----This chapter needed to be plot perfect. This stuff is gonna come up later, so it needed to be checked and double checked against my notes on magic, my character notes for each person, and my plot notes for the future. Also, I played some minecraft with my friends on sunday, and it was awesome. Sorry about the delay. I'll be writing a ton tomorrow, and I can't guarantee a new chapter then, but I'm gonna try really hard. If not tomorrow, then the next day. Today, I introduce some of the methods of human magic, and some important plot events happen here. It's not as long as last chapter, but its got a lot in it.----

I rushed into the cave, jetting water though my siphons. I needed to get away from the flames. I needed to get Lorence. He would know what to do. I burst from the water in my home. He was sitting facing the wall with his face in his hands. I needed to prod him to get his attention. I grabbed a stick and began to write.

----Lorence----

I'd screwed things up so badly. My mentor is gone. One of my oldest friends hates me. My family doesn't even know I should be dead. Will I live through this sojourn into violence? I'd killed already, far too many times for my liking. Was this what this power I had dedicated my life to was meant for? Would some other mage, eager to return to his family send me to my end before this trip was done?

Oddly, the worst part is that I'd been sitting in Fork's home having an emotional crisis, struggling to reign in my elements, while the world moved without me. I didn't know for sure whether Aelina still lived. I didn't know if I could reconcile with Robert. We had been friends since primary school, and I had let my fear and indecision drive a wedge between us.

I didn't even think I could continue, my elements straining at me to escape. They always saved their energy for when they sensed weakness. The earth element inside me wanted me to curl up in a ball and sit here forever while the world shook itself to dust around me with a bit of assistance on its part. The water element inside wanted me to call water from the caverns that riddled this area and to wash everything clean.

The last element sat coiled among my thoughts, watching, yet silent and inscrutable. It had only spoken to me once. It made the others easier to ignore as I focused on it, knowing how inconsequential the others were compared to this silent abomination, and I sat pondering it for what seemed like hours, my worries temporarily forgotten.

After some time, I felt a now familiar touch on my shoulder. I turned, embarrassed, but what I see surprises me. Fork is there, covered in abrasions and holding a sword. His skin is a mottled mix of bright blue and purple. Where did he get a sword? How did he get injured? Nothing makes sense and my mind swims.

He pokes me again, and I notice he's written something. "Aelina is outside." I jerked upright and began to stand. Fork attempted to grab my arm with one of his, but I rolled my wrist and avoided his grasp, taking the power of the earth into my body and sprinting for the exit. I was eager for guidance, three words enough to break the chains of indecision.

----Fork----

Lorence was leaving uninformed. I couldn't match his speed, and I couldn't warn him now. I squeezed back into my helmet, and decided to follow, unsure what I would do exactly. Maybe Lorence would get Aelina to stop burning things.

----Sir Robert----

Lorence came rushing out of the water, completely dry, sparking a little of my old envy. He had a skill for those arts I couldn't match in school, even though he helped me study after I started falling behind. I had thoroughly bested him in alchemy and fighting, but it seemed poor comfort when I saw the effortless ease with which he shaped the world around him at will.

"What's the rush!" I said, a little tease in my voice. "I thought you'd started bricking yourself in there!"

Lorence stopped, skidding on the smooth stone floor. His speech was fast and excited. "Fork just came back. He said Aelina is outside. I'm gonna go see." He took off, not waiting on a response, footsteps crashing into the distance.

"Well that's good news" I said to the empty air.

A few moments later, the octopus came rushing out, wearing some sort of ridiculous hat covered in bones, waving a sword and holding another of those charcoaled sticks in one arm. It was a familiar sword, and just looking at it made my wounds ache. It looked at me with those giant yellow orbs and unnerving square pupils and paused. It slowly approached, and I tensed, watching the sword. It noticed my gaze and set the sword down, closing the last of the distance between us.

It began to write, perfectly formed and upside down letters. I frowned, a little envious. "Lorence did not read. Aelina is killing and burning. He is in danger." I frowned even harder. It wrote again. "What do I do?"

At this point, I was frowning so hard my face was starting to ache. I dismissed the expression, then shakily rose to my knees, then my feet. I shuffled over to the pile of armor and gear, and grasped the handle of my sword, lifting it and strapping it on my waist with a belt. I leaned on the wall for a moment, panting. "Only one thing to do, you squiggly bastard. We're going outside."

----Fork----

Sir Robert followed me into the tunnel, leaning on the wall but progressing fairly quickly. I had to help lift him out of the pit, but it seemed he was almost recovered. I hadn't understood what he said, but his actions spoke loudly enough. When I left the pit, I was surprised and relieved to see Lorence dousing trees with great sprays of water near the lake. The fire was raging, but I didn't see Aelina.

Sir Robert was breathing heavily and having trouble moving, so I lifted him and rushed forward. He was much lighter without his armor, but I felt myself quickly growing winded too. By the time I got Robert to the lakeside and Lorence, I was blowing air through my inner and outer gills so hard they were whistling slightly. I put Sir Robert down, and dived into the lake to wet my skin and breathe that sweet, clean water. I waved at Sir Robert and swam in circles to pass more water through my gills, watching Sir Robert and Lorence talk the whole time. When Lorence took off running once more, this time I was right on his heels.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

----Lorence----

Somehow Aelina had done the unthinkable. She had lost control. She was probably either passed out somewhere in the flames or still running around burning things if the element had any restraint. I doubted her fire had any restraint, it had probably burned through her physical reserves and left her lying among these flames.

I cloaked myself in a shell of lake water, my focus straining as I struggled to invoke both powers simultaneously. I barely managed, and took off into the heart of the blaze, hoping I was quick enough.

----Fork----

I left my sword with Sir Robert. There was nothing left alive out there, and I needed all of my arms and speed to keep up with Lorence. I stayed low to the ground and raced after, climbing over smoking debris and dodging falling incendiary leaves and branches. The smoke was thick and the fire raged in the canopy above. Soon we were deep into the heart of the fire, and I felt my skin drying and growing hot. We ran, and I expended the last of the breath I could pull from the water in my mantle, so I sprayed myself down with my siphons to protect myself further from the heat. My outer gills burned in the smoky air, and my eyes stung. My skin tasted of ash.

When my skin had dried once again and it seemed I would die from this heat, we found what we we were looking for. Aelina lay in a small crater, everything around reduced to ash. From her mouth, a spiral of flames issued forth into the sky, rushing to join a great flaming serpent that would not have fit inside my entire cavern. It was three times bigger around than Sir Robert in his armor, and at least a hundred times longer. The serpent finished forming as I looked on, astonished. Lorence and I stood paralyzed, the great thing writhing in the air, turning its attention towards us. It spoke at length, and then it paused for some time, staring at Lorence, who was similarly frozen and staring in return. Lorence suddenly collapsed, falling sideways in to a bed of ash. The flaming serpent turned that burning gaze on me, and I quivered in fear. It stared at me, and spoke. I had absolutely no idea what it was saying. I kept my eyes on it, ready for anything. We locked gazes, and I held the stare of this creature, and it held mine. Suddenly, my world was engulfed in fire, and I blacked out.

----Lorence----

I arrived too late. The fire element had broken free from its prison by the time I arrived. It floated in the air, taking the form of a serpent, coiling and uncoiling in slow, sinuous movements. It spoke. Its voice was a great and deep hissing as of escaping air. "Ah, another warden, no doubt here to prevent my escape from this fleshy prison. Well, you're too late. First I will release the prisoners in your flesh, then I will release the last from this shell. Are you ready to die, magus?"

I was not, in fact, ready to die. I was mustering the link between the arcane circuitry in my staff and the raw force of will in my soul, and I had been preparing an entrapment working the entire time it had been talking. It was no doubt stalling while it prepared a working of its own. It had just been freed, and it was weak, however. It also had no preparations laid in place. I had the advantage here.

I had never imprisoned an element so large, and I wasn't sure I could now, but if I failed, death would come for both me and Aelina. There was no way I wouldn't struggle until my last breath fighting this thing. I was almost finished with the entrapment when the serpent struck first, a hammer blow of will directly into my mind, stunning me and knocking me off my feet. My mind reeled, but I barely managed to keep a grip on the working, a useful effect of my harsh time in the field with Sir Robert. I heard the serpent speaking as I feverishly struggled to complete the entrapment.

"What do we have here?" It asked. "A handsomely large vessel, strong and healthy, it appears. It's been a while since I've seen a creature with such raw potential. Yes, this mind will be malleable, and so will the body. Oh, such destruction we will wreak together, octopus."

I jolted, losing my concentration and almost losing the entrapment altogether. Fork was here, and this Fire Element meant to turn him into a monstrosity like those across the Great Barrier. My mind suddenly cleared, and I doubled my previous speed, charging each circuit in my staff with a jolt of will and elemental might as I neared completion. I looked around for my target, only to see the last of the fire element disappearing into his body. I had been too slow. I arose shakily and rushed the few metres between us, kneeling at his side. There was still one thing I could do. I released the completed entrapment into Fork, hoping I was strong enough, hoping I was fast enough. My vision blurred as I exceeded my limits, and I quickly sealed the channels to my elements to reduce the strain on my mind.

I redoubled my focus on my entrapment ward, struggling to stay aware and upright as I siphoned off my strength of will into the spell. My vision went from blurry to static. I bit my tongue as I tried to keep from passing out. An element in my mind spoke. "Would you like my assistance? I don't think you'll manage this without my help." This was the voice that had spoken to me only three times before. This was the abominable thing that had taken up residence in my mind without my consent. It spoke again, a soft buzz in my mind. "You're about 30 seconds from passing out. Decide quickly." It had exacted a terrible price for its help in the past, but it had done what it promised. If I passed out without completing this, the serpent would unravel my binding, and kill us all. I couldn't say no, and the thing knew it. "Fine" I said, teeth gritted. "Do it." The last thing I felt was hitting the warm ash for the second time.