Elementally Bound: Part 12
----- Compression -----
Valandra approached Ember from behind, placing the box upon the table in front of her."H-How?" Ember stared at the small chest in disbelief. "How did you get it from that little…"
"It matters not," Valandra interrupted. "What is important is that we have the object."
Ember creaked the lid back. Inside lay the gloves… Demitra's gloves. She took in a deep breath, then smiled warmly at the surprise. "They… They still smell like her."
The ice queen raised an eyebrow, looked baffled. "To what are you referring? Who do they smell like?"
"These gloves were Demitra's, you dork," she said as she ran her fingers over them. The sensation was a numbness and tingling in her fingertips - the very same feeling she felt every time Demitra touched her with those sparkling blue fingers. The gloves, however, were fingerless, Ember noted. "Huh. I guess it was her own finger-tips that glowed?"
A soft whisper entered the both women's ears. "Come," it said. Valandra looked around, expectantly; saw Ember do the same.
"I guess I'm going crazy again," Ember mumbled.
Valandra cracked a grin, seizing the opportunity. "Again? I was quite certain you were already this way."
Ember paid no attention, her stare was locked onto the bracers. She knew they held the key… somehow. This was the closest the woman had been to finding Demitra, after all those months of searching. Now, before her, was the first clue as to what happened to her love. Without explanation, and with the impetuousness Valandra had come to expect from her, Ember shoved her hand in one of the gloves.
A powerful surge of energy swept over her suddenly, coursing through her body. She felt as she was being pulled apart, like sands scattering in the wind. Yet, at the same time, she felt herself combining, compressing, solidifying her core. Ember gasped and doubled over, holding onto the table desperately trying to keep cohesion; she felt like she was losing herself. Her core compressed, shoving itself together and formed a ball of molten rock, collapsing into its own weight. Until finally, it violently exploded, breaking down into the very sand it had been before. It pushed outward, forcing itself through Ember's skin until the woman, herself, was a figure of Ember made of sand.
Alarmed, Valandra stood and tried to help the woman. To her, Ember was still her normal self, but in some type of trance. "Ember? What's… What's the matter with you?" The gloves were the obvious cause; yet, as Valandra reached to remove them, she hesitated. If Ember was receiving another of these visions, it would be advantageous to let it play out - despite the peril it may cause the woman. Valandra clenched her fists, watching over her, secretly hoping for her well-being.
Ember's eyes darted upward, and in her mind, she exploded. The dust and sand that was Ember flew over the Unending Ocean, across the crystal desert, and beyond the bonewall. It arrived and swirled around a floating stronghold buried deep within the Desolation.
Valandra placed two icy hands on the woman's back, sent a wave of cold into her. "Ember?" She had been gone far too long, and Valandra instantly regretted allowing the event to unfold. "Ember, return to me!" She grabbed onto the bladed gauntlet, accepting its sharp edge as it pierced her skin, and yanked it off forcefully.
Ember's eyes sprung open and she was on her feet instantly. "I know where to go!"
An unintentional sigh of relief came from the ice queen. "What? You… You fool! You put the glove on! Why would you do such a foolhardy thing? You blacked out!"
Unconcerned, Ember shook her head. "I… I felt. I don't know what it was. Something… Something primal… But, I was in Elona!"
"Um, no," Valandra folded her arms. "You were right here, drooling on the table. (Something I'm sure you've done many times in bars across Tyria.)"
Ember swiped the gloves from the box, cradled them. "Come on! We've… We've got to go to the Desolation!"
"The Desol… Why in Joko's name do you want to go there? You really are out of your mind!"
"Look… Demitra is there (I think). She needs us. Or, are you just going to let her waste away? We've both seen her, and I know she's what's been guiding us! So, come on! We have to go!" Ember was already marching off.
"She's… She's in the Desolation?" Valandra hurried along to catch the rambunctious lady.
"Yeah, I think so. In a stronghold of some kind. Like a fortress… in the sky; it floated!"
Valandra stopped and grumbled. "Oh no," she moaned loudly.
Ember paused, looked inquisitively at the woman. Hesitation and nervousness was written on her face. "What's the matter? Are you scared of it or something?"
"Scared? No. I am most assuredly not scared." Valandra huffed. "I've just had… dealings… with the beings which dwell there."
Ember was practically bouncing. She'd already turned and continued on their path. "Great, then let's go!"
"You want to go to their stronghold, to do what? You simply blacked out and…"
"Yes!" Ember said with serious conviction. "I think she's there. In that floating fortress… Somewhere. (I think.) Besides, we can take whatever's there!" Her head tilted as the conversation caught up. "Wait… what beings live there?"
"The Djinn," Valandra exhaled a cold, foggy breath. "And you should know… They hate me. I expect they will unleash their magics upon just laying their hollowed eyes upon me."
Ember feigned a shocking gasp. "I don't see how anybody could ever feel that way about you!" She laughed at the joke, then reached out and took Valandra's hand. "Come on! We'll be fine! Let's just get a move on!"
Ember glanced back after a few minutes of sprinting. She smiled, reassuringly. "Look… I know we started spending time together because of you wanting to kill me and all, but…" she took in a deep breath, slowed their pace to a quick walk. "I'm just, you know, glad to know you… to, um… you know, have someone to adventure with."
Valandra looked at their folded hands. "You… are?"
"Yeah! I've never been to a festival before… and I never used ice magic… and we are on our way to find Demitra… and really, that's all thanks to you!" Ember exclaimed excitedly.
"Are you not upset with me having tried kill you?" Valandra tilted her head.
Ember tapped her chin a moment, considering. "I mean, sure, but you haven't stabbed me, so, you know… I count that as a win!"
"I haven't tried to stab you yet," she said with a smirk from the corner of her mouth.
Ember giggled. She could relate to the woman's off-putting attitude. It was not long ago that her own dark passenger made her distance herself from others; lashing out at them both physically and cruelly. Life was a rocky road, and sometimes, some people just needed a bit of understanding to see them through those rough patches. Ember had found salvation in the arms of Demitra, lost it in the devastating events that happened. Yet, now there was hope… Now it was time to save her!
She again grasped Valandra's hand, who had wiggled it free and pulled her along toward a departing airship. It wasn't hard to find ships headed to and from various points around Tyria and they were delighted to find one who's destination was back to Elona.
"Now if we could just get some clothes…"
-----
The vessel flew to the southern regions of Elona, Vabbi. From there, its destination would touch by Amnoon on the way back up. The Desolation lay somewhere in-between these domains, and the captain was taken aback when the women asked if they could depart over such a horrendous place. After a bit of convincing, he finally agreed to lower the vessel on the outskirts of the bone wall and before the torments of the sulfuric wastes. The couple were to descend to Bonestrand, a small settlement just shy of Joko's wall. They wandered into the village and found a merchant with… 'less than desirable clothing,' a comment Valandra made a few times. The merchant surprisingly accepted the few festival tokens they had leftover, and the two dressed and headed out of the city.
Ember looked at a map posted on local village bounty bulletin board. "So…" She tilted her head as if trying to determine the proper way to read the map. "Where do we start?"
Valandra laughed. "You do know I am from here, correct?"
"I… Sure. Well, then lead the way. Let's get a move on; the floating fortress awaits!" Ember said. She was practically bursting with excitement.
Valandra rolled her eyes, folded her arms. "Well, we'll need more than just our footing for the journey." She held out a smoking frosty hand to create another set of magical ice creatures, then she paused, a thought occurring to her. "Ember: use your fire. Conjure a mount from it."
Ember raised an eyebrow. "You know… You do know that fire isn't solid right? It's not like your ice. How would I even ride it?"
"You fool; despite you consistently calling me 'ice queen,' I do not create ice without water." She strolled to a small puddle. "I conjure water and freeze it to create beasts that can sustain my weight. Standing here in this water, I feel it coursing through me. It longs to be formed. Do you not feel this when you are exposed to fire?"
"I… It heals me; comes to me when I call it. I… I don't know how I'm expected to shape it like you do to water."
"Fire can solidify sand into glass; cooled molten can become lava rock. With enough pressure, the fire you control can be compressed into solidified pyrite. It will make up the core of your mount. You say you don't squander your powers, then show me; show me your capabilities," Valandra urged.
Ember sighed, "What would I even make?"
"Something to avoid the sulfuric wastes here," Valandra said as she walked toward a bridge with two braziers on either side. "Use these; allow the fire to empower you. Boost yourself and compress the heat into lava and then into a solid core."
Ember nodded, reached out to either side of the fire. It danced and waved toward the woman. She exhaled anxiously. "Drakenfist magic has always been based on emotion. I can't just…"
"Then use your emotions!" Valandra shouted, shoving Ember.
"Hey!" Ember stumbled back, almost lost her footing. "Stop that. That's not the way to teach…" Another shove from the ice queen had Ember's feet planted as she stood her ground getting angry. "I'm warning you: stop that!"
Valandra pulled out the fire sword. "You're warning me?" She laughed. "Let's see that fire within you! Don't squander your powers; embrace them! Perhaps a sampling of the flames from your own blade would motivate you?" She waved the sword in front of the woman, taunting her.
"Listen here! I have plenty of power. Power you haven't even seen!" Ember scowled as her hair burst into flames. The nearby fires began to flame toward her, traveling to an unheard melody.
"I haven't stabbed you yet? I'm about to! And what are you going to do about it? Nothing! You are weak! The fires of Primordus, reduced to such a weakling!" Valandra goaded.
Ember's eyes smoked as the fires flew into her; her entire body engulfed. "I am not weak!" She screamed at the brink, almost unleashing her fury on the ice queen. The anger matched the fires and she was but a moment away from killing the woman.
"Now!" Valandra yelled. "Use the fires; push it outward, thinking of the object you wish to manifest! See the blazes form it, compress it, and make it solid. Shape it. Focus and feel it!"
Ember held her hands outright, unleashing her powers. She expelled the fire, forced it together, angrily doing as instructed. "Ahhhh!" she screamed as the flames compressed. A ball of fire turned bright orange and black as the lava flowed. She moved her hands around, as if manipulating clay, forming the shape into an avian creature. A final burst of energy was thrown at the shape, catching it's outward shape ablaze. A griffon made of molten lava and fire wings stood before her. Ember fell to her knees breathing heavily. The fires on her person dimmed, then extinguished.
Valandra's smile was too big to contain. She found herself reaching for the woman to give her a celebratory hug, but Ember sharply turned an evil red eye to the woman. "Shut up. You are still a bitch," the woman spat.
The ice queen pulled back, tried to brush away the insult. "Well… You did it though, didn't you?" She said, hesitation and hurt buried beneath her words.
Ember plopped down disdainfully on her mount, not giving the woman any satisfaction at her delight at the newly created beast. "Let's just go then."
Valandra said nothing more. She held her hands aloft, spoke an incantation and swirled in the air as winds increased and lightning struck into the ground. The arcs formed the shape of a griffon, and a blast of ice filled in the innards.
"Show off," Ember mumbled grumpily. She looked at the beast beneath her and sighed. "Let's… uh… Let's go?" she asked it.
Valandra raised an eyebrow, mounted her lightning griffon. "These are merely constructs. You do not ask them as you would an animal. You simply command them and they obey."
"I was asking you, not the animal! Besides… I… I knew that!" Ember lied.
"Of course you did," the ice queen smirked, then she looked into the distance. "You should know though, the way is wrought with perils. We are near Joko's sanctuary and Balthazar's minion still roam the Desolation: there are both Awakened and Forged, in addition to the hazardous terrain."
Valandra commanded her griffon to the skies, not necessarily waiting for Ember to follow. The fire mage commanded her griffon aloft and inadvertently squealed with excitement as she flew. Valandra heard and tried not to laugh at the woman's mood swings. One moment she was confessing her adoration at her company, the next calling her names, and further still, giggling and laughing on the back of a griffon. If nothing else, Ember was a complex individual, and though she loathed herself thinking it, Valandra was also happy to have met her.
To Be Continued...
