“Hey Zen, we’re just going to go see Glemp,” Zalia sent to Zen, still in the nearby house.
“Gah!” the reply came.
Smiling at the reaction to the mental communication she acquired in Cormaine, Zalia followed the other three further into the caves. They were on their way to find Glemp and figure out what exactly it might take to convince the Heat and Stone denizens to join in their war. She thought it might be hard to accomplish considering the safety they currently had within the mountain they called home.
She also just wanted to see her old friend, the first one she had made in Endaria. A bit of time spent with a friend she made when things were a lot simpler would do her good. She had been considering using the mental healing ritual she had used on the soldier back in the war camp on herself but had come to the conclusion that what she was dealing with wasn’t worth the expenditure of materials. She hadn’t tried growing the Living Trapvine just yet but had a sneaking suspicion she wouldn’t be able to. The piece she had was only a small part of the larger whole, a tiny cutting of a living creature.
Instead, she considered whether it might be worth offering to use it on Aylie but she didn’t really know if there were any long-term effects of using the ritual. She didn’t want to cause anyone any harm, the only reason she had used it on that soldier in the first place being that the man had been so broken as to be basically catatonic.
As they walked through the caves and now that she wasn’t preoccupied with the thought of seeing Zen again, she noticed that the caves had a distinctly more military feel about it. There were guards posted about and people walked with purpose rather than the idle meandering of a carefree society. Not for the first time, Zalia was in awe of the unity in which the Heat and Stone denizens lived. She had no idea if they had any ruling body or person of any kind and had never asked, yet these people still acted with joint purpose.
She still remembered the day the three ice elementals had attacked the mountain and the people here had performed a joint ritual of some kind, combining all of their power to overcome two Silver and one Gold ranked elementals with ease. Some had died and others passed out from the effort but the speed at which they had accomplished the task was amazing. Even Larel, someone whose powerset was built for fights with a single slow enemy, took a long while to defeat a Gold rank. A human squad of an odd one hundred people from the kingdom of Endaria hadn’t even been able to take down one of the Gold ranked elementals by themselves.
Well, Zalia would need to find a way to make the joint purpose of the Heat and Stone denizens to cleanse the world of the demon invasion. She just hoped she was the right person for the job, she wasn’t exactly known for her social or political prowess.
They found themselves in the small workshop Glemp called home, benches all along the perimeter and centre of the room forming the workspace in which Glemp performed their many experiments, one of which they were currently engrossed in.
“Hey Glemp, how are things?” Zalia asked in greeting.
“One moment, yes,” Glemp said, focus unwavering.
She waited, keeping an eye on Aylie as she wandered around the room. There were more than a few dangerous components and liquids in this room.
A single drop fell from the dropper Glemp was holding in a steady hand, plopping into the stone vial they held in their hands.
“Right! Yes, Zalia. Ember of course, yes, a powerful name. Boreal, she of the ice and… the small one,” Glemp said, greeting them one by one.
“Aylie,” Aylie informed them.
Aylie was currently still rugged up in the thick hoodie and was standing before Glemp, managing to actually reach the same height as them.
“Aylie of the small humans, yes. Welcome,” Glemp said.
“Aylie is a child, Glemp. You know, a young of our race,” Zalia explained.
“A child…” Glemp said, trailing off.
Zalia tried to figure out how to reply when something occurred to her.
“Hey, you know the language properly now?” Zalia asked.
“Hmm, yes yes, learned from Zen,” Glemp said offhandedly, still looking with confusion at Aylie.
“Right, yeah makes sense. Two adult humans can have children if they wish and that child will grow up to be another adult human. How exactly do you make more of your race if not like that?” Zalia inquired.
She had never seen any children Heat and Stone denizens but had just thought they might live somewhere deeper or safer in the mountain.
“Formed from stone, heat. Yes, no growing required,” Glemp explained.
“Huh,” Zalia said.
She then noticed that Ember was glaring at her like, “Really, you’re talking about reproduction right now in front of Aylie?”
Zalia coughed lightly into her hand.
“Mm, anyways. Glemp, I was wondering what it would take for your people to come help us fight back against the demons invading this world.” she said, changing the subject quickly.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Mmm, no no no. Our people will stay, resist. Fight we will not, no.” Glemp said, looking to Zalia.
Her heart sank.
“There’s no chance? None at all? This is something that affects us all, not just the humans of Endaria. If the kingdom falls, the demons will come after your people and all peoples next. This world will be consumed by them,” Zalia said urgently.
“Zalia, no you do not see. We are made of the stone, yes, the heat. Here we are born, yes, here we live. We do not belong in the outside, in the kingdom. Here we are safe. Our memories are long, we remember when the humans treated us without respect, yes. You may be a good one, but many are not,” Glemp explained.
Zalia leaned against one of the benches, letting out a long sigh. It hadn’t been good odds of them joining but she had really hoped there might be some kind of chance. The hard shutdown of the idea after the long journey really was painful. She might have come up here just to see if Glemp was ok anyway but she had definitely been hoping for more.
“Well, I can’t say I blame you or your people. It’s not a good place out there right now,” Zalia said,” … hey, what happened with your ritual site here up on the mountain, did it explode or did any creatures come from it?”
Zalia sensed that Glemp was not going to change their mind, so dropped the subject. Perhaps she could come up with some way to convince them but had nothing as of yet.
“Ah, I remember you speaking of this. Nothing that we experienced at all,” Glemp said.
“What?” Zalia asked.
“Nothing, yes yes,” Glemp repeated.
Nothing at all?
“All of the ritual sites we knew of seemed to have done something, how could yours not have?” Zalia asked.
The mountain was close to where Zalia had interrupted the ritual, yet it seemed like closer ones had still activated. If the one on the mountain hadn’t did that mean it wasn’t part of the main ritual, or did something else stop it from working?
“Well, good to see you were all alright at the least.”
“Yes, we live on ever as we have,” Glemp said, nodding.
They had turned their attention back to the stone vial on the bench, perhaps observing it through an ability Zalia couldn’t see.
“Do… do you know that there were once others of your race? Those Born of the Water Depths and Those Born of the Wind and Sky?” Zalia asked.
Glemps head flicked up to her, meeting her eyes.
“How do you know of them?” they asked.
“I was told by a… a dear friend. They told me that your people used to visit them, long, long ago. Back when your people lived in the other world,” Zalia explained.
“No, no no no. Have you been there? Not possible,” Glemp murmured.
“Cormaine, yes, I have. What do you know of it?” Zalia asked.
“I… we must speak with the others. This news is important, yes, very important,” Glemp said.
“Important how?”
“It is told that we came from such a world as you say. A closely guarded secret, yes, very closely. Who is this dear friend, yes, of which you speak?”
“A friend I made when I was there, one who was part of a larger whole. The collective, small creatures on their own but powerful together. They kept the memories of Cormaine alive for a very long time,” Zalia explained.
“So you have met some of the… the… how would the word translate? The seers, maybe?” Glemp asked in awe.
“I did, yes they could see the future quite clearly. They…” Zalia cut off.
The memory surfaced, Delphi crushed and the bodies of the collective strewn across the ground of the Grove.
Zalia shook her head and smashed a fist down on the bench next to her causing Glemp to jump and the vial tip over. That damn memory.
“Sorry,” she murmured.
She could feel the eyes of Ember and Boreal on her back, their gaze burning into her skin. Aylie was looking up at her with worry and a tiny hint of fear.
“What is it Za-” Glemp started.
But Zalia couldn’t stand it. She vanished using her teleportation and fled from the room. Why did that memory keep coming back? Couldn’t it just stay in the damn vault where she put it?
She ran through too warm corridors, caves and up stairs. She just needed to breathe, why was it so hard to breathe in the mountain? The air was thick, tinged red with a sulphorous hint to it that made it so damn hard to breathe. Where was she? Had she really escaped or was this all a cruel dream?
She burst out of an exit to the cool, fresh open air, taking in gasping breaths.
Slowly, she began to calm but soon tears came to blur her vision of the expansive snowy landscape beyond.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and twitched slightly at the touch.
“Hey,” Ember said softly.
She was on her knees, she realised, sitting in the snow where she had fallen.
“Hey,” Zalia replied, voice choked with pain.
“What’s wrong?” Ember asked, kneeling next to her and drawing her into a tight hug.
“They… they’re dead.”
She hadn’t told Ember about the death of the collective.
“Who are? What happened?”
“The collective. They died as I escaped Cormaine. They knew it would happen but they died so that I could escape. They sacrificed themselves because they knew there was no other way,” Zalia explained, her voice rough as she tried to hold back tears.
“I’m sorry that happened. Losing a friend is always hard,” Ember empathised, gently rubbing Zalia’s back with one hand as she held her in a hug still.
“Them and Ro-ak, they were the only ones there with me and Boreal. That entire world, there is no other life there. Now it’s possible even Ro is gone too,” Zalia added, tears finally flowing only to freeze lower down her face from the frozen wind blowing across the mountainside.
Zalia could feel a gentle aura that felt as if it were caressing her very soul, calming her, healing her.
“That’s what that emotional injury that appeared before was, wasn’t it. How are you hiding it like that?” Ember asked.
“I… Remember those swirling orbs in the vault? Those are memories. Memories stored from my mind. One of them is my last hour in Cormaine, stored away so I don’t have to remember it only…” Zalia faded away but Ember seemed to understand what she meant.
“Oh Zalia, no,” Ember murmured softly.
“I… I know, Ember... I know.”