Elementally Bound: Part 6
----- Bliss -----
"Something's wrong," she said, worry finding its way in her voice. "It's the snow… I… I can't feel it." She squatted down, placed a hand in a mound of snow. The snow shifted, caved in, and gave way to her glove as she dipped it in. No snow touched it. "It's like the suit's pushing the snow from me."
"Yep! That's what happened to me, too," Ember said with a shrug. She giggled in spite of the situation. "Guess your suit doesn't like it either."
Valandra looked frustratingly at the snow, attempted to cup her hands in it, to rub it on herself. To her chagrin, the same effect occurred: the suit literally repelled it. "Damn this!" she yelled, started to claw at the suit, then stopped herself, knowing the result.
Ember knelt down, reached into the snow, which wasn't repelled. Her scientific examination was short-lived, however, as she saw Valandra's frustration. An evil grin came to her face as she balled up the snow and launched it at her foe.
The snowball impacted an unseen shield, not hitting the woman directly, but still felt. Valandra scoffed, clearly unamused and spinning around to see Ember's smirk, caused an even more scornful look.
"You have a better idea?" She asked with a shrug.
Valandra's brow furrowed. She sighed and looked into the distance, considering. "So, we're stuck in these suits. We're stuck without our powers. (Again, thanks for blowing up the machine!) And, we're stuck to each other for some inexplicably sickening reason."
"Well, that's what you get for trying to steal my magic," Ember rebuked.
Valandra's sapphires flashed to Ember. "What has your magic ever brought you? You said it yourself: pain and fear!"
Ember stuck out her tongue. "But, it was my responsibility. With it, I would have gone against that undead master of yours!"
"Don't make me laugh; you would just die and be Awakened like every other person who has gone up against the God-King, again squandering your traits and talents. You're a fool."
"I'm a fool? I saw what he did to you! You went with him and believed he'd spare everyone!"
Valandra inadvertantly took a step backward, caught off-guard. "What would you know about it? You know nothing of me!"
"That's not true! I know what Demitra told me about you. And, I've been thinking about it; I think I saw a bit of you back there. I don't know how or when exactly it was, but I saw you… I saw what he did to you and what you tried to do to end it. I felt in when we were in the machine." Ember looked serious.
Valandra eyes suddenly widened at the epiphany. "You! You were the little girl… defiantly standing over that drunkard!"
Ember averted her eyes. "You… You saw father," her voice was almost a whimper. "He made me like this… Then he hated me for it."
"More than that. I… I felt him. I felt him throw you; the impact. You… were but a child…" Valandra's voice quivered.
Ember cursed beneath her breath, still avoiding Valandra's stare. "Yeah… well, whatever. Listen: I don't think Demitra would want us to fight," she meekly attempted the subject change.
"Demitra... Always seeing the good in things, always trying to fix them." Valandra broke her scrutiny, again looking to the landscape, lit by the bright night sky.
"You know… You are the reason she was fighting Joko… She wanted to save you from that monster."
Valandra's eyes glazed over. "There is no saving me… Not anymore. If you saw my past then you saw: I have nothing left. I serve the lich so other villages aren't turned into his Awakened. It is a fate worse than death, and I have seen it happen to my own village…" Her voice cracked. "And, to my own family…"
"Make him pay, then! He didn't keep his promise. Your sacrifice was in vain: your family still perished. With our power…" Ember urged.
Valandra inturrupted. "Even if the transfer was successful and I had both your power and my own combined; I still could not possibly hope to go against Joko. He is simply too powerful; it would be far better to slay those he intends to turn before he can… I can save them all."
Ember shook her head. "That's not saving them. That's killing them! This is what you thought you were doing to help me? Killing me before Joko could turn me into one of his zombie army? And was just stealing my power a little bonus?"
"With your powers, I could have reduced him to ash. There would be nothing to live on if he were a pile dust. Sparing you the torment of being enslaved as Awakened was a (as you say) bonus." Valandra shrugged.
Ember took a step closer to the woman, her red eyes analyzing. "And, I can help you cremate that bag of bones. Come on, together we can go against the tyrant… And we wouldn't go it alone. There would be others: those that want to rid themselves of his oppression…"
"Others? And just who else would be foolhardy enough to go on such a death-path?"
Ember smiled. "Demitra," she said softly. "She inspires, with nothing more than a smile of those thick lips, she could inspire an entire guild!"
Valandra remained quiet for a while. Her gaze was beyond the mountain landscape, beyond the Unending Ocean, over the dunes of the Crystal Desert and locked onto the bone wall of Joko's fortress. The turmoil on her face was clearly written.
Tipping the scale, Ember urged, "My fire, your ice and lightning, her… (Whatever it is she has!) can be a force which that lich wouldn't see coming!"
Valandra slightly smiled at the woman's passion. "Past the inspiration, there must be a plan - even if it is recklessly futile." She looked down at her armor, the vividly flowing seems of the suits glistening. "But, we can't do much like this, in our current state. We need to get these suits off."
Ember looked at her own. "There's something we haven't tried," she said holding her arms wide, inviting Valandra. "Come here, I have an idea."
"You… You wish for me to embrace you? The machine has clearly scrabbled more than just memories; you must be insane!" Valandra crossed her arms, defiantly.
"Oh come on, don't be weird. Just hug me and channel your magic." Ember shrugged, "Or we can just wait for the little rat to come back and start issuing commands. This is a last ditch attempt, okay? Something we haven't tried. If it works... Well, then we can decide whether or not to kill each other."
Valandra unfolded her arms with a defeated sigh. All attempts thus far had proven ineffective, and if this was, indeed, a way to free themselves, she'd be foolish not to try… no matter how uncomfortable and weird it seemed. She stepped closer, awkwardly reaching out, made no attempt to wrap her arms around Ember.
Ember pulled the woman in close, touching their fronts, locking her arms around her. "Don't pretend you don't want this…" Ember whispered. "Now just hold me tight and channel your magic into me, and I'll do the same. With luck, we'll blow a hole in these suits."
Valandra listened to the instructions. She held the woman tightly, pushing her magic outward and into her.
"Oh come on! Act like you wanna freeze me, already!" Ember implored, ramping up her own magic.
The suits acted in unison, pushing and pulling. The sheer amount of power flowing to and from each woman had an unexpected effect: both women experienced intense pulses of passion. Ember moaned, felt her core heat up as the fires ignited deep inside her. Valandra gasped as her own icy core frosted over, the blizzard within beginning to swell. Unable to control the impulses, both locked in the embrace. Ember leaned forward, her actions driven by the ecstasy. She pressed her lips to the ice queen's whom returned it, passionately, in the throes of orgasmic bliss. The power continued building, feeding off each other, bringing each woman closer to release, until… An explosion within Ember and an avalanche in Valandra knocked the two apart.
Ember flopped back, melting into the snow behind her. "What… wh…." she gasped for air, trembling.
Valandra also landed back in the snow, her body still quivering. A few moments passed as each woman tried to come to grip on the experience. "Whatever it was," Valandra finally broke the awkward silence, "I think it worked." She raised a hand, palm upward. A small crystalized ice statue of Demitra appeared as the snow swirled and coalesced. "My powers seemed to have stabilized; has yours not?" She gestured to the pool Ember occupied.
"Um… Yeah, they… They're back." Ember embarrassingly shifted in her suit, the afterglow of the experience still prominent.
Standing, Valandra began to descend the mountain. "Well, whatever it was… it wasn't… an unpleasurable experience." Wings of ice shards formed on her back as she glanced over her shoulder with a flirtatious grin.
Ember stood and rubbed the back of her neck, puzzled by the woman's turnabout. "Uh… yeah. So… What now?"
Valandra paused and looked at the rising sun. "Are you certain she can help? You believe us to rise up against the tyrant, truely?"
Ember nodded. "I do."
"Well then now... Now we find Demitra."
To Be Continued...
