Elementally Bound: Part 7

Elementally Bound: Part 7

----- Similarity -----

Ember awoke to find herself lying in a familiar location.  The strong gusts outside confirmed it: she was within the border walls of the Windswept Haven.  A safe sanctuary for mounting forces against Joko's oppression, the crystal dragon and the recent threat Balthazar posed, the haven represented a conglomeration of adventurers from all over Tyria and Elona.  The sun only slightly peeked above the horizon and the camp was already bustling with activity in the early morning hour.  Ember sat up, blearily looked around and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.  After a few moments in a dizzily sleep-induced fog, Ember suddenly realized: she'd overslept.  She groaned, annoyed with herself.

"Look who finally woke up!"  A cheery voice excitedly called.  "You want some breakfast?"

Ember turned to see a beautiful Elonian standing beside her, with a platter of fruit in hand.  She wore a sheer gown that left little to the imagination.  Ember looked her over, instantly waking at the wondrous sight.

"I could feed you in bed, if you'd prefer that," Demitra said, smiling plump lips.

Ember swooned and blushed a bit, in spite of it.  But, this beauty was hers, and she'd only just come to realize how much she loved her.  Why this woman would choose Ember was beyond her guess, but she was amazed, humbled, and delighted when Demitra beamed her emerald eyes upon her.  "I… I guess I overslept," Ember chuckled as Demitra helped her rise.

Demitra massaged Ember's shoulder a moment and took the time to rub the back of her head, something Ember did often.  She melted at the woman's touch, for a moment relishing in the tingling sensation her fingertips brought.  Then, she remembered her dream and frowned.  "I… I had this crazy dream.  You vanished and I… was all alone.  Then, I failed to kill Balthazar.  Then Valandra showed up!"  Ember noticed Demitra's bewildered look.  "No, no, no!  Wait!  I know it sounds crazy!  Valandra was there and she was a total bitch and used ice magic and served Joko, and she was…"

A sharp smack across her face inturrupted Ember; she reeled back from the surprise, shocked at her lover's action.

"Don't you EVER talk like that about Valandra!  Understood?"  Demitra spun around, stormed off.  Ember hurried after Demitra, leaving their tent.  She barely noticed all the people were gone; the Windswept Haven was empty, silent and still.

"Wait!  It… It felt so real.  She… She beat me; she captured me… She… She tortured me," Ember cried.

Demitra spun around.  "Do you know why you lost?"  She gave an uncharacteristically evil grin and the next words spoken sent a chill down Ember's spine.  "You lost because you are incomplete."

Ember blinked, barely able to speak.  "W- What?" she muttered.

Demitra tilted her head, wild eyes staring at Ember.  "Valandra has much that you don't: no inhibitions and a stronger drive.  She is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goal.  Also, she has more than just her ice magic... she aquired the power of storms.  What do you have?  Little embers?"  Her voice was scornful and condescending.  "Your flame could not possibly hope to keep up."  Demitra's hair retracted, became shorter, turning from a brilliant auburn to pure white.

While the deserted haven was empty, Ember distinctly knew a drake named Scarra and a raptor named Cinder spun around in a beautiful waltz together.  Scarra wore a radiant sparkling gown, while Cinder sported a very stylish top-hat.  Ember didn't understand how she knew this; why she knew this.  And furthermore, why the gown and top-hat.  Her wondering mind snapped back at the cold palm of the white haired Valandra.  "I have defeated everyone in my path before; I AM complete!" Ember screamed.

"You are nothing compared to me.  I am all you would ever hope to be!"  Valandra's voice changed to a lower octave, resembling Ember's own.  Her eyes slowly began to take on an orange hue and her skin became a pure obsidian, oozing with an ink-like layer.  As her mouth opened, the glow of lava could be seen inside.  The woman's hair grew even shorter; longer in the front, which hang down over her face.  She was a twisted, tainted version of Ember.  "You lost to me!" roared a voice in a mixture of both the ice queen's and Ember's own.

Memories flooded her mind: Brutally torturing her own students.  Attempting to destroy the school at which she taught.  Torturing others she once called friends… Ember was trapped.  She watched in horror as she was the monster she was destined to be.

"And you lost to Balthazar.  You failed to become a God.  What a stupid insignificant child you are!" the dark Ember growled.  "What did you even hope to accomplish?"

Memories of her being caught by the blast as she rode to confront Balthazar flashed in her mind.  She was thrown from the precipice, falling… and failing.  "I needed your power to free Demitra."

The dark Ember stood before the real Ember and grinned.  "You were never even a threat to Balthazar.  You were never a threat to Valandra.  You were never a threat to me."  The last word pierced like a hundred blades into Ember's heart.  "You could never win on your own... and now without me; without my power… you can't win at all."  The twisted Ember grinned, leaned forward and pressed oily lips to Ember's paralyzed ones.  "You must become complete again."

Ember roared in rage and blasted fire magic at her darker half... but nothing happened.  All she could hear was laughter in her own voice.

______________________


Ember woke up with a twisting pain in her stomach.  In her sleep, she had blasted herself outside a safe distance from Valandra, and was paying the sickening price.  She hurriedly scrambled closer to the frosty femme fatale, and did her best to shake the thoughts out of her mind.  But the thoughts kept looping:  She was incomplete.  She was destined to lose.  And for an inexplicable reason, she felt like she needed to get outfits for her animals.

"Yeah I know the feeling," came Valandra's voice.  She stoked the fire a few times with the flame sword, ignoring Ember's entire ordeal.  She grimaced a moment, then looked bewilderedly at the flame sword as a spark ignited the campfire.  "Isn't that interesting."

"Yay.  You can light a fire,"  Ember held her stomach and frowned.  After the rude awakening and horrid dream, she was in no mood to placate the woman.

Valandra raised an annoyed brow.  "Yeah, and I shouldn't be able to, any more than you can make a beverage frosty.  But, it's difficult.  And it's painful."

"Then don't do it," Ember scoffed.  She ran a hand through her hair, glanced around at the foreboding swamp waters surrounding them.  Her feet hurt, her stomach ached, and her head pounded.

"Would you rather go back to the snowcaps?  Or perhaps you'd enjoy a blizzard right here; right above your smoking head?"

Ember scowled.  "Don't even start…"

Valandra let slip a satisfied grin at the woman's annoyance.  "You are more crass than usual.  Was it the dream?"

Ember averted her eyes at the question.  "What dream?"  she asked, feigning disinterest.

"It seems our 'vision' in the machine wasn't an isolated incident."  Valandra paused, said the next words reverently.  "She occupies my dreams too… Demitra."

About to interject, Ember hesitated and sighed.  "I…. I failed her."

Valandra poked a few more times at the fire, without saying a word.

Ember looked into the night sky.  "Maybe that's why she left," she finally said.  "It's like she knew."

"Then you didn't know her well at all.  She was… is not one to give up so easily.  We have that in common," Valandra stated vaguely.  It was unclear to Ember if she was referencing Demitra or herself in the statement.

"Then where the hell is she?  Huh?  She left me while we were still fighting!  She just… she just left!"  Ember teared up, forced herself not to break down and give her adversary the satisfaction of seeing it.  Instead, she let a frustrated groan.  "We were fighting Joko and his minions.  Balthazar!  Even the gods damned purple dragon!"

"And you surmise she just… left?  In the midst of your engagement?"  Valandra probed.

Ember sighed.  "We had search parties.  We looked everywhere.  There were no signs of struggles, no tracks, nothing from the enemy camps.  I searched… I searched after all others had given up.  But, she was gone; simply vanished…"

Valandra shook her head.  "This would not be of her character, and you should know that, if you were indeed, in love with her as you so claim.  Abandon you?  No, it simply wouldn't be like her…  We speak of the same woman that decidedly drug me away from my destiny, because she chose not to abandon me."

"Then where the hell is she?  It's been a year!"

Valandra stared into the fire, her eyes unblinking as the flames danced to a rhythm unheard.  "I see her, you know… From time to time."  She hesitated, seemingly collecting herself.  "In my dreams, that is.  But, she always seems to obscured in a desert sandstorm."

Ember tried not to recognize the similarities in the vision she'd seen before the machine scrambled their memories; Demitra had appeared much the same way.  She shook her head.  "Well that narrows it down… The desert is one big sandstorm!" she exclaimed, exasperated.

A sigh came from the ice queen.  "It truly is a marvelous one, indeed; though I do prefer the Desert Highlands, and their tundra (obviously)."

"Can you be any more of a stereotype?"  Ember teased.

"Says the girl who swims in lava?"

Ember flushed.  "I don't do that (all the time)."

Valandra chuckled a moment.  "Well, in either case, something definitely makes such conditions… more tolerable to me.  This fire: the proximity does not seem to have the same impact it usually does.  But, beyond that, as you so eloquently put it, I actually started this fire.  It pained me to do so, but I was able to channel just enough to start the blaze.  If the transfer were to have completed, I would control this power, without such pains.  Whatever YOU did to the machine…"

"Arg!  And around we go again!  Look, lady, I saved my hide.  Like it or not, we need to focus on getting out of these suits.  Then, if it will help you feel better, I'll give you my power.  All at once!"  Ember threatened.

"A day ago, you wanted us to join forces.  Now you wish to engulf me?  You are indeed fickle."

Ember tilted her head at the word, trying to analyze if it was an insult.  "Well, either way, I'd feel better."

"And your feelings are of paramount importance to me."  Valandra rolled her eyes.

Ember steamed.  "You!  You think you are just so perfect: with your diverse magic, perfectly-formed ice wings, and being all complete?  You know, I was doing just fine before you came along!"

"Fine?"  Valandra angerly rose to her feet.  "You lost Demitra!  You really think I'm perfect?  I am just as flawed as you; I simply keep my cool.  Cold calculation is better than your flippant attitude and fickle, ignorant decisions you seem hell-bent on performing!"  Her head began to smoke from the condensation.

Ember blinked, stifled a laugh at the puns.   "Well, I don't see your bright ideas helping us out here, Shiverpeaks!  Personally, I feel naked without my armor.  This damned suit…"

Valandra looked the woman over, stopping on her relinquished frost sword which hang from the woman's waste.  "Actually, I do have a theory.  The fire," she said, with a gesture to the small campfire, "extinguish it."

"Sure; let me just get a bucket!" Ember said sarcastically.

"No.  No, you fool.  I mean for you to attempt doing as I have done with the fire, only the opposite.  Extinguish it."

Ember would have refused the woman's command, but she was curious to test the theory.  "Fine," she halfheartedly said.  "Maybe I'll explode and take half the swamp (and you) out with me."  She held her hand toward the fire while Valandra instinctively took a step back.  Her brow furrowed as her hand began to shake.  Magic would usually flow through her and project itself as manifested fire; however, calling upon the opposite presented a challenge.  She brought her other hand into the effort, and channeled as much magic as she could.  It would force a tidal wave upon them!  At least, that's what she expected.  Instead, a small sprinkle came forth, barely managed to douse the fire.  She doubled over in pain, staggered off to promptly to empty the contents of her stomach.

Valandra slightly chuckled.  "Yeah; that's what I thought.  The same thing happened to me this morning when I was first attempting to light it.  After a bit, the effect wasn't violently vomit-inducing as it was initially, but still quite nauseating."

"You coulda warned me," Ember wiped her mouth.  "Did this have a point?"

"It seems that when you destroyed the machine," she again took the opportunity to emphasize the point, "you gained something of myself inside you, just as I did with your flame."

Ember stood as upright as she could, still clenching her stomach.  "Then how the hell do we fix it?"

Valandra grunted.  "I know this comes as a shock to you, but even I do not have all the answers.  You diverted my intentions, thus, everything thereafter has been… surprising.  It's unclear to me if this… bond… we share is due to these suits or something deeper," she said with and inadvertent expression of disgust.  "I believe the first step is to get them off.  After that, it would be prudent to find Demitra.  If she was going against Joko, perhaps then, you and I can… reevaluate our dispute."

"Assuming she isn't dead," Ember said, meekly.

"Yes assuming…" Valandra turned away from Ember, a thought that hadn't existed before, coming to her.  "If… If we should find her… as an Awakened…  The full force of your fire," she choked up, couldn't continue the sentence.

Ember rubbed the back of her head, and slightly snickered.  "Oh she wouldn't be 'awakened'.  Have you seen her sleep?  Not even Papaya Joke could wake that girl up!"

Valandra let out an honest laugh.  "Yeah; she was a rock!"  Valandra's eyes widened at a thought she didn't share with Ember.  Eventually, she shook her head from her musing.

"Well," Ember said, with a shrug, "we need to find some smart people to help us out of these things.  Rata Sum would be an obvious choice, but it's quite a journey from here, and there's not much out here, besides the Labyrinthine Cliffs."

"That name sounds familiar.  I believe I saw postings on a flyer promoting some sort of celebration there.  If so, there would be many there; we may could force another Asura to take a look at these ridiculous contraptions," Valandra proposed.

Ember almost made a comment about using 'force,' but decided against the fight.  "I bet we'll stand out, looking pretty silly in these things."

Valandra grinned impishly.  "Oh, I'm sure you're very used to looking that way," she stabbed.  A humph and a frown from Ember seemingly satisfied the ice queen.  Without a word, she turned, held her hands outward and over the murky swap water.  The water slowly began to solidify, and build upon itself, eventually taking the familiar shape of two raptors, lifelessly made of ice.  Valandra stepped onto the mount, gestured to the other.

Grumbling, Ember climbed aboard the ice lizard.  "Makin' mounts out of your magic," she spat.  "This feels wrong."

The white-haired woman leaned over to her.  "Oh, 'don't pretend you didn't want this,'" she echoed Ember's statement before their passionate exchange.  With a smirk she commanded the ice raptor forward.

Ember's heart raced at the woman's chilled breath, but as she rode away, the darkness from her dream found its way back into her mind.  She shivered.  Unsure of her powers, her destination, her feelings… she remained a statue for a moment, then a slight smile came to her face remembering something from the dream.   "A festival, huh?  Wonder if they sell top-hats and gowns for animals."  She giggled, then with a click of her tongue, rode after the ice queen.

To Be Continued...

 

The Search for Lexxie: Part 2

The Search for Lexxie: Part 2

----- Nalla's Journal Entry: Allies -----

Nalla's Journal Entry:

Day Thirty-Five, the Search for Lexxie continues...

It is not without hesitation that I joined this group, bound for Elona.  But, therein lies the reason for pledging myself: To procure passage to this area, again, so I can search places I dared not go alone.

However; even now, I pause with the reconsideration that, in so doing, I will grow too attached. What happens when I am to continue this search on my own? Furthermore I find myself analyzing the possibility of staying even after I find Lexxie.  What then would become of my previous association with the Pact... With the Peacekeepers?  Would I ultimately abandon those responsibilities?

And then I come full circle, questioning why these thoughts are so predominantly in my head.  Is it due to emotional infatuation? My quest would not waver from my goal.  My sisters well being is paramount, and whatever biochemical reaction may or may not be happening... Well such pursuits should (and will be made) secondary. My Asuran intellect commands I investigate the curiosity of the heart, yet my heart breaks for not knowing the fate yet of my sister, Lexxie.

I look at this sketch often; I carry in this journal.  While not a holocube, it is the best reminder I have that my purpose here must remain resolute, and I must find her, at all costs.

[To be Continued...]

 

Lexxie the Tinkerer

Character Name: Lexxie the Tinkerer

Race: Asura

Order: Durmand Priory - Inventor, Gadget Architect

Gender: Female

Profession: Engineer / Scrapper / Holomancer

Apparent age: 18

Hair: Blue to turquoise, with black streaks here and there.  Generally, it's pulled back and in a hurriedly fastened ponytail.  Bangs usually get in the way of her work, so they're fastened and bundled up too!  Very rarely does it ever stray efficient style and if the situation did call for a fancy makeover, Lexxie would almost undoubtedly miss the queues to do so.

Skin: A bright white with slight grey spots on her forehead and back.

Eyes: Big blue liquid eyes with lashes that have a natural appearance of mascara.

Appearance details: The tops of her ears are extremely sensitive, thus a small covering over them is something Lexxie considers a 'functional, yet ascetically pleasing' necessity.

Religious beliefs/philosophy: "The inner workings of the Eternal Alchemy are beyond the complexities we can comprehend... But we should never stop trying to!"

OOC Intro:

What can I say about Lexxie?  She's a little firecracker.  When first starting in GW2, I thought of the Engineer class as being a little silly.  It was a hard sell for me: in a game of fantasy, here's a class that creates mechanized turrets and bombs.  My first attempt at the class during beta was a Norn, which I really disliked.  I didn't understand the way the class fell into place along with the other classes.  Support class?  What the heck was that?  Thus, it was a long while before I ever created an Engineer.  At that point, my love for Asura began.  I'd already created my Necro, Kievaa, but she wasn't a bright fun colorful character this one would be.  I immediately fell in love with Lexxie, and shortly thereafter created a Guardian with some of the same facial characteristics: Lexxie's older (in story, that is) sister, Nalla.  Once while sitting in Queensdale, I was pulled into a very impromptu roleplay... I hadn't ever even RPed in-game before.  But, I quickly cobbled together a personality of a seemingly scatter-brained brilliant inventor.  At the time, I RPed her as a traveling merchant selling her gadgets from a limitless magic bag (cause otherwise where would she keep her wares!)  Magic bag notwithstanding, I liked the idea of her having a bit of awkwardness, and I wound up incorporating it in her story throughout the years.  Below are a few key snippets of her life, before and after the accident that changed it forever.

Brief RolePlay Bio: 

While Nalla was always the stalwart older sibling, Lexxie was always getting into trouble, with her insatiable curiosity.  She quickly developed an independence that would take her on journeys far away from home.  She found it incredibly easy to lend her remarkable engineering talents to other races, eventually catching the eye of a few Charr which she holds in dear regard.  However, things changed when she was summoned to partake in a mysterious experiment orchestrated by her old krewe-mate, Kievva.  The results of said incident caused the young Asura's mind to come unhinged from its once amazingly solid foundation, and while Lexxie is still a brilliant inventor, she has great difficulty staying on topic, expressing herself and generally socializing.  Her mental issues notwithstanding, Lexxie is a sweetheart and outstanding behind a console, under a Charr mechanism, or working on holo matrices.  She arbors no ill will to what happened... since she sadly has no memory of the events.  These past events, involving Lexxie, are being chronicled in the short story: "Reassembly Required"

Recent history:

Lexxie is awfully well-traveled and knowledgeable for one who doesn't communicate well.  What she lacks in diplomacy when speaking, she makes up for in charm and ingenuity.  A Charr recently took a liking to her, and has almost become a guardian (of sorts), protecting Lexxie upon her travels.

Personality:

Lexxie is sweet, if not blunt.  Often struggling with her speech, the words that do come out tend to be broken and out of order.

Notable relationships:

After the accident, Lexxie never had a romantic relationship.  It's unknown to her if such a thing happened beforehand.  Since she's spent quite a bit of time recently with the Charr, she'd be most likely attracted to their kind, if she gave such romantic things credence.

Favored alcoholic beverage:

Lexxie never drinks the stuff.  It's yucky!

Favored food: Fruit is amazing!  Apples being her favorite.  She's been known to spend a bit too much time in Queensdale under apple trees.

Favored weather or season: When the leaves fall, Lexxie has a some connection from her past to the season.  While it's not completely lucid, it garners feelings of peace.  For this reason, it's her favorite.

Favored color: Brown & Blue

Elementally Bound: Part 6

Elementally Bound: Part 6

----- Bliss -----

It was half a day's travel to the nearest snow-covered mountain summit.  The sun had begun to set, dropping the temperature.  And Ember could feel the bitter cold through the suit.  Valandra was stalwart, marching to her goal without hesitation.  In a different situation Ember would have admired the woman's commitment.  While admitting this to herself annoyed her, she felt as though she understood Demitra's attraction to Valandra.  The woman had a mesmerizing and commanding presence, a self-assurance that came through her bitter coldness.  Lost in thought, Ember almost ran into the woman's back as they came to a sudden stop.

"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...

 

Elementally Bound: Part 5

Elementally Bound: Part 5

----- Tether -----

Smoke and soot filled the air, snowflakes dancing rhythmically with ash in the silent cool stillness.  Toppled beams and pillars lined the lab's interior, rubble from the botched experiment.  A few isolated fires still burned as smoke billowed from those already snuffed out.  In one corner of the lab, a sustained flurry of snowfall and a few stalagmites of ice sprouting from the ground.

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…"

"You set something on fire?  Oh, so what?" the ice queen grew tired of the bickering.  "Sad little girl that nobody wants, because you can't control your own power!"

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."

"That would be a delightful sight," Valandra smirked.  She tried again to claw at the suit's seams, attempting to grasp onto a piece… any component.  An edge was found and she pulled mightily at it.  Electrical surges were suddenly delivered all over her body.  She almost fell to her knees; cried out in frustration.

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...

 

Elementally Bound: Part 4

Elementally Bound: Part 4

----- Overload -----

Each breath was a hundred blades piercing her, each attempt at movement was a thousand.  Ember struggled to stay conscious, gasped for air.  Her entire body fought just to stay coherent and intact.  She had known the attempt we risky and perhaps even foolhardy, but she had thought the process would have made her more powerful; powerful enough to destroy the suit.  The outcome was the complete opposite: the suit controlled her, gathered all her power, and would destroy her.

Kievaa didn't look up from her pad.  "Exquisite!  The power levels are remarkable!  You do, indeed, exceed much of my calculations.  I certainly didn't expect you back so soon.  How did you power up so quickly?  This wasn't in the established parameters!"

"Shove your parameters," Ember tried to say.  Only a soft groan squeaked out.

"Well?  Speak up!  What do you have to say for yourself?  You can speak, can't you?  The inhibitor isn't stopping you from speech (although such a thing would be extremely amusing)."

Ember took in an excruciating breath to say, "I'm going to pull your ears off and burn your eyes."

Kievaa laughed at the threat.  "How amazingly short-sighted of you!  I only have two ears and two eyes; such a thing would be done too quickly.  No… No.  What you should have used for intimidation are my fingers and toes.  Those numbers are much higher, thus taking much longer.  Perhaps I'll show you, after the extraction.  Fire-bookah, you really are not that bright are you?"  Kievaa suddenly burst into laughter at her unexpected pun.

Ember summoned all the strength she had left, in an attempt to ignite and slam her fist forward, pushing her magic out in what would have been an explosion to send the Asura flying.  The action caused only a fraction of what she'd expected and was little more than a cantrip; wasted energy.

Kievaa looked up from her readings, a perplexed look as the small sparks came from the woman's fist.  "Oh no, we can't have that!"  She tapped on a few buttons on the pad.  "There.  That should put a stop to that.  You do indeed hold much power in you, don't you, fire-bookah?  It will be fun extracting it."

"You underestimated me," Ember managed a grin, seeing the Asura's surprise at her light show.  "That will cost you dearly."

"Yes, yes, yes… I'm sure you'll do horribly vile things to me, and hurt me, and torture me, etcetera, etcetera…" Kievaa said nonchalantly waving her hands.  "Come now, puppet.  Time to drain you."  She began walking toward the lab.

Ember gritted her teeth, the insult hitting hard, yet reluctantly followed.  Kievaa was already yelling as Ember entered the lab behind her.  And after ascending the stairs, she saw to whom she spoke: It was the ice queen, Valandra.

The woman stood, clad in a suit similar to her own, with the exception of the hologram collectors.  While a few were present, most were laced within the suit itself, creating a vivid fluorescence which flowed throughout.  The entire thing was blue, almost icy in spots.  The woman's signature ice crystal wings protruded from her back.  Ember hated the sight of them, and of the ice queen.

Valandra stood, arms crossed, expectantly irritated.  "What took you?" she growled at the Asura.  A quick glance behind Kievaa revealed her answer.  "Oh, I see."  Her expression changed to a half-curved grin at the sight.

"Asura have superior ears, you know; we can hear the slightest whisper from afar.  I heard you the first five times you called out to me.  It's really irritating!"  Kievaa complained.

"You're irritating.  Can your superior ears hear that?" Valandra scoffed.

Ember would have laughed had it not been so annoyingly painful to do so.

Valandra turned her attention to Ember, approached the weak woman.  "So this is what has come of you?  Stripped of your power, of your freedom, and," she looked over the woman with an inspecting eye, "stripped of your dignity."

Ember had no reaction, though internally she screamed.  The pain of attempting to gather her power was almost overwhelming, but it would be nothing compared to the pain of the upcoming extraction process.  With luck, Ember hoped to gather her remaining strength and channel it at the machine.  The result may be not as satisfying as Ember wanted, based on her sparks from before, but it was all she had the ability to do.  Thus, she remained uncharacteristically silent.

"And she must follow your orders?"

Kievaa nodded wildly.  "Oh indeed!  She's quite docile!  Albeit a bit resilient, but it's nothing the extraction suit and inhibiter can't handle.  I really outdid myself with this; any krewe would be lucky to have me."

Valandra raised an eyebrow, decidedly not engaging in more banter with the cocky Asura.  She instead returned her attention to the suit, unscrupulously inspecting it.  "And the extraction is working, then?"

"Indeed, it does!  Although…"

The ice queen flashed an icy look to Kievaa.  "Although what?  I thought your 'genius' calculated everything?  What is it?  Is this the reason you called me hear before the final extraction; wrapped me in your warped technology?"

Kievaa fixed one of the buns atop her head, a clear look of irritation for being interrupted and purposefully waited before continuing, the silence making the point of annoyance for her.  "Warped tech… No, no; just because you cannot possibly comprehend it doesn't mean it's warped technology!  Now, as I was about to say: You are needed for the duration of the extraction process, not simply the last.  This fire-bookah here has more power than estimated; the capacitors simply cannot hold it all, so we'll have to put it directly inside you, as it were."

Valandra looked suspiciously at the Asura.  She didn't trust her; would be ignorant if she ignored her instincts.  Yet, Kievaa clearly wanted Joko's secrets.  With that leverage, it wouldn't be prudent for the conniving Kievaa to double-cross her.

"Or, we could just let all that power go to waste.  It is your call to make.  I'm fulfilling my obligation either way, so I'll be sure to get what I want.  You're the one with… power envy."  Kievaa snarked.

Ember let out a quick dry, dark laugh.  Kievaa raised a veiled eyebrow at the chuckle and faked a louder one.  Ember rolled her eyes.

Valandra raised an eyebrow at the laugh, took a step closer.  Her face inches was from Ember's.  "So you can speak, and yet you have nothing to say?  On the eve of your death, you haven't a word?"  Valandra shrugged undamaged shoulders.  "You really are not worthy of the powers you possess."

Ember faked a mocking laugh, similar to Kievaa's only much darker, guttural.

"If you two are done with the posturing, we have work to do," Kievaa said, already at the console entering calculations.  "Fire-bookah, into the extraction chamber," she commanded.  "Ice-bookah, get up there in the receiving receptacle."

Ember obeyed her master.  Valandra begrudgingly did so as well.

Kievaa pressed a few more buttons.  The machine began whirling, humming, and buzzing to life.  At once, both cylindrical holograms around the respective chambers began to rotate.  A switch was flipped calling forth a bolt of electricity which struck the base of Ember's neck, traveling down her spine.  Red glowing pulses began to travel up the bolt, remained for a moment above the receptacle, then traveled over and down into the adjacent chamber.  Several crystals surrounding Valandra's chamber sparked to life as each red pulse ran through them.  Arcs of electricity flew from each crystal, attaching to various points of Valandra's suit.  The red pulses traveled into her in a brilliant glow of power.  Valandra cried out in both pain and pleasure.

Ember screamed from the intensity.  Had she not had the mental preparation time, she would have blacked out instantly.  Instead, in the time her foes bickered, she'd channeled her remaining power, compressed it, formed it directly at her core.  She barely managed to enact her plan.  Head back, she pressed it to the electrical extraction beam and unleashed all she had built up.

Unprecedented in scale, a large red orb of energy shot out from Ember, raced up the beam, over to the other chamber, and drove through the crystals, finally striking Valandra.   At once, the ice queen screamed, dropped to her knees from the intensity of the power.  She fought back, instinctively sending her own energy to stop the onslaught.  Three beams suddenly reversed,  sending blue pulses from the ice queen.  They used the same path, traveled the opposite direction, and down into Ember.

"What are you doing!  What… What is this?"  Kievaa immediately began checking the readouts, turning knobs and flipping switches on the console.  "This… This shouldn't be possible!  It's not possible to receive from the extractor; send from the receiving chamber.  What have you done?  Stop this at once!"

With each pulse, Ember felt her strength returning, only something was different.  She felt power, but it was foreign power… ice power.  It seemed to intermix with her internal fire, she felt hot and cold at the same time.

-----------

And suddenly, she wasn't Ember.  The woman looked down at her body.  Her hands were not her own, but she immediately recognized them as Valandra's.  She looked around.  Bones of every size were built into hideous structures around her.  Above her, the bone spikes towered, and she watched helplessly as her hands grasped onto an arch of bones, pulling her onto and overlook.  Attached to the arch was a wall that stretched as far as she could see.  Below her, awakened minions going about their orders in the desert landscape.

She stood on the precipice looking down, a wave of insurmountable dread and indescribable sorrow filled her being.  The situation was impossible, hopeless.  She was bound under the God-King's thumb and there was no end in sight.  She'd been forced to do things… terrible things in his service and in his name.  She's lost her home, her family, her love Demitra, and now Palawa Joko had taken her innocence in the bowels of his harem sanctuary he called a 'Bone Palace.'  She had willingly sacrificed herself to this fate, to spare her village.  Yet, she just learned it all to be futile, as Joko revealed her family to her, presenting the awakened putrid versions of their former selves.  The lich had done this after he'd had his way with her, taking all that remained of her innocence.

Tears streamed down her cheeks as the overwhelming situation moved her feet toward the edge.  She smiled at the sweet comfort of death as the weight pulled her down, and into the only escape possible.

Except death wouldn't come…

Her fall abruptly ended as a sharp shard of ice pierced into and through her shoulder.  She cried out in agony, attempted pull herself from the glacier, failed.  She dazedly and bewilderedly looked around.  A glacial bed of ice had formed under her, freezing the desert in every direction.  All life around was frozen solid: dead, just as she longed to be.  Blood poured forth, trailing down the ice shard.  Perhaps she would bleed to death at the summit of the inexplicable iceberg.  Perhaps this was what death was like.

She closed her eyes awaiting to accept her passage into the mists, when the sound of the God-King's scratchy voice disrupted her passage.  Ember, who was not Ember, opened her eyes.  Palawa Joko's decrepit vile face filled her vision.  He smiled a crooked smile.  "Oh you ARE a special one, aren't you?  I have need of powers like that!  Come child… Come with Joko."  He effortlessly pulled the woman from the spike and carried her back to the bone palace.

-----------

Valandra felt the power being pulled from her, and at the same time heat intermixed with her own cold core.  When suddenly, she wasn't Valandra any more: she was a small child… She was Ember.  A quick glance down revealed her attire was that of rags.  She sat on a small swing, surrounded by a large mansion.  She hummed softly to herself as she rocked back and forth in the seat.  It was a peaceful time, and the girl wished she could live in that moment forever.

Until she couldn't…

A slurred shout called out from behind her, drunken and barely understandable.  Instinctively, the child ran from the approaching man.  She ran into the house, into a room, hiding under the bed.  The man sloppily found his way into it, began pacing around, babbling incoherently.  One definitively clear speech came from the drunkard.  "You… You little shit!  You killed my Nora!"

The bed suddenly flew away and the man immediately picked the little girl up by her hair and slung her.  The four-year-old flew across the room and slammed into a wardrobe.  "D- Daddy?" she whimpered.

The man raised his hands, palm outward to the little girl.  "Burn!  Burn like you burned her!" he snarled.  Fire promptly shot from his hands, in an attempt to incinerate his child.

Ember blinked, bewildered as the fire flowed into her, absorbed.  She suddenly felt a power surge inside her.  The man's eyes grew wide as Ember stood, her very skin glowing.  She clenched her fists and with a scream of rage, pain, and fear, she exploded.

Her father flew through the wall as the flames engulfed, created a crater where the young girl stood.  All plantlife, all walls of the room, a nearby drake nest, all decimated.

"You… You monster!" her father shrieked before retreating.

Ember stood in the room, panting.  Her eyes were dots of red, an aura of fire, her fists still clenched.

-----------

Kievaa's shrill voice was heard over the electrical whizzing of the machine and the subsequent rumbling created by the exchanging power.  "The feedback's overloading the machine!  You two have destroyed my precious work!  You damned bookah!  I'll come collecting my payment, ice-bookah!  Your Joko owes me the secrets of the Awakened!" She waddled quickly down the exit corridor and vanished.

Smoke began billowing from the various components of the machine, the control panel sparked and caught fire.  Pipes connecting the two apparatus began to freeze and melt.  All sound from the room was replaced by a rumble, which grew exponentially louder with each pulse.  A final pulse of red and blue found their way to their opposite receptacles.  Both exploded as they entered the women, sent them flying.  Both landed simultaneously, and both scrambled to their feet, bolting for the exit.

Among the chaos of the imminent explosion, the two exchanged quick glances of worry, fear, and an uncanny understanding neither quite understood yet.  They approached the exit and leaped as the lab detonated in an enormous fireball, with ice shards behind them.

To Be Continued...