Chapter 9

‘It’s so hot, something’s burning. Where am I?’ Sunder’s thoughts echoed in an empty void, his eyes engulfed by a blindingly white light. ‘I can’t feel my body, but this heat, it’s unbearable. Is… Is this it? It can’t be. No, please. Please, I need another chance.’ His pleading vanished into the void as soon as it left his mind, burnt away like everything else. ‘I am sorry, father.’

A weeping breeze crept from behind him, flowing up from him, or was it down? He was unsure, but it quickly began spinning around him from all directions, circling him like a cocoon as the air got closer to him. The moment the first strand of wind touched his skin, thousands of followers rushed down to his heart, piercing it before scattering away.

The wind stopped abruptly, and everything once again grew painfully hot. Sunder felt blood boil, but he was unsure if it was his own. The pure white light that grazed his eyes grew heavier with every added layer of heat, like the sun was slowly sinking on top of him. It was like everything was melting, yet Sunder remained static, unmoving, lost.

The heat vanished with a sharp shock, replaced now by a skittering cold. His veins began cracking as his bloodstream froze over, and his heart broke down the moving crimson shards as it tried to keep itself warm with the last fresh droplets of blood he had. Sunder exhaled for the first time since regaining his consciousness, allowing himself to feel his heart beat thrice, before stopping once again.

The cold didn’t vanish, but his wandering thoughts quickly did, his mind overwhelmed by this experience. Darkness took over the blinding light, and the cracking of ice was muffled as Sunder’s body began compressing, getting crushed from all points. He strained to breathe as the air could only leave his body, he felt himself at the planet’s center, shackled by the earth from all directions.

As the weight of the world gave his body shape, Sunder’s eyes trembled, and he felt them close. Everything grew quiet as the seconds passed, but it was never silent. ‘What’s that sound?’ his mind was woken up by a small gust of wind that softly twirled around his ears, ‘Crying, someone’s crying.’ a small spark lit a fire on his mind, it began racing, chasing that familiar sound. The air rushed once more to his core, whirling like a tornado, pulling into him all that he felt since the first gust of wind escaped him, and the sound began to grow louder, as a familiar voice emerged from around the void. ‘Yeng!’

Sunder’s body twitched, lying on a large mound of hardened sand, made to resemble a bed, just slightly softer than solid stone. He had remained motionless up to that point, in a small empty room with only him and Yeng. She sat on the floor, leaning against a wall with her head in her hands, sobbing from time to time.

“You’re not dead.” she mumbled, “So stop lying there and wake up!” punching the ground, her red knuckles seemed to be used to the pain.

‘I can hear her voice… She’s safe!’ he began to feel his body, little by little, but he still couldn’t move.

‘That was a proper nap, but it is about time you get to work.’

As a raspy voice rushed past Sunder, every muscle in his body tensed up. Nearly leaping off the bed, he opened his eyes, their once gray pupils replaced by a pure shining white, and saw the room he was in. He barely had time to turn his head before Yeng leaped on top of him,

“Yeng,” he said, his voice dry and weak, “what happened?” she took a moment before answering, hugging him as tight as she could, enjoying this fleeting moment of peace.

“It’s been a week since that day.” she said in a soft voice.

“What?” he tried his best to pry himself away from Yeng, but he was still too drained. “Where are the others?”

Yeng finally let him go, trying her best to straighten herself, “They’re gone.”

‘No.’

“Wh-what do you mean?” he asked.

‘No no no.’

“They vanished that day, I couldn’t even find a body to bury.”

‘No!’ Sunder’s mouth stood ajar, completely lost for words.

Yeng punched the bed, marking it with small droplets of blood that jumped from her knuckle. “That bitch!”

“Yeng,” he grabbed her arm, still dazed, “what happened since then?”

She looked back at him and took a deep breath, “When the light disappeared, everyone else was gone. I ran to you the moment I was able to, but you were burning.” she lifted her sleeve, revealing her arm, some dark scars had yet to fully heal. “Flames just kept appearing around you, like you were setting the air on fire. Then the sand began freezing around you. That thing called you ‘unstable’, then she picked you up and brought you here. Since then she’s acted like I don’t exist.

A second of silence lingered as Sunder waited for more information. “And then?”

“Then a week passed until you woke up.”

“You’ve been here locked with me an entire week? What did you eat?”

She pointed to the room’s exit. The building was completely made of stone, so every room had an open entrance. “We still had our supplies outside, and the camels…”

“Why didn’t you escape?”

“You weren’t dead, I needed to stay here to take care of you. I couldn’t just carry you by myself all the way back.”

“And the scouts, why didn’t you call for them?”

“Parts of their armor were around you after that happened, I walked up to one of the camps and everything was gone. I assume the other three ended up the same way.” biting down on her finger, she tried to keep her composure. “How the fuck did we think we had a chance against something like that?”

“Yeng.” Sunder grabbed her shoulder, “Are you all right?” his eyes veered over to his hand as he finished talking, on the back of it stood an oval milky-white gem, encrusted deep in his skin. With a slight glance, he saw there stood in his other hand a similar gem.

She looked straight at him with a soft smile. “No. So what do we do now Captain?”

As a tear fell on Yeng’s smile, Sunder’s heart began to beat with twice its strength. His body began heating up, and he quickly felt his energy come back to him. Stumbling from his bed, he walked out of the room, slowly gaining speed.

“Sunder, where are you going?”

Entering the library’s main hallway, it didn’t seem like such a maze as last time. He instinctively turned corners in the hall as if he had always traveled through them. Right now he was barely thinking, all he knew was that he had to face that woman, and that his body was leading him to her. He was eventually faced with a turn that led nowhere, just a stone wall stood in front of him.

“Sunder!” screamed Yeng, slightly out of breath as she caught up to him, “what are you doing?”

Sunder looked back to see Yeng, standing behind him with both legs apart. He tilted his head down and saw the trail he had left, a line of ruptured stone, as if a kid had drawn a line in the sand, on top of those lines, small embers floated. His head snapped back once more as the stone wall that he faced was raised, revealing the stone woman carrying a pile of scrolls.

“Oh, finally awake, are we?” they both gazed at the woman in an angered silence, the woman who had killed their crew, who had cursed Sunder, smiling. “Good.” she began walking forwards, pushing Sunder out of the way with her scrolls. After gesturing Yeng to step to the side, she slid her fingers down a part of the wall, merging it with the floor. A small entrance to the main room where they met her was opened, and the woman stepped inside.

Sunder and Yeng shared a look of discomfort before cautiously stepping back into their last battlefield, and with a glance, they managed to scout the area. Despite its size, and the stairs that spiraled around the pillars to a small second floor, the room only had a couple of stone shelves and other furniture, along with sections of the walls with the same markings as the hallways. It appeared smaller than the last time they were there, but they could hardly remember such details from that day.

The woman placed her scrolls on a table, their thudding sound uncharacteristically louder than that of regular scrolls. With a complacent smile, she turned around to them, “I have yet to present myself. My name is Gaia, I am the keeper of The Elements and caretaker of this library. I will humor four questions from y-”

“Where is my father’s sword?” Sunder’s voice echoed throughout the mostly empty library, without a twinge of fear. With all sorts of thoughts rushing through him, this was the one constant in his mind.

A light crackling sound echoed through the room as the woman’s skin tightened and twisted into a scowl as she stepped closer to him, towering over the boy. The dusty green clothes she wore gave her an even greater authority, resembling the garments of an old Empress, simple from afar, but regally detailed upon close inspection, their emerald color clashed with her marble-like clear complexion. “Of course. How nostalgic, to see a man’s first thought be over their weapon.” with heavy footsteps she lumbered past Sunder, the vibrations that emerged around her nearly enough to knock Sunder to the ground. The instant Gaia was out of sight, Yeng looked over to the boy.

“Was that really the first thing you had to say? We have to leave right now, it’s too risky to stay here.”

“It might be just as risky to try to escape from her. She didn’t kill us for a reason. And what I did back there, those cracks, the ice… Do I have the Elements? We can’t leave until we get some answers.”

“I understand you’re just full of adrenaline right now, but in case you don’t remember what she said that day, whatever she’s doing right now is not meant to be good for us.” her fears just managed to escape Gaia’s ears as she returned to the room.

“Here.” She carried the weapon in both her hands as if carrying a relic, delivering it to Sunder with a care she had yet to show to anything else, even the scrolls she was carrying. “Despite that heavenly craftsmanship, I cannot help but despise those instruments. So many like you have such infatuation for tools meant only to kill.”

“It’s the men who use them improperly that you should despise, the weapon should not be blamed for its wielder.” Sunder tried his best to keep his composure, despite every bone and muscle in his body pushing him to run. He fought to ignore his instinct with every second he spent close to Gaia.

“I guess you are correct. It’s only your kind that’s despicable, I shouldn’t blame the metal for being forced into that shape by your hands.”

“You are not on a solid enough ground to accuse us of such. I have yet to draw blood with this sword. It doesn’t even belong to me, it is my father’s.”

“I can feel the thousands of times that sword has been cleaned, the thousands of lives it took, their screams are still inside this sheathe. You might have yet to reap your share of souls, but your father is clearly not like you.”

“My father is an Emperor, this sword is a symbol that inspires people.”

“You certainly have been taught to defend him, I wonder how many more speak his praises out of fear. That is a weapon used to break people. A great man would protect people with that symbol, all this did was inspire men to their graves. Your father is nothing but a murderer.”

Small embers flashed around Sunder’s hands, Yeng had long realized what was about to happen, but she was too scared to act. “Don’t speak of my father like you know him, not after you killed my entire crew. Apologize.”

“There it is, that human anger, unlike any other beast, fueled only by ego. Not the will to protect their lives but their image. You will soon enough become just like its previous wielder, slashing through hordes of innocent families with that demonic blade.”

Sunder felt his body move by itself, despite wanting to remain still, he knew he couldn’t. He dropped his father’s sword and ran toward the woman, his hands encased in fire and his feet leaving behind a trail of ice. Gaia raised a single finger in the air, pulling from the ground dozens of flexible stone vines that held up both Sunder and Yeng, slamming them high against the ceiling.

“Is it all right for me to judge you now? I have yet to see humanity accept their wrongdoings, daring instead to kill and slaughter as proof of their innocence, to sin to their heart’s content as they scout for a reason to their actions. To what end did you desecrate the tomb of the world’s knowledge? To what end did you burn it to the ground?” her voice boomed as the vines began hardening around them, “These powers are nothing to you but another weapon.”

Sunder’s neck twisted amidst the vines, ripping his skin as he tried to look over to Yeng, who stood mortified, grasping the stone vines with all her strength, in fear of falling. “Let her go, she’s done nothing!” As it grew harder to speak, he tried grabbing the vines, wetting them with his blood, and slowly tearing them away. “I was the one who attacked you. Let her go!”

Gaia’s anger quickly faded, as a spark of curiosity took its place. She lowered her vines, putting both Sunder and Yeng on the ground. As they both regained their breath, she turned her back on them. Lowering three different walls of the library, she opened a path to the outside and carefully sauntered through the sand. She turned back, her eyes piercing Sunder, and the ground beneath him began moving, holding him down and pulling him up to Gaia.

“You are right, this is not her fight. She is meant to suffer by seeing you break.”

Several grains of sand began rattling around her, before jumping up high above her and forming a boulder. The rock flew toward Sunder, who barely had the distance to dodge it, digging his feet into the sand as he tried jumping to the side.

“Why are you doing this?” he screamed out, trying to gain time to get on his feet.

“Is this not what you wanted? To fight? Try to punch me, burn me, cut me down! Unleash those urges and show that I am right!”

With sand twirling around her, another rock was created, bigger and flying toward Sunder fast enough to outspeed a cannonball. ‘I can’t dodge this.’ Raising his arms in front of his face, he saw for but a moment before closing his eyes, sand floating in front of him. The boulder smashed against his body, but he felt its force was dispersed somewhat. He kneeled over the remains of the rock, coughing blood, unable to see straight, his head kept ringing, his heart was ready to give out, and his arms were unresponsive. ‘What can I even do against this?’

Gaia created another boulder, this one even larger than her, and threw it in the air, arcing against Sunder. He tried moving but his body was stuck, sand climbing up his leg and holding down his spine, revolving around his arms and spinning them behind his back.

“Sunder!” screamed Yeng, finally running out from the library, holding his sword. Her knees gave out the moment she stepped into the sand, feeling an overwhelming terror at the sheer sight of Gaia’s power. She felt helpless, she was helpless.

The rock once more shattered on impact, creating a small cloud of dust that lingered in silence. ‘Get up.’ Sunder’s vision was tinted red as the blood from his wounds flowed into his eyes, just barely keeping themselves open. ‘You are not dying here.’ His body tried its best to move, but even the air on top of him seemed to weigh him down. Every one of his muscles pulsed at the same sinking rhythm as his heart. ‘You survived too much already, you are not dying to a simple rock. Get up.’

“Get up!” Yeng’s frightened screams couldn’t reach Sunder, but he lifted himself nonetheless. The gems in his hands faintly flickering with a white light, nearly invisible under the harsh desert sun.

“You want to be a part of this fight?” asked Gaia, “Fine.” the sand around Gaia began floating once more. Not joining together, the sharp grains flew toward Yeng, like a shower of sand. She raised the sword in front of her, closing her eyes as the memories of her comrades flashed through her. A roaring sound passed through her as she felt a wave of heat barely miss her. Opening her eyes, she saw the dying tail of a white jetting flame going past her, looking over to its end she saw small sparkling shards of glass amidst the sand. Her head snapped in the opposite direction as she looked at Sunder. His eyes were incandescent, the blood pooling around him floating upwards in a crimson cloud for only a moment before vanishing.

“Oh, look at that, finally awake, are we?” Gaia ran as a large staff of hardened sand began forming in her hands. She readied her strike, but as her eyes met with Sunder’s blank stare, a flaming roar surrounded her, and she hesitated. Throwing herself away from him, she pushed the ground against her to gain an even greater distance. Looking back at her hands, the large staff hand melted around her hands, forming a pair of hard glass shackles. Keeping her eyes low, Gaia felt for the first time Sunder’s presence, like a flaming titan had just replaced him.

‘Stop, this is too much. We need to be better than her. Shield Yeng, protect yourself. That is all we need to do.’ Sunder ran toward Gaia, barely touching the ground, as if he was stepping over the flames he created. Circling her, his movements grew faster as the fire around his body began chasing Gaia. ‘Stop moving. Please stop. Do not hurt her.’

The spinning flames grew into a typhoon, dissipating only several feet into the sky. Sunder backed away and the fire fell onto Gaia, like a wave crashing from all sides. The curtain of heat disappeared, and Gaia was unharmed, but her expression spewed anger. Before she could ready herself to attack, her expression changed once more into that of shock as a boulder, ten times her size, was flung above her, being pushed down at the speed of a diving hawk. Like a meteor, the crashing rock came down on top of them both, hurling sand all the way back inside the library. ‘Calm down! We do not have to fight!’

Yeng yelped as sand shackles tied her down, and Gaia shot out from within the debris, landing in front of her. “What did you do?” screamed Gaia as the sand twirled up around Yeng, “What did you spark in him?”

As she was about to move closer to Yeng, a white mist seeped out from the clumps of rocks that stood over Sunder. The shards of flying rock hit Gaia like daggers, barely missing Yeng, and within the wreckage, Sunder stood encased in an armor of ice, his charred clothes cracking into dust before mixing with the freezing mist.

‘Do not hurt her.’ Each step he took froze the ground, creating an incessant hissing sound as the burning grains of sand exploded with the sudden cold. ‘Do not hurt her.’

The air around Gaia began twisting, pulling sand toward her. She tried to maintain her footing, having the ground hold her legs, but as the lines of ice crept up to her, she jumped away, fearing losing her legs. Just as she was about to land on a floating surface of sand she created, a large gust of wind threw her down, dragging her up to Sunder. As a small typhoon threw her back into the air, Sunder tracked her with a single jump, with a blade of ice enclosed in his arms. As he slammed both of his arms up, Sunder stopped, as if his body had frozen in the air. The wind stopped abruptly, and the ice covering him shattered, as Gaia gracefully landed on the ground, followed by a weeping wind that softly spun around them.

“Playtime is over.” as she gestured her fingers down, Sunder felt thousands of sharp particles pressing on his body, pulling him toward her. “Consider yourself lucky, being allowed to live like this.” Then with a swift movement, she struck him in the chest, knocking him out cold. “I might not have been so rash in my decision after all.” she whispered to herself.

‘Good.’