The Elementals

Singe felt his scales building up. It wasn’t like he was actually scared of King Reuben hurting him, but the man had a certain air.

“I bet you didn’t think the bill would come due for your commission so early,” Reuben said, leaning back on his desk.

“What does that mean?” Singe asked.

“As a knight of Six Kingdoms. You do have to take the sovereigns’ wishes into account. You aren’t bound by loyalty as those in our individual courts are, but you still owe some duty to us.”

“What duty?” Singe asked.

Reuben handed him a scroll with his seal on it. Singe was about to open it when Reuben held up a hand.

“That’s for my daughter to see, should you accept it.”

“What do you mean?” Singe didn’t move his hand from its position.

“Princess Ariana—Skylar—is going to Earth, indefinitely. Obviously she’ll come back for any major events I call her to, but she’s been allowed to roam free on the other side. My request is that you go with her, keep her safe.”

“Of course,” Singe said, placing the scroll in his pouch. Keeping Skylar safe would be work, but he’d be happy to do it.

“I’m glad you agreed so readily, because Queen Ivy asked me to also send this with you.” Reuben handed him a similar scroll with the Ilvan royal crest.

“Who is this for?” Singe asked.

“Princet Lotus. It’s less indefinite. They’re staying on earth until one of their siblings takes the throne, abdicating their claim. Princess Evia of Renue is also going, but nobody expects her to be asked back. Keep an eye on her too if you will.”

Singe gave a nod, and a bow. Reuben lifted him up.

“I expect them back in one piece.”

“I’ll do my best, your majesty.”

“So why are you trying to stop my cousin from having fun?” Skylar asked, tossing Singe a bottle of painkillers.

“I just don’t want them to become accustomed to getting everything they want here. It’ll make the experience more miserable for all of us.” he appreciated the lack of the royal whining he’d expected, but he didn’t want to push that luck.

“What about me?” Skylar asked.

“You had this whole store to pick from, and you chose to talk with me in the medicine aisle. I think you’re down to earth enough.”

“Literally, now.”

They stayed quiet trying not to laugh at something so simple.

“So I know you aren’t officially a knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” Skylar said, “But most of the sovereigns are treating you like one, which means you didn’t have to take the protection commission. Like I asked before: What are you doing here?”

“Your father asked me to protect you first, then sprung the fact I’d be babysitting your cousin and Evia as well.”

“So you were tricked into accepting because of me?” Skylar asked.

“I could have said yes anyways.”

“What about the Black Dragons?” Skylar asked.

“The Corps is a little less interested in someone missing a kingdom from their knightly title. I wasn’t getting in.”

Skylar offered a hand on his arm in comfort.

“But at least you’re still protecting royalty.”

“Most of whom are total strangers.”

“But one of them is me.” she fluttered her eyelashes jokingly. Singe still found himself leaning in.

“Screee!”

Black winged creatures, with shark-like mouths and no eyes appeared right above them. Singe tackled Skylar to the ground. The creatures seemed to multiply.

“What are those things?” Skylar asked, adjusting her position to look past Singe.

“No clue, but the answer is probably not good.”

Skylar wriggled free of his grasp and formed a shield of flames above them, standing up as she did so.

“We don’t know how they react to fire,” Singe said, moving beside her.

“It’s better than cowering.”

“That really depends.”

Singe changed form, feeling the claws and snout set in. His clothes changed to a more Magekal garb like before.

“What do you want!?” he yelled in Draconic. The creatures responded with clicks he couldn’t understand, but if they understood Draconic…

“Caveblights!” he realized. He’d always seen them under cover of darkness, but they were the same creatures he’d have to push out of his mentor’s home.

“Are they malicious?” Skylar asked.

“We definitely don’t want them in the store.”

“How do we get them out?”

Normally, you had to be as quiet as possible, but with the crowd screaming, that covered their presence well enough.

“We need to get them back to Magek.”

“They’ll still be tied to their home enough to go right back!” Skylar kissed him on the cheek. “You distract them, I’ll grab Lotus.”

Singe hurled whatever insults he could come up with at the things. In turn they pushed the shelves onto him. He didn’t push them back for fear of hurting civilians.

He was in the middle of yelling, “And your brood, too!” when he felt the weight relieve off of him.

“Sir Tyrain,” Lotus said, “How fast do those things usually multiply?”

“Not this fast.”

“So they must be coming from a portal that’s pulling them here. Can you persuade them to move so I can get a look at it?”

“They’re caveblights,” Singe explained, “They recognize Draconic because it’s a signal to hide.”

Everyone looked at him.

“All of you know Draconic,” he insisted, “I know they teach it to you.”

“Evia can’t speak, I need to look at the portal, and right now you are a dragon.”

That was inaccurate, but none of them actually cared.

“Make it a good plan.”

Singe flew a short distance to the middle of the caveblights, and roared. The creatures dispersed, though more quickly took their place. Singe swatted at them with little remorse. He couldn’t see the actual portal, but he could try to keep the blights from the center.

Below him, Skylar, Lotus, and Evia were arguing until Evia ran off. Even if he didn’t like most of the Renue royal family, he hoped she was okay.

Suddenly around him, ice formed a reverse dome from the ceiling, trapping him with the caveblights.

“I didn’t agree to this!” he yelled in Draconic.

“You’ll be fine!” Lotus yelled back, apparently somewhere out of sight.

“What are you doing?” Singe asked

“Do you know how a reflect shield spell reverses the direction of any Magek pointed at it?”

All Singe knew about that spell was that he couldn’t cast it.

“Sure!”

“Well I’m about to do that to the portal. If you get sucked in too, we’ll meet you at the cabin.”

“What!?”

Around him, the caveblights were dragged into the space above his head, like a drain. Singe dropped to avoid all of them, shattering the dome and denting the floor beneath him.

“Oww.”

“That’s not great for your injuries,” Skylar said.

“Wouldn’t have guessed,” Singe groaned.

“Skylar!” Lotus yelled, “Phoenix!”

“Right!”

Skylar sent a plume of flame into the ceiling, miraculously leaving it unburnt, then she bent down to hold Singe’s head.

“You okay, big guy?”

“No…” he’d be fine in a few minutes, but he enjoyed the attention.

“We’ll get you back to the cabin in just a moment,” Lotus said.

Singe kept his focus on the rapidly disappearing dome. He would have expected some water to drip down, but it seemed to all be vapor.

“Nice work on the dome, Princess Evia.”

“Thank you.” she placed her hands above him, signing horizontally.

“What is this?” a strange voice asked, “Some joyride gone wrong?”

“What?” Lotus asked, “There were caveblights causing a ruckus. We got rid of them. What do you mean joyride?”

“I call ‘em like I see ‘em,” the police officer answered. “Vigilantism is illegal for a reason. I know in a power town you people feel like you can do whatever, but it’s better to leave this to the authorities.”

“Authorities?” Lotus sputtered. Singe finally stood up, pushing them out of the way.

“Officer, with all due respect, we’re much closer to authorities in this particular incident than you are. Creatures from Magek started swarming, and it took all our efforts to put them back.”

He knew immediately that he chose the worst possible line to say. Police officers didn’t take kindly to any undermining of their authority, especially when you were in the right.

“So you’re mages?” the policeman asked in a way that didn’t sound promising.

“Yes.”

“That why you look like that?”

Singe looked down, remembering he was still in draconic form.

“Oh, sorry.”

He shrank a little as he became more humanoid, returning to more typical American clothes in the process. He still towered over the officer.

“Is that what you normally look like?”

“That’s—”

“None of your business!” Syren yelled, coming up to the group with shopping bags. She handed Lotus their heart-glasses from before. “Now are you going to charge my friends, or are we free to go?”

“Young lady—”

“The mage acts decisively say Mages dealing with Magekal issues cannot be tried by Earth laws. As they fought creatures that clearly weren’t from earth, you have nothing to charge them with.”

The officer’s jaw dropped, and Syren beamed.

“They still need to pay for the floor,” he finally sputtered.

“Of course.” Syren quickly handed the bags to Evia, “The Eves’ will gladly pay for the damages.”

Before Singe could see if Syren’s arguments worked, he felt copper cover his whole body.

Singe fell onto the couch, suddenly realizing he didn’t have the padding of his scales.

“Toss me the pain-killers, assuming Syren bought them.”

A bottle hit his chest and fell onto the floor next to him.

“Oww.”

“You aren’t getting these,” Skylar placed the bottle on the coffee table, “Until I make sure you don’t have any open wounds I have to handle.”

“Or I could just heal him,” Lotus said, “Elf, remember?”

“Lotus, I’ve seen your healing magek in action, and I don’t want that damage done to my godmother’s cabin.”

“We could do it outside.”

“That would be so much worse.” she directed Singe to take his shirt off, then glided her hands over his torso clinically, feeling for any invisible cuts. He smiled when they made eye-contact.

She stood up abruptly.

“You’re clear. I’ll get you a glass of water. Put your shirt back on.”

After listening to that last order, Singe held up the bottle. “Can someone else open this? Last time I opened one of these it shattered.”

Evia gladly took it, attempting to twist, then showing confusion when it didn’t immediately come off.

“You’ve got to press down while twisting, at least initially. It’s designed to keep kids out of things that could kill them.”

Evia nodded, taking the instruction and handing him the open bottle.

“Why do they have things that could kill children readily available?” Lotus asked, putting their sunglasses back on.

“Well it doesn’t usually kill them, just makes them sick and possibly permanently damaged. Also, don’t you live in a forest where you have to run because the trees will hit you otherwise?”

“But that’s just how the moving forest is. This is something you make.”

“I didn’t make it.”

Skylar shoved a glass of water into his hands.

“As someone who grew up in the Forge, painkillers are low on the list of things that can kill kids that we keep around them. At least this has precautions.” she turned back to Singe, “Now take your drugs.”

“Of course, your highness.”

Everyone gathered around the couches, Singe sitting up so Skylar had space next to him.

“That was fun,” Evia said.

“You weren’t in the middle of the caveblights.”

“Yeah,” Skylar said, dropping her smile, “Singe got hurt, even more after protecting us from traps.”

“Yes,” Lotus answered, “But it was nice to use my training for something other than transportation, or at least transporting people.”

“And it was probably nice to use the power of a Phoenix without concern of politics,” Singe offered. He could see the direction of the conversation.

“Well, yes. It was pretty nice to just let loose about it, but that doesn’t mean it should be repeated.”

“Why not?” Evia asked, “You heard what Syren said about laws.”

“That was specifically so the Masters could continue their work without vigilante laws causing an interdimensional incident,” Skylar answered, “Not a bunch of bored royals capturing caveblights.”

Maybe Singe didn’t know Skylar as well as he should to make this call, but she seemed to be hiding how proud she was of what they’d done.

“What else are bored royals supposed to do?” he asked, “It’s not like you’re likely to cause less problems if you stay cooped up. Why did you want to leave in the first place? I’m guessing freedom.”

The princets nodded. Skylar bit her finger.

“I could set up a tracker of sorts, to find any world incursions like this one,” Lotus said, “So we know when and where they’re happening. Imagine the research if we find creatures from outside of Magek.”

“Priority is keeping people safe,” Singe said.

“Priority is not causing a political incident,” Skylar said, “I don’t need another world’s worth of pressure as The Phoenix.”

“Ember Phoenix, if we’re going by official titles,” Lotus corrected.

“We can go incognito!” Evia offered, bouncing in her seat, “Singe can stay draconic, and we can wear masks.”

“Evia, most humans don’t have ears like Lotus,” Skylar pointed at her cousins elven features, “Or blue-blond hair,” she pointed at Evia, “Or red and violet eyes.” she finally pointed out their shared couch. “A mask isn’t going to cut it.”

“There is an old method of disguise,” Lotus said, “But it’s risky.”

“I think it’s the best I’m going to get out of this negotiation, isn’t it?” Skylar resigned.

They all cheered.