the blow, saw the same effect on her opponent as well. "I… I loved her! She actually wanted to fight Joko, instead of complacently joining him!" Ember balled up a fist, launched it at her own jaw.
Valandra took the blow, held her face in shock. "Complacently joining? You fool! All that oppose Joko join his Awakened army. Whether they wish it or not!" She let lose a fierce balled fist upon her own face with a wicked grin.
Ember received the hit, knocked back grumbled at the sensation. "Ow! Stop that, Shiverpeaks!"
"So it works both ways, huh?" Valandra pondered aloud.
Ember was already preparing another blow. "I should have just let you take my magic; see if it killed ya!"
"Oh you're not so special, you know! There's others that can contain such power! Not many, but I am one. The fact that you squander this gift and don't use it fully: It sickens me!"
"You act like this is some kinda gift! You don't know what it's like, having to hold back… You know what happened when I embraced this 'gift'? I…"
Ember gritted her teeth. "I learned where it comes from. Believe me, you don't want it. You think being turned into Awakened is something to fear? You have no idea…"
Valandra held up a fist, threatening to strike herself again. "Being Awakened is to be feared: it is the ultimate enslavement. You are encased in your shell, only to watch atrocities you're forced to commit, and you watch yourself slowly wither and decay. Oh, yes… It is something smart to be fearful of… not the elemental power you hold." She laughed. "You fear your power? And you say I wasn't doing you a favor? You should have just let me remove the thing you fear. You don't deserve it!"
"Shut up!" Ember yelled, slamming her fists into the sides of her own skull. "I'd rather be a walking dead than to be one of the dragon's minions!"
"Arg!" Valandra took a dizzy step backward. She gained her footing, shoved both fists into either side of her ribs. A large puff of smoke came from the woman's mouth as she doubled over loosing her breath. Her eyes stayed locked onto Ember, ensuring the pain was delivered. A doubled-over Ember, gasping for breath, confirmed this.
"You'd never know what it's like…" she fought through the pain.
"And neither would you," Valandra spit.
Annoyed, Ember screamed, sending an uppercut at Valandra's jaw. The force was copied to her as well, caused the woman to lose her footing and fall.
Valandra spat blood as the uppercut landed. She fell backward, looked angerly at her foe.
A few clouds flew overhead as the two women sat, exhausted and silent. Finally Valandra laughed, and after a bit, Ember also found herself laughing.
"We… we could do this all day," Valandra grinned a bloody smile. "Trade insults, trade tragic pasts, trade blows… But, unless you wanna die punching yourself to death…"
"It's tempting," Ember flashed her own bloody smile.
Suddenly, a few beams fell from the lab's rafters. The rubble it hit reluctantly toppled down, revealing what was left of the center console, where a blue and red glow emanated from either side. At once, both women looked at the lights, back to each other, then scrambled madly to the sources.
Valandra forced her way past Ember to the blue side, removed a few pieces of broken equipment out of the way, then reached down to retrieve what appeared to be a replica of Ember's red sword of fire. Blue flames of cold and frost emanated from the blade. Valandra stared at it in awe. "What do you know? That little Skritt actually did it!"
Flame sword in hand, Ember pointed it to her adversary. "Now, I'm going to need you to back off while I find my gear."
The ice queen giggled, held her newly acquired weapon to the side of her own head. "How about I just freeze your brain through your ear?"
Ember brought her blade to her neck. "I'm fireproof… are you?"
A loud rumbled inturrupted the women as the ceiling began to break apart. Both ran back to the safety of the hole the previous blast had created. Upon arrival, the entire lab collapsed.
"Dammit! I wasn't done in there!" Ember yelled, coughing at the upturned dust.
Valandra surveyed the area, coughed a few times then gave a shrug. "There's not much more we can get from that mess. At least not right now."
Ember sighed. "I won't be able to keep the promise I made to Shiera. Not that you would care, but that little rodent had a slave I promised I'd help," Ember offered an explanation.
"You're right. I do not care," said Valandra, coldly.
Ember rolled her eyes, then took the opportunity to remove the inhibitor chip from her ear. A large shock violently blew the woman's hand away from it, the impulse sent an electric bolt directly into her temple. She screamed, then came to the realization her enemy would also have felt it. To her annoyance, the ice queen was busily going about her own suit, apparently not affected by the shock.
Valandra pulled at the latches on the neckline of the suit. A quick shock came from it. "What the hell?" she blinked, perplexed, then her brow furrowed. "That damn little ice imp! What the hell has she done to me?"
"To us!" Ember scoffed. "Where is she? I'm going to flay her with my bare hands!"
"In there, for all the good that does us." Valandra pointed toward the rubble. "She went down the corridor to the exit portal. It's probably buried now and definitely blocked. There's no way to follow her now; not that way, at least."
Ember huffed, looked at the distant Mount Maelstrom. "Yeah, and I doubt the volcano would work this time either. Besides, I've got no magic to launch myself out of there. I'd hate to be encased in solid lava, bobbing like a boat on waves."
Ember grinned evilly. "Do it again."
Valandra raised an eyebrow. "You didn't feel that too?"
"Um… no, I didn't. Try it again, just to be sure," she urged, hoping to see the woman convulse.
"I don't think so. It seems, for now, at least, we're stuck in these things."
The two stood awkwardly looking around, trying to decide what action to take. All attempts at removing components of the suit had failed. Other than their respective weapons, they had no magic to use either.
Ember sighed, then had an idea and perked up. She held out her hand toward Valandra. "Let me see your sword for a second. I have an idea."
Valandra broke out into a full laugh. "Wow, the Asura was right: You really are not the brightest torch in the cave are you? I thought Kievaa was being… well, her usual small condescending self. But, if you think for a second I'd hand over my weapon to you, then, you've lived up to her assertions."
"You idiot, I'm not going to attack you. I'm homicidal, not suicidal."
"The only way you'll get my sword is if I run it through you." Valandra's hand dropped to the hilt.
Ember echoed the movement. "I'm not so sure you won't start bleeding out from the same wound you would inflict on me. Are you? Do you really want to play this out? I… I think I can get our suits off, but you'll have to trust me."
Valandra eyed the woman suspiciously. "And you must wield both our weapons for this miraculous act?"
"Fine, we'll trade then." Ember rolled her eyes and sighed. "You were the one that started all this, after all."
"I was not the one that blew up the damned machine!" Valandra cursed.
"You were the one who put me in it, and now we're both screwed! Just give me your damned sword. Here." Ember sat her sword down a few steps from her position, gestured on the ground beside Valandra.
"Fine," came an icy response.
Both eyed each other as they passed, retrieved the opposite swords. Valandra regarded the fire sword with distain, Ember did the same at the frost one.
"Was that so hard?" Ember said in a condescendingly snarky tone.
Valandra rolled her eyes. "What's your idea, already?"
"My suit was meant to keep my fire contained; yours, the ice. Like it or not, Jorhag, we are each other's weaknesses."
"And?" Valandra ignored the insult.
"And I'm not the brightest one, huh?" Ember laughed. She placed the blade against her suit, then turned so a sharp end snagged a piece of the outfit. The blade sizzled and hissed as steam billowed from it. At once, Ember howled, overcome with excruciating pain. She dropped to her knees, dropped the blade. In a salivating frustrating attempt, she clawed at the suit, claustrophobia forcing her ill-conceived action.
Valandra cracked a grin. "Now, you do it again," she amusingly repeated the prior insult.
Ember was at her breaking point. "You don't have any better ideas than to laugh at me? You're in the same predicament as I am! You're helpless and trapped. Just like I was in that lava…"
Valandra's eyes flashed at an idea as she looked to the mountain. "You know… You tried to overload the suit. It may have worked had the ice imp not recalled you. Maybe if I overload it like you tried to do…"
Following the woman's gaze Ember nodded. "You think the snowcaps are cold enough?"
"Maybe," Valandra spoke candidly.
"I feel naked without my armor; the sooner we can get these things off, the better!" Ember confessed.
Valandra looked down at the suit. In her mind, it was neon and gaudy. "Not my first choice either."
Ember raised and eyebrow and chuckled. "Please! You and Demitra both dress half naked. No wonder you got along."
"Such is the attire in Elona." Valandra sighed at the thought, paused a moment, then shook away the fleeting nostalgia, focused on the task at hand. "I take it you don't share the affinity for ice? Stay here; I'll go to the snow and try to overcharge it."
Without awaiting a response, Valandra rapidly raced to her goal. As the distance from Ember increased, however, so too, did a nauseating, dizzying sickness overwhelm the woman. She leaned against a tree, tried to catch her breath. It felt as though her insides were rearranging themselves. She doubled over, almost vomited. After a while, her symptoms slowly subsided. Ember approached, also holding her stomach, groaning. As they came closer to one another, the painful experience vanished.
"What the hell was that? Did you feel it too? It felt like I was going to puke my guts up." Ember looked around and rubbed the back of her neck.
"Whatever it was, it's gone now." Valandra tilted her head, considering. "Now that you're here… it's gone."
Ember tried not to look flattered. "What are you saying?"
Valandra ran a bit further down the path. Both women began to feel the same nausea they'd just experienced. Returning, Valandra found the sensation disappeared again. She had an extremely irritated look on her face having come to the realization, even more so as Ember simply tilted her head in confusion. A disgusted explanation came from the annoyed woman. "It appears as we're tethered to each other. Terrific."
"I don't even understand how that's possible," Ember mused.
Valandra sighed. "Doesn't matter. Come. You'll just have to get over your aversion to the cold."
Ember shrugged. "The melting's more of a concern, if I'm honest. I did live with the Kodan for a bit, and that's in a pretty cold climate. I think…" A sound came from her stomach; Valandra was already on the move. Ember rolled her eyes, then hurried along muttering a few curses.
Hope hung in the air as they traveled, neither saying much to the other, silently hoping the plan would work. Neither had calculated much more past the plan, not giving thought to the battle that would ensue if the plan actually did work. Both were exhausted to the point of collapse, yet neither wanted to rest; neither wanted to show weakness.
To Be Continued...
