Chapter 54 - Together

  Aaron saw nothing. Nor could he hear or feel.

  But he could think still. Was this the eternity after death? It was dark. And lonely. Where were his friends? Where was his mother and Temelia? Why were they not with him if this was supposed to be death?

  What if it's not death?

  Then where was he? He'd been drowning, pinned to a wall by a serpent only trying to protect its children. Children who would die cold and unborn without the Eternal Flame rekindled. Aaron had lost the fight, and had failed the mother. He'd failed everyone and everything. He'd failed his friends, and he'd failed his ancestors. Worst was the betrayal of his mother's wishes. Even if he had died, he had no right to appear before his mother again. None.

  He felt his conscience fading. Something was pulling at it, unraveling it as if a loose thread had been pulled. He didn't want to lose the ability to think. Not yet. He didn't want to leave this place knowing that he'd failed. I have to preserve it. I must!

  But with no feeling of any part of himself, he did not know how. He could only think about the Flames of Preservation. He willed it forth —called to it with his mind, and to his surprise, it came. The darkness dissipated and Aaron now saw the warm glow of his mother's Flame. But it was dimming quickly. He willed it to stay but could not.

  Aaron heard someone calling his name. The vague feeling of something heavy pressed on his chest. The glow around him had all but faded. He would lose himself if it did. He was sure of it. The distant voice grew clearer. Eksa?

  He suddenly recalled locking his own air in a seal of fire. He began willing it open when something truly painful crashed into his solar plexus.

  ***

  Aaron's eyes snapped open to a blurry scene of dark red. Something heavy had him pinned to the ground. He coughed violently, spitting up water at whatever loomed above his face. Slowly, his vision cleared. Eksa sat atop of him, knees pressed against his broad chest, weeping. Her face was a wet mess with tears and his spittle. She pressed her forehead against his and cried aloud.

  Aaron slowly tested his limbs for permanent damage before bringing his arms up to embrace her. “I'm here,” he croaked, water still backed into his throat.

  She clutched fistfuls of her shirt. “Good,” she mumbled. “You didn't have the captain's permission to die.”

  Aaron ran his hand along her cheek. He couldn't get over how much more beautiful she looked with wet hair. Eksa pulled away from him. Next to her lay Viper breathing ragged breaths, but breathing all the same. Jack was there too, trying his best to rid himself of something sticky all about him. Aaron pushed himself upright, realizing they were on the opposite side of the spring, the serpent's four eggs sitting just before the altar where a near to death Eternal Flame still danced. Time was the only killer of the Flame. If they weren't rekindled, they would diminish to death over the span of centuries, forever leaving a section of the world without its warmth and protection.

  “Our eggs.”

  Aaron whipped around, only now seeing the three headed great serpent still alive and well, watching him and his friends with a look of despair wrought over its scaly faces. Behind her were the lanterns that Aaron and his friends had left on the opposite end, showing off their glow that gave the cavernous space the barest hints of color. Given the time to examine the beast, it was a creature of pure majesty. Shimmering royal blue scales with such illustrious golden eyes and a cream colored underside that was unfortunately marred by too many wounds bleeding still.

  Aaron sighed. He knew this creature as he knew this cavern. Many an ancestor had visited here, long ago during the First Calendar, well before the War of Ashes. Many an ancestor had continued to visit up until the deposing of High House Zz'tai a few centuries ago. “My promise, as was given to you,” he said. “I will give you new life. As well as grant your children the safety and warmth of an Eternal Flame.”

  “You are a Flame Bearer?” the serpent asked. “Forgive us. We were blinded. We—”

  “You are forgiven,” Aaron said, marching up the steps of the altar. So pitiful a Flame, and yet there mere inches from it, its warmth and peace could still be felt. Aarondel put his hand over the Flame as his mother had once bidden him to do. It burst to life, becoming a blaze befitting a grand bonfire. Its light devoured the darkness. Its warmth bled dry the cold. And its presence cleansed all filth upon Aaron's clothes and that of his friends. “Be reborn, Eurale, beloved of Katri.”

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  Alight with joy, the great serpent danced within the spring water, sending splashes everywhere. It approached Aaron and lowered all three heads. Eurale was its name, and after it had come the Kingdom of Eurale, though that was knowledge long lost to the ravages of time.

  “Our eggs are now warm and might yet hatch one soon day. They will take years to grow and enjoy the seas as I do. But they will. Eurale thanks you. We had no allies save the Flame Bearers after Master Katri's death. But they too soon stopped coming. And we thought we were forgotten. Then came hunters seeking treasure. And we were left alone to fend them from our eggs as the Flame withered and their growth slowed.”

  “Protect them well, Eurale,” Aaron said, patting a scaly head. It closed its eyes and a forked tongue slipped out to lick his arm. “We lost our power. My being here is mere happenstance. The world is no longer in our care. The perils of Illusterra are still many. But I will do what I can to restore the tainted Zz'tai legacy. Mayhap the day comes again when every sailor knows your name and you and your kin once again aid in ferrying the boats of man across grand distances.”

  “Mayhap. We will pray to the Creator for thine success.”

  Aaron felt old and stretched after that conversation, as if he alone had been speaking through the mouths of many far older than he. He was just about ready to go home now. He clapped his hands. “Now that that's settled, would you be so kind as to carry us to the other side, Eurale? And fetch my weapon from the bottom of the spring, while you're at it?”

  “Mine too,” Viper mumbled.

  “Naturally!”

  “My dagger is still stuck in the wall,” said Jack.

  ***

  Eurale ferried everyone across the now glimmering spring. The light of the Eternal Flame stretched down the cavern passage, hardly dimming at all from what Eksa could tell. She couldn't deny the comfort she felt in its presence. A warmth different from any fire she'd been near, and any person's embrace she'd ever received. This was a feeling words would do no justice. It was joy, strength, shelter, and so much more all at once.

  “I feel as if I might shadow walk without any consequence in the presence of the Flame,” Viper was saying. As if to prove his point, he disappeared into Aaron's shadow and reappeared a number of times, laughing all the while. “It isn't cold inside! Nor is my own heat given each time I leave the Umbra!”

  “And to think the world sees this Flame as the magic of darkspawn,” Jackrin said. He grabbed his mask from where it lay.

  “A remnant of the Tortured Throne's influence they call it,” Aaron said. “If only I could show the world what I can to you all. There might not be a single Shrine left in all Illusterra that isn't abandoned and in a destitute state.”

  To think I had such a misconception. Eksa's clothes and hair had just about dried as well in the mere moments she'd been standing next to the altar. She bit her lip, wondering how to go about apologizing to Aaron. She felt reborn herself. The memory of what he'd done to her would ever linger in some crevice of her thoughts. But it no longer shackled her true feelings. He began walking down the path, Jackrin following and Viper stowed away inside their shadow. Eksa stared at Aaron's back with renewed admiration, watching his figure grow smaller until she came to realize that she was being left behind. She sat down and hurried to put on her boots again.

  The shadow of all three of Eurala's heads enveloped her. The serpent reached low and sniffed around Eksa, five golden eyes examining her every imperfection. “Uh…”

  “You have our master's scent, child of man. You are of a lineage with the sea deity's blessings.”

  “Uh,” Eksa mumbled again, unsure of what to make of this. She did up the laces of her boots.

  The Serpent kept sniffing. “I smell two differing kinds of my master's boons. You've been near another of blessed lineage. That trace is very faint and fading, but unmistakeable.”

  Eksa pointed toward the leaving group. “Aaron, maybe?”

  “No. None of them have it. Blood Drinkers and Shadow Walkers are the Creator's blessed, and Flame Bearers are his Chosen. They do not have the lesser deities' direct blessings as you have Katri's. It is someone else whom you've seen recently, but not so recent.

  Eksa scratched her head. One of her crewmates perhaps?

  “Once there were many in the coastal habitats of man with Katri's blessings. So many of them perished during the War of Ashes.”

  Eksa felt a lecture of reminiscing soon to come from the ancient creature. Aaron and Jack were growing smaller by the second and she had no intent of being left here alone. Does that jerk not realize that I'm not following him? “Farewell, Eurale. Perhaps I'll come visit again after the eggs have hatched.”

  “Please do. I'm sure my children will be delighted to have a playmate their size!” With that, the serpent turned away and set to watching her eggs as if expecting them to hatch that very moment. Eksa started to follow after her friends when a shimmering something near to the spring caught her eye. She turned to find several blue scales the size of her head left there, along with a fang the length of her arm as well. The ground around the fang seemed corroded from Eurala's poison. No trace of the noxious liquid remained that she could see, but just to be safe, Eksa wrapped the tooth with her coat and tucked as many scales as she could carry under her arm. These would work nicely as evidence to show the crew and everyone at Kovar of the serpent's death.

  She shoved the items into Aaron's arms upon catching up, glaring at him all the while. “Real funny leaving me behind like that. After I saved all your Flaming lives too!”

  “I thought you were right behind,” he said, brows raised in genuine surprise.

  “And you didn't think to check at least once?”

  “I knew she wasn't following,” Jack chimed in.

  Eksa just about wished she had multiple heads herself to fix multiple glares with. Flames! Flaming Flames! She sighed. She just couldn't stay mad in the presence of an Eternal Flame. Taking the name of a Flame in vain here in a Shrine felt a tad reprehensible. She shook her head, walking forward and leading her crewmates as a captain should.

  “So, where to next?” Jackrin asked. “Another perilous adventure somewhere?”

  “Not too perilous. For now, we return to Kovar.” She clasped her hands behind her back and turned her head to meet his eyes, lips curling into a smile. “Together.”