Djinn

I, Asa, was there when the sky fell.

I had only just become a spirit, but my training as a mage had prepared me well. I could tell my mana was that of air magic. It was fairly simple to use my aura to fly, almost easier than walking in fact. Alexandros and Sigrid flashed through the sky in front of me; they were practically everywhere at once as they cut down dragonriders who were trying to reach Wish, whether to capture or kill her, I didn't know. Some dragonriders flew far to either side, trying to get around. I picked the one furthest out and sped towards them.

I tried to summon a gust of wind as I went, intending to knock the spirit off their mount, but all I did was blow the dragon slightly off course. That got the rider's attention, however, and they reined in their dragon to circle me.

I found myself the recipient of a hungry smile as a female spirit with sharp claws looked at me. "Oh hello there. I thought I felt a sneeze."

She swiped the air with her hand, and green fire streaked out from her claws, whistling towards me like a whip. I dropped to evade, and punched an updraft right under the dragon's right wing. The spirit yelped as the dragon went upside down before righting itself again.

"Alright, alright, guess I'll have to deal with you before I can retrieve my power source." She looked longingly at Wish, still sending ripples of fire over the city to shield it. "She's magnificent, isn't she?"

I took her distraction as an opportunity, and charged straight at her, thinking I could aim myself better than I could aim a gust.

Big mistake. At the last second, she turned back towards me with an expectant smile, and clawed at my throat. In the turbulent air, she missed and caught my chin instead. I tumbled past her, riding my own turbulence, before slowing to a stop.

"I heard about how Dschubba used Wish to power his sunkiller."

"Oh?" The spirit examined her claws, and smiled again at me, her face more teeth than anything. "Did she happen to mention me?"

She clawed the air again, and green tendrils sizzled to life. I lost track of where I was going; it didn't matter so long as I got away from that thin fire.

"Technically I heard her story from someone else, but no, you weren't important enough to be in it."

She frowned at that. "Well, I did refuse to introduce myself after all. Let me fix that."

She bowed dramatically in her saddle. "I am Graffias, maker of the sunkiller, one of Dschubba's commanders. And who might you be?"

I realized we were fighting above a park, and I decided to knock both her and her dragon down together. Rising high above her head, I replied as I summoned as much force as I could muster, "I'm a friend of Wish. That's all you need to know."

Graffias rolled her eyes. "No personality outside of your position, I see."

"Sounds like you're projecting."

I hit her with a downdraft.

Her dragon flapped frantically, trying to get forward out of it. She bared her teeth in what was definitely NOT a smile and reached up towards me, but my wind batted away her whip-flames before they got anywhere near me.

In a move that was equal parts practical and insane, she stood atop her saddle and launched herself sideways, outside of my downdraft, so her fire could reach me unimpeded.

Caught completely off guard, I dodged too late, and a tendril wrapped around my bare foot. I screamed in pain and tried to go up and shake her off, but the tendril was solid mana, and I pulled her up with me. Beneath us, her dragon recovered, and with a sorrowful trill it returned to its mistress. She settled into the saddle, and now with the mass of the dragon to lend her leverage, she yanked me down.

I was just out of her reach as a giant tree crashed into the dragon's left wing. She and her dragon spiraled one way, and I fled the other direction. Once I had what felt like a safe distance between us, I looked back and gasped. The biggest tree I had ever seen was sprouting up from the park. In one of the upper limbs was a female figure, silhouetted against the fiery sky.

Eva.

She opened her mouth and let out a cry that reminded me of a song she always said felt like a call to arms. The other trees in the park exploded upwards in a surge of growth. I saw Graffias pulling the reins of her dragon, trying to steer it around treetops and through branches. The dragon cried out as its wing was pierced by a branch in passing, breaking off and weighing down the wing.

"No! I'm sorry!" Eva cried. Even now she still had a soft spot for animals. I gritted my teeth and resolved to end this. Using the time Eva was buying me, I started to circle the impossibly tall grove, pulling air after me. I angled myself slightly upward, and Graffias urged her dragon up as well, clawing apart any branches that were in her way with her fire. We spun in opposing spirals, and I started to worry she would reach Eva before I could finish my trap.

I needn't have worried. Eva stared down at Graffias, with a fierce expression I had never seen before but that suited her well.  Just before those flaming tendrils reached her, Eva leapt backwards and dropped. My stomach dropped too, in fear, but Eva simply reached backwards and caught the branch of another tree right as it grew within her reach. Graffias turned and gave chase. Eva leapt from branch to growing branch, using the propulsion of their growth to lend her speed. She used them so precisely to move, that the tree limbs may as well have been her own limbs. Too distracted by her chase, Graffias didn't notice that I had completed my cyclone. For now they were in the eye of the storm. But all I need to do was shift it to the side.

Eva looked up at me. I pointed to the side and mouthed "jump".

I felt honored at she looked at the wall of wind I had just pointed towards, looked back at me, and with total trust, leapt towards it.

I shifted the cyclone, keeping the eye of it centered on Eva.

The wall hit Graffias, sucking her into it like a whirlpool. Shrieking, she was pulled from her saddle as I had been trying to do from the beginning of the fight. Branches snapped off and whirled around as well. In a few moments that would have been horribly bloody if Graffias weren't a spirit, the branches had pulverized her.

I dropped the cyclone. Branches fell through the air, hitting the ground with loud thuds and snaps. From far below, the dragon moaned, still in pain from the branch in its wing, but by some miracle otherwise unhurt. Eva swung her way down to the dragon and did her best to cradle its massive head in her lap. I joined her, floating gently to the ground at her side. We looked up at the sky, with Sigrid, Alexandros, and Orion still battling other dragonriders, with Wish's fire illuminating them.

"Asa?" Eva's voice was shaking, but there was an undercurrent of strength in it. I turned to her. Green and blue flames reflected off her eyes.

"I hate fighting."

That was all she said. But when another dragonrider flew overhead, she followed me back into battle without hesitation.