VII.

Ashes

Second Era

It was bright and hot on the eighth day of Soluswalk, the sixth month of their year. Especially so at their home, the wooden house that lay squarely amidst the vacant desert, amidst the sun... completely alone for miles.

Beyond the shabby wooden porch of that flimsy shack were the rolling dunes of Frexa and the cloudless sky above. It appeared as though it were endless, as though they were isolated in time and space both.

A woman sat there on that porch. She was young, with her coppery hair tied up over her freckled face, and bright plainclothes wrapped around her slim figure.

She turned and smiled a crooked but charming smile to the companion leaning against the wall beside the broken door. Her smile was not the prettiest, but it was genuine—and that was what made it the prettiest.

"Going to stand there forever, Serkukan?"

The man in the red crystal armor, his arms crossed over his chest, did not answer. Even when she gestured to the seat beside her, he did not answer.

"Keep sulking as long as you want. I'll look forward to the day you can sit beside me and chat."

"They're here." he said, suddenly.

She turned back to the desert heat. Two figures were walking toward them. One in a long black dress waved over to them. One in gray and brown leather did not.

The woman waved back to them as well. She said, "Come on, Serky, be polite."

The red dragon hummed his dissatisfaction and stepped forward to the top of the short stairs.

Soon enough, the details upon Rykaedi's face became visible. Her purple eyes. Her cynical grin.

The woman beside her had darker skin compared to the pale that Rykaedi wore, and no expression at all upon her plain face. She looked bored and disinterested, not even engaged enough to fix the black hair that had blown into her eyes from the strong desert wind.

"You're relieved from your post, Serkukan." said Rykaedi as she adjusted her black sun hat. "I don't know how you can stand this heat… but then again, I suppose you were born into it."

The seated girl chucked, "It's not all bad. Better than Freiya, I should say. And good afternoon, Rykaedi."

"Liara, so glad to see you again. I hope you've been well."

"I have. Serkukan keeps me safe, we have fun out here."

"Fun?" She laughed heartily at him, "The Great Red One has grown fond of you, then?"

"I'd say—" her voice trailed off as Serkukan stepped closer to Rykaedi.

"Is this Algirak’s order?"

"Who else?" Rykaedi's smile vanished.

"I don't answer to your king."

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard all of this drama before. But I know too that you didn't do this for Llestren’vatis. He's curious, isn't he?"

"I don't give a damn."

"So either you are fond of her… or you've got a plan of your own."

"I'm not as scheming as you."

"Biding your time, then? Taking a vacation from Etheria?" Her eyebrows went up in faux interest.

"You left the gateway open?"

"Two-hundred paces straight north into that desert. It'll vanish overnight, should nobody discover it."

"Goodbye, Liara." he said, and nodded to her before marching away into the sands.

They quietly watched him fade into the horizon before Rykaedi finally asked, "Was he a good boy?"

Liara nodded. "No problems here. He kept me safe, so safe that I rarely even noticed a threat."

Rykaedi sighed.

"Is something the matter?"

"No, Liara. Just thinking. What reason would he possibly have to stay here? He is scheming, isn't he?"

The girl shrugged.

Then Rykaedi shook her head, turned to her acquaintance. "This is Skalla. Skalla, meet Liara. You two will make fast friends, I'm sure."

"Nice to meet you." Liara said with a bright yet crooked smile. "Please, take a seat."

Skalla complied.

"Great." Rykaedi said with another sigh. "I'm off for now, don't you both have too much fun."

"Yes, ma'am." they both responded with opposing levels of enthusiasm.

"Just great." she repeated and waved goodbye to the two. |Back to the sands. Back to Etheria.|

|Serkukan; how long until you spill your secrets?|

Serkukan entered the gateway as a man, but emerged as a dragon. He had to, else he would fall to the lowest level of their Pit domain from the get-go.

His clawed fingers gripped into the jagged stalactites across the ceiling as he stormed away from the floating black hole. Safer to open it here, where any would-be Pit Miners would fall straight to their deaths. A trap, of sorts. A gift of those who deigned to touch their hell.

"Serkukan." came a deep growl from beneath him. He looked down to see a beautiful white dragon, with long whiskers like mustaches over his mouth. His eyes and accents were a dark blue, reminiscent of the deep lakes back in Calamon.

"Llestren'vatis. You'd speak to me this closely to Rykaedi?"

He shook his head as his overbearing wings continued to beat the wind beneath him. "There is limited time. The Omnestatum is at risk."

"Then the Rings of Fate are opening."

"Did you find it within her mind?"

Serkukan's eyes narrowed. He didn't respond. Instead, his eyes trailed past the blazing inferno, the horrible hellhole around them that mixed all of the elements into one putrid mass of chaos and devastation. He locked onto the pure black pyre that loomed down along the stalactites in the center of it all, with spikes planted all across its obsidian surface. That glass room at the top, where he could yet hear that chuckle…

X

"I want you to kill me."

Cedric and Faunia tensed up. Rithi lowered his dagger slightly.

"Serkukan? Are you in there?" asked Liara.

Cedric shut his eyes for a moment to commune with the dragon. When he reopened them, he said "Liara. Or, rather, Skalla."

She winced slightly at the second name.

Rithi leaned in, “With all of the fuss, Yvesmalia is not long from here. We should clean up before things get dramatic.”

Liara continued, "I had hoped that we could leave that old name behind us. I'm just as much Liara as she ever had been. Her final wish was to see Serkukan again, so I've come to fulfill it. With finality."

"An Etherian chasing their pawn's ambition? I'm delighted." Cedric rolled his eyes.

She shrugged. "Truthfully, I'm just bored. Perhaps in a moment it'll seem more fun to kill you instead."

"In other words, let's hurry this up before you change your mind."

"Wait." Faunia stepped before them. "She can tell us about The Twelve. About Kogar."

"But talking isn't fun." Liara sighed. "I think I'll kill you after all."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Damn fickle Etherians." Cedric summoned his Sylvet blade.

"Liara." Serkukan suddenly stepped forward from behind all of them.

Rithi watched in awe as the crimson armor pulsed and shimmered.

"What have they done to you?"

Liara finally smiled, "Rykaedi has made me more pure than half the dozen. No blood to weigh me down. No soul to block my will. And all it cost was one girl."

Serkukan clenched his fists. "Rykaedi…"

"Ahh…" She licked her fangs, "This is interesting. Never did I think I'd see an Etherian bend their emotions for a mortal. Even I was only pretending."

Rithi nodded toward the end of the hall, a solitary door on the right between two paintings, "Yvesmalia is here, behind the door."

"When it opens, we rush." said Cedric.

They both nodded.

Serkukan snapped, "I won't give you death. You've taken something that isn't yours."

"This body?" She placed her hands on her stomach. "Liara had no use for it, anyway. She would have wanted me to have it."

"Liar." His fists clenched.

Cedric interjected, "Serkukan."

"She's already—" Rithi started, but was cut short by that door launching open.

Serkukan lunged forward as Liara turned.

A long black blade emerged from his palm.

"Grivonym?" Cedric gasped.

A booming arc of lightning ripped across the room, the light was blinding.

The woman named Yvesmalia had entered—a woman with the same silver hair as Faunia streaked down the left half of her face. The other half was locked in a fierce glare. Up went her hands for another spell…

Cedric and Faunia crossed the long room in an Etheric sprint.

Serkukan swung his blade.

The distraction wasn't enough—Liara easily pulled a tile up from below to springboard herself into the air where she stuck her hand through the ceiling and hung there with a dull smirk. Out of reach.

She showed her other hand. A small cut had become inlaid upon her skin.

"You won't find much luck with that, Serkukan. Rykaedi bound me fully to this form. I am Liara."

His crimson figure glowed. He had found his rage, at the desecration of… his friend?

"If you kill me, you would lay this body to rest. Is that not what you want?"

Yvesmalia finished an incantation with her hands formed in a triangle before herself. A glowing ring of magic appeared in the air. "Melt."

And Liara complied; her humanoid figure began to melt as though it were hot wax. She said, "Not you."

She dropped, tearing a huge chunk out of the ceiling with her. Down it went for Yvesmalia.

KRNCH!

Cedric was between them with his blade upright. The stone severed in two.

But for Liara, her arm did the same. Like a tendril, it drooped out with those stones like the falls of two very weighted whips. The floor burst beneath their weights.

Rithi groaned, "The gallery...!"

Cedric lunged. Faunia leapt for her spine. Yvesmalia shot out a homing bolt of raw magic over Cedric's shoulder. Rithi threw his dagger like a blazing arrow.

Liara only needed to spin with her whip arm to easily knock every attack away. The stones fixed to her hands soon broke away and revealed her grey skin underneath, which then regained color as her arm reconnected itself, came together once again.

Serkukan threw Grivonym aside and stepped forward to rush.

But he hesitated. For only a fraction of a second, but they all noticed it, save for the non-Etherians with them.

Liara croaked an empty laugh. "Again!"

"That's twice that I've shown my weakness. But my pawn will not." he declared, and fell away into mist.

Cedric was already rushing on the opposite side from that shared thought. He swept his blade.

Liara sank into the floor and vanished.

Then the walls to his sides rumbled and shot inward.

"The paintings!" Rithi screamed.

Blink!

KRRRRRNNNNCH!

Cedric was crouched before him suddenly, toward the beginning of the room, with huge canvases hugged between his arms. He carelessly threw them aside. "There's your fucking art. Get Yvesmalia out of here before this whole room collapses in on itself. Faunia!"

Tirolith's teal helmet clamped shut like a frame around Faunia's angled face just as he called out. Her icy rapier grew to become a bow, and she drew back a crystal arrow.

Then Serkukan's armor formed around Cedric. It pulsed for a moment. His right shoulder piece began to expand into a long pole, which he pulled to procure a sharp glaive with a blade akin to a shark's tooth.

Rithi was across the collapsing room already, urging Yvesmalia to follow him out.

"Now that we've all had a chance to equip ourselves—die."

"There." Faunia's arrow went loose before Liara had even appeared.

Blink!

Cedric was crouched in a stance with his glaive poised in the arrow's direction.

Kakrrch!

A humanoid figure of stone shot out of the ground. The arrow struck and turned it to mud.

"That wasn't her." Cedric mused. He spun his glaive.

Thwack!

Her own staff of stone struck against his polearm as she fell from the ceiling. She was still smiling and said, "What a rush!"

Cedric headbutted. It connected against her teeth, knocked her spiraling into the pile of rubble.

Faunia notched another arrow.

Liara rolled over and hid her face for just a moment. When she revealed it again, she was undamaged by the attack.

The arrow went.

Krr!

A small stone partition rose from the ground, deflected it.

"So aggressive, and yet so unwilling to bend reality!"

"For you?" Cedric cocked his head back. "What a waste of esera that would be. If you bled, it would be a different story. But you're a walking corpse."

She sank into the ground again.

"So much time spent hiding and recovering—you can't possibly hope to win this."

"Who says I'm hiding?" Her voice came from every wall.

"Cedric!" screamed the third arrow.

I know.

Thud. Twick!

The final sounds of their bout were dull and somber. The glaive had struck her abdomen as she emerged. The arrow had pierced her skull.

Cedric felt Serkukan try to pull his head back to look away. Cedric did not avert his gaze.

Feel this once, Serkukan—the pain I've felt a million times over. All of the pain you've caused me since our meeting…

"But when the body dies… I still live on!" hissed the floor beneath the body.

Cedric felt it wrap around his foot. He jumped up, which only sent his other foot through until he was submerged in dirt and stone up to his knee. She was dragging him down—dragging him toward suffocation.

He turned his gaze to Faunia who had another arrow locked in, but no idea where to shoot. It would take Tirolith valuable seconds to discover the optimal angle—if there was one.

"You weren't a fan of melting, was that right?" Cedric asked. His body had already begun to heat up. "Let's see what this can do."

He ignited into a red flame, glowing brighter and brighter until he was burning hot white.

Faunia grabbed for the door handle and tore it open, fleeing away before her armor would melt.

The paintings had begun to smear and destroy themselves as well. The frames turned to molten gold and silver.

Cedric gripped the stone around him with all of his strength, focusing all of his thoughts into that burning sensation.

And then—

The flame went out.

"Skalla is dead." he declared. The stone around him had become hot magma. He easily pulled his legs free, and climbed out.

Rithi and Yvesmalia still watched on from the side-door in awe. She said, "So this is the power of an Etherian…"

For Cedric, that hollow feeling of victory was nothing new. It was nostalgic almost, of his dark days with the Sylvet cult.

The same was true for Serkukan, though he could no longer stomach looking at that half-scorched corpse at their feet, and he could no longer afford to encase Cedric in his form.

The armor broke away into goopy blood. His thoughts shifted. His fury braced;

*