The Day the Phoenix Burned

“It all started on the day of the yearly enrollment ceremony…”

Three years ago

“Brother, do you know where I put my uniform? I swear it was somewhere around here?” Elaine said, as she searched for her uniform in her room.

“Seriously Elaine! What would you do without me?” I said as I held her uniform in my hands.

She forgot it in the kitchen after she secretly ate the last piece of cake.

Her eyes glimmered at the sight of the uniform.

“Lucky me! How great that my brother is always so observant!” she said as she hugged me tightly.

“Yeah, yeah stop hugging me and get ready already! We will be late if you don’t move faster!”

“No way we would be! And even if we were, would it matter? Those Grand Mages always talk crap, it was the same at your ceremony three years ago!”

“Hey, that’s disrespectful! Don't talk like that with others! They could throw you out before you even make it in.”

“Yes Sir, I will be careful and kind!” she chuckled with a bright smile forming on her lips.

This girl, who loves to cause trouble and is clueless every day, is Elaine Eldore, my sister, who is three years younger than me. I thought she would be more careful since it was her enrollment ceremony. But seriously, do all twelve-year-old girls act this messy?

I waited outside of her room so I could escort her to the Mage’s Association.

“All ready to kill and grill, let’s go!” she said.

“Ela, you have to work on your vocabulary! What do you mean by kill and grill? You aren’t hunting for dinner!”

“Who cares brother? As long as we have fun that’s all that matters!” she said as she skipped happily toward the carriage.

Yeah, there is no saving this girl. I should just make sure she survives that enrollment ceremony without causing trouble.

Soon we arrived at the entrance to the hall.

“Hey Ishan there you are! What took you two so long?” a voice echoed as soon as we reached the entrance.

It was Navier, the blond-haired student with magenta-colored eyes. He is my best friend in this academy. Next to him was Zea, also with similar hair and eye color but a stronger build and Theo who had blue eyes and violet hair and was the tallest of the trio.

They are the members of my squad, the Poison Phoenix.

I don’t even know why our leader named the squad like that, since poison is quite questionable as a choice, but who am I to even ask such a question?

“Yeah, this troublemaker forgot where she put her uniform,” I sighed.

“Sup! What’s up big brother’s bros!” Elaine replied.

“Sup?” Navier asked, confused.

“Just ignore her Navier, let’s go in already.” I put a hand on his shoulder.

“Well, if you say so?” he replied confused.

“But tell me how are you doing? Have you recovered already?” Navier asked me.

“You mean my mana? I am still not fully back, but I think in one or two days I should feel better,” I answered him.

I still feel exhausted from that mission two days ago, I shouldn’t have used my whole energy to create a barrier but I couldn’t control it, seriously!

“Well, it will be back in no time! Don’t worry!” he replied as he put his hand over my shoulder.

“Thanks Navi!”

He chuckled happily.

Meanwhile Zea played along with Elaine’s gimmicks and mimicked her moves.

We went inside and the new students sat down in the chairs that were spread in twenty rows all over the hall.

As the older mages, we stood and watched from the side when one of the Grand Mages, Silvius Stellar started his speech.

No actually I get what Ela meant when she said they talk crap. These old men always talk and talk, for hours! Nonstop. I wonder if he could stop talking about how awesome he is and just shut up already.

So we stood there and kept on listening. Some of the other mages started blinking their eyes, others were yawning.

It was only until an earsplitting sound echoed through the room and a bleeding mage crashed inside, breaking the door to the hall.

“Demons! Demons are attacking us, everyone get out!”

But too late the demons already made it inside. There were hundreds.

How are demons here? Why would they come now, weren’t they supposed to be trapped in the outlands?

What about the barrier that protects the Association? 

How could they break it?

“Ishan, move!” Theo said.

“Right! Protect the younger ones right now!” Navier screamed.

Both of them dashed inside the crowd.

The metallic scent of blood was spread across the room, as one after another mage crumbled to the ground.

“Elaine? Where are you?!” I yelled out.

Half of the hall was on fire, the smoke filled the room making it suffocating to breathe.

From the left side of the hall, I watched the genius Mage Luthian countering the demons with his wind, as the first mage to act in this haze.

With a swift turn he created a wind barrier and with his fingertips he let the wind disperse,  taking along the smoke.

The demons laughed hysterically, their eyes were shining in crimson red.

They were hungry for blood, one after another struck down a mage leaving them incapacitated on the floor.

I tried to intervene by creating a barrier but I wasn’t strong enough.

Just recently I used up almost all of my mana on the mission, it still didn’t fill up.

How am I supposed to protect anyone without using my abilities?

Where is Elaine? Why can’t I see her anywhere?

I frantically searched the room for her, stepping beside the corpses of the mages that had fallen and the demons that were taken down.

“Elaine?! Where are you?” I yelled as I encountered another demon.

He attacked me with a dark sphere, I countered that with a blast, the shock wave sending him crashing to the walls.

“Brother!” I heard her scream.

As I turned around I saw my little sister.

She was sitting frozen on the ground, a demon right above her laughing maniacly.

“Demon, stop! Let us talk about why you are doing this!” I shouted.

The demon looked in my direction and smiled.

“Because we hate you.” he said, turning toward my sister.

“Elaine, get away from there!”

“M-my legs don't move brother!” She cried out.

I looked down and saw her legs being bound to the ground by dark mana.

The demon kept on laughing, his voice echoing in my ear. Then he created a black fog.

“No, don’t do that!” I screamed out as I tried to reach them with my mana.

But my shield shattered.

My sister inhaled the whole fog and her body crumpled to the ground. I watched her long silver hair cover her arm, her golden-colored eyes dull, no traces left of life.

“You Monster!” I cried out, as I struck the demon down with a chair.

I kept on crushing it into his limbs until he stopped moving.

Then I crumbled on the ground and pulled Elaine closer to my chest.

“Elaine! Say something, please!” My voice faltered, tears flowing down my face.

“Bro-” she mumbled in a low voice.

Still her body didn’t move.

“Ishan!” a voice echoed through the hall.

“N-navier? W-what should I do? Elaine isn’t m-moving…”

Elaine isn’t moving.

Elaine’s body is turning cold.

My sister is silent.

She isn’t saying anything.

My sister she-

“Come to your senses already!” Navier said as he struck me in the face.

“N-navi.”

“That’s right I am here, remember? I will try to stabilize her!” he said.

He let crimson flames arise, they embraced her whole body and Elaine started breathing faintly. Those flames didn’t burn, since Navier inherited abilities similar to a Phoenix. His flames were warm, they filled her body up with life energy and comforted it from the inside. She breathed faintly.

“I can’t heal this, but until we find a solution this will keep her alive.”

“Thank you Navi!” I said as I pulled Elaine closer to me.

I breathed heavily, my chest tightening.

“It’s alright! We will save her!” Navier said calmly.

Can we really save her?

However years passed by ever since that tragedy.

Forty two mages lost their lives. One was in critical condition.

Half of the building burned down.

And Elaine was awake, but she was drained out of mana.

They couldn’t heal her.

From time to time she woke up, most of the time she slept for days.

Our parents searched the whole kingdom for a way to save her but even after two and a half years nothing changed.

Navier, Zea and Theo always came over.

Navier tried to infuse his mana into her body so at least her life energy would be stabilized.

He was the only one capable of that.

My own abilities were useless.

We were at least able to stabilize her.

As long as we could find a solution, this would help her.

But during the last mission of the Poison Phoenix those three disappeared. We couldn’t find any traces of them after they vanished five months ago and with that, Elaine’s condition worsened even more.

Back to the present

“And now I just watch her slowly disappear from the world, as the healers warn me that she won’t be able to last any longer.”