Two Years Earlier: Morne.
Leal ran through the empty streets as she hurried home. At this time of night, Solvei should be safe to stay hidden away in that nook of the library until the caretaker arrived late tomorrow morning. For now, Leal just needed to get home before the reksha arrived.
If they had no reason to believe she hadn’t gone out tonight, it would make it far easier to brush off whatever accusation Gloria made. Leal could still hardly imagine the woman having done such a thing. Gloria was like an aunt to Leal. She’d been her mum’s friend for as long as she could remember.
How could someone they thought they knew so well be so evil? Leal had always been uncomfortable around Gloria, but that was a feeling she’d always felt around other ursu besides her parents.
Finding her friend trapped within that furnace had felt like a knife twisting in her chest. It had hurt when she was told Solvei had returned to her homeland after they snuck into the library. So caught up in her self-conscious thoughts about whether she’d made a mistake and it was her fault her friend didn’t want to stay with her, that Leal didn’t consider how unlikely Gloria’s story was until far too late.
When Leal could get Solvei to open up about her old tribe and the homeland she once traversed, the áed had revealed finding her people would be no simple task. Solvei didn’t like to be alone. And yet Leal was supposed to believe that girl was willing to travel a year or more in complete solitude?
Leal’s thought transitioned from self-conscious to self-loathing when she realised how long Gloria had fooled her. Looking into the older ursu’s activities quickly amplified Leal’s suspicions. Only when she found the small form of her first friend down in that dark oven did Leal truly learn what it was like to hate someone.
Leal rounded the final corner to her home and almost tripped over her feet. There, in front of her house, was a squad of reksha. What were they doing here already? She tried to stop, to turn around and leave, but they’d already spotted her; doing so was only going to raise suspicions. Swallowing what felt like a stone in her throat, she forced herself forward.
The front door of their building opened, and out walked one of the reksha, leading Leal’s mum with a hand on her back. She could only be thankful that they hadn’t tied her hands and dragged her out, but it was clear she didn’t have a choice.
Leal tried to follow, but another reksha intercepted her path. “They’ll only be a short while. Why don’t we go inside and have a little chat?”
Her voice sounded friendly, but the nervous jitters clamped down on Leal’s throat too tight to speak. Leal cast a glance after her mother, who caught her eye just before being taken around the corner, likely being taken to the continae.
“Don’t worry so much.” The reksha pushes open the front door, inviting Leal to follow. “As long as you don’t hide anything, you’ll both be fine.”
Leal failed to respond through the choking anxiety, but followed.
“So, your explanation for being out so late is because you were experimenting?” the reksha asks with obvious doubt. “Exactly what sort of experimentation is one as young as you performing?”
It was the best explanation Leal could come up with for why she was out. She would often do exactly that, so she hoped her mother would use the same excuse when they talk with her. The reksha had yet to ask whether they were housing a fugitive or whatever other such accusation Gloria threw their way, but Leal knew they were fishing for contradictions between her story and her mother’s.
Well, despite knowing what their goal was, it didn’t make the conversation any less daunting for Leal. Even trying to get out the simplest explanation for where she’d been had her freezing up in constricting anxiety as the what-ifs bound her mind. It took her almost ten minutes just to get her fake story across.
She didn’t want to get caught in a nervous, stuttering wreck again by explaining, so instead she just showed what she’d spent the last few weeks practising. If Leal weren’t as young as she was, the reksha would never have let her activate her markings, but thankfully she simply narrowed her eyes and allowed Leal to proceed.
In her outstretched hand, Leal allowed a sphere of water to form in her palm. Her new markings lit with the activation and remained glowing while the ball sat in her hand, sagging slightly from gravity. She twisted her hand so that her palm faced downward, yet the water clung to her fur, refusing to fall.
Leal knew doing such a thing would be easy if she had a more advanced marking. Her basic one was designed to teach form manipulation, and only that. Applying the more practical aspects of higher grade markings on one not designed to allow that was difficult, but not impossible, assuming the mage knew what to do.
Slowly, she let the sphere droop. A smaller and smaller surface connected the water to her hand, and therefor the marking which allowed her to keep the orb in shape. It’s one of the things she’d been trying to accomplish ever since she’d seen Solvei control her fire remotely; holding her influence over water with lesser strands to connect her hyle.
Doing all this was a feat none of the other students could achieve. Most were determined to do put in the least amount of effort before they could jump on the chance to rise to higher grade markings. Leal would be the same, if it meant giving her access to markings with far greater allowance for manual control, but the academy hadn’t gone unchanged by the war. Now, there was a greater focus on markings that operated near automatically.
The markings she could take if she asked for advancement were far stronger than what she had, but gave almost no room for experimentation. No chance for her to improve upon what she knew. Worst of all, they were attack markings. Methods of twisting water with the intent to harm. It was not something she wished to know.
Leal looked up at the reksha, who looked wholly unimpressed despite her clearly impressive feat. Once again, Leal was reminded just how nonplussed most of her kind were to the wonders markings allowed… and their dangers. Even with a supposedly weak race like the albanic descending their nation into such a war-weary state unseen since the revolution, Leal’s kind still believed physical strength would surpass everything.
The pride Leal had in what she’d learnt would always be overshadowed by her diminutive size and lack of muscle.
A slam came from the front door. In came another reksha, looking harried. “Leave the girl for later. We’ve got bigger problems.” He was gone again the next moment.
“Stay here, kid. I’ll be back to talk later.” With her piece said, the reksha rushed after their colleague.
Leal sat, unmoving and alone in her home. She feared disobeying the reksha, but she was simply too curious why they ran so quick. Leal rose to her feet and crept toward the window. Outside, the sky glowed like a second sunset had arrived, but no, the smoke was all too clear; there was a fire.
Against her better judgement, Leal fled her home. She’d be in a lot of trouble if the reksha found her, but she needed to find Solvei. Make sure the áed had done nothing to reveal herself.
Leal knew it was too late before she even begun running; the glow around the buildings was clearly coming from the academy. She ran for the academy, anyway. When the burning building came into sight, Leal winced. Her home away from home wouldn’t survive such an intense blaze. Thankfully, the water mages that remained in the city had all congregated to save what remained.
Did Solvei do this? Leal should’ve known leaving the girl made of fire in a library was a stupid idea, especially with how emotionally disturbed she must be. Where is she now? She’s not still inside, right? If the reksha found her now, Leal didn’t even want to think about what would happen to her friend.
Shouts grabbed Leal’s attention. Amongst the mages and ursu surrounding the collapsing building, many were pointing off to the centre of the city. Turning, Leal was shocked by the sight before her.
The city was on fire.
Not only one or two buildings, but an entire swathe burned within a growing inferno. There weren’t many tall structures around the academy, so it was easy to see how fast the blaze was spreading.
Solvei, what have you done?
There’s no chance it wasn’t the áed, Gloria’s home was right in the centre of the flames. Leal could understand the anger Solvei must have felt, but Gloria wasn’t the only one who would be hurt by such a massive blaze.
Realisation hit her all too suddenly. The continae her mother was taken to was within the fire. Her mum was in danger. Leal’s feet carried her forward without thought, sprinting toward the inferno that leapt between buildings with ease. It was spreading too fast. Far too fast for a captive of the reksha to be prioritised in the evacuation. Was she trapped?
Leal ran through the streets, brushing by ursu watching the blaze with not nearly enough fear. Didn’t they realise how fast it was spreading? Didn’t they realise they needed to run?
Pounding forward, Leal never realised the contradiction between her words and actions. Reaching her mother was the only thing on her mind, not that she’d have absolutely no chance to survive should the fire overcome her.
Nearer the blaze, the reaction of the city’s residents was far more urgent. Many ran in opposition to Leal, getting in her way and slowing her down. She tried to push past them, but one man picked her up, rushing away from the roaring blaze that cooked the air.
Leal slammed her hands into her captor, screaming for this stranger to let her go. The world blurred around her. Whether by the growing heat or the jostling endured, Leal was left disoriented. She couldn’t break free, not when she needed to most.
Clarity shone through the fog of delirium as Leal watched the tower taller than any other collapse within the spiralling flames. She stopped resisting her captor, enraptured by the collapse of the continae. It was horrific. The explosion of dust from the toppling tower only fuelled the spread of flames.
Something clutched at her heart. Claws raked within her chest, cutting away her insides before inviting the blaze inside to scorch her just as much as it burned the buildings around her.
Leal watched on as the flames crashed forward. A tsunami of fire smashing glass and sizzling air as it tore towards them. Her eyes stung, but they were far too dry to shed tears.
It had been so long since she’d heard from her dad. She didn’t want to lose her mum, too. Leal loved her. The thought of losing her had never even crossed her mind. She didn’t need to go out into the dangerous wasteland like her father. She didn’t need to go to war. So why is it Leal’s mum stuck within the flames, burning alive?
It wasn’t fair.
Leal’s captor dropped her unceremoniously to the earth. The ground wasn’t paved. A mix of soil, grass and weeds softened Leal’s fall, but she wouldn’t have cared if she fell on razors. She spun to watch Morne as it continued to burn. The fire had spread to engulf most of the city now. There would be no stopping the spread. Morne was as good as gone.
Leal’s home, her school, her clothes and books and teddies. Nothing remained. Leal didn’t care about any of that. She only wanted to hold on to hope that her mum survived, so she rose to her feet and began walking through the survivors. The man who saved her life, forgotten.
She circled the blaze, searching until the farmland on the edge of the city caught fire and blocked her way. Leal turned around and continued her search. She walked for hours, until the inferno was nothing but cinders, but she still found nothing.
Leal had to face it; her mother wasn’t coming back. She was dead.
And it was Solvei who killed her.
Her friend shouldn’t have let it grow this strong. Sure, if she wanted to get back at Gloria after what she’d done, Leal could understand, but this is so much worse than what Gloria did. How many died tonight? Solvei never should have let the blaze spread. That it had, showed how little she cared for the damage her flames could unleash.
It hurt. To know her only friend killed her mum — whether it was intentional or negligence didn’t matter — it burned greater than the heat that clung to the air and pinched through her fur.
Leal looked around her, finding many in a state no better than her; kneeling over the earth and bawling over their losses. She choked as the sound of other’s cries broke her last hope. Tears flowed without restraint as she curled up on the ground.
Alone.
❖❖❖
Prior to New Vetus’ Surprise Attack
Leal longed to return to the times before her life collapsed. Back to when her mother had been there to hug her, and her father to play and joke. She’d welcome the isolation she’d felt if it meant she could go back before the war.
Life had been nothing but misery since Solvei killed her mother.
Leal flinched as the needle pricked her skin. The first was always the worst. Collecting herself, she pressed into her arm again, watching as her own variation on a water hyle medium bled into her skin. The removal of her previous markings had been a painful experience, but she now had a clean canvas to paint her own designs into her arm. She’d already had the head mage mark along her back.
Along with thousands of others left homeless and isolated, Leal had struggled to emigrate into a city that could not support them. She’d thought she knew what loneliness was, but that hadn’t been true. Only when she had nobody but herself to rely on for survival did Leal realise how harsh the world was. How utterly suffocating true loneliness was.
Leal grabbed a wet cloth and wiped off the excess medium from her trimmed fur. Any mistake now could undo hours of effort. She’d been working on this marking for months now, one that would allow almost free control over the shape of water while retaining enough speed for it to be useful in battle.
The hyle consumption would be exponential rather than linear, as per most markings, but for her purposes, it would be fine. By the time she would be tasked with anything beyond its capabilities, she expected to have replaced it once more.
She, along with many other ursu, had been left with no other option but to join the military. They’d begun identification checks at the Bratchinas. Things had gotten desperate; you couldn’t eat if you were unaccounted for.
But before they could send her to battle, her luck seemed to flip. The war ended. They’d won! She’d considered the likelihood of her father remaining alive to be almost nil, but her superiors sent her to an infirmary camp where he was being taken care of.
That’s when she realised her misfortune hadn’t disappeared. It simply took a new face.
Her father wasn’t uninjured, but a missing eye and bandaged leg was better than death. He was sickly, and needed to remain for treatment. Their reunion was joined by a looming pair of guards that refused to give them space even as she squeezed into her dad’s chest. He held her tight, and yet his eyes revealed neither relief or happiness with her presence. Leal ignored it the best she could, but he had looked at her with a sadness and fear she couldn’t understand. Whatever concerned him, he did not say.
She didn’t comprehend at the time, but as the nation changed around her, it became clear. He was a hostage. If she didn’t do her best to support their reforming army, they would have him killed within the day.
Leal wasn’t the only victim to this extortion. Every mage she knew spoke in hushed discontent. they were each leashed by their relatives trapped within the gulags.
With the collapse of the previous council and the chairman, Military Commissar Oso acted immediately. He placed himself in position as chairman, and supplanted all other commissars with trusted members from his military.
The catastrophic invasion had opened the nation’s eyes to their inadequacies. Within weeks, New Vetus’ doctrine shifted, both political and military. No longer were they content with how things stood. Mages, along with many other disciplines, were no longer given the freedom of academic advancement. Now, they were integrated within the military. Any and all creations had to support the rapid advancement of New Vetus’ military growth.
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Leal switched out her needle for a razor-sharp scalpel. The last part of her markings required immense precision that just couldn’t be achieved without cutting into the thick skin of her hand.
She was proud of this marking. Even the mages of her unit couldn’t make heads or tails of it, despite some being decades older. Leal couldn’t understand their lack of enthusiasm for creation. They settled for the standardised markings taught to all, but those were so limiting.
No matter how many times Leal tried to show them that the alternatives were so much better as long as you put in the tiniest of effort to understand, they never listen.
When the only escape Leal had from this horrid world was the creations she made, it was disheartening to have nobody to share that enthusiasm.
She made the last few cuts on her thick fingers before submerging her hand in the hyle medium. Hopefully this time, it wouldn’t become infected. Sometimes, no matter how careful you were, material other than the pure mixture gets inside your body. By wiping at the wounds with a cloth soaked in a special substance, the risk can be mitigated, but the chance is still there.
Leal would have to wait a few hours before she could fill her reserves with hyle and try the markings. She was both excited to try them out, and concerned for the circumstances she would be required to use them.
Two months ago, the newly totalitarian council considered the buildup of forces enough to begin their conquest. The Zadok Kingdom had fallen almost without a fight. Despite the ease, it still took time for the land to be ripped from the hands of the albanics. Rebellion forces were aplenty. They made unfortunately good targets and her superiors jumped at the chance to give both her and the other mages battle experience.
Leal hated fighting. Hated her creation being used to spread death. She’d seen other water mages with a focus on creating blades or pressurised streams. The sheer efficiency with which they cut through people horrified her. It directed her marking creation in the completely opposite direction, much to the irritation of her superiors.
She’d be concerned about them threatening her father again if she weren’t one of the few actually creating new designs for their arsenal. Instead, they’d thrown her into almost every battle they could. Obviously, they wanted to desensitise her to murder, but all it achieved was to amplify the hatred for her country.
“Leal,” a voice called after she’d finished cleaning her arms.
She turned to Hefkos — one of her unit members — as he dropped something heavy on her workbench.
“Here,” he says. “Weapons of the northern states are a step up from Zadok’s, so new armour is being distributed.”
Leal eyed the slab of leather and steel. The one she already had was heavy enough, she wasn’t looking forward to lugging around something even heavier. She would have to focus her next marking on a dedicated water barrier. Something that she could keep up for an extended time that didn’t weigh her down like these suits of armour.
Most of her kind didn’t have an issue with the weight, but Leal wasn’t exactly built as heavily as the rest of the ursu. Each ursu warrior had taken on the protective gear with enthusiasm. After the war with Henosis, the pride of the ursu in their bare-knuckled strength had been crushed. When one could fall from such measly little pebbles, arrogance quickly dissipated.
The body armour couldn’t block a direct shot, but it would slow the projectile enough for an ursu’s thick skin to take the blow.
“Should you be doing that now?” Hefkos points to Leal’s freshly cut markings. “We’ll be moving out tonight while they are celebrating, and I don’t want you having issues with an untested marking mid battle.”
Leal didn’t know what to say. Her markings would work, she was certain, but they didn’t seem to trust her ability regardless of the times she’d proven them wrong.
Before she could express her confidence in words, the older mage continued. “Word of warning: refrain from applying your markings yourself. The reksha were a suspicious bunch even before being given oversight of the military. If they find you applying unapproved markings without direct observation, who knows what they might think?”
“But the division’s head mage already gave me the go ahead.”
“Doesn’t matter. At the very least, make sure you have a partner to watch over you when you next apply them.”
Leal wanted to argue further, but she knew it would be a wasted effort.
Heavy thuds had both mages turn to the giant ursu walking away from reksha command. The warrior left the encampment and sprinted south, his looming form snatching fearful gazes until it was gone beyond the horizon.
“Where do you think he’s off to?” Hefkos asked, leaning against Leal’s workbench. She wondered if he had nothing better to do than bother her.
Leal’s eyes lingered on the horizon. Tore Hund had always been a legend. More of a fairy-tale than a real person, until she’d laid eyes on him herself. The hero of New Vetus. The reason they’d broken free from slavery almost two centuries ago. It was unbelievable that he was still alive, and yet he looked no older than her father.
“Looks like we’ll be moving on without him for now,” he said. “Eh, we don’t need him. Our enemy’s strongest soldier is a fire mage.”
That caught Leal’s attention. “Fire mage?”
“Yeah, Armelle’s unit is tasked with taking them down. Even with the elemental advantage, it will not be easy for them. The mage apparently has enough hyle to set the entire battlefield alight.”
“A fire mage,” Leal mumbled under her breath. The image of a blazing city flashed across her mind. “This mage, are they an áed?”
“Uh, maybe?” her senior mage said. “I only know what the brief said.” His eyes narrowed. “You didn’t read it, did you?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she was up and striding toward the reksha. The ursu that enforce the will of the council.
Only an áed would have enough hyle to ignite a battlefield. Even as suicidal as fire mages tended to be, it was far harder for them to grow their capacity when their element naturally worked against their body. Either it was an áed, or an ancient fire mage. And if it were a old fire mage of that calibre, only Tore Hund could beat them.
Was it possible? Was Solvei so close after so long?
Leal hated her for the death of her mother. Everything had gone wrong since she’d shown up. If the girl had just stayed still in the library back then, like Leal told her, then everything would have turned out fine. She would have figured out a way to get her out of the city, and thousands wouldn’t be dead.
She didn’t realise what she’d done until it was too late. Leal had stormed in on a meeting amongst the reksha and officers. They all stared at her with either amused curiosity or blatant annoyance, but nobody had yet reprimanded her.
Well, she was already here. Might as well go through with it.
She snapped into a salute and made her request. “Please let me fight the fire mage, sirs.” The words struggled on her tongue, but she forced them out.
The reksha in charge of her mage division appeared surprised and pleased, which is far better than the wrath and irritation of the many others she’d interrupted.
“Junior Lieutenant Leal, you, are willing to rush into battle?” the reksha asked.
She nodded, unwilling to risk speaking once more.
“Granted,” he said, as a few protests rose from his side. “Expect a court martial for your actions today. Prove your worth and your punishment might be lighter. You are dismissed.”
She hurried away, berating herself for her impatience.
She imagined he’d only been lenient as he had been trying to force her enthusiasm for war. But if this really was Solvei, then she finally could avenge her mother’s death. Leal had been practising what she would say to the áed if she were to meet her again.
First, she would trap the girl. Then she would tell her how much she’d been waiting for this and maybe gloat a little.
She couldn’t fight against New Vetus, but a girl younger than herself? The frustration, hate and despair that had built up in the past years could finally have a target.
She approached the mages’ supplies. Hyle storage devices were exorbitantly expensive, but the military had confiscated all within the mage academies for their own purposes. It also made transporting water easy.
Leal placed her freshly marked hands on the large barrel-shaped hunk of metal, and filled her reserves with water hyle. Her well was smaller than most of the other mages in the army, but she still surpassed many in terms of capabilities.
There were three things that mattered to a mage. Their hyle reserves, the markings they hold, and the understanding they have of those markings.
The first was how much hyle the mage could contain. A special array of markings held hyle, but the total maximum they could handle was determined mostly by how much exposure they’d had to the element. One could become a strong mage with minimal understanding, simply by continually flowing the hyle through their bodies for decades.
Markings were the most important aspect. They were the technology that guided the hyle to do what the mage wanted. The simplest markings had no variables and could be used even by those with a lacking understanding, but they would be limited in every aspect.
The more one understood the working of a mage’s markings, the more complicated ones they could apply. The more complex the marking, the more work the mage would have to do while operating to keep it functioning, but the effects that could be created were well worth it.
Leal grabbed one of the small backup hyle packs they had for ‘novice’ mages like herself. A heavy metal disc wider than her hand with a strap to bind it to her chest. These would be almost useless to any of the older mages, but it would double her capacity. It was just unfortunate it had to be so heavy. She was already going to struggle with the new armour.
Leal lifted her head to the half moon of early evening. Not long now. Not long until she’ll be able to get some closure on one part of her life. Once she’d gotten back at Solvei, everything would feel better.
Her first friend had died that night. It was time to murder the one that took her place.
❖❖❖
During New Vetus’ Surprise Attack
Sneaking within the camp of the mixed races was surprisingly easy. The few volans on lookout were cut out of the sky with the silent pressurised stream of a fellow mage. Not even the bodies crashing into the ground made a sound. It was Leal’s job to make sure of that, and she was glad for it. Better to catch the dead volans than be the one to kill them.
On top of the heavy armour, they all wore thick, tightly bound clothing to cover the glow of their markings. Their large bodies were hard enough to hide while sneaking into the enemy’s camp, doing so while shining like light-bulbs would be asking to be discovered.
They made it to their first assigned tent and the others in her unit immediately moved to assassinate the sleeping soldiers. Leal looked away. If this was her own squad, she would be forced to participate, but Armelle owed her for the efficiency upgrade Leal had designed for her.
It was late into the night, and those that weren’t sleeping were intoxicated and celebrating around campfires. There were guards watching the perimeter of their camp, but not even they expected an attack from the ursu. Leal despised this war. There was no reason to attack and push forward. At least against the Henosis, they’d been defending their homes. Now? they’d only become like their enemies.
Leal forced herself to shake the thoughts. The whole reason she’d forced herself into this unit was so that she could kill. She needed to focus on her opportunity to make things right; to avenge her mother. Ruminating in the wrongness of murder wouldn’t help her achieve what she was determined to.
They had a pretty good idea of where the áed was, and her path once the battle begun. The brief they’d been given left little doubt in Leal’s mind that the fire mage was, in fact, Solvei. The reksha were able to amass quite a detailed account of her suspected abilities and habits from the battle they’d watched not even a day prior.
Leal could never forgive Solvei for what she did. And she would make sure her former friend was punished for the horror and pain she caused. Leal hated killing, but she hated Solvei more.
If it hadn’t been for the áed, things would still all be alright. Her mum would be alive. They would still be living in Morne together, and her dad would have returned to them, rather than being stuck in the gulag. Everything went wrong with that fire. Leal just knew if it hadn’t happened, then everything would all be alright.
The first barrage of artillery snapped Leal back to reality. The rest of the unit dashed out of the tent, off to cut down as many waking soldiers as they could while remaining stealthy. They were already in position to ambush the áed, they just needed to wait until she arrived.
A small form barreled down the hill, her short stature looking incredibly out of place for a battlefield. Leal had no doubt it was Solvei even before the flames wrapped around her form, snapping out at the air as if ready to ignite their surroundings. The heat radiating off the áed was far greater than anything Leal could recall. Whatever happens, she would be careful not to let them get close.
Leal thought she was prepared to see the girl again. She wasn’t. Solvei had grown, but the sight of her brought back memories she’d rather forget. Horrific moments where she and countless others suffered after the fall of Morne. Sad memories of her mother’s passing. Worst of all, Leal remembered the joy she once had alongside Solvei.
She didn’t want to remember those times. Solvei was evil. She was the cause of everything going bad, so Leal refused the good memories she once shared with the áed.
Solvei stopped as she passed Leal’s hidden position. Fire swirling around the girl revealed her inner turmoil. She hadn’t detected the ambush, had she? The áed spun on her feet and began running back up the way she came. She must have.
One mage in Leal’s unit shot a stream of pressurised water to cut off her path of retreat. Solvei reacted with unreal timing, blasting herself backward as large swathes of flame spread out ahead of her in her stead. The same mage tried to hit her with a second stream, but the áed was already aware. Throwing herself skyward, Solvei launched herself at the mage with clear murderous intent.
If not for Armelle, the first mage would have been dead. It was only for a moment, but bright, white flames coated the áed’s hands. Hot enough to sting just looking at.
The mages quickly surrounded her, and Leal realised she would need to act soon. Leal wanted… no, needed to be the one to end her. She needed some form of retribution against the one who’d made her life a nightmare. Preparing herself to do what she had to do, Leal readied her marking. She would spear the girl through with too many water spikes to dodge. As long as she got some water under that snowsuit she wore, Leal would succeed.
Leal didn’t expect Solvei to dash her way before she was ready. Reflexively, she sprung her marking, exploding forth a wave of water from her hands. The water collided with the áed, sending her to the earth as water crashed around her.
Leal stared in confusion. Hadn’t she meant to spear her through with that attack? It was impossible for a marking to enact any effect not directly intended by the user. What happened?
Steam billows off the girl as she scrambles to her feet. Before she could leap away, Leal curled the water around her, entrapping the girl within a sphere. As usual, she had to keep the water moving constantly to stop it from sagging under gravity.
Finally, the opportunity was before her. She could relish in defeating the one who killed her mum, making sure she understood exactly how her actions would be her undoing before Leal killed her. It’s better that Solvei hadn’t died immediately. That would’ve been too quick, too easy.
As Solvei flared out at the trapping sphere only to hurt herself, Leal spoke up to Armelle. “Please.” Unhappy with how hesitant her voice sounded, she gathered her resolve. This is what she wanted. “Leave her to me.”
“What? We can’t do that. You know how dangerous she’ll be if left alive.”
Leal knew all too well what Solvei could do, but if she was going to talk to her former friend before killing her, she wanted to do it alone.
“Remember that favour I asked?” Leal hoped Armelle could overlook her actions just this once.
Armelle’s eyes waver between Leal and her captor. “If you are certain. Make sure she’s dead after you are done.”
She signals to the rest of her unit before they all rush down the hill to join the one-sided slaughter.
Leal gathers herself. She’d practised what she would say if she ever saw Solvei again. Clamping down on the nervousness, she stepped forward, out of the tattered remains of the tent.
“It has been a while, Solvei.”
“Leal?”
The absolute shock and befuddlement in Solvei’s tone both delighted her, and sent her heart racing. It was clear the girl could never imagine someone surviving the inferno she wrought, nor it being her former friend to be the one to deliver retribution.
“Solvei… You appear to be doing well.” While Leal had been suffering alone with her mother’s death, her father’s imprisonment, and the upheaval of her life, Solvei had been off massacring thousands on the battlefield. She was probably enjoying life right up until Leal got the upper hand on her.
“I…” Within her cage, Solvei turns away. Clearly, she knew exactly what she’d done.
“I’ve missed you.”
Leal burst out in laughter, but she wasn’t amused. No, Leal was pissed. How dare she pretend like nothing had happened. What? Did she think Leal would forget about the horror of that night? In what world could she ever overlook the crime the áed committed?
“You missed me, did you? Well, I’ve missed my mother, but you wouldn’t care about that? Would you?”
Solvei flinches, as if struck. Leal assumed she would feel satisfaction from such a sight, but all she felt was emptiness.
“What happened to Calysta?”
Leal’s jaw dropped. Solvei had the gall to act like she didn’t know. Did she think playing ignorant would save her from Leal’s encasing water? She knew very well how dangerous water was to the áed. No matter how strong the girl before her might have grown, she would always remain susceptible to Leal.
“You happened,” Leal growled. “You killed her, along with a thousand others in that fire.”
“What?” The flames circling Solvei’s body extinguished with a puff. “No, I-”
The girl before her fails to form words. Her knees quake, but she remains standing. Leal waited for the excuse she knew would come. Solvei would claim innocence. Claim it wasn’t her, or it wasn’t her fault. Leal waited for Solvei to give her excuse and flimsy explanation, so that she could tear her down and make her face the repercussions with her full fury.
“I’m sorry.” Wisps like flaming tears that dispersed into the air flowed from Solvei’s eyes.
This wasn’t the order it was meant to go.
She was supposed to plead innocence, or claim ignorance until Leal begun her punishment. She was only supposed to apologise and beg for her life after Leal made her feel the same pain her mother must have felt trapped within the continae, burning alive.
“No.” Leal fists hard enough to hide from the pain swelling in her chest. “You don’t get to be sorry.” She altered her marking, shrinking the sphere of water and crushing Solvei between walls of water. Steam rose from within, but Solvei just looked Leal in the eye with pain that mirrored Leal’s.
She tried to press the cage down further, to end her most hated person’s life right here and now. This wasn’t going how she imagined. Solvei wasn’t fighting back. Even if it would be a meaningless resistance, she should be fighting with everything she could to survive. But instead, she simply let Leal do as she pleased.
Despite Leal’s wishes, the cage didn’t crush Solvei. It let up, giving the áed room. Why was her own spell disobeying her? That should be impossible. She stared at the áed before her, tears running down her face mirroring Solvei’s wisps. Why was she crying? She was angry, not sad. This was her opportunity to finally achieve vengeance for her mother’s death, so why were her markings refusing her?
Why was her friend letting it happen?
Former friend, Leal berated herself for even thinking of her that way. Even now, Solvei was tearing things apart. She wasn’t acting her role. She was the root cause of all Leal’s problems, so why was she resisting? Why wasn’t she selfish, like she’d always pictured her mother’s murderer acting?
Why did Solvei still care about Leal, when Leal had given up on her years ago?
“This is unfair.” Leal stepped forward. If her markings wouldn’t listen to her, then she would do it with her own hands. The cage disappeared, crashing along the earth in a large puddle as Leal wrapped her hands around the áed.
But, no matter how hard she pressed, her hands refused to squeeze. She couldn’t hurt her.
“You’re supposed to be evil,” Leal sobbed, realising her voice was wavering. “So why are you the one crying?”
As Leal continues her vain attempt to crush Solvei, she feels the heat the girl exudes reducing. An áed that should feel at the very least like she just put her hands in an oven is no more warm to the touch than cloth on a hot day.
Even without the water to stop her fighting back, or running away, Solvei remains within Leal’s grasp. She hated it. She hated everything about how things turned out. Solvei wasn’t the evil murderer Leal had convinced herself she was. Even if she’d started the fire, it was clear it was hardly intentional. But then, if not Solvei, who can she blame for what her life had become?
She needed to be real with herself. No matter how much she told herself she hated Solvei, she just couldn’t do it. Now that she was in the position to actually hurt her old friend, it became impossible to follow through. Only now, with Solvei right beneath her hands, did she even consider that the girl couldn’t have wanted things to go the way they did.
“I had so much I was going to say when I saw you again. I wanted to enjoy my retribution.” The words escaped her in a waver as she crashed to her knees before her first friend, embracing her. “I missed you, too, Solvei.”
She didn’t intend to say that, but as much as she try to deny it, it was true. She’d missed the casual, daily joy she’d had when she could drag Solvei around the city, getting up to all sorts of nonsense that she wouldn’t have been brave enough to do before meeting her, nor had the luxury to do after.
Leal longed to return to the time when she didn’t have to worry about anything. Before they moved to Morne, before she lost her mother. And before her father was held hostage at the gulag.
Dread washed through Leal. She was already facing a court martial for her actions, but if she returned to her superiors with Solvei still alive, it would be her father who would face the punishment. She needed to kill Solvei to keep her father safe, but doing so was impossible; Leal simply couldn’t do it.
Her only hope now was the friend she just tried to kill.
“Solvei, I need your help,”
“Anything.” No hesitance. Leal appreciated that, but what she was about to ask would likely get them both killed. Even if she knew how suicidal it was, Leal had no other option.