Elementally Bound: Part 15
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Ember and Valandra lay naked in a small patch of foliage upon one of the floating islands, entwined and holding each other in locked embrace. The soft dry desert air swayed the grass in which they lay with a playful and warm infatuation, and had the women not been under the influence of a sleep spell, the tickling blades would have brought them to wake gently.
Valandra, however, awoke from her nightmare screaming, interrupting the tranquility. "Get off me you damned monster!" She lashed out and shoved Ember off her.
Ember rolled on the floor, then sat up confusedly. By instinct her hands were already smoking, on the verge of igniting. "What… What did I do?"
"E… Ember?" Valandra looked around, attempting to refocus her thoughts based on her surroundings. A moment ago, she'd been in the hidden vault, Joko's harem, confined under the monster, now she was with Ember atop a fortress in the sky. She rubbed her temples, trying to see through the confusion. "I… I thought you were Joko… I… He was… Where are we?"
A puff of smoke came from Ember's mouth, as she looked around, a satisfied calm about her. Despite the dream, she felt refreshed and satisfied. "Last thing I remember, we were with Demitra (or what I assume was Demitra). She… Did she have four arms? Did she grow them?"
"No. No, you fool; we just don't grow arms. We're not like reptiles that regrow appendages, you know." Valandra was inspecting her shoulder, surprised to find it almost completely healed - and that worried her. Joko had a hold of her in the dream… and she hoped it was only a dream. While Joko's dominance over her often kept her in check, the monster had never invaded her dream to cause her physical harm. She worried what other controls Joko may enact to have his way.
Ember was still stuck on the reptile comment. Having been raised, in part, by drakes, Ember saw no flaw in her logic. Calling her on it struck more deeply than the ice queen could have known. Ember was embarrassed by her ignorance, and she was suddenly very aware of her nakedness and tried awkwardly to cover herself.
Valandra unapologetically stared at the woman's body; it was the first time she'd seen Ember's completely nude form, and while she was reluctant to admit it, Ember's shapely figure was damn attractive. At this realization, Valandra shook the thought from her head, saying coldly, "It's nothing I've not seen before; there's very little we should be modest about now." She spoke matter-of-factly to conceal her previous thoughts. Then the ice queen turned to look at the central fortress, slowly walked to the edge, rubbing her aching shoulder again absently.
Ember blushed profusely for a moment at the sight of Valandra's exposed bottom against the pale moonlight, but she did her best to stay clear headed; an usual feat for the woman. She slowly creeped up next to Valandra, inspecting her shoulder. "Should I be worried?"
"Worried? No, why should you be worried?" she snapped sarcastically. "What I'm worried about is…" she stopped herself before continuing, took in a deep calming breath.
"I meant about your shoulder. Are you alright? It looks like it's healed; I barely see any of that ooze anymore," Ember was trying to be sincere.
"Yes, it's fine; almost healed. But, that is what worries me: In my dream, he used my wound to…"
A portal of sand interrupted as it blinked into existence. The small swirl which grew into a larger spiral vortex and it lightly hummed when the sequence seemed to be complete.
Valandra cursed in Elonian. "These Djinn seem to have eyes on us; they know we're up."
Ember blinked at the sand portal. "Uh… should we even go in?" The woman felt out of her depth.
"Unless you feel like straddling a mount without clothes on, I see no alternative. We can't glide down into the lake of toxins either. So, yeah. I'd say we venture into the unknown. What else could possibly go awry?" Valandra shrugged, exasperated.
Ember couldn't tell if the woman was being serious or sarcastic; she struggled with such social complexities. Nevertheless, she persisted. "Okay, so… I mean (besides stripping us), what else have they done? Thus far they've been kinda nice."
Valandra grumbled. "The Djinn nice? No. More likely, they want something from us. It is how they operate: half-truths, riddles, and lies." She got closer to the portal to analyze it. "You've not had dealings with them as I have…"
"Yeah, I didn't kill one," Ember snorted.
"Oh for the last time! I bound it to me; I didn't kill it. I absorbed it. I…" Valandra inadvertantly touched the portal as she flailed about in frustration. Suddenly, her body shifted, turned into a Valandra-shaped statue of sand, then was pulled into the vortex.
She knew she should have been alarmed by it, but Ember couldn't help but laugh. For all their differences, it was refreshing to see Valandra lose her cool like she usually did. And, further still seeing the woman surprisingly teleported without consent was hysterical! She laughed a few more minutes before the separation nausea set in, then hurried along after.
Valandra had just finished vomiting, stood and wiped her mouth, glaring at Ember. "What took you so long?" She snapped, blaming her sickness on their separation.
"Don't blame me! You got sick last time we used their portal. Just because you… Hey! Where'd you get clothes?"
Valandra held her arm out inspecting the sleeve, then looked over the entire garment. "Huh. It seems they were provided. Not unlike something I would wear, actually. I… I may have even dreamt this at some point," Valandra said marveling over the ascetically pleasing outfit. She wore an open porous skirt and a spiraled wrap-around top, both of which were colors of frost and snow.
Ember looked down at herself. She was also inexplicably dressed, clad in a short skirted one-peiece with a golden dragon embroidering running along its length. While the red and yellow colors were right, Ember didn't necessarily agree with the design, considering her recent dream involving the dragon. She frowned and folded her arms. "Of course it's a dragon; why wouldn't it be a dragon? It could have at least been armor and not a dress. I… I don't do so well in dresses."
Valandra looked her over. "I don't know… I think it suits you."
"Um… Yeah," Ember said clearing her throat nervously. She wasn't used to compliments, and certainly not from the ice queen. "Let's just… We need to find Demitra, okay?"
Valandra agreed, and the couple began their search. The rooms were as they had been before: empty, other than candles and various urns, pots, and lamps decorating the walls. Valandra lead them blindly around the complex; the layout seemed to have changed from when they last visited. She thought briefly how the phenomenon would undoubtedly confuse any intruders, but remained focused on navigating the corridors. "Wish we could find that sandfall already. This place makes me feel… unsettled."
"Unsettled how?"
"As though… I'm welcomed, and… I do not like the way that feels," Valandra frowned.
"See? Maybe they are friendly," Ember optimistically said.
Valandra grumbled and turned at the next archway. By surprise, they had stumbled into the central hub. The sand-falls continued adding to the pile, yet there was no Demitra.
Ember was anxious. "Is she… Is she still in there? Trapped? Should I blaze it until it's glass and then we break it? What should we do?"
Valandra laid an icy hand on the woman's shoulder and spoke softly. "First, we relax and try to think this over. Where is the Djinn from before? I do not wish to have another slumber spell cast upon me again. My dreams were… unfavorable."
"Yeah, mine too," Ember related.
"I wish we had more information to go on," Valandra sighed.
Suddenly, the floor directly in front of the women was struck by a bolt of lightning. In its wake, ripples in the air formed, as though the bolt had parted the waters of the ocean. The waves formed, and crashed into the shape of a four armed Djinn. He materialized, arms akimbo and peered down at the women, as if looking through them.
"I got this," Ember said to Valandra, who simply rolled her eyes at the woman. "You listen here: Where's the girl from the waterfall?" she asked confidently.
The Djinn spoke in a ghostly muffled voice. "There is no water here without our commanding it to be so."
Valandra cursed. "Damned Djinn. You speak in riddles, yet you know to whom she speaks and what we want! Tell us where Demitra is!"
"Enough talk! Just tell us!" Ember added to Valandra's demand. Her head started to smoke.
The Djinn casted his piercing eyes at the woman. "Such determination in you mortal; if only you learned to control it, you may yet be whole," the raspy voice prophetically said.
Ember scowled at the being, but the comment was echoed from her dreams, and it shook her to her core.
Valandra looked inquisitively at Ember, wondered about her hesitation, but stepped in. "She is not just determined; she is relentless! As someone who has faced her as an opponent, I guarantee she will not stop until you tell us what we want to know."
The Djinn laughed hauntingly.
"We may be mortals, but we are not here for your amusement!"
"Are you not?" the Djinn seemed to snicker. "Were you not mere moments ago engaged in the carnal pleasures of mortals for our entertainment?"
"We… What?" both women said in unison. Ember looked at Valandra who looked back at her; both women mirrored a look of embarrassed confusion at the accusation.
Valandra stammered. "We… We took no 'carnal pleasures' in the wilds of the Desolation! I doubt many do! Your riddle is wrought with errors, Djinn!"
"You foolish mortal, did you really think that spell upon you was a simple sleep spell?"
Both women blinked, then began arguing simultaneously.
"W-Why would you do that?" Ember said, her cheeks flushed.
"More mind games! Why would you have us do such a thing? Furthermore, why would you watch? Why do your kind enjoy so much torment of others through mind manipulation?"
The Djinn continued his taunt. "Why do children watch insect mate? It fascinates us. We observe the phenomenon, for we no longer do such ourselves. The behavior in lesser races, the courtship of romance is… so foreign."
Ember tilted her head to the side, trying her best to follow the conversation. "So Djinn don't do it anymore, so… you watch others?"
"We no longer procreate in the sense of the exchange of bodily fluids; we observe lesser species during the time of conception, to seek out those in which our lineage may be passed." The Djinn folded his upper arms, placed his lower on his hips.
Valandra rubbed her temples, annoyed. "So, your kind can't procreate and you watch to see if the life that's created at that exact moment can… what? Eventually become one of you?" She chuckled under her breath. "Even if that's true, Ember and I (even if we did do… that) we're both women!"
"Hence the amusement," the Djinn said condescendingly.
Ember's head quickly burst into flames. "One more comment like that…" she threatened.
Valandra held Ember back, looked up at the Djinn sceptically. "Wait. So, if you didn't bring us here for this 'procreation observation,' then how did we find our way here? We have both received visions of Demitra!"
"Not of her; from her. She was guiding you here, because she wanted to come home." The Djinn called upon air which floated Demitra's bracers between them.
Ember rubbed the back of her neck. "The… The gloves?"
The Djinn peered at the gloves, as if looking through their outer shell and what lay within. If it were possible, a smile would have come to his lipless face.
Valandra snapped, tired of the games. "No more riddles! What do you know about Demitra's fate, and these gloves?"
"They are one in the same, for she is bound to them," said the Djinn.
"Demitra… is in them? Bound to them? H-How?" Valandra was baffled.
Ember reached out, grabbed the bracers, and cradled them gently. "You mean… I… I really had her with me the whole time?"
Valandra stared at the gloves, blinked through an epiphany. She thought back to the feeling she had at the Labyrinthine Cliffs: how the gloves had called to her and how she felt as though her destiny had been being pulled from an unknown source. And, how she'd blamed Demitra for interfering with her plans… and yet, with this confirmed, Valandra felt her grudging animosity lifted. If what the Djinn said was true, Demitra had been reaching out and asking for help. And if she was wrong about that, was she wrong about more than that? Had Demitra, as Ember said, wanted to rescue her from the monster that held her captive? Roles reversed, would Demitra blame Ember for not coming to rescue her in time, despite the crusade the woman had endured, and had Demitra endured the same hardships on her quest to rescue Valandra?
Ember began vigorously rubbing the gloves. "Come on Demitra. I know you're in there! Come on out!"
Questions swirled in the Valandra's mind, and, at once, she realized the Djinn's mind games had won. "Enough of your tormenting! Tell me where she is, or I shall force you to tell me!" She pulled her sword. "You know I am capable; what I have already done to one of your kin!"
The Djinn looked appalled and offended. "You would strike upon your own kin?"
Beyond the point of frustration, Valandra was now screaming. "What? What in Joko's name are you even saying?"
The Djinn let out a ghastly screeching sigh. "You mortals truly have no patience, but in time, you will learn. Thaljia, you have taken one of us into yourself; bound it there. Regardless how it came to be, you are now one of us."
"A Djinn? You expect me to believe I'm a…"
The Djinn let out a grim chuckle at the women. "Regardless of the emotional disposition you have of our race, you coveted the raw powers we contain within. And now, Okht, you are one of us." The Djinn interrupted himself, his attention drawn to the loud grunting noises Ember was making, still rubbing the bracers. "There is much more to that riddle than simply polishing it, expecting the Djinn within to awaken."
Ember stopped, tilted her head to the side. "Well fine then, if that won't work, I'll just do what I did before!" She shoved her hand into the glove. As before, her mind writhed, as her entire being exploded into a sandstorm. It blew over the desolate wastes, beyond the Elon Riverlands, and further still past the dry heat of the desert. The sands drifted as far north as they could until reaching the icy winds and snow frigid temperatures of the Desert Highlands. The sands flew around and danced with snowflakes as they fell, deep into the rocky caverns below, finally landing on a lake of lava.
Demitra's whispered in Ember's ear. "Combine… Unlock."
Ember's eyes sprung open, this time waking from the trance on her own. "North!" she said excitedly, instantly on her feet trying to pull the glove off. "I saw… I saw where to go!" The glove wouldn't budge and she looked like a helpless child at Valandra.
Valandra was already scolding her, "Well, why did you even put it on again?" She reached out to assist and slid the glove off gracefully with little effort.
"Huh," Ember was puzzled. "Why couldn't I get it off?"
The Djinn interjected. "It is only removed for one of our kind."
Valandra scowled at the being. "I am not one of your kind!"
Ember grumbled. "A Dejarin… a Djinn… wannabe icebrood… What aren't you, Snowflake?"
The Djinn continued talking to Valandra, over Ember's rant. "You are now; such is your trapped companion… Such is the way we procreate, Thaljia Okht, and you as well as your companion have found your way home."
Valandra cursed. By her own admission, she had felt… welcomed. She held aloft the bracer she'd removed from Ember. "Fine; whatever. Then just where is Demitra? She brought us here… why?"
"That," the Djinn said as he and the surroundings began to fade away, "is her riddle for you…"
Ember looked at Valandra as the backdrop of the floating castle began to turn to sand carried upon the wind. "I was taken to the north," she said hastily. "There was ice and lava, and Demitra said, 'combine… and unlock.'"
The world began to fade as the Djinn spoke final words. "We shall see you again, Thaljia Okht." The Djinn, the structure, and the very world broke apart, dissolving into sand, carried upon the wind.
To Be Continued...
