Last Kiss

On By MaryIn Prompts, WritingLeave a comment

Card prompts were motivational speaker and last, best kiss.

Kind of churned this one out quickly, didn’t care much for it.

          Mark had been a motivational speaker most of his adult life. It had been a surprisingly easy gig to slip into – he’d always been good at talking his way into and out of things, ever since he had learned his first words. Part of it was that the truth never got in the way of a good story or a convincing lie. It wasn’t that the things he was talking about weren’t good and true in and of themselves. He spoke at schools and at corporate events and to drug addicts, helped to encourage people in their lives and their goals and to set an example. And if he needed to seem personally invested to help set that example – to discuss overcoming addiction as though he had once overcome such a debilitation himself, and still struggled valiantly with it daily – well, giving people hope was the crux of the position. They needed the hope more than they needed absolute truths.

          Janet was the opposite. She had always been mousy and quiet, easily ignored or spoken over. Even here and now in the apocalypse, most people ignored her, preferring to listen to Mark. And she had to admit – he was easy to listen to. Easy to believe. She always had a knack for sniffing out the bullshit in the pretty things he said though. Maybe that was why, despite their differences, they had come together. They strangely complemented each other. Janet was practical, a steady presence that kept Mark grounded as he somehow rose to a leadership position in their little group of survivors. And despite the white lies that accompanied Mark’s speeches, Janet could always sense that he truthfully had hope for them. For their survival.

          And it was hope that they especially needed. Civilization wiped out, and the remaining pockets of humanity hunted and destroyed. The creatures that hunted them seemed alien, but no one really knew where they came from or why they were there. They acted like savage animals, but worked together in groups, always seemed to be at least 3 steps ahead. They were relentless. Still, there was hope. There were other groups. Humanity, Mark assured everyone, would persist as it always did.

Then the group had started losing contact with the other known settlements, one after the other. Sometimes it was suggested that maybe the communications equipment was no longer working, but those that knew how these things worked were certain – the equipment was fine. There was no one on the other end to answer. The map in the situation room looked grim – community after community crossed out with x after x. Only their own small group remained on the map now. It was hard to look at and keep hope.

          And the creatures were massing outside.

          Mark wasn’t a soldier – he had never even held a gun until the past year, and he suspected he missed more often than not. They didn’t really have the ammunition or resources to practice regularly. The one thing he could do convincingly was talk – he could stand, and give a speech about persevering, fighting, facing the enemy. He could give hope one last time. He could see the spark of it lighting in the eyes of the people around him – his small found family, his friends. But as he finished his speech before their final battle, he caught Janet’s eye. Janet’s worried frown.

          As always, she had seen right through him.

          He maintained his smile for the others as he stepped down from the boulder he had been speaking from. Janet wrapped her arms around his waist, staring deeply into his eyes. She said nothing. She didn’t want anyone to overhear. But she knew. And he knew.

          They were likely the last humans, and they weren’t surviving the night.

          He leaned in and kissed her, deeply, losing himself in the moment, and she lost herself in him as well – this last, best kiss.

33. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Returning to the ship was like an easy walk downhill. The oppressive heat had lifted and a cool ocean breeze swept off the waters, though I still felt sticky from sweat. The fires across the island were gone, except for the one at the heart of the temple. There was an altar, back behind where the colossus had faced us, shaped like a stone bowl. A fire burned steadily inside it now. “It’s larger than when I saw it in the past,” Raella had noted before we left. That was the last time any of us had spoken – we were all tired and awe struck, processing what Lexie had told us.

When we reached the place where we had left the boat, Tanert waved at us enthusiastically. “Whatever you lot did, it worked,” he said as I climbed down from the cliff. I was so tired that my foot slipped from the railing. Peyton, having climbed down before me, reached out to steady me, but my weight took us both down instead. “Sorry,” I muttered, standing as quickly as I could and avoiding eye contact.

She chuckled. “It’s fine,” she said, grinning at me in a remarkably disarming way. I reached down to offer her a hand up, and she accepted. We stepped aside to make room for the others to descend.

“What happened?” Dustyn asked curiously as she helped Lexie and Cassandra down from the cliff face.

“The fire god has returned,” Raella said simply. Dustyn exchanged a surprised look with her father. They seemed to want to ask more, but could sense that we weren’t open to answering questions at the moment. It was a quiet ride back to shore.

At the inn, once Cassandra and I had finished a round of healing spells on everyone, Raella immediately suggested a trip to a local bathhouse. “We can soak and get freshened up, and then we can come back to a good meal and discuss what occurred,” she explained. She spoke to the innkeeper about arranging dinner and then led our troop out again, away from the docks this time. I left Peter behind in my room. The bath house was a large building with plenty of foot traffic going in and out. I worried for a moment over whether it would be a shared bath, but there were apparently multiple private rooms, and Raella reserved three – two to be divided by gender, and one solely for herself.

I suspected she wanted to come just for herself but felt it would be rude to not offer the trip to the rest of us.

The room was large, with a bath that looked more like an inset pool, steaming from the heat. The calming sound of trickling water was present throughout the building. Zolambi and Greyjon, apparently more used to places like these, immediately stripped and slipped into the water. Lyre followed, also not particularly bothered. Asterollan and I both paused for a moment. “Is modesty a human thing?” Lyre asked, glancing back to see us. “Cassandra was always quite shy about it too.”

Realizing I was making it more awkward by not joining, I stripped and stepped into the pool, slipping down until just my head was still above water. It smelled of salt, and was instantly relaxing – I sighed in relief. Asterollan appeared to still be hesitating. “I wouldn’t say it’s modesty, necessarily,” he said as he began taking his clothes off. “But I tend to draw more curious looks than I’d like.” I could see that he was covered in scars across his entire body, including a massive twisting of flesh from an old burn across his back.

“Scars are a warrior’s medals,” Greyjon said, “A matter of pride more than shame.”

“Although that might depend on how one earned those medals,” Zolambi added, his tone dark. An uncomfortable silence fell across the room as Zolambi and Asterollan stared at each other, their expressions carefully fixed. I busied myself with using the provided soaps to wash myself, and Greyjon chuckled awkwardly as he did the same. Lyre sighed, taking a deep breath and then dipping under the water completely.

Some of the bath house employees entered, bringing thin robes and towels, and depositing them on the benches near our belongings. Lyre and Zolambi finished quickly, toweling off and leaving the room together. Greyjon leaned back against the edge of the pool, apparently intending to soak for a while. He looked over to Asterollan curiously, but instead of asking any questions, he chuckled again. “That fight was a mess. We were very uncoordinated.”

Asterollan nodded thoughtfully. “You’ve done well with teaching the other outworlder. Peyton.”

I grimaced, dropping so that only my nose stayed above water. Greyjon nodded. “I can’t take full credit. She was already quite skilled before she got here. I worry that she fell back into those skills too immediately though – she didn’t even reach for her magic in the fight.” Considering that, I felt a level of awe rise in me, and a twinge of something like jealousy. Peyton had rushed in to fight a giant and hadn’t once thought to use magic. She was ridiculously brave in a way that I wished I could be.

Asterollan glanced over at me. “You did well too.”

I shrugged. “Plants don’t stand a chance against fire,” I mumbled, briefly popping my head up above the water surface.

“Still,” Greyjon said thoughtfully, “You unbalanced a god.”

A god. I hadn’t even wrapped my head around that fact yet. “Yes,” I said quietly, dipping down again. After several minutes of soaking, the heat of the water was starting to make me dizzy, so I stepped out and toweled off. I wrapped one of the robes around myself and gathered my things, stepping out into the hallway of the bath house. I didn’t immediately see Lyre or Zolambi, so I started walking down the hall, past other rooms and employees that smiled at me warmly as I went.

I found an interior garden that appeared to be open to the sky. It was lit by the moon and by small round crystal lamps crisscrossed along strings that draped from column to column. I stepped out, feeling almost chilly now that I was away from the steaming baths. “Kind of like an old Roman bath. Did you enjoy it?” I heard a voice say.

Looking up, I saw that Cassandra was sitting on a bench, wearing one of the robes. Her hair was wrapped up in her towel. I hadn’t seen her initially, since the space was so dimly lit. I held my clothes in front of me, hoping the robes weren’t too sheer. “It was nice,” I said. “Did Lyre and Zolambi come out this way?”

“Oh, were they already done? I haven’t seen them.” She paused a moment, studying me with her head tilted. “I wonder what the name of the fire god is.”

“We’ll find out later, I’m sure.” I stepped over to a separate bench, facing the one she was sitting at, and settled there.

“Do you know your god’s name yet?”

I frowned. “No. Do you?”

“T’Keran,” she said without hesitation, so straightforward that it caught me off guard. “The goddess of storms.”

“You’re god talked to you too?” I asked, surprised.

She nodded. “She’s been talking to me all along.” Cassandra hesitated a moment, like she wasn’t sure if she should say more. “I think I saw another god. Briefly. It looked like a child, and was walking along the ocean shore one night. Plants grew wherever it set foot.”

I stared at her, remembering the giggling I had been hearing so often. Suddenly I felt significantly less crazy. “You know, I’ve been seeing this figure of light out of the corner of my eyes…”

“That’s Asterollan’s god,” she said. “He mentioned that he’s been seeing him like that too.”

I leaned back, sighing deeply in relief as I closed my eyes. I wasn’t crazy. I wondered if I would really sleep better for that knowledge or not. It was still creepy to consider that there were these powerful beings that were following and watching us, invested in us, giving us our abilities. “I wonder what they want,” I mumbled.

“Maybe Lexie will have the answer to that.”

“Maybe.” We sat in companionable silence until Raella came looking for us.

We were allowed to keep the bath house robes, and walked back to the inn wearing them. I was a little embarrassed by the idea at first until I saw that other patrons of the bath house left in a similar state. We ambled along slowly, enjoying the crisp autumn air. I could hear snatches of conversation here and there among people that we were passing – awe that the smoke had cleared so quickly, that the fires had stopped.

Back at the inn, we pushed tables together and settled down to eat the meal that had been prepared for us. It was a rather subdued dinner, and I noticed that Lexie kept staring into space, twisting her head to stare at the invisible orbs that she had described to us. As we each finished our meals, we sat quietly, expectantly.

Raella had the grace to wait until Lexie finally pushed away her plate before speaking. “So, the fire giant we fought was actually the physical form of the fire god,” Raella said finally, swirling her wine around in her glass. She had stared at the girl through the entire meal, her bright eyes intense as they reflected the light in the room.

Lexie nodded, her eyes finally drawing away from the invisible object she had been staring at. “Yeah. Er… Yes.”

Raella frowned, waiting for Lexie to continue speaking. When that didn’t happen, she asked with some exasperation. “And it… communed with you? Spoke to you? What did it tell you?”

“Oh… a bunch of stuff, but some of it wasn’t quite words. It’s really hard to explain. She was angry.”

“She?” Raella said thoughtfully, intrigued by the concept.

“I think she was a she because I’m a she? I think she’s anything, really.”

“I see. Did she say why she was angry?”

“She was super pissed. Something about… like, betrayal? But that wasn’t what she was telling me. I just felt it, in the background of everything she was telling me,” Lexie stared absently above my right ear, then sighed in frustration. “She said she wanted to stay here, but that she’d grant me all of her powers, and I could choose to use them how I want. And then she said she was going to gift me Sight, because it was important that I See.”

“And now you See these things, around yourself and the other Graces?”

“Yeah. Like these little black shiny orbs just floating in the air around us.” She glanced above herself, and hunched down in her seat like she was uncomfortable with all the attention. “I don’t know what they are though, or why it’s important to see them. I don’t know how long they’ve been there. Maybe they’ve been following us this entire time.”

Raella tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Did she mention anything else? Or did you sense anything else while talking to it?”

“Myrapen,” Lexie said, intoning carefully, in awed reverence. “That’s her name. I got the sense that sometimes she’s known as the Eternal Flame.”

Raella seemed startled to have this information dropped on her. “Myrapen,” she repeated. “In all my years, I have never found a text that names the gods. Myrapen, the Eternal Flame.” For the first time since meeting her, I noticed that she actually looked excited – she was leaning forward in her seat as she spoke. I glanced over at Cassandra, thinking of our earlier conversation, but Cassandra did not seem keen to share her own god’s name with Raella.

I heard a giggle from somewhere in the room.

I glanced at the other Graces to see if they had heard anything also. Cassandra and Peyton had no reaction, and Lexie was too distracted by the invisible orbs sharing the room with us. But I could see Asterollan tilt his head briefly and glance around, a slight frown on his features. I wondered if he had heard it too.

Once it became clear that Lexie didn’t know much more about her god, Raella became invested in figuring out the invisible orbs. Lexie was initially reluctant to touch them, but once we finally coaxed her into trying to catch one, she quickly became frustrated by the fact that it always moved out of her reach. Next, we tried having Asterollan and Greyjon grab it while Lexie shouted directions, but we quickly figured out that each orb moved to evade being touched. “Certainly that means it has actual physicality, but I would like the confirmation,” Raella said, tapping her chin, her brow furrowed.

Some of the shouting drew the attention of the innkeeper, who stepped in to check on us, but after seeing a pair of grown men jump and attempt to catch something he couldn’t see while a young girl shouted directions at them, he stepped quickly back out the door. I think I was the only one that caught sight of him, and I suppressed a grin at how chaotic the scene was to an outsider.

After several moments, Raella said, “Ah, I think I have something for this. Where are one of the orbs?” Lexie gestured over toward me, where I stood off to the side. Raella lit up with the light of magic, and made her own swirling gesture with her hand – a wave of soft glittering light flowed past me. I held up my hands to see the softly glowing motes floating like glitter being held by static in the air around me. I knew it was only insubstantial light, but something about it made my nose itch. I stepped to one side and saw that the glitter followed.

“Oh! Right there!” Lexie shouted in excitement, pointing above my head.

Glancing up, I could see that the glitter had formed a circle in the air above me. I moved my hand up toward it and the glitter in the air shifted, moving toward the ceiling and out of my reach. “Usually this spell only works on things with a conscious will,” Raella said, staring up at the glittering spot in the air.

“So it’s thinking?” Lexie said, her voice jumping up in surprise.

“Or being directed by something that thinks.”

Lexie glanced back down at me thoughtfully and smirked. “Oh, Lucas. You can think too?”

I rolled my eyes. “Funny,” I said. “How long does this last?” I asked Raella.

“Probably about 30 minutes or so.”

I scratched the tip of my nose, a bit frustrated. “Okay.”

Now that we could see where the orb was, capturing it was a bit easier. Chase, this time, provided a spell that held the orb in place so that Greyjon could grab it. Raella thoughtfully ran a hand over it when he handed it to her. “Smooth. You said it appears black and shiny?”

“Yeah,” Lexie nodded, looking intently into the space that occupied Raella’s hands. “It doesn’t hurt to touch it?”

“No, it feels like glass.”

Lexie reached out and poked it. She shivered. “It’s cold. I wonder what it does.”

Raella sighed as it lifted out of her hands. “No way to tell. Keep an eye on them – Myrapen thought it was important, after all. If they do anything unusual, let us know. In the meantime – we resume our journey to Glyss.”

Back in the room I was staying in, Peter trilled in alarm as I entered. He rushed me suddenly, causing me to stumble back against the door. His legs waved around me frantically and I realized he was trying to bat away the glitter that still surrounded the air around me. My choked scream turned into a hysterical laugh, and I patted him on his head. “It’ll wear off,” I promised, pushing him away. He chittered nervously, a low ticking sound that he didn’t stop until the spell finally faded.

32. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

The smoke was so dense it was like a wall against the confines of Raella’s magic. Worried that Peter would disrupt it somehow, I shooed him away from the edges, and he obediently stepped closer to my side. I suppressed a shudder. I had spent the better part of the past week getting myself used to him as best as I could. I was making headway, but there were moments when I would spot him out of the corner of my eye or he’d rush up to me unexpectedly and I’d feel uncontrollable terror take firm hold. Sometimes I’d even squeak or scream in terror, which amused Lexie to no end.

It didn’t help that I felt like I was losing my mind in other ways. Sometimes I could swear I was seeing a bright figure of light out of the corner of my eyes, but no one else would acknowledge it, and when I looked again it was gone. Other times it was like I could smell electricity faintly in the air. It seemed like once a day I heard a high-pitched giggle somewhere nearby. I was getting less sleep because of all of it and my days passed in a strange haze.

Raella continued to glow as she stood at the front of the boat, focusing on holding the spell. I could see that she had the barrier extended well beyond the boat to allow for some visibility. The atmosphere was so oppressive that I shivered a bit, and Peter trilled softly, an almost comforting tone.

The island first appeared as a wall of stone looming suddenly out of the smoke. I almost gasped at how quickly it had materialized. The fisherman, a man named Tanert, called out to his daughter Dustyn, some sort of instruction to help steer the boat. They had gone at a creeping pace the entire way, and easily maneuvered to pull the boat along the edge of the rocks without hitting them.

“Did you want us to continue along the edge until we find a better place to berth?” Tanert asked Raella. She shook her head and held up a hand to indicate that she wanted Tanert to give her a moment. Frowning in concentration, she closed her eyes and suddenly pulsed with a brighter light – the glow of the barrier deepened as the light of magic dropped from around her. The barrier remained in place.

She took a deep breath as she turned to the fisherman. “No, you should be safe if you stay right here. We’ll find our own way up,” she said. Then belatedly added, “Thank you.”

Tanert nodded, raising a hand to touch the glowing magic of the barrier. “You learn that at your University?”

“No,” Raella said tersely, lifting her chin slightly. “Spell mastery is an expectation to even be able to attend. I could do this well before my years there.” Tanert raised an eyebrow, looking mildly annoyed, but didn’t comment further. Chase gave him an apologetic smile as Raella turned to look over us, her hands on her hips and her head tilted. She began to mumble to herself, “Need to be able to protect us each individually from the smoke, to have freedom of movement to climb or somehow reach the top. We’ll need to figure out how high this cliff face is…”

Lyre raised his arms suddenly, speaking Primordial. The light of magic enveloped him and his voice became resonant as he spoke – he shifted his arms in a loose circle and then made a pushing motion. A sudden violent gusting of wind moved against the cliff face, causing the smoke to swirl and clear momentarily. Dustyn gave a yelp as the boat shifted, rocking in the disturbed water. As he ended the spell, the smoke was already closing back in, but it wasn’t quite as thick as it had been and the momentary clarity gave us a view of the cliff we were perched beside.

It was, quite luckily, not very high at all. In fact, it looked like most of us could reach it if we stood on the rails of the boat and pulled ourselves up. Raella looked up, her eyebrows high with her momentary surprise, but then she looked back at Lyre and quickly composed herself. “At least we know we won’t need to magically assist our assent,” she said. We started moving toward the rails – Peyton and Greyjon easily pulled themselves up first, and I followed behind them with Asterollan. Peter easily made the jump, and began to run back and forth behind me in excitement. We helped the others up a few at a time – Greyjon and Asterollan grabbed Cassandra’s arms and easily pulled her up, though she looked annoyed by it. Peyton and I pulled Lexie and Chase up, and Zolambi and Lyre followed.

I was already doing my best to suppress coughing against the smoke that was settling in around us. Lyre cast his spell again, and the smoke shifted and swirled away – not completely dispelled still, but giving us a momentary reprieve from it. Nodding, Raella lifted her arms and focused on her own magic, and a barrier erected around us. “I could create multiple individual barriers for each of us if we find we need them, but that will take much of my concentration. Too much. If it is needed, someone will have to protect me. For now, between this large one and your winds,” she nodded to Lyre, “we should be able to move forward. But be careful, and stay close together. Now follow me.”

“Are you expecting danger?” Peyton asked as she fell into step next to Raella.

Raella frowned. “I am… uncertain. There are rumors that those that have tried to extinguish the flames have seen a monster. The flames may be magical in nature.”

“Divine is what they were saying? Since it’s a temple,” Peyton pressed.

Raella nodded, not commenting.

We moved forward as a group. When the smoke became too thick to see through, Lyre would cast his spell and shift it away. It was an eerie walk – I could hear the crackling of fires from around us, and it was unseasonably hot. I found that I was constantly wiping sweat from my brow. The others looked similarly miserable, beads of sweat dripping down temples or soaking through shirts. I couldn’t wait to return to the inn and indulge in a bath.

There was no plant life – everything seemed to be bare stone and dust. Despite the fires around us and the thick smoke, I realized there was no visible trace of ash or soot anywhere. Sometimes we moved close enough to see some of the fires that raged, only to see that they crackled evenly over the stones, with no visible fuel. The first time we spotted this, we stood for a dumbfounded moment. “The rocks are on fire,” Greyjon said, his tone strangely flat.

“This island is a stone in the sea, with a stone temple built at its heart. And in that temple, there stands an altar that houses a small ever-burning flame,” Raella spoke. “It has always been barren of life.” I felt the truth of what she was saying somewhere inside myself. This place had never been hospitable to life. I just… knew. It felt completely wrong to me – unnatural. Perhaps sensing my momentary discomfort, Peter bumped against my leg and trilled.

“Let’s move on,” Raella said, turning and continuing her walk.

“So there’s a fire here that’s always been burning?” Lexie asked curiously, hopping forward to stand closer to Raella.

Raella nodded. “Yes. It’s been known about for years, being such an obvious sight at sea. They say that the temple used to be bright as a beacon, and was commonly used as a landmark or a lighthouse for sailors. The divine flame that burned here never produced smoke like this though.” She paused for a moment, squinting at the smoke that pressed in all around us. “When the gods touched our world, the faithful of the fire god would make pilgrimages here to walk through the flames, unburnt.”

“Is that true?” Lexie said in awe.

Raella shrugged, a strangely human gesture for her. “We’re getting close now,” she said after a moment. The sound of the fires had grown to such a roar that she had to raise her voice to be heard above it. She paused a moment, then gestured ahead of us. “The temple should be right in front of us.”

Lyre summoned another bout of wind, larger than before, and aimed it ahead. The smoke swirled, clearing the area, revealing an open building ahead of us. There were stone columns that stretched out before us, forming a large oval around paved stone floors. The temple was open on all sides. Something bright loomed, flickering, near the center of the floor. Since Raella had been talking about an ever-burning flame, at first I thought it was only a large fire. But it shifted, and turned to face us, and I realized it was a colossus made of flame. White hot eyes narrowed and focused on us.

“Really,” I heard Cassandra groan under her breath. I watched it open its mouth, a void of shadow, and it bellowed. Then it unleashed fire from its mouth, a massive cone of curling flame.

“Shit,” I heard myself say. I could see out of the corner of my eyes as several of my companions instantly lit up, could see the flurry of movement around me as they each scattered. Peter screeched and jumped, shoving me back several feet and causing me to fall.

“Wait!” Raella shouted, and then began cursing. I could see that the barrier she had erected appeared to be keeping the flames out, but several of us had darted out of its protection. She dropped the barrier and moved to take cover behind a column, closing her eyes to focus. A massive barrier pulsed into existence around the entirety of the building, then seemed to pulse again, shrinking suddenly. I realized I was surrounded by a soft glow of light – she had erected a personal barrier around myself. Peter, also, was surrounded by his own personal bubble of protection. I froze, wondering if I had to stay inside of it, but when Peter jumped up onto the top of a column, I watched the barrier move with him.

I quickly pushed myself to my feet and also took cover behind a column – the one next to Raella’s. “What the hell is that thing?” I shouted over to her.

“I don’t know!” she shouted back, sounding annoyed. “Don’t distract me! Just do something about it!”  

“Peter! Protect Raella!” I called out, hoping that the spider wouldn’t go launching itself at the fire giant. I heard it trill from somewhere above, but couldn’t see it. Glancing out from behind the column, I could see that Peyton and Asterollan had rushed the colossus, pushing it back several feet with their onslaught. It was an almost shocking sight – they barely came up to its chest, almost looked like children standing in front of it. It was roaring in anger at them. Cassandra knelt on the ground, near the prone form of Greyjon – he looked badly burned, and I realized she was healing him. I took a deep breath and moved out of cover, reaching for my magic as I rushed in to help – the flood of power was almost calming. The colossus was preparing to slam a massive fist into Peyton, who was raising her sword against it. I summoned vines from behind it, which struck forward and grasped its arms, pulling it back.

It roared angrily as the vines unbalanced it, easily breaking through them as the flames of its body burnt the plants away, but at least its attack was hampered. Asterollan glowed briefly and flashed so bright that I was momentarily blinded – whatever he had done did not appear to work on the colossus though, and it roared directly in his face, swatting him away.

I could hear Lyre chanting from somewhere nearby, his voice an eerie resonant echo. Ice began to materialize and creep up the ground, like a crystalline flash, crawling up the legs of the giant. Glancing over, I could see that he was standing near to Cassandra – Chase and Zolambi were there as well, also seeming to focus on putting their energy into the same spell that Lyre was working on. For a moment, I felt a pulse of worry quicken my heart – where was Lexie in all of this? She was just a kid.

The fire colossus appeared to be immobilized by the ice for the moment, but had become more enraged. It roared and swung a fist down at Peyton again. She shifted to move out of the way, but slipped on the ice under her feet. I summoned more of the vines to grasp her and pull her out of the way of the fist as it slammed into the ground. Looking back, she smiled at me appreciatively.

“Where’s Lexie?” I mouthed at her. She mouthed something back. Shit, I can’t read lips, I thought to myself. Greyjon was sitting up and Cassandra was moving forward – I realized she was trying to find Asterollan – when the colossus screamed while straining against the ice. It was burning brighter now – the air around us crackled with heat, and I realized the only reason we weren’t burning was thanks to Raella’s barriers. Still, the very air scorched around us. The ice was melting, vaporizing as quickly as it formed. The creature shifted one flaming leg forward, almost entirely freed from the ice.

Peyton was closest to it still. I pulled her further away with the vines, could hear her shout something as she was dragged roughly across the stone floors.

“It’s angry,” I heard Lexie say, somewhere very close to me.

I wasn’t sure where she had come from. Glancing down, I could see that she was standing nearly next to me – she stared out at the creature, seemingly in a trance. “No shit,” I said.

She walked forward. “Wait, Lexie!” I reached out for her, but my hands felt scorched the second they touched her shoulder. I pulled back with a sharp yell. Despite the heat, I felt a chill rush up my spine – she didn’t have a barrier around her at all. I shouted her name again and moved forward once more, but the colossus emitted a massive pulse of heat and flame, and I felt myself knocked back bodily, slamming against a pillar. I heard Chase scream, and Lyre’s chanting stopped. Everything suddenly became strangely quiet.

Dazed, I rubbed my back where it had hit the stone, wincing at the pain. I pushed myself up, turning to see what was happening.

Lexie had stopped right in front of the creature, which towered over her. It stood still, staring down at her. And then it shrunk. It was still a figure of flames, bright and orange, with white hot eyes, but now it was quite small – the same size as Lexie. In fact, seeing her standing and staring at it face to face – I realized it had taken Lexie’s shape. It was like seeing Lexie stare into mirror image made of fire.

The heat around us cooled. The smoke cleared. I twisted my head around – we were at the top of a plateau, and I could see the shoreline and Ylfsport, and the ocean stretching for miles beyond. It was like the smoke had never existed at all. I moved forward – slower than I had intended, my back twinging.

Lexie and the figure stared at each other for several moments in silence, and then it disappeared. I staggered forward until I was standing next to her, and the others were approaching as well. “What happened?” I asked.

Lexie seemed to startle from a trance. “That was the fire god,” she said. “She said I was her chosen.”

“It spoke to you?” Raella said as she approached. The barriers dropped from around us as she ended her concentration on the spell.

“Yes. She told me her name, and said that she’d give me…” Lexie glanced up. Something seemed to catch her attention. Frowning, her head twisted, looking up into the air around us. “What the fuck are those?”

We all looked around, confused, trying to see what Lexie was asking about. “What are what?” I asked.

Lexie pointed into the air, very near me. Then stabbed a finger into the air, above her head, and over towards Cassandra, and then very near Peyton. “Those! The orbs! You don’t see them?” She looked around at us, seeing the incomprehension in our expressions. “She said she was giving me Sight. That was what she meant. I can see these… weird orbs? Floating around us. They must be invisible.”

Raella frowned, looking uncomfortable as she glanced around. “We should return to the inn, for now,” she said. “And you must tell us everything of what happened when you… communed with your god.”

The Notebook

On By MaryIn Prompts, WritingLeave a comment

Okay! I have finished Baldur’s Gate 3 and can maybe manage to keep my next playthroughs from taking over all my time. Also, I have created a page that lists all the chapters thus far for the 2023 writing challenge, so that they can be easier to access in order. The link is above next to the About link.

The cards for this one are: stranger’s diary, and a person who knows something other people don’t. I had the basic idea from the beginning and pretty much stuck with it. It’s been hard to keep these short because I feel like they need more details, but I also didn’t intend to create anything long with the prompt challenges (the goal being to write something very short in one sitting). Not sure if that makes this story more abrupt in some ways?

Anyhow: le bullshit.

          It was a plain composition book left in a common area of Richard’s dorm. He had picked it up and flipped through the first few pages thinking it might have a name and he could return it to its owner. Instead of the class notes that he expected, he found a diary. He had glanced around, asked a few nearby people if they’d seen who had left it, but no one claimed it. For a moment he was wracked with indecision. If he left it, whoever it belonged to might come back for it. But it would also be out for anyone to read, and he knew how embarrassing that could be for some.

          Richard considered himself respectful of other people’s privacy, so with the best of intentions he took the diary to his room. He’d flip through just enough entries to identify the person and then return the diary to them. And he’d never tell anyone what was in it. There was nothing that immediately identified the writer unfortunately. The first several entries were mundane – daily activities, to do lists that were crossed out. The person used initials instead of full names for the most part.

          Richard was about to give up and possibly take the book back to where he found it when something caught his eye. An actual name, fully spelled out. A girl’s name – Felicia.

          Richard found himself reading the entry carefully, drawn to the name by one fact – Felicia was also the name of a girl that had recently disappeared on campus. No one knew what had happened to her. The diary detailed her appearance, which matched the pictures Richard had remembered seeing of the missing girl. It listed other basic facts about her – the schedules she kept, the routes she took to her job or to her classes, the places she liked to hang out, the people she routinely interacted with.

          It was creepy, and Richard found that he suspected where it was going even before it got there. But reading the entry from the date she disappeared confirmed it.

          How she was kidnapped. Where she was taken. What was done with her.

          A strand of long dark hair was taped to the page in a squiggly spiral.

          Richard continued reading the next several pages. It looked like the diarist had continued as normal for several entries before detailing information about another young woman named Emily. From the description, Richard recognized her as a girl that lived in the same dorm as him. He guessed that the stalker had likely left the book behind after observing her downstairs.

          All of the information in the book suggested that the person that wrote it already knew enough about Emily to pull off a successful abduction, to repeat what he had done to Felicia, to possibly add her hair to the notebook.

          After reading the final entry, Richard closed the composition book and tapped the cover thoughtfully, considering his options.

*********

          Emily was abducted that night, before Richard had even brought the book to the police. He had handed it to the officers, explaining that he had found it in the dorms and wasn’t sure who it belonged to or if any of it was even real or some sick prank. Pointing out the more recent entries about Emily, Richard saw the officers exchange worried looks. “She was reported missing just hours ago,” one of them told him. “Would you mind staying and answering some questions?”

          “Not at all,” Richard said. Richard provided everything he knew would help, and wished them luck on the case.

          His fingerprints were all over the diary, so he knew it was a risk. But he felt almost certain that he handled what he left behind so much better. Certainly, he never left behind a full diary detailing his deeds. He drove a meandering route, making sure that no one was tailing him, returning to where he had been that evening. If he was lucky, the diarist would be pinned for the little spree he had started at the beginning of the semester. It had spiraled a bit out of control, admittedly – he should have started his hunts farther from where he lived. But if the idiot was caught for what he had done to Felicia – certainly he would seem a likely culprit for Richard’s victims. After all, how many college campuses had two active serial killers?

          All Richard had to do was cool his urges, keep them in check, be smarter about it in the future.

          But he could still enjoy the night with Emily.

31. Cassandra

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Traveling through the Empire was much easier than our mad dash to the Empire, though I did miss having Silden and Larina with us. We traveled slowly even though we were on horseback, and there was a wagon for us to take turns in as well. I didn’t even mind listening to Raella drone too much, especially if I could get her on the subject of the gods. I did have a personal interest in that now, after all.

From what she said, I learned that the old pantheon included anywhere from five to fifteen gods. “We’re not sure if we are misunderstanding and perhaps counting some of them multiple times, or even missing some entirely. After all, it would be possible for one god to have several domains that they oversee.”

“Domains?”

“Yes… aspects of nature or powers that a god represents. Lucas’s manipulation of plant life and his animal companion suggests he is the favorite of the god of nature.”

“I’ve used a lot of lightning in my magic,” I mentioned.

Raella nodded thoughtfully. “There is a god whose domain is storms. Perhaps that one favors you.”

T’Keran, I thought to myself. I didn’t speak her name out loud, but still felt something like the stirring of a current in the air.

We had left the borders that ran along the canyon and the great desert, and followed a road that ran easterly along a southern sea. From my understanding of the maps I had seen, near the southeast corner of the Empire was a land bridge that connected the elven lands with the dwarven lands. The journey there was going to take a little over two weeks, maybe even three – we had a lot of ground to cover, traveling from the western border of the Empire all the way to the eastern corner of it. “Dwarves,” I had mused out loud when Raella mentioned them for the first time. “Do they live underground?”

Asterollan nearly choked on a laugh, and Raella gave me a very sharp look. “Every single one of you has asked that!”

“Really?” I said, eyeing Asterollan, who was very careful not to look at me. “It’s kind of a common…” I paused, not sure how to translate the word trope. “…idea. In our world.” Raella sighed in frustration.

There were cities along the southern coast, but fewer than I would have expected along the ocean. “During the Fracture, elves were so busy fighting amongst themselves that humans and dwarves managed to domineer the seas. Many small coastal towns were not able to survive in the south, where trade flourished between countries that had become hostile to us. We have managed to maintain some degree of naval dominance in the east and the north, at least,” Raella had explained.

During our travels, I tried teaching the others my healing spell. It was slightly awkward at first – the only way to heal was to cause an injury. Raella and Greyjon had both volunteered and took turns slicing small cuts across their arms so Asterollan and I could demonstrate the spell and so the others could practice. Only Lucas could manage it – in fact, I suspected he was more powerful than I was with it. Peyton’s version was not as effective, only as strong as Asterollan’s healing magic – she could close the wounds, but if it was a particularly deep cut it still left a faint scar. Lexie couldn’t manage it at all. “This is a completely unfair Uno reverse,” she grumbled at Lucas as she tried and tried again with no result.

Greyjon began to teach me some of the more martial lessons the others were learning too – I had taken archery classes before, so I had a grasp of the basics there. But Greyjon quickly decided that I had no business holding a sword, and I was given lessons with Lexie and Lucas with staves instead.

They were a little less sure on what to do with Lyre. He didn’t need to be trained in magic, and didn’t seem interested in learning to handle a weapon at all. They had lost the rapier in the spider’s den, and he didn’t miss it. They did decide to test his power when we were far from any towns or cities by suggesting that he cast the largest flame spell he could manage out towards the ocean. The breadth of it surprised even me – I had seen him lob balls of fire at things with ease, but the scorching inferno he summoned practically filled the horizon, and the heat radiating from it was intense. I don’t think I was the only one that took a step back in surprise. Guiding with his voice and a few gestures of his hand, he pulled the flames back into a central mote that glowed white hot, still radiating the same amount of heat. And then he snuffed the ball out of existence. Greyjon gave a long, low whistle into the silence as the heat disappeared. “You’re skilled. Nearly as adept as some of our more fearsome warlocks,” he said, his voice full of awe.

Lyre was gasping with the effort of the spell and rode in the wagon the rest of the day. He had seemed embarrassed by the compliment. “It’s almost annoying to think that Wrasker actually made me useful,” he said later, poking at his food.

“Wrasker didn’t make you useful,” I snapped, feeling somewhat angry at the idea. “Wrasker didn’t make you anything. You would have already been powerful and he just used that.” Lyre had stared thoughtfully into the middle distance as I spoke, neither arguing or acquiescing.

Zolambi spent a lot of time teaching Lyre about the Empire, perhaps giving him the same information that was being provided to Larina and Silden by other people. Lucas and Lyre also seemed to be on friendly terms.

Whenever there was a chance to stay in a town, Raella took it and, much as Lucas and Lexie had described, an entire inn was cleared for us each time. Sometimes the inns were quite small, and many of us shared rooms. Probably thanks to the close quarters, the leisurely nights sharing chores and watch duty in camps, and the lengthy travel, we were all getting to know each other quite well. I found that my fellow outworlders were all companionably nerdy and fun to talk to. Even Peyton, who had been intimidating at first when I considered her fame. And although Raella was aloof, both Greyjon and Chase were easy going and friendly.

Asterollan mostly kept to himself, and was very careful to avoid Lyre and Zolambi. He spent a lot of time with Raella. I had the feeling he was using her ability to chase the others away with her lessons and simply tuned her out most of the time. But if that was the case, he had mastered the ability to appear impressively attentive.

It was one of the nights that we had stayed at an inn that I first had the dream.

I recognized it was a dream as I was having it. Everything about it seemed instantly familiar, as though I was remembering it, and realized it was from a previous dream. But also, in the same instance, I realized it wasn’t from a previous dream of mine. This dream, I sensed, this recognition… it belonged to someone else entirely.

I was somewhere dark, deep underground, but still lit with blue arcane light that trailed down the passage I stood in. I turned at the sound of something cracking, crackling, like the sound of bones breaking. There stood a figure of shadow with bright white eyes, like beams of narrow light cutting through the dark to focus on me. I could hear a voice that I instantly recognized, softly murmuring something I couldn’t understand. The voice I had heard on the ship so long ago, that I had completely forgotten. The voice that said the seal was weakening. The deep, dark laugh.

That same laugh echoed again in my head as I woke. Still sleep fogged, my brain tried to recall the meaning of the words the shadow figure had spoken, but it was all frustratingly just beyond my grasp. The only thing I could remember with any clarity was that it wasn’t my dream. But whose dream was I sharing? I looked out across the darkened room, at Peyton and Chase’s forms in the other bed, and Lexie sleeping next to me.

I spent the next few days surreptitiously studying my companions a little more closely, but nothing anyone said or did suggested they were having dreams where they were talking to our supposed enemy. I was wondering if perhaps it was just a normal dream when it happened again a few nights later. It was the same place, the same strange arcane glow, the same deep laughter. The same sense that I was somehow observing someone else’s dream from their perspective. When I woke, I sat up in my bedroll and stared across the camp. Everyone appeared to be sleeping peacefully, aside from Asterollan and Raella who were on watch. I walked away from the campfire, up to the rise of a hill that sloped down into a pebbly beach. We weren’t very far from the sea, and the smell of the brine was heavy in the air.

Within sight of the water, I could see a glowing figure wading in the shallows. I squinted, frowning – it looked like a child, wearing a short robe or toga, with long flowing hair that grew translucent and disappeared into the air. I couldn’t tell if it was a little boy or a little girl, but I could hear the giggling, clear as a bell as it carried across the night air. I could see the bioluminescence of some creature – jellyfish, perhaps – moving through the water around it.

The figure stepped out of the water, moving up the beach, and strands of kelp and algae seemed to bloom at its feet. It stopped and stared up at me, smiling, and then disappeared.

 “Was that T’Keran?” Asterollan asked, practically right at my shoulder.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, I hadn’t heard him approach at all. I turned to look at him, saw that he was standing right next to me and staring out at the water. “You could see her?” I asked, surprised. He nodded. I paused as I considered. “No, I don’t think that was her.”

He stared out at the beach, a frown on his face. “They’re getting stronger,” he said.

I knew he meant the gods of this world. “Yes,” I said. “Have you seen yours?”

“Briefly, on occasion. A figure of light, out of the corner of my eyes, usually in bright daylight. I think a few of the others have spotted him too, but thought they were imagining it.”

“Hmm. I haven’t seen him yet.” I wondered what his name was. I wondered what it meant if we were seeing gods besides the ones that favored us. I wondered what it meant that I was sharing someone’s dreams. I yawned and stretched and turned away from the beach, suddenly exhausted by it all. I wished Asterollan a mumbled good night, and walked back to my bedroll.

The next night we stopped at the largest city I had seen yet – Ylfsport. This one had a docks district, but it looked like it mostly homed fishing vessels that stayed close to the bay the city was built in. We had pushed on along the road even as darkness fell intending to reach it since we were close, and because of the fading light we could see that far on the horizon, there was a foreboding orange glow out at sea. “Has something caught fire?” Raella asked the gate guards while they argued about the presence of Peter the spider.

The guards glanced at each other nervously. “There’s an island south of here that has the remains of an old temple,” one of them said.

“I am aware of it,” Raella said tersely. “Did something happen to it?”

“The entire island’s been burning for days now,” the other guard said.

“I see.” Raella seemed distracted through the rest of the evening. Although normally she preferred to stay at an inn close to the outskirts of the towns we stopped at, we wound our way through the roads of Ylfsport until we found an inn closer to the docks. It was interesting to be walking through an Elven city for the first time. Many of the stores had been closed earlier, and it was late enough that there weren’t many people out and about, beyond a few skulking shadows that seemed to decide a group of our size wasn’t worth messing with. Some of the taverns we passed were bright and boisterous though, and I could hear brief snatches of music and drunken laughter as we passed. The homes were well lit and I could smell various dinners being cooked. But as we got closer to the ocean, the smell of smoke became more overwhelming.

Once we were settled in at our destination and had our own fill of supper, Raella excused herself. She beelined for the door and left the inn. We all stared after her for a moment, before glancing around at each other, a little puzzled. “Maybe she’s trying to see if she can spot the fire?” Chase suggested.

The next morning, Raella called for our attention as we finished eating breakfast. “We may not be leaving immediately,” she said, looking mildly agitated. “To the south of Ylfsport is a small island that houses a temple. The entire island is on fire. There have been attempts to quell the flames, but nothing seems to work.” She sighed and looked up at each of us. “I would not normally want to detour, but the temple belonged to a fire god and there are rumors that the fire is divine in nature. Given my position at the University… and since it could be argued this is tangentially related to our mission… I plan to take a boat to the island today to see this divine flame for myself.”

“Are we going with you?” Peyton asked.

Raella hesitated. It seemed that she had planned to say no, but she paused on the word and seemed to consider the offer. “If you would like to,” she acquiesced with a brief nod.

I glanced around the table. “I would like to,” I said. A part of me was curious to visit another temple after having seen the last one. But I also wondered at how active the gods were becoming now.

“Oh, me too,” Lexie volunteered nearly on my heels. One by one, the others also mentioned wanting to go.

Raella sighed again and nodded. “I hope passage can be arranged for all of us,” she said. She voiced it like a complaint, but I thought she looked relieved to not be going alone. We kept the entire inn reserved for ourselves for that day and the entire next, and left the horses and the cart and much of our supplies in their care. At the docks, Raella made a deal for us to take a boat across to the island.

It was clear where the island was located because of the smudge of smoke that darkened the sky. It felt like the entire oceanside was hazy with it, but it thickened and concentrated in one area. The fisherman that owned the boat was reluctant to steer directly into it. “It’s dangerous. There’s zero visibility once you get close to the island, and it was never easy to land on with all its steep edges. I can get you to the side, but I don’t think I can navigate to any of the safer spots to berth.”

“That’s okay. We’ll manage it ourselves once we get there,” Raella said.

“But I’ll be risking damage to my vessel if I slam into the side of the island,” the fisherman complained.

“Then I will compensate you for any damages you take,” Raella responded, annoyed. “I think I am offering a more than fair deal. Will you do it or not?”

Within the next hour we were all loaded onto a large fishing boat with the fisherman and his oldest daughter. We sailed across the waters, approaching a bank of smoke so thick that it looked like a dense cloud. “That’s going to wreak havoc on our lungs,” Lucas said, looking concerned as we approached.

Raella began to glow. She held her hands aloft, and a soft light expanded out from her in a wave, large enough to encompass the entirety of the boat. As we sailed into the smoke, it shifted along the edges of the light.

“Oh, okay then,” Lucas said, and Peter happily chittered, waving its front legs along the edge of the barrier.