Chapter 10

Sunder opened his eyes to find a dark room. He looked around the dark room he was in, similar to the void that had trapped him previously.

‘Where am I?’ he thought. Getting up without any problem he realized his body was unharmed after his fight with Gaia. This was only a momentary thought as he was too focused on this dark space, knocking himself against walls he couldn’t see, it was strange that his eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness yet. As his hands rubbed against the walls, he found some familiarity in its rough surface, small markings randomly scattered throughout. He quickly tried recalling his way around the library, bumping his way around the nigh-invisible walls. Not until he turned a corner did a flicker of light catch his eye.

An old woman, with dark oak-like sagging skin and graying hair, sat slouched on a wooden chair, both seemingly moments away from crumbling. She seemed too small for the chair and even more so compared to the scroll that barely fit in her hands. Sunder stood in silence, waiting for the woman to notice him.

‘Oh, my apologies.’ the woman’s voice echoed in his head, the movement of her mouth severely delaying her words. She rolled up the scroll and placed it on a table that Sunder could swear wasn’t there moments before, and after a small struggle, she got herself off from her chair. The woman’s dry coughs echoed through the room, hacking small amounts of saliva to the floor. “My apologies, one thousand speechless years can make your throat quite stiff.” she said, bowing her head ever so slightly.

“Uhm. What’s happening?”

“What is happening, be respectful when speaking to your elders.”

“Apologies. What is happening?”

“Hm, better. Firstly, let us present ourselves. I am Alexia Prehma.” the woman’s dry, tired voice puttered out from her, crackling like the wood on a dying campfire.

“I am Sunder.”

“And your last name?”

“I don’t- I do not have one.” ‘What the hell am I doing?’

‘I can hear you.’

“You, your voice!” Sunder took a step back, keeping his guard up, “How long have you been in my head?”

The woman got back on her chair, sighing as she rubbed her eyes. “This will be a long night.” from thin air she grabbed a small ceramic cup filled with steaming tea and took a sip, “I have been in your head ever since Gaia turned you into an Elemental.” she paused her dialogue, fixed on Sunder, who remained observant yet expressionless. “Did you know this already? It cannot be, I heard your every thought from the moment you were awakened. Your lack of surprise is... surprising to me.”

“I have time to react to all this later, right now I just want as many answers as possible.”

“All right,” her lips cracked as a smile quickly followed a sharp nasal exhalation, “then I will do my best to remain concise.” she straightened herself and cleared her throat, hacking to the floor once more. “You are an Elemental, and I once was one too. We were gifted control over the four basic elements of creation, fire, wind, water, earth.” Alexia took a deep breath. Her hands moved in a circle in front of her, palms down, she lowered them, from her neck, down to her waist. As she breathed out and slowly raised her hands, rotating them up, a large flame ignited up above her, lighting up the dark void where they stood to reveal the library’s main hall, a livelier version of it. The walls were not adorned with scratches, but instead, they supported large stone shelves filled with thousands of scrolls, the stone itself felt younger, sturdier.

“Wait. I am sorry to interrupt, but are there not five elements?”

“Oh? Tell me then what they are.”

“Fire, earth, metal, water, and wood.”

Alexia raised a curious eyebrow. “The moment you were awoken, what did you feel passing through your body? Did you feel the wind go through you, joining every other element into your being, or did you feel metal and wood smack you in the face?”

“But that-” Sunder clenched his fist, pushing through his troubled memories as hard as he could. “That thing Gaia trapped us in, it was a pentagram, I-I at least assumed it was. I had not thought much about it, but it made sense to me, just like my father taught me, a point for each element.”

“You were close, but that little shape had six points. Two triangles converging together, in the same way that only two Elementals can exist at once, one brings balance to the other. Fire and water clash, from them, steam emerges, the air carries the water to the sky, separating it from the earth.” Alexia began twirling her finger in the air, and from her tea flew two strands of water, twining themselves together around Sunder. “Life too, is but a series of connections and separations, each rippling, reacting it one another along their path. You are the result of thousands of reactions, the consequence of millions of actions that were taken long before you were even conceived. This was not destiny, nor was it fate, but it was inevitable.”

“But why? I apologize, but I just do not understand. What just happened with Gaia, what she did, what I did, how is that-”

“You came on a journey in search of the Elements, correct?” Sunder’s expression quickly answered on his behalf, “I have been here for some time, enough to see through all your memories in mere moments. You came in search of what you now have, it may not have occurred like you would have wanted to, but rarely does life ever offer that kindness.”

“So, what does it mean, now that I have this? What duties do I have now?”

“You make of those what you wish. Unlike most, you have been given the brush to paint a picture of your life, from this point on, fate is finally in your hands.

Sunder grabbed his hair, sitting down on the ground. “So, were their deaths also destined to happen?”

“They were but the reaction to your actions.”

A ring of flame flashed around Sunder for a moment as he ripped a couple of hairs from his head, punching the ground. “That scar - you know exactly what I’m talking about - what did she do to deserve that?”

“I never said people cannot make mistakes.” Alexia began livening up, seemingly taking that subject personally, “Gaia may not be human, but she is as much a result of our actions as that scar was.”

“Why? What in the world can a child do to deserve that?”

“You can’t possibly understand, Gaia is still grieving…”

“Grieving?” he scoffed, “She murdered my entire crew! Skinned them alive in a sandstorm! She left Yeng alive only to suffer along with me, or were you not paying attention when she was screaming that at us?” The light above Alexia began trembling, small shadows flickered against the walls as Sunder’s flames began sputtering around his feet, “I am grieving! I should be grieving… but I haven’t been afforded the time to do so because I had to try to keep us alive from her! She was the one that taunted me so she could have an excuse to fight me. She called my father a murderer!”

Alexia silently came out of her chair, throwing herself to the ground, the sound of her cracking bones sending a shiver down Sunder’s spine. On her knees, the woman’s weak arms began trembling, barely able to keep up her weight. “Here I stand before you with only guilt in my heart to offer, I dare not ask for your forgiveness, but I plead for your understanding.” a single tear fell onto the dusty floor “You do not know her story. She has been through so much. But she too is unaware of what you have lived through, and I apologize, for all she has done to you. She is a kind soul, truly, but she is hurting, she lost too much.”

A maelstrom of emotions swirled through Sunder’s mind. Everything in his mind – in his heart – told him to not relinquish this hate he felt, that he deserved to let it fester and spread. But Alexia’s words… Something in them, it felt familiar. His mind quickly flew toward an image of his father, to stories of his youth. Why? Why could he so clearly remember faces he had never seen, looking down at his father in disgust. With the same expression Sunder has since the moment he woke up…

Kneeling down, he offered his hand to Alexia, helping her back to her chair, before sitting down with his legs crossed. “I-I also want to apologize, eventually. But I still need to see her actions reflect your words. I believe you, but after all that happened, I cannot just trust her like that.”

Alexia’s smile grew along with the fiery halo above her, brightening the room ever so slightly. “As you should. But I thank you nonetheless, for trying to look past what has happened. Only a great man can lose so much, and still try to give.”

“I am willing to give her a chance, but the first step is on her.”

“Then let us hope your next encounter is better than the last.”

“Let us hope.” After taking a moment to look around the young library once more, Sunder looked back at Alexia, “speaking of, how do I wake up from this? I still have so many more questions, but I would like to check on Yeng first, I need to make sure she is safe.”

“She hit you pretty hard back there,” Alexia said, emulating Gaia’s smile, but with an honest motherly feel behind it. “But let us try something.” she gestured to him, who approached, kneeling beside her. She put her hand over his forehead, taking a deep breath before pushing all the air out of her. The flame above her vanished as Sunder felt a surge of energy flowing out from his body into another, he saw for a moment a reflection of himself fill with his essence, followed by a rush of pain placed on every point of his body.

Back in what could now be called his room, Sunder opened his eyes. ‘Yeng?’ he spun his eyes around the room, seeing only the square ceiling above him. He pushed his body as hard as he could, but all he could muster was a small nudge from his arms, barely an inch, which was still enough for the gem in the back of his hand to hit something.

“Aah!” a high-pitched shriek hit Sunder as Yeng turned around, hitting him with her hair. She leaned, looking over at him, her body completely uncovered, “Do you know how cold this thing gets?” lifting over his arm, he could see it was covered in red and black spots, scorch marks, and it looked like most of his bones had been caved in by Gaia’s boulders.

“Could you go easy on me?” he said, his voice scratched and strained. Although it didn’t hurt him to talk, or even the way that Yeng was holding his arm, he still couldn’t move much more than his lips. “How long was I out for?”

“About an hour, maybe not even that much.” she released his hand, letting it fall on his chest, and rolled over closer to him. “You should have seen how you were when she picked you up. I’ve seen charred corpses that looked better than you.”

“Why are you so calm? I could have died.” he coughed as his throat finally moistened up, with each spasm letting go of some of the pressure on his body, along with some of his pain.

“Your leg was broken in four different places, and it just snapped back together in a matter of minutes. Your body looked and felt like a piece of charcoal, the Elements apparently do much more than letting you shoot fire sometimes.” Yeng then hopped off the bed. “I’m gonna go get some food, I left a trail coming from the entrance in case the walls started moving again.”

“At least dress yourself a little.”

“No. It’s hot as hell, it annoys you, and it might piss her off, there are no downsides.” and with a mischievous wink, she left the room.

With only one left and one right before coming up to the exit, this was the only path Yeng had memorized, yet it was comforting to have a rope placed along her path. Reaching the doors to the outside, she looked at the remains of their camp, all that was left, miraculously, was their makeshift food storage, a large hole in the sand meant to keep everything safe during the day and chilled during the night. She bent down and picked up two pouches of food, one filled with dried fruits and another with salted meat. She then turned around, ready to return to Sunder, but was stopped as she took her first turn inside the library.

“Disgusting.” Gaia stood in front of her, her silent movements catching Yeng off guard. With arms crossed she stared down at her body, her eyes twitching, like she was controlling herself.

“You don’t like it? My parents made it all by themselves.” Yeng forced a smile as the woman, amazonian in stature, maintained her stance, trying her best to keep her voice from quivering.

“This was once the world’s haven of knowledge, revered by every scholar who knew its name. Now an idiotic woman prances around naked, picking food off the floor like a primate.”

In a single breath Yeng switched her stance, knowing she could not avert her gaze from Gaia’s, she could not falter right now. “I studied alchemy, Eastern and Western, for three years under the smartest person in the world while our Captain prepared for this journey. I saw your eyes were nothing more than emeralds the moment you opened them, something easy enough for a primate,” she walked up to Gaia, hovering her hand over the titan’s crossed arms while getting on the tip of her toes, “but I doubt many people could see how that skin of yours is nothing more than clay. Not one retrieved from the Nile most likely, but one that was scoured through the desert, for only the purest and oldest flakes. Had I gotten those powers, you wouldn’t have stopped me like you did the kid.”

“Such bravado for someone who is barely standing.” she moved her hand toward Yeng, who began sweating, trembling as she tried her best to maintain her posture. With her finger against Yeng’s chest, Gaia tapped on her skin at the same rhythm as her heart. “I presume you were not aware that I can sense your heart, and it is beating ever so quickly. You should learn to stay back and watch. Unlike him, your body is fragile. Your skin may be smooth, and your body may be well built, but your hide is still as deep as any other animal’s.” her nail pierced Yeng. Despite being only a small incision it still managed to draw blood. “I assume with the number of scars, that you would not mind adding another to your collection.” taking her finger off, she stepped around Yeng, opening the walls to a darkened room and walking in. Amongst the darkness, Yeng swore she could see bones, but she was too scared to look closer. “The child has proven himself to be of interest. Unless you can do the same, I would advise you to keep your head low.” slamming the wall back into the ground, Yeng was left in darkness.

“A-At least you think I’m well built…” whispered Yeng, her face frozen in her fake smile.

Not ten minutes had passed, and Sunder could already stand on his bed, more or less able to move around his arms and legs. While they were still scarring, they barely hurt. Yeng finally returned to the room with the food, her face deathly pale and a single streak of blood running down her body “Took you long enou-” Sunder cracked the crusting scars as he attempted to jump off his bed but quickly stopped as his skin still hadn’t finished healing, a ripping sensation pushing him back into the bed. “Yeng, what happened? You’re bleeding.”

“I…” Yeng threw the food onto the bed and sat at its edge, breathing frantically as she picked up her clothes from the floor, slowly dressing herself. “I just had a meeting with Gaia.”

“What did she do to you?” Sunder tried his best to move up to her, but he had to slowly crawl up to her, which still put quite a strain on his arms.

“I’m fine, you’re the one who needs to heal.” her breathing went back to normal as she straightened her back and looked up at the ceiling. “She called me pretty.” she smiled.

“Be serious for a second, what happened?” a continuous clacking sound suddenly began echoing through the room. Yeng looked to Sunder, face flushed with tears and teeth trembling, along with the rest of her body.”

“Please. Kill her.”

‘Child, be calm. You just need to talk to her, I-I just need to talk to her. No one wants her to be like this.’ A small veil of flames embodied Sunder. His blood rushed through his veins and a swirling wind hugged him, cracking open every crust and scar, revealing a pristine, healed, body, as if he had emerged from a cocoon, a new person. The flames vanished as Sunder slowly got up from the bed. With a blank stare, he left Yeng as he headed to the main room of the library in search of Gaia.

Looking around the giant room, he felt his emotions shift rapidly once more as he saw the dust begin to fly up around him. “You were looking for me?” said Gaia, standing behind him, carrying with her a single scroll.

“What did you do to Yeng?” Sunder controlled himself, both his hands twisted into claws, ready to strike if needed.

“I did nothing more than give her a single scar.” she passed him, heading near a table that sat at the center of the room, “You should thank me, normally we would flay anyone who would dare profane this library.” She erected from the ground a chair and sat down, unraveling her scroll and casually beginning to read it.

“Thank you? You murdered my crew, my friends!”

‘Please child, we talked about this.’ Alexia invaded Sunder’s thoughts once more ‘Try to reach her, somehow.’ His sudden change of mood prompted Gaia to take her eyes off her scroll.

“What just happened?” she asked, her vicious eyes piercing him.

“Oh, I…” his heart started beating faster, but Alexia’s voice kept echoing louder and louder on his head, forcing it to slow down. “I- wanted to know what you were reading.”

The air around them tightened, the silence lasting for what seemed like forever. Gaia finally broke it with a slight chuckle, the first time Sunder had seen her display any emotion that diverted from hate. “Such innocence. Be thankful you remind me of an infant animal, so lost and bright-eyed. I would not be so kind to you otherwise.” She then laid the scroll on the table, part of it unraveled, and got up, heading for one of the walls.

Sunder tried his best to lean in to see the scroll, careful not to take a single step. He strained his eyes, but as he focused his vision, he saw nothing. Not a single word, line, or even etching. Nothing. This wasn’t a scroll he was looking at. It had its shape, its size, but in that table laid nothing more than a solid block of stone.

‘What?’ Sunder thought, ‘Is she toying with me again?’

‘What happened child? I cannot yet see clearly through your eyes.’

‘Her scroll, it’s just stone.’ looking over to Gaia, she stood against the wall, passing her fingers through the markings that were etched all over it. She then pressed her finger over the top of one of the rectangles that contained etchings and pulled out part of the wall. She then carried under her arm the stone, shaping it just like the scroll she had on the table, and sat back on her chair. Sunder was in disbelief. All the hate against the woman was flushed away, he could no longer see her as anything but what she had called him, a lost animal. Reading an empty block of stone, intently analyzing lines that weren’t there, her transfixion only deepening Sunder’s pity.

“It was a small tale I was reading before, Master of the Steppe. Now leave,” Gaia lifted her eyes for only a second, with her disdain absent for just as long. “I have important work to do.”