The Raising Sun

“Fenlar, wait!” I called as I halted and turned to tug loose my violet cape that had got entangled in thorny shrubs.

Apart from the young trees that had begun to grow again after the dragons’ fire had burnt down the forest, only the thorns covered the burnt soil. At least the vegetation looked healthy, and none of the trees showed any sign of corruption, indicating that the dragons’ fire had been clear of the venom that had corrupted other parts of the land.

“E’rin”

She shook her head and walked back to me, looking at my clothes with a soft smile playing on her lips. I knew she disapproved of my violet cape and the black Malorian tunic, the same that was worn by the soldiers of the Triumvirate, and the sturdy rune sword hanging from my belt, but I could say the same about her outfit.

She wore a grey, ill-fitting tunic and always ditched her shoes whenever she could, making her indistinguishable from the stream of people on their way home passing us every day. I knew that if I let her, she would be more than happy to wear nothing but a piece of fabric wrapped around her waist, just like the tribes from Aran-Amu on their small fishing boats.

I knew she came from there and tried to reconnect with a past that had been burnt by the dragons' fire, but still… She was Ardryll Fenlar Ynquirelle, the greatest hero of our time. She picked at the edge of my cape, removing the thorny seeds from the fabric, and I sighed and looked at her.

“We should take to the air and survey the forest from there…”

I’d had enough of walking, and the hot, humid weather so common in Sudar at the end of the summer only worsened my mood. But she only shook her head.

“Dragon magic is difficult to detect as it is when it's dormant, and even more so from a distance."

“But you are not a scout..." I pouted.

I glanced around the landscape. It was pointless to try to find anything like this.

“It was our people who burnt down this land…” she murmured, and her expression changed as sadness swept across her face.

I frowned.

“We didn’t. It was the Naeglor, not us.”

She sighed and put her hand on my shoulder.

“It was us who chose this land to meet them in battle before they could reach Sur-Cati. The people here don’t care what burnt their homes."

I shivered as she spoke. I knew well what these kinds of battles could do.

Fenlar had found me in the smouldering ruins of Vanu-Nar that had once been my home and took pity on me. She kept me close as her group made their way through snowy passes of the Urin Mountains, too depleted after the last battle to dare to challenge the dragons roaming the sky and instead hoped that their simple spells would hide us from sight.

Once we reached Urin-Tar, I pleaded with her to let me continue with her. She’d told me later that I hadn’t been the first, nor the last, to make such a request, but she’d always refused. But this time, she relented. At least for the time being. Once she found that I could stay in the Magistrate Academy in Westaria, she left me, telling me I would be safer. She wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t stop me from running away to join the Triumvirate's army marching towards Kai-Karu to stop the hordes of undead that poured into the fertile plains of the Anu River. It was only when she found out that she relented for good, and I had been her spotter ever since, sworn to serve her as I would have served my people had they survived.

I still remembered the first time she helped me to put on the Adamantine armour and the feeling of dread that gripped my heart as the dark metal touched my bare skin. Now I would experience the battle from the other side. She must have seen the fear in my eyes as she summoned her griffin. Her arms wrapped around me as we took to the air and held me until I dared to trust that the harness would hold me in place.

I don’t know what I had expected, but we barely had time to form a wing when the first dragons appeared on the horizon: dark shapes moving quickly through the sky, with the sun reflecting on their metallic bodies. I screamed when their claws crashed into our barriers, and the sky erupted with the dragons' fire.

I took the griffin high in the sky, and Fenlar summoned Meteor Strike, pummeling the dragons’ armoured bodies from above and laying desolation to everything in the spell's range. Back then it was the best thing we could do: hit them hard and force them to crash in the lands below, trying not to think about the desolation our spells wrought to the fertile fields or worry about dragons’ venom poisoning the soil…

The smell of the dragons' fire filled the air, and the wind howled around us as we plunged towards another target growing bigger in front of us with every passing heartbeat.

“It’s okay, E’rin…it’s okay…”

I was back in the forest with Fenlar’s arms wrapped around me.

“We made it…” I whispered, resting my burning head on her chest. “We won…”

“We did…” she whispered and stroked my back.

I pulled away from her.

"Let's continue…” I murmured.

Part of me wished I could stay in her arms forever, but I wasn't a kid anymore, and I hated when she had to care for me like this. She watched me adjust my sword and sighed but didn’t say anything as we continued walking through the forest. She did slow her pace, though, to walk next to me, and I didn’t comment on it even though both of us knew that the RuneSphere I held in my hands would interfere with her detection spell.

Suddenly she halted and looked at me.

“Do you feel anything?”

I looked into the crystal, but the runes only shone with a soft yellow light, indicating no danger. I shook my head.

“And with your magic?” she prompted, peering into the forest.

I frowned. Why didn’t she just tell me what she felt? Most of the time, I liked when she tried to teach me, but was this the best moment for it? It was hot, my feet were sore after days of walking, and none of us knew if the small village we’d seen in the old tax records was still there or how much longer we needed to walk to find out.

But I turned off the RuneSphere and took a deep breath, casting a series of detection spells, and then carefully listened to the resonance they created.

“Nothing," I said and looked at her.

“It’s there.”

She pointed between the trees.

I activated the RuneSphere, pouring extra power into it, and aimed it towards where she’d pointed, but the runes didn’t change, still shining in soft yellow light. But I trusted her words. She was one of the greatest sorceresses walking this world.

“How do you know?”

She smiled.

“Magic is not a set of tools you can use. It’s an infinite set of possibilities only limited by your imagination."

I smiled at her words. I’d heard them so many times, but even now I still didn’t fully understand them. But to be honest, probably not even the wise ones grasped its true meaning either. After all, she was Ardryll, The Raising Sun: a title bestowed on her by the people of Tri-Lan after her magic burnt the dragons descending on their city. It had been long before I joined.

I tried to visualise what she did and then hesitantly cast the few detection spells I could remember, but all the resonance that came back was clear.

I sighed and looked at her.

“How do you do it?”

“Feel the forest. Feel how the trees spread their roots under the soil."

She smiled, and I did as she said, tuning myself to the soft flow of life that permeated the land. At first I couldn’t feel anything. I’d never really used this type of magic. It had been pretty useless during the war, but Fenlar had reassured me that it was easy and that I could do it if I just paid attention.

“Look for what feels off. Is there any anomaly in the flow?” she asked, looking at frustration painted on my face.

I blinked. When she pointed it out, the disruption in the flow was obvious, but I’d completely missed it when I only listened for the resonance that the dragons' magic gave.

“It’s there..."

I smiled and pointed into the forest. She nodded.

“Life shuns being near it, even if it's dormant."

She stepped off the path and walked towards the trees.

“Fenlar, wait!”

I grabbed her hand.

“It’s okay, E’rin. It’s dormant," she said softly.

She put a hand on my shoulder, and I tried to calm my mind and focus on her touch instead.

“We don’t know," I frowned.

“Fine, fine…”

She smiled, not wanting to argue with me, and put her hands on my chest, summoning my Adamantine armour, and I looked away, trying to hide my blush and hoping she didn’t see my flushed face or feel my heartbeat under her palms.

I dared to glance at her as she summoned hers, and the armour wrapped around her body before I forced myself to look away and cast the barrier.

We hesitantly set out between the trees, leaving the path behind, but for once the thorny bushes and low-hanging branches didn’t bother me. I had got so used to wearing the armour that I barely noticed its weight, and I could easily travel in it all the time. I had done it when we set out on our journey, and I continued after the war had ended until I noticed a wave of sadness sweep across her face every time I summoned it. Only then had I reluctantly given it up, even if, in the beginning, the lack of its weight made me feel helpless and vulnerable.

The forest was quiet as we made our way through the thicket, and my gaze was so focused on the RuneSphere, looking for any signs of danger, that my heart skipped a beat when Fenlar called my name and pointed ahead.

There it was. A dragon claw forged from dark steel and magic we could not understand, sticking out of soil devoid of any vegetation. It was taller than me, and I shivered, looking at the smooth metallic surface unchanged by the weather, even if the claw must have sat in this place for years.

“Why hasn’t it exploded?” I whispered, part of me fearing that my voice would unleash its magic, even if I knew it wasn’t possible.

“I don’t know…” she murmured and put her hand on my shoulder.

I sighed with relief, feeling her touch.

“Sometimes their magic seemed to fail for no reason…”

“Does it have venom…?”

I glanced at the alien shape, fully aware that the forest, still remembering the destruction the dragons had brought to our world, feared to creep near it.

“I don’t think so. It's too small, but let me see."

A cyan light emerged from her hands and enveloped the claw.

“Be careful…” I whispered, readying my RuneShield.

“It’s okay. It’s safe,” she said, releasing her spell, and the cyan light faded.

“Shall we destroy it here?” I asked, still pressing my hand on my RuneShield.

“No, it will hurt the forest. Let’s lift it in the air and melt it with fire."

She looked at me, and I slowly nodded. It was more dangerous than just blasting it from a distance, but she was right. Our world was slowly healing, and it would be unfair to throw all that effort away.

“You’ll cast a barrier around it, and I will lift it?”

She nodded and patted my shoulder.

“Then I’ll blast it when it's high in the air."