Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

"Oh, this can't be good," El said as she gaped at the ring.

Even though most of the exploding sphere of flame died without reaching the electrum script, half a dozen of the streamers funneled into the metal. At the barest touch, the characters lit up like a sunrise, bright and pure, and the glyphs filling the inside of the ring quickly ran from bottom to top. Like before, a film seemed to form within the band, and the city beyond grew hazy.

"We need to go, El, now," Laze said, and El felt a hand hook around her good elbow.

"The ring. We have to…" she started, but the hand pulled her arm hard enough she cut off.

"There's nothing we can do now," Laze said. "And you're in no shape to fight. We need to get to Dayne and get back to Pycrin."

"She's right," Nidina added. "It's not going to be a short flight, and you already look like you're struggling to stay in the air."

"But what's going to happen to Pili if we leave this?" El asked, pointing at the ring. The inside of it had gone completely dark again, but the thing behind the veil wasn't trying to push its way through. Maybe… maybe the flames weren't enough? Maybe it had gone for a coffee break, not expecting the door to open again so soon? Maybe…

Something shifted near the bottom of the ring, so small El barely noticed it, the veil stretching like it was being pushed from inside again. This wasn't the same monstrous form that'd pushed before—it wasn't hundreds of feet tall—but instead probably no bigger than ten feet. Something that small, they could take that, couldn't they? Actually, would they even need to? At that size, it could be even weaker than the seawyrms.

"El, come on," Laze said with another pull of her arm.

"No, look, the writing inside the ring is already fading," El said, pointing at the electrum inscriptions as they lost their light. "We were panicking for nothing. We stopped it. We didn't have to…"

RRRRIIIIIIIIIP, the sound of tearing echoed across the city, a shockwave blasting out from a hole in the veil near the bottom of the ring. Water so dark, it looked like it'd never been touched by sunlight hosed out a second later, hitting a nearby building so hard, it punched right through the stone wall.

The constant spray sputtered as if something moved within, and a massive, shell-plated hand reached out and gripped the edge of the tear. Thin fingers with four joints and sharp blades on the inside squeezed against the veil's material, then flexed as the thing pulled itself through the gap. Thick plating—like a crab's—covered the bulky forearm, while the rest of the arm up to shoulders was comparatively thin. Water still gushed across it, more shell running down its torso to where its legs—no, it didn't have legs. Tentacles stretches from the waist down, nine of them, to walk the creature forward. Its other arm ended in an intimidating claw so large, the tip of it scraped along the stone pedestal by its tentacle-feet.

El snapped her eyes from the twisting movements of the tentacles to the creature's head. Four eyes glowed a deep green above a wide, lipless jaw full of sharp teeth. Segmented pincers on either side of the jaw stretched and pulled, like they were bringing the new air closer into the terrifying mouth. The head itself was long, at least two feet, relatively narrow, and also covered in some kind of studded shell. Turning on a thick neck, the strange monster looked straight up to gaze and El and the others. As it fully pulled itself free from the tear, the rip in the veil behind sealed itself up, though dark water continued to stream across the monster's body, as if it was producing it itself.

But, worse than the thing's appearance or the entrance it made was the crushing aura it gave off. A palpable sense of dread that stole the breath from El's lungs and pushed down on her like a weight on her shoulders. No, not just her shoulders; it squeezed at her from all sides, crushing her in the center.

This feeling… it's like the Stormbearer. And like the Pycrin golem.

"It's an avatar," El said, horrible realization dawning on her. "Run! Now."

Nidina and Laze, already urging her to go while she dallied, didn't wait for her to repeat herself, spinning in the air and launching away. Small, fiery feathers fizzled out behind them as they raced to the east, and El was right there behind them, the pain in her arm drowned out by the new burst of adrenaline.

An avatar! How the Blaze is there another avatar? Unless she was wrong about it? No, she couldn't be. It had the same feeling. The same ominous pressure like being trapped in a room with an apex predator. And that aura it gave off, it was powerful. She'd been so, so wrong when she'd thought for a second it was something they could fight just because it was smaller.

"Is it really an avatar?" Laze's voice came over the communication magic as they sped away, the city growing distant behind them. "An avatar to what?"

"No idea," El said. "But you felt it."

"And I'd rather not feel it again," Nidina said. "Move your asses."

"Consider my ass moving," Laze said. "El, how you doing back there?"

"Surviving," El said, arm tight against her chest. Thankfully, her frost armor kept the worst of the wind shear from scouring the flaking flesh from her wounded arm. She was pretty sure the Pycrin healers wouldn't be able to do anything if she came back with just bone. A quick glance at her hand. If they can even do anything about this.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Nidina, how far to the coast?" Laze asked, her head turning back to glance at El.

"At this speed," Nidina said. "Since we're not taking it as slow or careful as when we came inland, probably an hour? I figure it was around two hundred miles."

"El?" Laze's voice came again, a slightly different tone suggesting Laze was talking just to her. "Can you fly for an hour like that? We can stop somewhere to do… something… about your hand."

"I can fly," El said, forcing her voice to not come out through gritted teeth. Truth was, the pain was getting worse again, but she couldn't tell them that. They would force a landing—Laze was good and burning stubborn like that—and they couldn't afford the pause. The avatar wasn't something they could handle. They needed reinforcements from Pycrin, including Sol and Nexin. And they needed them soon. Before that avatar went and conquered Pili to power the gates.

"I don't entirely believe you," Laze said.

"Too bad I'm your commanding officer and I'm ordering you to believe me," El said. "And, I'm your friend, who's asking you to trust me. If there's one thing I can always do, it's fly."

Laze didn't respond immediately. "Fine," she said after several long seconds. "Just… tell me if that changes. Or if there's something I can do."

"Of course, Laze," El said. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. I appreciate you worrying about me, but we've got bigger things we need to worry about."

"You think that wiggly avatar will go after Pili?" Laze asked, her voice back on the open channel.

"Better believe I do," El answered. "We destroyed the tubes, but we can't do anything about the rings. We have to assume they can fix the damage we did. That means they'll need more Sparks to open the gate to… to wherever it goes."

"We'll have to tell Tas," Laze said, her voice like she was thinking. "He won't like it, but somebody has to warn Pili about what's coming. Or, should one of us do it? We move faster."

"No," El said. "I'm not leaving any of you behind when we go into the In-Between. You might be able to warn them, but then what? Assuming they even believe us after what I did to their ship."

"Maybe," Laze said. "Actually, Bits was going to take Tas and Dayne to her island. Should we change direction a bit?"

"I'd thought the same thing," Nidina said. "But… Dayne is this way. Check your armor. I can't bring him up on the communicator, but he must be out of range."

At the suggestion, El checked the magic of her armor, and just like Nidina said, it gave her the impression Dayne was directly east of them. But, if the armor can sense his location, then he shouldn't be out of range of the communications magic. They're both part of the same function… I think. Wait… what if he's not out of range…?

"Laze, Nidina, after the explosion where I… hurt myself…" El started, forcing herself not to look at her hand again as she spoke. "Did you try to contact me before I left the fog?"

"Huh?" Laze said. "Of course we did. I was practically shouting at you through the magic."

"She was just about to dive down after you since you weren't answering when you came out," Nidina added. Her voice dropped in suspicion for the next question—"Why?"

"That's what I was afraid of," El said. "I couldn't hear you after the explosion. Thought it was just because of how badly I got my bell rung. I didn't hear anything until I was out of the fog. But, what if it wasn't the explosion or my hearing that prevented me from hearing you?"

"The fog?" Nidina caught on. "Why does everything and the kitchen sink seem like it's designed to interfere with our magic?"

"Possibly because we nearly conquered the world through force, then almost released an angry god bent on burning that same world to ash?" Laze offered.

"Nearly and almost," Nidina grumbled. "Oh, burn it. You're asking because you think Dayne might be in fog like that."

"Exactly. From the sounds of what Bits was saying, her island shouldn't be straight east from here," El said.

"Which means Dayne and the others are in trouble," Laze said. "You specifically told him to escape if things got bad. He still has the Ember."

"I did…" El said.

"He knows how important the Ember is," Nidina said. "If he didn't get away, there's a good reason for it. Or… a really bad one. We should hurry."

"How much faster can you go?" Laze asked El.

"Me? Faster?" El said, almost chuckling despite the pain. "Try to keep up."

El blew out a breath, forcing the pain with it, then went from her four smaller wings to the two larger ones. The added thrust burst her ahead—not as much as a flare would, but enough—and she nodded at Laze as she passed the other woman. A few seconds later, she caught up to Nidina, blue wingtips next to the other woman's red.

"Let's go bail him out," El said, adding another push of power to her wings to pull her ahead of the pair.

"It's usually Dayne bailing you out," Nidina said.

"Guess I finally get to repay the favor," El said, though the group fell into silence after that. With everything they'd seen back in the Wirockian city—What was the name of it anyway? I'll have to ask Nidina later—El had plenty to think about. To worry about. Most of it was for later, though, and she focused on what could've happened to Dayne.

The simplest answer would be another Pilish ship showing up and going after Tas and the others. Dayne could handle one of those warships, unless if was significantly more powerful—or better commanded—than the one El took apart.

When is my life ever simple?

More likely, the ship had been attacked again by the hangnails and seawyrms. Dayne could also probably deal with most of those. As long as there was a chance he could save the ship, he'd stay. The problem would be if something unexpected showed up—like whatever had been in the fog with El. Something about the giant stretching out of the mist—and the way it'd fallen apart when El's spear went through it—sat wrong with her. There was more to it than just some giant made of fog.

Wish I knew what that more was.

Forty minutes later, as they approached the coast, El spotted what might be the beginning of an answer to that question. Though it was still distant, the unmistakable shape of the Bucking Bride sat docked at the only remaining pier. Hangnails moved across the deck, while the sinuous form of a seawyrm patrolled the water nearby.

As for the crew, they were only a few blocks from the ring in the central square, led in a long line by hangnails and seawyrms flanking them on both sides. That wasn't all, though, and definitely not what drew El's eyes.

At the back of the line was a… ball of fog, connected by what looked like two strings of mist to people on other side of it. Normal-size people. Not giant monsters.

So, maybe we're finally getting a glimpse of the brains behind all of this. Who are they?

"You see that?" El asked into the magic of her communicator. "Dayne, can you hear me?"

The big man didn't reply—if he could hear her—but Nidina did.

"I do, but it looks like we've been spotted as well," the other woman said as more fog spread out from the two people amongst the group.

"Keep an eye on where Dayne is; that's got to be him in the middle there," El said. "Laze, get to the Bucking Bride and clear out the guards there. Nidina, with me. Time for a rescue."

"A dramatic rescue?" Nidina asked.

"Is there any other kind?" El replied, igniting a flaming sword in her good hand.