“Why this place?” Gai asks an open question to Remi.

An abandoned house sits before them. Trees grow over, around, and into the building. Through the cracks in the bark, the house can be seen, barely. A path is carved between the wood and foliage to allow access into and out of the property. If someone weren’t looking for the place or knew where it was, they’d miss it.

“A group of bandits were using this place as a hideout months back. They ended up robbing a widow as she was leaving town. They killed everybody, but there was some infighting. Most were found dead along with the lady and her guards. The thieves were locals, so we found people who knew them. Two of them are missing. They probably stole the loot and fled,” explains Remi. “Haven’t been able to find them since.”

“And we’re here because?”

“We’d originally ruled this place out in the initial stages of our search for the killer because it would have been occupied when the murders first started. We haven’t turned up anything at the other places we’ve visited. Might as well give this location a pass over since we haven’t had any luck.”

“Then what are we waiting for?”

Gai and Remi scoured the southwestern part of the woods and surrounding farmland. Days and hours have gone by. Gai and Remi have searched through hundreds of miles of woods without paths hoping for some sign of something, first searching through abandoned building, then concentrated sections of forest. After no luck, the were forced to review their tactics and think critically from the ground up.

“It looks terrible,” mentions Gai as they step onto the porch before the front door. The growing tension he’s felt the past few days cause him to fidget and stare.

“A good place then, no?” responds Remi. Her calm demeanor reflects experience and trauma her current companion simply has not dealt with.

Gai, without another moment of hesitation, draws his sword. He kicks in the door. He and Remi stream inside.

Remi gasps. “Oh shit.”

Two bodies lay on the floor. One is covered in cuts sitting in a pool of blood and tattered clothes. The other is naked. Smoke rises from the nude body. It, too, lays in blood, but no discernible wounds can be seen on its frame.

“Scarlet!” Gai and Remi say at the same time.

Gai skids to the floor by Scarlet to check her vitals

Remi walks over to Talbert. At a single glance, she can tell he’s dead even with that sickly, blissful smile on his face. Regardless, she tosses her sword in the air. It floats before her. She turns back to Scarlet and Gai as her mind wills the sword through Talbert’s neck. Finished with its duty, the blade returns to Remi, sliding effortlessly into the scabbard after shaking off blood.

“Does she have a pulse?” Remi asks. Fear laces her voice.

Gai goes to touch her. “Ah!” His hand pulls back quickly. “What the hell?!”

“What?!”

“It’s like she’s on fire!”

Remi, not believing Gai, touches Scarlet as well. She winces, as touching Scarlet’s skin is attuned to grasping at flames. She’s forced to pull away.

“We have to move her,” says Remi. “Get her to Clyde.”

“How?!”

“Um…” Remi looks around. She points at the couch. “There. Blanket.”

Gai heeds her order. They wrap the fabric around Scarlet.

“Is she…burning it?” realizes Gai.

Smoke rises at the edges of the blanket as it begins to turn black. The wood panels beneath her burn black until an outline of her body is singed into the floor.

“What is going on with her?!” Gai’s voice rises in panic.

“I don’t know! Stop shouting!”

“But—”

“We need something that won’t burn easily so I can lift her.” Remi looks around again. “Break the door down.”

Gai complies. He rips the door off the hinges and pulls it to the floor. Remi shifts the blanket under Scarlet’s body. She uses her gift to lift it, and, in turn, Scarlet. Both the blanket and the door start to char. The smell of roasting wood floods the room.

“Why can’t you just pick her up with your gifts?!”

“I can only pick up objects, nothing living. If she were wearing clothes, that’d be a different story, but anything we put on her will burn off,” Remi explains. “Let’s get her to the castle. Quickly!”

“What about Talbert?”

“Fuck him. He’s dead.”

•

“How’s she doing?” Nigel asks. He and Alexander intercept Remi and Gai as they rush Scarlet back to the castle on the smoking door.

“She’s alive. Her skin’s burning up. We don’t know what’s going on,” answers Remi immediately.

“Burning up?” questions Alexander.

“Like touching fire,” says Gai.

The four of them arrive at the castle gates. Guards are stationed at the front. Seeing the four of them with Scarlet, one rushes inside to inform the castle’s residents what is happening.

Soon, the courtyard fills with people. Servants. Guards. Politicians. Those that live and work there.

Remi grabs the nearest guard. “Jin, you know the tree house shit where those bandits you were investigating his out? That hidden place in the trees? It’s where we located Scarlet. Talbert’s body is still there. Take some men and clean the place up. Close it off. Go.”

The man, Jin, nods. He takes soldiers with him and disappears out the front gates.

“Somebody get me a Water Typical!” Remi shouts into the crowd.

“Most of the soldiers are still out in the field looking for Scarlet,” Nigel says in Remi’s ear.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Shit.” Remi glances at the staff. “None of the staff would be trained enough to do what we need them to do,” she says in reference to the handful of servants with Water Typical abilities from the period spent searching for a healer.

“There are ponds and fountains. Dump her in one of those,” says Gai quickly.

Remi, not wasting any time, complies. The wood holding Scarlet is barely keeping together. Chunks of it crumble to the ground raining black ash in its wake as the scent of char wafers through the air. Remi and the crowd follow to the nearest pond. Tipping the door forward, Remi slides Scarlet into the liquid. She uses the rest of the crumbling wood to keep her head above water.

The water steams and boils around Scarlet as vapor blooms into a fine, hot mist.

“What is she doing?!”

“Is Scarlet okay?!”

“Is she dead?!”

“What’s happening?!”

The noise of the crowd overwhelms the atmosphere.

“Where’s my daughter?!” booms a new voice.

The crowd turns to it. Baron Embers arrives with his wife in tow. They’re both distraught but hope now alights their eyes. Sonya follows them briskly from behind.

“I dropped her in the pond. She was burning up. Her skin was too hot to touch. I don’t know what’s going on,” Remi explains as the baron inches closer.

“Fetch Clyde! We need our healer!” Baron Embers shouts to no one in particular.

People begin taking off at his words.

Suddenly, Scarlet glows a murky yellow color.

Energy surges.

The air pressure drops.

Everyone feels it. Fear latches onto their hearts.

“Oh shit,” says Alexander.

“Run!” Gai points away from everyone.

The crowd moves from Scarlet. Remi does as well, but she keeps Scarlet’s head propped up with the door so that she will not drown.

The energy continues to surge.

Until.

Climax.

A golden light bursts forth. It swells into the sky as tall as a tower. Clouds part on contact as the energy ruptures the atmosphere. Nearby objects are sucked into the source. Scraps of wood, buckets, weapons, hay, torches, and clothes. The individuals adjacent can feel themselves being drawn in. Screams overtake a few of them. Most merely stare in fear.

The energy recedes just as quickly as it began. Soon, it is but a thin line in the sky. It trickles down like rain to its source now lying in the middle of a crater.

Everyone stares at the edge of the magnificent hole. No noise is heard save for the crumbling of rocks.

The air calms for a brief moment.

Not even a second later, immense pressure engulfs the space. Everyone winces as the air grows dense like gravity was being multiplied several times over.

Gai blinks.

In the span of that single fragmented second, a figure appears at the lip of the newly formed hole.

A woman.

“Scarlet?” says Gai as he intakes a breath.

The woman stands still looking upward. Her skin is completely gold from her head down to the bottoms of her feet. Lines of black and white etch her skin as particles of the same color drift about her like snow. Her hair floats around her, long and white, like wispy threads spinning into the air. Black wings ascend from back. Brilliant white horns poke out of her forehead and curve backward. Demonic-looking claws overtake her hands and feet. Both black and white mix within them they attach to her like liquid, living metal. Every part of her glows and pulsates with energy.

Slowly, Gai stands. His body feels compelled toward Scarlet. Each step slowly brings him closer to her.

“Stay away from her!” shouts Baron Embers.

“Gai!” yells Remi.

Gai can hear Alexander and Nigel rushing toward him.

In the next second, Scarlet is gone.

The pressure that once suffocated the area disappears entirely.

“Wh-Where did she go?!” cries Gai. His worried looks scan the area.

A blast of energy sounds off in the distance. Everyone cranes their necks in the distinct direction of the detonation.

“She’s back at the house,” says Remi.

•

“What if he’s still alive?” one of the soldiers asks Jin as they appear at the house where Talbert’s body supposedly remains, having sprinted at enhanced speeds the whole way.

“This is Remi we’re talking about. He’s dead,” says Jin bluntly. “We’re here to clean up. Be ready regardless, though. You never know what will happen.”

Jin makes a singular step forward.

A girl appears before them in the space between them and the house just as Jin’s foot touches the ground.

At first, it doesn’t register in Jin’s head. There was no sound or indication that a person was nearby beforehand. It was as if the woman suddenly came into existence at that spot at that very moment.

Everyone stares, not dissimilar to people on a beach watching the shoreline recede.

The men’s brains catch up to reality, and they draw their weapons. Fear resonates within them as they stare at the otherworldly creature.

“The hell is that thing?!” one of the men hisses at Jin.

Jin can feel sweat dripping from his brow. In his soul, he knows they won’t stand a chance if they have to fight that thing, whatever it may be. “I’m not sure.”

“Is it a Synborn?” asks another man.

“Have you ever seen a Synborn like that?” retorts a different one.

“Could be Talbert.”

“It’s female you dumb fuck.”

“If it is a Synborn…it’s an Alpha,” says Jin. His words immediately quiet the chatter.

The fear they all felt before ascends to levels the men didn’t even know they could feel.

“They’re…rumors,” dismisses one of the men.

No one believes those words, not even the man who said them.

The woman lifts her hand. The demonic, multi-colored claw over her right arm glows purely white, as bright as the sun, causing the men to wince. The gold lines in the woman’s glow throughout her skin as energy pulsates within her.

The energy releases.

White light traced with gold and black specks engulfs the house and a large section of the forest. It discharges forth for a mere second before dissipating.

A perfect, long cylinder is carved into the planet where the beam hit. A tunnel the size of three houses side-by-side mars the dirt. Everything cut by the beam is perfectly cauterized. For a moment, everything is still. Then rocks and debris fall in place like a collective crash. Trees topple over. Leaves swirl in the air like snow. Wind bursts out as a pocket of it explodes within the vicinity.

The soldiers all watch in horror.

“She’ll kill us,” whispers one of the men.

The woman drops her arm. For a moment, she stands still. In the next, she sits on her knees. Carefully, her gaze casts toward the sky as her hands sit gently overtop each other. She relaxes into this seated, reverent position and remains like that, unmoving.

Minutes go by.

No one moves.

Not the soldier.

Not the woman.

Building up courage, Jin steps forward. One of his men reaches out to stop him, but he brushes them off. Slowly, step by step, Jin approaches the woman until he’s just before her. Jin examines the energy radiating from her body. The colors are as alluring as they are powerful.

But that’s not what captures Jin.

It’s—