Free

“We need to get to the palace! Ariel is too inexperienced to deal with this!” Elan’drin got up. His legs were shaking. He stumbled toward Ria, put a hand on her shoulder. “You need to fly me to the palace immediately.”

Ria felt uneasy, but she nodded. She once again picked him up on her arms and carried him outside. “Lift Restriction Level Two.” They were up in the air a moment later. Ria was shaking and definitely slower than she probably needed to be. She was fighting against her own power and the air. “B-But how? Won’t he die, if he kills her?”

“Remember how Kal said that he couldn’t control your collar because it was custom made?” Elan’drin asked over the rushing air. “That means he can control the collars of other Elemental Avatars!”

Ria felt a shiver run through her body. “But … don’t these collars just restrict our power? What good does it do, if he releases that power?”

“That restriction is what keeps you coherent, contained. Especially if you haven’t learned, how to do it yourself. Every time he shuts the collars down, it results in another catastrophe.”

“B-But wouldn’t he still die?”

“Not, if he can trigger the process and it takes time. Or it’s a timed process.” Elan’drin fell silent, while Ria thought through the implications.

“Then … Then you think he triggered the failure in my collar?”

“It’s possible. What were his last words to you?”

Ria took a moment to remember. “He said: We probably won’t see each other again. Because we all live on borrowed time. Even Elemental Avatars.” A shiver ran down her spine, as she remembered his grin back then.

“That might be the trigger phrase.” Elan’drin looked at her. “Elements are eternal, and Elemental Avatars should be as well. But … the High Mage Council probably impemented a fail safe that he’s using.”

Ria felt dread as she landed in front of the palace and put the elf down. Kal had been responsible for her collar’s failure? Because of him, everyone she knew had been dead? Especially En’rin?

“How much time passed between him leaving and your collar failing?”

“I-I’m not sure. An hour? Or half of that?” Ria had been glad to get out of that meeting. Especially since she had been suppressing her powers during all of it to win En’rin’s challenge.

“Then let’s hope this one operates on a similar timeframe.” Elan’drin walked into the lobby of the palace and climbed the stairs two steps at a time.

“But why? Why would he do something like that?”

“Maybe he’s gone rogue, or the High Mage Council has decided that we can’t be trusted with you anymore.” Elan’drin walked briskly along the corridor. “Or he’s trying to get rid of the evidence. Let’s hope we can prevent the worst!”

Ria heard someone crying. Was that Ariel’s? Elan’drin started running. They rushed through the doors and into the throne room.

“E-Elan’drin. C-Can you help him?” The city’s Elemental Avatar was right next to the throne. President Thun sat there, unmoving. An ice spike stuck in his chest. Blood was running into the pool below, mixing into the water that seemed to be much lower than it used to be.

“I … can’t. Magic is powerful, but it can’t heal. And it can’t bring back the dead.” Elan’drin walked toward the distressed girl.

Ria felt impossibly cold as she closed up to the two.

“I-I don’t know what happened. Or why? Th-The Mage Inquisitor stormed in and killed everybody, except me.”

Elan’drin embraced Ariel. “What then? Did he say anything to you?”

“He-He had this eerie grin on his lips. And then he said that I shouldn’t be sad, since we all live only on borrowed time. Even Elemental Avatars.” Ariel gulped. “A-And then he flew out. Through the window there.”

“It has begun then.” Elan’drin ground his teeth.

“Then … Volasis will share the same fate as Solstice?” Although Ria whispered her question, it seemed to echo unusually loudly in the throne room. Ariel looked at her with wide open eyes that were full of fear.

“Not if I can help it.” The elf held Ariel at arm’s length. “Ariel Volasis, listen to me: You need to keep your powers in check at all times now.”

“B-But.”

“No buts. You have to. I’ll help you, and Ria will do the same. While we do that, we’re going to move to the training room.”

“W-Why?”

“Because the chamber there is based on the magical constructs of Ria’s collar. It’s just a lot bigger, because I couldn’t make it as small.” He walked behind Ariel and pushed her toward the exit. A magical construct formed around her.

Ariel tried to dry her eyes. It didn’t help, since she kept crying.

Ria took a deep breath and constructed her control magic around Ariel as well. Then they slowly walked out of the throne room, which allowed her to keep her control magic around Ariel.

“President Thun! The whole …” A guard stood in the door. “Ocean of wisdom! What has happened?”

“The Mage Inquisitor.” Elan’drin sounded angry. “Make way, we need to get to the palace’s basement.”

The guard stepped aside. He looked around and then vomited into what was left of the pool.

They ignored him.

“It doesn’t bode well that the city’s mana distribution network has gone offline,” whispered Elan’drin. “It’s as if the collar wants to make sure that all the mana piles up within Ariel before it shuts down.”

“But why?” Ariel shivered.

“The higher the pressure, the bigger the resulting burst,” the elf explained.

“H-He’s trying to make sure that the whole city’s taken out.” Ria gulped. “The same as with Solstice.”

“But why would he do that?” Ariel’s voice shook.

“We don’t know. But you need to concentrate. You need to keep your mana contained.” Elandrin sounded tense.

Ariel kept quiet until they walked down the stairs. Then she collapsed in the main hall. The pressure on Ria’s magic had increased. Then Ariel’s collar hit the floor. It had broken apart into three ragged pieces of metal. Ariel’s skin turned translucent, watery.

“Concentrate!” Elan’drin shouted. “You can do it!”

Ariel nodded and got back to her feet. They continued down the stairs. Slowly. Ariel left a trail of water. Her clothes were wet and slowly sank through her body. She was losing coherence more and more and the walk to the training chamber seemed to take an eternity.

Ariel had lost her clothes completely as they arrived in the training chamber. The water dome was gone. Only a foot-wide gap remained around the circular marble floor that served the same purpose as Ria’s collar. Ariel’s features started to fade and her body began to expand just as they crossed over the finish line.

The symbol on the ground glowed. Two dark orihalcon bands above them glowed as well. Then water shot up through the gap and formed the dome. Ariel shrunk back down and got more solid.

Ariel sighed in relief, though she was still crying. Elan’drin was crying as well. “En’rin, you’re a genius. A real genius.”

Ria sighed in relief as well and dropped her own construct. They really seemed to have prevented the worst case scenario.

“Do I need to stay here all the time now?” Ariel looked up at Elan’drin.

“Just for a while until you either learned how to control your power or we managed to sort this out.” The elf put a hand on the girl’s head.

“What should we do about Kal? Can we stop him from doing that to other cities?”

Elan’drin sighed. “We’ll have to contact the High Mage Council, but we’ll need to be careful about it. I’ll need you as witness and we need to collect evidence. But before we can do that, I’ll have to get the city council together to vote on a new president.” Elan’drin turned to her. “Ria, I have a favor to ask of you. Could you fetch Auron and Lithzy? Right now I need all the help I can get to hold the city together.”

“Ah, yes, sure. I can fetch them.” It would give her something to do. She immediately ran through the water dome, out of the room, up the stairs and out of the palace. Her clothes were wet, but drying already. She jumped into the air and started flying. Auron

“Of course you are involved.” The voice made her freeze. She turned around in mid-air. Kal floated there, next to the tree. His eyes shone a dark blue. “I have to admit, controlling that much power is quite a feat. Even for an Elemental Avatar.”

Ria suddenly felt the same cold calm focus she had felt when she tried to save Elan’drin’s life. “Why are you trying to destroy this city?”

“Why? Because I’m bored.” He grabbed his collar and took it off. “The flash that evaporated half of Solstice was beautiful. A red cloud like a mushroom. It dissipated shortly after though. But the mountain that exploded into existence after Eirendria came down? A monumental masterpiece!”

He laughed. “I wonder what happens when you disintegrate!” He took his collar off and pocketed it. His eyes changed color. To purple.

Ria was exasperated. “You’re killing thousands of people! You’re killing Elemental Avatars!”

“You’re just constructs. You’re not even human.” Kal shrugged.

Ria stared at Kal with wide open eyes. That was the complete opposite of what Elan’drin had told her when she came to Volasis.

“Don’t give me that look. You know exactly that you’re not human.”

Ria was silent. She felt as if she was freezing over. He was willing to kill thousands of people and he had the audacity to tell her that she was not human?

“Well, I normally want to see the effects from further away to be able to really appreciate them, but maybe it’ll be worth it to see it close up. Two of you going up at once. A chain reaction. That will be spectacular!”

“Do you know, how many people died because of you?” Ria didn’t even look at him. She felt so angry that her eyes must have been glowing.

“There are so many people on this world. Who cares, if one or two thousand go missing?”

“I do.”

Kal laughed. “You’re just an Element! You should be greateful for what I am doing.” that I am willing to set you free!” He aimed with his finger at her. “I’m going to set you free right now!”

A black beam with sparkles in it hit Ria’s body. She barely felt anything. Had that been an ether strike? The magic that was capable of erasing things?

“What?” Kal looked as confused as she felt. He moved his finger. Another ether strike hit her. And a third. “Why aren’t you disintegrating? Why are you still there?”

Ria looked back up to Kal. She felt even calmer than before. “Maybe you can’t set me free, because I already am.”

“You can’t be free. You’re wearing that man’s collar!” He pointed at it and Ria reacted. She brute forced a construct that reflected his ether strike. It barely missed him.

“You want to do this the hard way? Fine! Then we’re doing this the hard way!” Kal sounded angry. Crystals of Ice, spears of stone, and balls of fire appeared around him. There were dozens of each.

“Lift Restriction Level One.” Ria had to pull out everything she could. She brute forced magic to pull some of his attacks off course. She sent projectlies of her own against his to destroy of deflect them. A few came through and drew her blood. She felt utterly calm.

The barrage ended. Kal crossed his arms as he looked at her. “You are annoying.”

“And you are a danger to every living thing.” She shot her own ether strike at him. It graced his cheek and drew blood.

Kal looked at her with wide eyes. “Then I do this the other way around!” He turned away from her and flew toward the palace tree.

“No.” Ria wouldn’t allow this to happen. Not again. She flew after him. But she wasn’t fast enough to catch up to him before he entered the palace. She put all her focus into a spot in front of him and brute forced a stone slab into existence. Right in front of Kal.

He crashed into it. A plume of dust rose into the air. Stone fragments fell to the ground. The collision had slowed the Mage Inquisitor down. That was enough time to cut him off.

“Get out of my way!” Kal growled.

“I won’t let you kill Ariel or Elan’drin or anyone else that lives in this city!”

“I don’t even know who you’re talking about!”

Ria was shocked. That Mage Inquisitor hadn’t even cared enough to learn the names of the people he planned to murder. But it explained why he hadn’t recognized her. Her calm was slowly replaced by anger and hatred.

“You want me to be completely free?” she asked. “So be it. I’ll fulfill your wish!”

Ria constructed the magic that would allow her to control her magic better. She saw the grin on his face as she reached up to her collar.

She closed her eyes and pressed the little button on its back. The clasp gave way with a soft click. “Rin, hop onto the collar and hold onto it,” she whispered to her little slime pet. It obeyed. Then she let go of her collar. Within a second it hit the floor with a barely audible clank.

Kal laughed. “Splendid. Now all I have to do is this!” She heard him snsp with his fingers. Something crashed into her construct. It was the same thing that had destroyed hers and Elan’drin’s as they tried to keep the crystal stable. But this time it held. She had brute forced so much power into it that it was healing.

Ria opened her eyes and looked up at Kal.

The grin on his face vanished. He looked at her with wide open eyes. “Wh-Who are you?”

“Even if I told you my name you wouldn’t recognize it!”

“Then why are your eyes purple? Why is your hair white? You’re just a construct. The avatar of a lesser element!”

“A lesser Element? I always thought that Ether is one of the big six.”

Kal gave a high pitched scream. He moved backwards. “S-Solaria. Solaria Solstice. The one the High Mage Council deemed too dangerous to exist!”

“You know, En’rin taught me that I shouldn’t escalate. Ever. That revenge is false. But …” She moved closer to him as he tried to escape. “In your case … it won’t be revenge. All I am doing is preventing more tragedies!”

The Mage Inquisitor turned around and sped away. Stone projectiles ice spears and balls of fire came into existence around him. They flew toward her. Ether strikes shot at her. Some hit, others missed. She felt them interfere with her being. But she clung to her anger. It held her together.

She dodged the projectiles. Attacked with her own.

“I-If you kill me, the High Mage Council will come after you!”

Ria gave no answer. She didn’t care what the High Mage Council would do. Right now, Kal was the danger. And she would take him out. She accelerated. Overtook him. Brute forced another stone slab in his way.

Kal destroyed it with an ether strike and rushed through the debris. “I refuse to be defeated by a mere magical construct!”

He threw a punch at her. Ria caught his fist.

She brute forced a lot of fire in-between the two of them. An explosion pushed them apart.

Kal panted. “This can’t be happening!” Smoke rose from his clothes. “You should have disintegrated. You shouldn’t exist anymore!”

“I had to learn how to control my powers from the beginning, Because I cared. Because I wanted to be close to others. And you? You never cared for anyone but yourself. Today you made that very clear!” Ria moved. It was almost as if she was one with her element.

In the blink of an eye she was behind him. Brute forced two stone slabs into existence, on both sides of him.

He turned around.

“Why can you tele-”

She clapped. The slabs crashed together. Exploded into fragments around him. Dust rose into the air, stones fell to the ground.

“That’s it. I’ll just destroy this city myself!” The glow in his eyes faded and they turned completely black.

He raised a hand. The city was suddenly basked in a deep shadow. Ria looked up. A large rock floated above her. A … mountain? Kal was as powerful as an Elemental Avatar?

“Have fun trying to stop that!” The Mage Inquisitor sped away.

Ria looked at his retreating back then at the massive stone coming down toward her and the city below. Feeling completely calm, she accelerated toward it, past the canopy of the palace tree.

Solstice had been inside a mountain and her full power had evaporated it. If she was capable of that, she’d have no problem trying to evaporate the mountain he created.

Once she was high enough, she created the construct for her ether strike. Though this time it wouldn’t be a thin beam. She was aiming for a wide cone. It activated a moment later, spread with the same speed as the strike. It encompassed the whole mountain coming down from above.

“Ether Eraser.” It was a fitting name. The mountain had vanished together with her attack. Even the cloud cover was gone. Ria looked at a bright blue sky above her.

She turned into the direction Kal had fled. This was unforgivable! She concentrated on getting closer to him. As close as she possibly could. First he was just a speck of dust in the sky. The blink of an eye later, he had already grown in size. Another blink. And another. He was now as large as a rock. Another blink. As large as the backpack Brannzza had bought her. She blinked again and was behind him.

The Mage Inquisitor turned around. A spear of stone hit her in the side. She felt an extreme strong interference with her sense of self. It didn’t hurt, but it threatened to rip her apart. Her anger kept her coherent.

Kal pulled his hands away. He screamed. Molten Stone ran out of her arm and dropped down. She didn’t care. The ash down there was used to far higher temperatures. She pulled her sense of self back together. Her wound closed. She could see the panic in the Mage Inquisitor’s purple eyes.

“H-How can you be an Ether Elemental and melt stone like this?” he whispered.

“How can you be a human and kill thousands of people without feeling any remorse?” Her voice was as flat as she could make it. “Seems like we’re both an impossible existence. But don’t worry, I’ll end yours now.”

The construct formed within a moment in her mind. The magic reacted and without a sound, without him being able to do anything, her magic erased him. It cut a hole into one of the volcanoes in the distance.

Ria straightened and exhaled. She still felt calm. Even as Lava welled out of the volcano’s side and pooled at its base.

It was over. He was gone. She knew that she had prevented many more senseless deaths and yet she felt no satisfaction. She felt nothing.

The calm fell off of her. And with it, the pressure of her own magic returned. Her focus faded as well and she had trouble holding onto herself. She still felt the holes he had cut into her magical construct. She needed En’rin’s collar back. But she couldn’t fetch it. Her skin shone brighter and she feared losing control. She knew that she would kill the people of Volasis, if she returned now.

Her skin started to shine brighter by the minute. Suddenly, she realized who she was. What she was. It had always been in her name: Solaria.

She was the avatar of the stars themselves.

Of the sun.

She needed to get away from the city. She had no idea, if she could hold the eternal fire of a star in check.

She looked one last time back to the city. The people she had met there. The friends she had made. She’d have to leave them behind. Because unlike Kal, she valued their lives.