The Elementals

“Are you sure of the pronunciation?” Lotus asked.

“No,” Evia pointed at her silenced throat.

“Right, but it’s more of a name than Singe’s apparently.”

“We’ll see,” Skylar said.

“Arkodes Snow,” Lotus chanted as their gauntlet imitated the man Evia had shown.

Their mind pulled in a direction. They knew where he was.

“He might not be where Singe is,” they warned, “But he might have a better idea than we do.”

“Then you found him?” Skylar asked.

Lotus nodded.

Some of the tension in Skylar relieved, not enough for Lotus to feel safe, but it was something.

“Let’s go then, find this asshole.”

Evia watched Skylar get more and more anxious as they walked in the direction of Lotus’ tracking spell.

“Why didn’t we teleport?” she asked.

“We don’t know who’s with him,” Evia explained, making sure Skylar could see her hands, “Someone had to make us sense a portal when there wasn’t one.”

Skylar crossed her arms and continued muttering

“He’s surprisingly close,” Lotus pointed out a cabin that seemed normal, pleasant even.

“He’s in there?” Skylar asked.

“I expected something less plain,” Evia commented.

Skylar took the front of the group, holding her arms to form a shield as soon as necessary.

The door to the cabin was unlocked.

“That’s a bad sign,” Evia said, preparing her own defensive spells.

“What did she say?” Skylar asked.

Lotus translated with more words than necessary.

Skylar nodded, opening the door.

Arkodes Snow sat casually on the couch. He had the blond hair that ran so strong through their family line, though it leaned less blue than Evia’s. His clothes, like hers, were better suited toward warmer weather than the current climate, which told her he intended to use Magek in the near future.

She watched him carefully.

“Where’s Singe?” Skylar asked.

“Your highness,” Arkodes bowed, “A pleasure to finally speak with you. You may recall me from your sister’s wedding.”

“I asked a question.”

“Cousin,” he continued, ignoring her, “Where do your loyalties lie, with me or your Half-Minerian friend?”

Evia twisted her hands, blocking all exits out of the room with her ice-walls.

“Cruel,” he said, “But expected. You’re the one who discovered my presence, I assume.”

Skylar moved to the side to offer Evia a clearer shot. She gathered frost on her finger-tips.

“I overheard the conversation before his majesty allowed you to leave. Have you been a good subject and told him all he wishes to know about his enemies?”

“I was right,” Skylar muttered. That stung.

The frost Evia gathered came off her fingers, turning into spikes. Arkodes moved all but the last, which sliced the side of his face.

“I guess I struck a nerve. You’re surprisingly skilled for a silent siren.”

The next attack was Skylar moving fast enough to grab him by the collar, her other hand aflame.

“Where. Is. Singe?”

“There are better sources to tell you than myself, I assure you.”

Something sank in Evia. This was a red herring. They weren’t going to find Singe this way.

“Is he still alive?” Evia asked.

“That’s an excellent question, but I don’t care enough about vengeance to remove him when he’s so useful in other ways.”

“What other ways?” Lotus asked.

Arkodes was a Snow, and Snows cared about perception, especially the perception of those they disliked.

Evia walked over to the television remote, turning on the ignored set.

“The Elementals, usually first on the scene in these situations, are nowhere to be found.”

The television showed a night dragon stalking slowly through a town.

“This is a distraction.”

Evia fortified the exits. Hopefully they would keep Arkodes trapped until they returned.

Lotus grabbed her and Skylar as copper quickly covered their bodies.

Skylar took a step back as soon as she saw the dragon in front of them. Singe dealt with dragons, and night dragons especially loved him. How were they supposed to keep this thing calm?

“Are we sure it’s real?” Lotus asked.

Skylar lifted her hand, then shook her head. She wasn’t going to hurt it if it wasn’t necessary. A night dragon would be anxious enough as it was.

“We need to get it away from people,” she said.

“It didn’t come out of a portal,” Lotus said, “Its rider may be on earth.”

“Who brings a whole night dragon to Earth?”

She could understand any other species, but this one was giant, and somehow easy to lose.

“I’ll pull it up for now,” Skylar said, “I’m bright and distracting.”

“If you get hurt…” Lotus warned.

“Then I’ll heal.”

She needed to get these people safe, and this creature home, so they could start the search for Singe again.

She formed the wings of flame and flew into the creature’s face.

“Hey, pay attention to me!” She waved her arms as if they grabbed more attention than the wings.

It responded well to her voice. The light of her flames turned some of the black scales violet, but also made clear its injuries.

“If you can follow me, I can heal your wounds.”

She slowly backed up, keeping face toward it, but it didn’t follow.

“Please, I can help you.”

It looked anxiously back, then returned gaze to her.

“Wait for me,” she told it.

She flew to the back of it. The tail didn’t seem to have any problems.

“I thought you were going to get it to follow you!” Lotus yelled.

“It’s hurt,” she explained, “We might need to heal it.”

“If I heal something this large, it might cause more property damage than it will if we leave it.”

She leveled a glare at them.

“You aren’t the only one that can heal.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t hurt it.”

She ignored them, going over to figure out what stopped it from moving, only to find a hole in its wing.

“There’s our problem.”

She flew back to the creature’s front.

“It’s going to hurt in a minute, but I swear you’ll feel better once it’s over.”

She moved back to the hole, but she couldn’t place a hand near it, like her muscles stopped at a point she knew they shouldn’t.

She started the phoenix flame, wincing at the purifying heat, but her arm was able to move freely again.

Before she touched the wing, the dragon screeched and ran. Mortals screamed, though it didn’t hurt anyone yet.

“I told you not to do it!” Lotus yelled.

“I didn’t touch it!”

They rolled their eyes.

“Evia, put up walls before it hurts anyone else!” they ordered.

Skylar flew fast to stay with the dragon before Evia blocked it in.

“You could drop it on top of Phoenix!” Lotus yelled.

“Someone has to keep it calm.”

“Who made it run, again?”

Skylar found Evia, giving her pleading eyes. Evia offered an extra stare on Lotus.

“Fine, but whoever it hurts is on your head.”

Skylar slowly moved back to the head.

“We’re sending you home, don’t worry. They should be able to heal you there.”

It butted its head against her.

“Skylar!”

She put a hand up. It hadn’t hurt her too bad. It just had a lot of weight.

Magek isn’t your home, is it?” she asked.

The dragon made no response as she watched its eyes, which were surprisingly wide considering all the light she was providing.

Wide eyes like it wasn’t completely in control.

Someone had to make them sense a portal where there wasn’t one.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

She manifested purifying flame, covering the dragon as it roared loud enough for Skylar to feel it in her bones.

“I’m gonna need a healer after this,” she said but couldn’t hear. She could see Lotus and Evia making frantic comments. Her fire might have been interfering with their spells.

Instinct told her to stop the fire, and it dissipated as she fell to the ground in exhaustion.

Singe hated the full dragon form. His limbs were in the wrong place, and their movement felt raw. He’d worked so hard to reach that point in his abilities, and now it was a last resort.

So he took some time to process everything once he woke up.

“Skylar!” Lotus screamed, and Singe instinctively looked up, where the Ember Phoenix had been a moment ago, when she purified him of his stupor. She wasn’t there.

He fanned out his wings, swiftly moving to the side as he felt something land on them.

“Ow,” Skylar groaned, then after a moment, “Holy—”

Singe slowly lifted the wing so she slid down it onto his back.

He felt her climb across his back, touching something around the point of his shoulder blades.

“I’ll be safe,” she laid a gentle kiss on his scales, “Please turn back.”

Singe took a few deep breaths, stretching himself out before he shrank in size. Eventually Skylar jumped off his back as he returned to two legs. He kept the scales and most of the other features. He didn’t have enough energy to look fully human.

“How did you know it was me?” he asked, focusing on Skylar.

“The runes on your back,” she said, “It didn’t make sense for a dragon to have them.”

He’d forgotten that Skylar had seen him shirtless. He turned his stare away, suddenly remembering his place.

She pulled him back.

“What happened?”

“Telepath, kidnapping, dreambreaking, here.” he relayed the events as he recalled them.

Skylar kept her hand on his face as her eyes widened.

“Lotus, take us back, now.”

Evia focused her attention on the garden again. In all the commotion, she hadn’t been able to give it attention.

When they returned to Arkodes’ residence, he was gone, but Singe had recognized the place, recoiling from the garage. No one had pushed the issue of a search.

After returning to the cabin, no one had talked to her, as her father’s purpose had been made plain.

Evia was there to watch, and reveal anything relevant about Princess Ariana to her father, who would wield that information like a weapon should the time come. The threat to Skylar’s parents and her older sisters was implicit.

She would be sent home, with the only information available to be that Arkodes was on Earth, and seemed to be targeting the Elementals, not that she’d told her father that detail.

He wouldn’t have cared about Evia risking her life, of course, so much as the image of Singe Tyrain, whose presence he discovered despite her hiding it, becoming a hero to the greater Earth population.

“Hey!”

Evia’s flinch led the watering can to tumble out of her hands, soaking a plant that probably shouldn’t have that much water.

“Sorry,” Skylar said, picking up the watering can before it completely emptied. “I just wanted to talk.”

“Arkodes was right,” Evia admitted. The least she could do was alleviate Lotus’ feeling any need to be on her side.

“So your father knows everything?”

Evia shook her head.

“So you’ve lied to him on our behalf?”

“Not lying, hiding.”

Skylar sighed.

“I never trusted you, and I especially don’t now.”

Evia nodded.

“Take care of the plants,” she requested.

“But I was outvoted,” Skylar said.

Evia froze.

“What did you vote on?” she asked.

“You,” Skylar admitted, “I wanted you gone, for Singe’s sake more than anything, but Lotus is your friend, and Singe made a good point.”

“I can stay?” Evia asked.

“I won’t stop you from leaving if you’d like, but if anything you share comes to hurt any of us, Lotus will be sending you back for the sake of your own survival.”

Evia nodded.

“You don’t have to hide,” she said, “With Singe.”

“Hide what with Singe?”

Evia rolled her eyes, of course she was going to make it difficult.

“I’ve known the whole time. I won’t tell my father. Lotus knows too. We’ve discussed it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Evia was left to garden in peace.

She could stay, and now she had to think of a way to tell her father where Arkodes was without revealing how she knew.

Spade halted another blade before it hit, letting one far behind them drop.

I said I didn’t want to be involved. he dropped a few more things behind them to have enough of his mind available for that complaint.

I didn’t ask you to come, Diamond retorted with false innocence.

You said nothing about stealing shit.

And you said you didn’t mind stealing things.

“What are we even taking?” he asked aloud, stepping into the clearing, watching for any new threats.

Something, Diamond answered, helpfully.

“And why isn’t Heart here?”

“Heart wasn’t going to be helpful,” Club noted through the earpiece.

“An extra pair of hands might not be the worst,” Spade noted.

Diamond stepped onto the Elementals’ porch with nary a care, lifting up a journal and sifting through it, before throwing it behind her.

Recognize this language?

Spade dropped another trap to bring it into his hands. He thumbed through the pages. He’d seen this alphabet before.

One of my professors had tattoos in this language, usually hidden under a jacket, but sometimes she’d take it off while relaxing after a dig. I always expected her husband would get possessive about all of us staring at her arms, but he never seemed to notice.

He missed Professor Hunter.

And the language is… Diamond prompted.

Never learned the name, but it’s the mage alphabet essentially. You know how they do things with runes?

So it’s Magek runes. Diamond assessed.

Yeah, but I’ve never seen them written like this. Usually it’s to focus some kind of power, but here…

Here?

Here it’s being used like language, like a journal or something.

About what?

He gave a shrug before flipping through pages. He found illustrations of the various plants around after a minute.

Gardening, it looks like.

Not useful, Diamond assessed.

How can you say that?

“Because we’re not looking for a gardening book.”

This is an example of the modern Mage-language. Do you know how hard it is to find examples of this?

“Put the book back,” Club said, “We don’t want them to know we were there.”

“We weren’t,” Spade muttered, setting the book down as ordered.

He followed Diamond around as she searched the cutlery, cabinets, a secret mini-fridge with beers.

Local Brew, Spade noted, Not bad.

Are you going to help? Diamond asked.

I’ve kept you alive, haven’t I?

Diamond cautiously closed the mini-fridge. Spade considered grabbing one of the cans, but decided to keep his wits about him.

“Are there parameters for this something we’re trying to find?” he offered, hoping Club might extend an answer. He didn’t want to help, but he couldn’t leave his sister floundering for long.

Something valuable to them, Diamond answered.

The Elementals?

No, she kept looking around, Maybe. Our client needs a significant trophy.

Needs or wants?

Diamond paused for a moment.

Not sure he knows the difference.

Spade didn’t want whatever assessment Diamond had of their client, mostly because he suspected it differed from his own.

They cautiously searched the rooms. They were sparse, or with items too obvious to steal without their victims noticing, and ideally the only two people they would realize were involved was Diamond and their client. Given Diamond’s abilities, they would probably guess she needed help to get into the cabin.

Why do you think they have so many booby traps, but none on the inside thus far? Spade asked absentmindedly.

Don’t jinx it.

No such thing, he insisted, Find any—

He sensed some shift in Diamond’s state that paused the conversation.

We need to— Diamond started.

“Get out, now!” Club ordered, “The Ember Phoenix just undid all of Diamond’s work.”

“But we haven’t—” Spade argued.

“Before they teleport back.”

As they made their way out, Spade snatched the book from the porch. Discredited or not, he wasn’t losing an opportunity to look at the language up close like this.