Chapter 17

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 17

Sates were on the ground, heavily bleeding from his shoulder. Santuric had leant over him and started mending him with healing Fyre; he was going to recover well enough. I was standing up where I had landed; staring across these African plains we had arrived at. Those eyes… Those deep blue eyes… Who was that girl? My line of thoughts was broken as Santuric laid a hand on my shoulder. “Come on.” He said quietly “We need to get to safety.“ Sates now mended but with a heavy scar below his right shoulder blade, we followed Santuric down a gravel road. At first I had no idea where we were, too many thoughts in my head to think about it, but I soon recognized the old road I used to jog on when I was still training with Santuric.

Sates gasped and grabbed his shoulder. “You’re going to be fine” Santuric said “But there are inevitably splinters of Yce embedded.” Sates looked scared at Santuric. “But… How will that affect me?” “I don’t really know, not many people have survived an Yce attack, but ask Zentharim when we find her, she’s all about studying the Yce.” We kept walking and soon saw the familiar sight of The Hut. And outside of it, standing in a circle was the three council members. They had their arms raised towards a common spot right above the house, and soon a fine flow of liquefied Fyre flowed from their hands. This flowed outwards on its own and formed a small dome around The Hut. This was one of the techniques I had leaned lately; it was a protective barrier that repelled all other than people of The Fyre. Firr was nearest to us, and so turned towards us in greeting.

His face was as inquisitive as I remembered him from last, but he still looked somewhat worried. “Obviously” I thought to myself. “What’s the status?” he asked Santuric. “We’ve lost practically every apprentice we had, except for those who were not in the headquarters. Sates here was wounded, I think Zentharim might want to have a look at him.” Zentharim, having heard her name, came over and lead Sates into a chair inside. “The Chosen is unharmed.” He continued. Firr looked at me. “Good…” he said. “I will need to talk to you my boy. Follow me please.” I followed Firr while Santuric went in to check on Sates. We passed Shaw who grunted and said “I’m surprised that you haven’t gotten yourself killed yet kiddo! In fact…” but Firr cut him off with a single glance. Shaw hurried to the front side of the house.

We sat in the outer rim of the dome, about two meters from The Hut. “How are you doing?” he asked. “I’m doing alright counting out that my entire life was taken away from me, I’ve been close to death several times, almost all the people I’ve just gotten to know are now dead and on top of that, I don’t even know yet why it was me!” After being relatively calm while we fled, all the emotions now broke through. I looked sternly into Firr’s calm eyes, breathing heavily. “Why is it me? I know I am ‘the chosen’ that exceeds everyone’s talent, but just… Why me? Wouldn’t it have been better with someone who was already into the whole situation, someone who was already trained in Fyre?” Firr’s eyes sparkled. “No” he said “It couldn’t have been anyone else, by fate. You will have to figure out yourself, but that will come in time. Follow your instincts, and it will come.” Firr’s words got me quiet for a while, so we went into The Hut.



No one talked for a while whilst Santuric fyre’d us some breakfast and Firr sent out warning fyreballs to anyone out there still alive. After an hour, a few more people arrived. Three long-time apprentices called Shirr, Sang and Trish. They had been at a mission in Norway, and had returned here when they’d gotten the fyreball. They had the situation explained and then sat down with us. Zentharim was then all over them, checking for injuries and the like. “Please ma’am, we’re not injured, we can take care of ourselves” Sang said. “Sure you can my boy, I am just curious if you have any new marks to show after being up in the mountains for half a month.” “We wouldn’t have. We had to abort just now and never attempted to infiltrate their outpost.” Trish said. “How much did you lea…” Shaw said, but was cut off by the sound of something heavily steaming, like water poured right onto hot embers, coming from the outside. We all ran outside to look, except for Sates who had had grabbed his shoulder again.

There was Deff, standing outside of the dome, covered in a fine layer of Yce. He had apparently tried to cross the barrier, but was rejected. “What happened to you?” Santuric asked startled. “I… I was h-h-hiding in th-the b-base” he whispered between his clattering teeth. “Well, come inside dear!” Zentharim said and lifted a part of the dome so Deff could enter. Zentharim got him to sit on a chair, and started heating him with concentrating Fyre in her palms. We all sat inside and Firr sat across from Deff. “Tell me what happened” he said. Deff was now heated enough to speak. “I had gotten up early, to get ahead. But when I heard the attack, I hid in this tiny room, a supply closet or something, from the attackers. They began Ycing the entire place, and when some of those minions found and started to freeze me, I only just barely escaped!” Firr looked deeply into his eyes. “Is that the truth?” Deff hesitated for a long second before answering. “Yeah, it is! What was it that happened Firr?” “The Yce attacked, killed almost everyone and took the Orb.” Deff raised a hand before his mouth, saying a silent swear. “I do not know of anyone who would be alive still” Firr said to the crowd “So we will have to rest for a few days and try to make this a safer outpost. Then we will need a party to go out and learn what they can of the location of the Orb. It is VITAL that we obtain it again, or we be unable to channel the Fyre as well as usual!”

Those who could spend the rest of the day setting a perimeter and repairing The Hut and I got to know Shirr, Sang and Trish better. They were in their thirties, and had been stationed in Norway for some time to attempt an assault on an Yce outpost. They had almost been ready to attempt it when they now had to abort. That mission would also have had graduated them from apprentice level to Fyre User level. We got sensors put up within a two kilometer radius and made fixes to The Hut to repair the damage to it. I chuckled when I saw that hole in the wall I had made being fixed. Santuric, the one living person who knew this place the best showed us an underground room that was kept secret for newcomers. It contained several beds, a fairly good Vulkanadon supply (Although we all had out Vulkanadon cloaks with us) and basic shelter. We bunked there for the night, Sates’ shoulder kept hurting throughout the night.

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Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/AdE7k6

Sorry for the big delay. There prolly wont be any chapters next week due to exams, so sorry readers.

Enjoy

- Ting

Chapter 16

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 16

Sup Walema cursed to herself. That bastard Santuric had gotten away again, like he did back in April when she was attacking that new entity. But now, a vital thing had changed. She now had the Fyre Orb, and whatever little trouble they had had with those Fyre morons would soon be gone. It was just a matter of finding and eliminating those last stragglers now. And that guy, Firr too obviously, but that was an entirely different problem. They had found their headquarters, obviously easier with the help they’ve got but they still managed to kill almost all of them without resistance. Sup looked around. This place was now completely encrusted in Yce. She walked down the empty hallway. Her minions had already searched and cleared this place; no one was left and the important writings in the study had been burned, so Sup conjured a power core to keep the minions activated and able to keep this place, and then Yce’d out, enveloping herself in fog and then disappeared.

She reappeared at their lair, the frozen tower. Located somewhere on the mainland ice of Greenland, this place lay well hidden from the rest of the world and kept a constant cool. The layout of the tower was so that the lowest ranking was at the bottom and then it worked up till the frozen throne in the top where The Master ruled from. Sup was a higher ranking general because of her many deeds. She walked in through the main door. She entered a grandiose hall with two curved staircases leading one level up and some doors on the walls. One of these doors led to the living quarters, the place where new people were born, raised and indeed forced to serve the Yce. This technique did not create as focused members as Fyre, but it created a lot, and with every cannon-fodder soldier that completed basic training, who were each as strong as the basic Fyre apprentice because of the rise in Yce these later years, the Yce got even closer to dominating the contrast.

She walked up the stairs, into the central hallway where the barracks for soldiers were and up the central spiral staircase. The tower had eight levels, excluding the basement. There was the first floor, entrance with access to the breeder basement, second floor with the barracks for trained soldiers and the base of the stairs, third floor with training facilities, fourth floor with the offices for squad leaders, fifth floor for the lieutenants, sixth floor for the generals such as Sup, seventh floor for the scholars and the eighth top floor for The Master on the frozen throne. Sup reached the top floor and approached The Master.



Sup slowly walked up beneath his throne and kneeled. “Master, I have brought you the Orb of Fyre.” The Master looked like a statue, carved out of the Yce in the throne. He was completely grey, had a long beard with icicles in it but with, when he opened his eyelids with a loud cracking noise, like an ice flake breaking, you could see his bright blue eyes. “Let me see child” he slowly said. Sup reached for her Yce gloves so she could touch the Orb. When she had first seen it, she had tried to grab it and gotten a nasty burn. But these gloves shielded her from it. She Yce’d a pedestal of fog, took the Orb out from the makeshift bag she had created from the flexible material her suit was made of and placed the Orb there. The Master let out a sound like an iceberg shifting, piercing the Orb with his eyes. “You have done well child. This may teach me many things, but I will need time. I trust you have also taken care of their apprentices?” Sup nodded. Looking as pleased as a rock could look, he waved his hand and said “You may go.” Sup bowed, backed out and went down the stairs to her quarters.

Her room, like every other persons room here, was very modest. The only noteworthy things here was a desk, bookshelf and higher quality bed, but otherwise very modest. Sup lay on her cold bed, rested her back from carrying the heavy Orb. Her suit, made of a navy blue material called Mistsatsu, retracted to the form of a belt. Your skin did not breathe well underneath the dense material, so she had to retract it once in a while. Mistsatsu, when activated by the wearer, acted somewhat like water, but could be molded into basically anything. From weapons to shields or to simply grab or punch a close range foe. Only higher members were granted Mistsatsu. It took a long time to extract it from the deep Yce, a long way beneath the surface of Greenland and was therefore very valuable.

Sup rested her eyes. She zoned out her mind, though of nothing, let the cold fill her. An image appeared, a memory, the earliest she knew, around fourteen years ago, when she was fourteen. It was when she had met The Master for the first time; he had had a hand on her head. The first time she could remember the chilling touch of Yce. Before that, there was nothing, as if she had been created at that moment. She had pondered it much the last years, but she had not remembered anything, and so came to serve the only purpose she knew of, serving The Master, fighting for the Yce.

Meanwhile, three figures appeared in a flash of Fyre in an African field. One of them fell to his knees, clutching his shoulders, with the largest one kneeling and tending him, but one of them just stood there, staring into space, unable to forget those blue eyes.

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Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/BMFase

So, now I'm just waiting for someone to comment on what that white stuff is... Lolwecs...

Anyways, hope you enjoyed learning more on this new character Sup Walema... And don't comment her name, I KNOW! It is an important part of my fiction, even before I got to know of the expression 'sup!

Savvy?

- Ting

Chapter 15

The Fyre Chronicles

Chapter 15

“Come on, let’s find an empty place” Sates said. We walked into the hallway and found the Dojo to be empty, almost empty at least. Deff was sitting in the corner, reading a fyreball. When he saw us coming in, he quickly rose, hid the fyreball and stormed past us out of the dojo. “Hey, what’s u…?” Sates said, but Deff bumped into him which cut him off. “What was that about?” I said. Sates looked after Deff for a second. “I don’t know. He’s been gone most of the time lately. Well, let’s get you taught.” We went to the middle of the room and sat.

“You see” Sates said “Vulkanadon is a concentrated form of Fyre extracted from Vuulk, that volcano just outside. You must extend the Fyre inside of you; become one with the Vulkanadon, and then… Create.” The Vulkanadon from Sates’ sleeve seemed to come alive and form a pair of handcuffs. “Could be useful eh?” he said and winked. We went over the basics for a while. Most of it was much like the basic meditating I had done with Santuric, only that this had to be done faster for combat practicalities. I soon learned to create minor items, but Sates seemed to be impressed by the speed at which I learned. So was Shaw the next day, he stopped for a full second when I conjured a handful of perfectly balanced throwing-knives.

So went the next two months. Days continued on with most of the same routine. I learned quickly in both martial arts from Shaw as well as achieving a focused mind with the help of Zentharim. Firr rarely appeared, he probably had a lot to attend to, and Santuric was often gone too. Since Sates had been here longer, he had the lead in skills for some time, but I quickly caught up to him and even got better than him. It didn’t seem to bother him that much; he had accepted that I was ‘the chosen’ although even I didn’t quite know what that meant yet, other than I seemed to learn faster than anyone else.

On October the 1st I woke early. 5:10 the clock said. I didn’t know what had made me wake, but something seemed… Different. I threw off my thin blanket and stood out of my bed, but where I had previously been used to just stand in my underwear no problem, I was now freezing. I grabbed some clothes and looked around. Sates were sleeping silently next to me, so was all the others, but Deff was nowhere to be seen. I shook Sates. “Something is wrong” I said. He got up too. “Whew, isn’t it colder?” He said. “I don’t know. Let’s go get something to eat, maybe Zentharim will explain later.” So we donned our cloaks and went into the hallway.

As we started to walk down the silent hallway, deserted because of the early hours, we heard a loud noise from the dorm. It sounded like a wall falling followed by the sound of something crystallizing. We ran back to the dorm only to find half of it, including our beds, to be covered in Yce and the far wall to have been toppled. From the gap in the wall and out into the plains of Vuulk, a layer of Yce covered the ground and a horde of those Yce minions advanced on us, and in front of them walked a tall figure, a very pale woman looking to be in her late twenties, with blue hair and donning a tight, blue full body suit. She pointed and the minions advanced at us.



The others who had not been frozen at first had already gotten up and running, but half of them were quickly felled. Some fell twitching with a huge spike in the back, some stood frozen in place, trapped in a block of Yce and the rest, those closest to the door, just got out. Before we could react to all this, a cascade of spikes flew towards us. Then my instinct kicked in. A shield of Vulkanadon formed in front of me which repelled the spikes. Sates did the same but as we ran out, he caught one in his left arm.

“What should we do?” He moaned. “Let’s get the hell out!” I answered but as we tried to fyre away, the approaching cold prohibited us from doing so. “Damn!” Sates said. “Uuh… Come on, we’ve got to find the council then!” We ran up the hallway, but someone pulled us into the study. “Ssh!” said the person I now recognized to be Santuric. “The council is gone and safe, just wait.” He whispered. We waited as the sound of Yce forming in the hallway passed and the screams of those who had no Vulkanadon to protect them came and passed.

After a while, the noises passed and an eerie silence fell. And then, amidst the already creeping cold, it was as if some part of my mind disappeared. “It was as I feared then” Santuric said “They’ve taken the Fyre Orb.” Footsteps broke the silence in the hallway. “Come on, we’ve got to go!” Santuric placed his hands on both our shoulders and Fyre started to envelop us. The last thing I saw was the blue haired girl breaking the door open. Our eyes met for a brief second, mine red, hers blue. A smile cracked across her face, and then we were gone.

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Original post: http://www.fyreball.com/d/BBuw8N

Again, I'm sorry this was delayed. From now on, the plot is gonna pick up speed. Also, I plan to rewrite chapters 1-10, but that's not gonna happen till the holidays.

Enjoy

- Ting