Time is kind of meaningless, Fye’s brain decided, as it was pondering the colorful images it kept receiving from its eyes. How did one even know it had passed if nothing was moving? Was time change? Or was change - time?

What did that Reverend Brother guy say? Weren’t there supposed to be some more men around him now, to keep him company? Shouldn’t the Lead Shaman be back by now? When was now anyways?

The sparks were pretty and his drug-addled mind decided he liked them the most. They seemed to be inside of everything he looked at. He wondered how it was that he had lived his whole life without seeing them before now, although he realised that if he had, he would have likely gone blind a long time ago. The spark inside him was shining so brightly, he hadn’t dared look back down to his chest since he noticed it first a while ago.

Was it a while ago? How would his brain know such things?

Fye knew he wanted to move. The urge was so sudden and violent, it made him forget everything else and before he knew it, he was at the door. Was it possible to move this fast? Maybe the sparks were helping him. He had no idea how any of this worked, but he still reached for the handles of the massive wooden door at the Temple’s entrance.

“What are you doing?” Came a booming voice behind his back.

Fye swung on his heels to face the voice’s owner and did a double-take. The black-haired, blue-eyed man in front of him bore a striking resemblance to the Lead Shaman who had just left him, safe for the severe and hostile expression on his face and the dark circles around his blue irises. When did he even pass by the prince who was just at the entrance, though? Did he jump down from the hole in the ceiling or something?

“I want to go.” The boy nevertheless responded and stared defiantly at the man.

“Go where?” The man lifted his dark eyebrows, almost mocking him. “Run off to your treacherous travel companions, will you? If you turn on the waterworks too, they might be so entertained as to react.”

Fye froze as he felt the other’s words cut deep into his chest like a sharp knife. The suggestion made was so painfully familiar, it made his knees weak. “Run off, hide behind the strong women, for you are nothing but a frail little boy.”

“I don’t need anyone to protect me!” The prince cried out and a flash of lightning crackled from his fingertips, as he raised his hands in the air in frustration.

“Oh, so you’re a strong, independent man who doesn’t need a woman to protect him are you?” The shaman continued, sounding even more condescending than before. “So brave, Your Highness, so very brave and progressive of you! I suppose then you wouldn’t mind if you and I went to check on the woman you no longer need? See if she has been missing you, perhaps?”

Fye furrowed his brows at the man. Was he inside his head again? How did he know he wanted to go see Linda? Why did he want to see her anyways? She’d run off with those East-Wind beauties and hasn’t come back in what seemed to his confused brain like a whole eternity. Perhaps he should go see what they were up to and give her a piece of his mind. Or whatever was left of it, anyways.

The doors behind him opened suddenly and a few shamans walked in and surrounded him. They were saying something to him, he was sure, but he couldn’t focus so their words just washed over him like a foreign language. They didn’t turn to address their leader who was still towering next to the Altar of moons, nor did the man attempt to speak to them. All he had eyes for was Fye and he had a look in his even darker eyes now that seemed to say to the boy “you know what to do, don’t you, Your Highness?”

The boy nodded, as he felt the spark move from his chest to his arms and all the way down to the muscles in his legs, like a flash of lightning and before any of the shamans could reach him he was past their semi-circle and out the doors into the night air. He had no idea how his body knew where to move and how to do it so quickly, the bru’ankh’ai was already behind him in a blur of gentle fluorescence by the time he realised he was moving further east onto the top terrace, away from the lights and residual noise of the feast still going on around the Central Temple.

At some point brother Ma’ala’s doppelganger caught up with him and seemed to have no trouble keeping up with the boy’s crushing pace, almost as if he were floating, rather than touching the ground. The prince’s brain skipped another beat and he lost track of how long they were running for.

“Where are we going? How…” Fye started, but the man raised a finger to his lips and pointed to a small building in front of them.

It was almost completely swallowed by the vibrant plant life surrounding it, but Fye could see clearly enough the wooden sliding doors and upturned edges of the rooftop which were typical of the ancient architectural style on the South-eastern parts of the Wind twin. The Lead Shaman stopped abruptly a few paces away from the small wooden porch in front of the entrance and Fye felt as though someone had pulled a rug from under him - all of a sudden the sparks which were powering his super sprint died down and moved back into his chest and he stopped as well, next to the other man.

“Let’s quietly see what this woman you claim you don’t need is up to, shall we, Your Highness?” The Reverend Brother said, a grin of dark satisfaction twisting his otherwise beautiful features.

Fye’s brain briefly noted that the other man’s eyes seemed to have lost any traces of blue and now looked more like gaping black holes. Before he could spare this peculiar fact another thought however, he felt the irresistible pull to move in his abdomen once more and they approached one of the wooden-barred windows looking into the only room with a light on.

Oh, by the Kriyan devils they were so bright! The prince blinked a couple of times to steady his gaze and chase away the tears that had burst when he first focused on the group inside the room. The three Wind men looked like tornadoes made of light - spinning around and around and the windstorm was like a terrifying hurricane - broad, powerful, unstoppable. And then there was Linda.

She looked odd, just as he had suspected. There was a spark there, oh what a spark there was! But it seemed unstable, shifting, moving, changing shape, almost as if there were two sparks, fighting for the same space. Looking at it made him sad, but he also felt something else, something surprising. It was beautiful. Linda was beautiful, his brain decided.

“Ah, young love! Isn’t it sweet!” The shaman’s mocking voice reached him again. “Almost as sweet as those East-Wind foxes’ lips, wouldn’t you say? There's a lot to be envious of them for, isn’t there, Your Highness? Lean bodies, beautiful eyes, and that skin! You can never tell how old they are too - ageless, flawless porcelain dolls that they are.”

It felt as though the man was speaking inside his head again - pouring his venom directly into the boy’s skull. Fye felt his vision blur and blinked a few times, but alas the fog in front of his eyes only thickened. Was he imagining things or were the two young Wind males now on Linda’s sides, pressing against her? Was she ok with that? Would she… Of course she would, his brain mercilessly supplied, she’s a woman after all. No matter how different she might present herself as, she still had eyes, hands and needs.

People often said that firetribe boys were exceptionally beautiful, so he thought he had some confidence about his appearance. His court lads back home even told him that his beauty was rivaled only by the Day star. Would Linda agree? Or was it true what they said about East-Wind women - that they only had eyes for their own males where serious relationships were concerned? But didn’t she say she wasn’t from Alaiah to begin with?

“You know why those boys shine so brightly, don’t you, Your Highness?” Drip, drip, drip, the venomous voice continued. “Exotic beauty aside, they are a special breed. Tell me, have you heard the legends from the Wind twin about a seductive kind of trickster demon they have over there, called a Tailwind?”

As if on cue, the two boys inside the room flashed icy-white eyes and suddenly, powerful gusts of wind rose behind their backs in the vague shape of a fox’s tails. Fye jumped a little and considered busting through the window bars to… Do what exactly? Protect Linda from the devilish charms of the twins?

His vision blurred again and he wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t anymore. It looked like the girl was moving towards the two boys, lustful intent evident in her eyes and posture. He averted his eyes and noted that the shaman’s doppelganger was no longer next to him.

A quiet rage began rising in his chest. The sparks ignited and started moving around his body again. Up in the skies above a powerful, dangerous thunder roared and a lightning bolt hit not too far from where he was standing. He moved with extraordinary speed to where it had hit and examined the charred ground. Surprisingly, he felt no fear, just anger, powerful, all-consuming anger.

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“Hear it from one who has suffered a similar fate - women can never be trusted”, brother Ma’ala’s words from so long ago now sounded in his head. Fye felt the truth of what he had said cut him like a knife yet again. It was a mistake to follow these women here, he didn’t need them and they sure as Kriya’s hell didn’t need him. He was better off alone, anyways. All he needed to do now was keep running with the power of the sparks all the way back to the elevator and down to the docks.

There was bound to be at least one boat there still that he could use to get as far away from this wretched place and these treacherous women as he could. He felt so much power in his body, surely he would be able to even row all the way to the Fringes at least.

Above him, bolts of lightning tore through the skies and roaring thunder followed, but not a drop of rain fell. Fye felt a bizarre sort of connection to this strange storm - it was impossible for him to tell if the electricity in the air was propelling him forward or if he was the one causing it to flash and spark all around.

No matter, he just needed to find a boat. The thunder didn’t scare him - there was something familiar and comforting about it, like an old friend who’d always been in the background, but was never allowed to come out and truly play.

“Help me run, run like lightning, little sparks”, he thought to himself as he kept flashing through the gardens towards the wooden ark which led to the elevator, “Run so fast that not even the pain can keep up…”

********************************

“Your Highness! Your Highness, please slow down, you need to take care of your body!” The breastless woman called out, as she ran to try and catch up with the princess ahead.

Although limping and still in horrible prickling pain all over her body, H’zath’ardia Fekh kept moving through the corridors of the Dh’ivan’s central intelligence wing with the terrifying determination of a powerful earthquake, ready to demolish anything in its path. That half-woman behind her could scream all she wanted, the princess had somewhere she needed to be. Reaching the heavy velvet-wrapped wooden doors of the Admiral’s office, Fekh pushed them aside as if she were brushing off stray branches from a tree and burst into the room, only stopping a couple of paces before the large desk. The Admiral bolted to her feet and bowed low:

“Your Highness! Thank the Prophet and Goddess for your safe awakening! I didn’t expect you so soon…”

“Spare me the pleasantries, admiral K’hipar’is. I have spent too much time lying around in hospital beds already. Report!”

Admiral Tar gulped audibly, although her throat was as parched as the desert outside her air-conditioned office. Two rotations of the Air moon had passed since the Wardens had brought back the Earth ladies' powerful princess, sprawled on a med-rack, unconscious and with horrible internal burns all over her body. The brightest medical minds were summoned from all across W’hatan and were all stumped at the sight.

The princess was alive, but barely and struggled for her life over the course of the next two weeks since her return. The Wardens who had accompanied her to Tyrannia were completely incoherent and their testimonies bordered on the maniacal. Some said the Magmalian prince had used a laser weapon, concealed under his robes to shock their princess, whereas others said he himself had somehow managed to burn her.

Preposterous, all of it! Pyre Fye was a delicate flower of a boy, no more than sixteen years of age and even if by some bizarre Kriyan trick he had a small potential for shamanic Craft, it would definitely not allow him to firestart, never mind burn someone from the inside out. If the medics had to guess, they would’ve said the princess had touched live-wire or been struck by lightning.

Two Air moon rotations after the incident, here Fekh was, slightly limping and with a taut, pained expression on her face, but otherwise, she seemed to be making an almost full recovery. Almost, because her immense Gift of Earth had yet to return to her. So it seemed that more than anything, the princess now needed to regain her sense of control by following up on her other plans.

“Scarecrow has had some success, but only partially, Your Highness.” Admiral Tar said finally, only taking her seat back once the breastless comms officer reached the office and made sure the princess would sit in the offered chair. “Syfis has suffered serious loss and damage, about thirty water Wardens have perished and one… “

“Tell me about the Giftless windstorm.” Fekh waved a hand impatiently, cutting off the commander mid-sentence. “And what’s this nonsense about losing touch with the team on the ground?”

Tar allowed herself to bare her teeth in a wolfish grin. True, she had yet to re-establish communication with Shankh’s team, however a recent development she’d learned about that very same morning gave her some hope that at the very least her women in Syfis were still fighting the good fight.

“Of course, Your Highness, I will walk you through all relevant intel from the past two Air moons, but if you’ll allow me to show you something else first. I just got the report this morning.”

Tar waited for the faint nod from her ruler before proceeding to turn on the dimensigram projector on her desk. It was a clip from an Alaian News Network (ANN) broadcast. The anchor - a beautiful coastal Water male with smooth dark skin and braided hair was attempting to reel in the emotions in his tone as he delivered his report. The Admiral had to admit that if nothing else, having a man on television like this was entertaining.

“Breaking news from the early hours of the morning!” The broadcaster said. “For the first time in a deca-rotation, the website Alaian Truth, run by the infamous anarchist Tempayah Wint, better known by her online nickname “Suffo Matrix '' has been updated! The title of the latest article reads “The true hero of the attack Syfis - Aeris Tan - one of the last remaining windstorms” and includes file dumps from the Alliance Department of statistics, along with first-hand eyewitness testimony of the East-Wind Warden using her Gift to save a child. The file dumps outline reports in which the late lady Aeris was first assessed during her first-grade Power tests as a super-ara level windstorm and then, a few deca-rotations later, assessed as having lost her Gift due to medically-induced menopause.” The man, or rather - the boy, paused and attempted to hide his embarrassment by taking a deep breath. “We have yet to receive a comment from the Senate or Her Majesty, the Ruling over sea as of yet on the implications this poses on the controversial choice made by lady Liquitt Aquina to pass the seat of Ruling to her daughter - Aquina Wotar, rather than searching for a capable Ruling over storms and moving the capital to Typhone, as is decreed in the Constitution of AWA. We would like to remind our audience that Tempayah Wint was imprisoned for sexual assault of a minor ten rotations ago, as the Wardens couldn’t find sufficient evidence to indict her for her cyber-crimes at the time. Furthermore, so far all of the materials released on the Alaian Truth are classified as high treason due to their sensitive and confidential nature. The hacker known as Suffo Matrix managed to evade authorities for several rotations because she had disguised herself as a native of the South-Eastern parts of the Wind twin …”

Admiral Tar cut off the broadcast with a touch of a button on her desk and the still image of the excited Water male’s face hung in the air for a moment until the dimensigram projector went back to standby and turned off. Fekh regarded her with a severe expression and furrowed brows, urging her wordlessly to explain.

“It is true, Your Highness, we have been so far unsuccessful in re-establishing contact with General Shankh’s team on the ground in Syfis. There have even been speculations of desertion, however… “ She paused to make sure the princess was not going to burst out on her again. “Our cyber-security team ran an analysis on the Alaian truth website and found some … peculiarities. “

“Are you saying it’s a re-route dummy?” Fekh muttered, suddenly way calmer than before. Almost dangerously so.

“It’s difficult to tell, as you may remember, Your Highness insisted on adding or best cyber-security engineer to General Shankh’s team.” Tar lifted her eyebrows in anticipation.

“You believe this is Lieutenant Hab’rullah’s doing?” The admiral relaxed in her chair, feeling the tension dissipate from her shoulders - it was reassuring to see the princess’ sharp wit was still intact.

Tar pushed another button on her desk and the projector came alive again, this time with flat images of various social media sites and online discussion forums with highlights around the most frequent comments. “What’s happening? Does this mean Aeris Tan was not Giftless after all?” , “Did the Ruling over sea lie?” , “It was suspicious that we should get two Rulings over sea, without transferring the seat of power to Typhone, but to hide a super-ara level windstorm? Why? Didn’t they say they never found one strong enough to become Ruling over storms?”

“I believe so, Your Highness.” The Admiral finally responded, as she watched the princess rake her eyes over the projected materials. “Whatever this is, it doesn’t look like desertion to me, wouldn’t Your Highness agree?”

For the first time since she’d woken up, Fekh felt a smile tug at her lips. It looked as though AWA was collapsing in on itself, regardless of the relative lack of success of Scarecrow. After all, that was the main point of the secret operation - divide and conquer. Even better, actually - the princess had originally hoped to saw further discord between Tyrannia and AWA, framing the firestarters for the terrorist attack on their capital, but now, as a bonus, it seemed like AWA would begin to crumble in on itself. Surely the ladies of Typhone, Giftless or elderly, or both, wouldn’t let this go until they’ve clarified the extent of the treasonous act by the current and former Rulings over sea.

If it were true that lady Aeris Tan was still a windstorm at the time of her death, and a super-ara level one at that, this could become grounds for the Wind twin to secede from the alliance. Oh how glorious and great was the Goddess in her subtle ways of helping her devoted people of South Magmalia!

“I would agree, although I would encourage you keep trying to reach them, Admiral.” Fekh finally said. “I am pleased - not all has gone according to plan, but the Goddess is lighting our way and by her Grace and the Prophet’s wisdom, we shall prevail.”

“Ensh’Alaiah!”, the Admiral bowed. “Ensh’Alaiah we shall re-establish contact with General Shankh and get our plans back on track.”

“Thank you, Admiral.” The princess said as she stood up and grit her teeth against the sudden pain the motion caused. “I leave you to pray now, as it is almost time, but I leave you with one more bit of positive news from my end. My operation too was a success.” She paused for a bit, waiting to see the glint of understanding in the military commander’s eye, before proceeding. “While I still know not what accident befell me in Tyrannia, I remember this much - Pyre Fye’s chastity was stripped by my hand. Regardless of what happens between us and the Empress from here on out, marrying him off to someone else is no longer a possibility.”

With that she turned and tried her best not to limp back to the corridor, leaving the admiral with an even wider wolfish grin on her face. Oh how the Goddess was glorious and merciful to her devoted people!