Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

El stepped out of the portal from the In-Between, her hard-soled boots sounding on the broken stone of the split roof.

"Never thought I'd be back here," she told herself quietly, eyes tracing over where the building had collapsed after the Stormbringer had punched one of the Boomers through the walls Finding the person encased in a block of ice a back then had been a shock. Though, not as much as the army of blue lizards that'd poured out of the wall of falling snow that'd stood right in front of the building.

Or the one-sided beating that'd followed, with all the Boomers and most of El's wing likewise getting turned into ice cubes.

Now though, with the bright sun shining overhead and the old town empty and quiet, it almost felt like it'd all just been her imagination. Other than the building she stood on now – and a few others – there was no evidence of what had transpired. No sign of the snow. No blue newts breathing cones of frost. And no Stormbringer.

El chuckled. "Glad he's on our side now." With a small shake of her head to dispel the reverie, El ignited the wings on her shoulders, then lifted into the air, climbing until she was hundreds of feet up to get her bearings. She'd left Sol and Dayne back in Vestis to continue their research on the Depths and the Fathom, but not after asking a few more questions.

Bones had said everybody in Salid had vanished, but Sol had lived there for years while waiting for the Storm. Lived there… with a lot of other people. Even Oril – the Firestorm that'd joined Lhogan in the Pycrin golem – had been from there, along with his wife and child. So, how did the two stories line up? According to what Sol and Bones could figure, after the Salidians had vanished through the In-Between, years had passed before others took advantage of the intact infrastructure to build new lives.

They'd probably been people dissatisfied with the direction Pycrin was taking, and even though they were part of the nation, they'd retreated to the furthest corner they could. With bigger targets – such as Guld and the other Embers – the Church hadn't been bothered enough to do anything about it. That likely would've all changed when the Pyre woke up, but thankfully they never got to that point.

Since the Storm had retreated, the people of Salid should've woken up and continued about their lives. There were probably some questions when one of the Firestorm returned the Ember sometime in the last few months, but not enough for them to head to Balacin. Besides, it was a long walk, taking Sol almost four months on foot to make the journey. Then again, he'd been carrying an old lady most of the way.

From where El hovered, she figured out which direction was which, and rotated in the air until she faced southeast. Salid was right along the coast, a simple fishing town with the population measuring in the thousands, at most – according to Sol – but its proximity to the water meant it was at risk if the Depths came. Hopefully the horde hadn't arrived yet. Then again, it wasn't likely the new people of Salid could tell her much about the old.

Or maybe they could. Only one way to find out.

Rubbing her good hand gently along her bandaged and bound arm – and only wincing a little at the pain – El pushed power into her wings and shot south. Cutting through the wind like a dagger, she couldn't help but rolling and swerving in the sky, the pure joy of flying the most effective painkiller she'd ever had. A barrel roll and then an arch of her back, and she flared her wings, blasting up at an angle and leaving a flaming trail in her wake.

No sooner had the flare ended, El tucked her right shoulder and flared her left wing, twisting like a corkscrew. A small whoop of delight escaped her lips, but she evened out a few seconds later. She probably shouldn't be playing with the world literally at stake. If she didn't find what she was looking for in Salid – a way to learn more about the In-Between and bring troops to Pili – there was a very good chance the Depths would succeed in freeing the Fathom. And without the Pyre or the Rime to seal it away again, well, Teth's rhyming wouldn't be the worst thing in her immediate future.

Maybe a close second…

The ground scrolled by beneath her, the pear-shaped town – Did I ever find out what it was called? – fading behind. Plains dotted with sparse trees and more of the grazing animals she'd spotted on her first trip south filled her vision. A wide river off to her left cut through the green, and she imagined hearing the sound of it along the rocks. Not that the sound actually reached her ears, but without her wing up there beside her – without her friends – the empty sky was oddly quiet.

All the more reason to hurry to Salid. The sooner I figure this out, the sooner I get back with them. And Nexin. I hope they're all okay.

Letting her mind wonder how the others were doing in Pili – and trying not to worry about it – El set herself into a state of autopilot. Only partially paying attention to her surroundings, she startled alert when she spotted the green of land giving way to the blue of ocean in the distance. Had she really been traveling for almost an hour? That was how long it'd been estimated Salid was from her starting point, but… no, definitely not. Half that at most.

Looking down at the ground zipping by below, El focused on the power she was pushing into her wings. It didn't feel like anything beyond the usual, but now that she was looking at it, there was a lot more moving through her body. She was moving faster, and not by just a little bit. Easily fifty percent, maybe more.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Had that stream of Ember-fire that'd pierced her Spark back in Wirock really had such a drastic effect? Somehow, that wasn't what her gut was telling her. Yes, it had some effect, definitely boosting her. She'd felt it immediately, and it was honestly the only reason she'd survived the beating she'd taken right after. But, it hadn't felt so easy then. It could be she was just so wrecked she didn't notice it? Maybe.

And yet, a memory kept tugging at her as she thought of it. One of the Embers from her… childhood. The one that kept almost sputtering out, but then building in intensity, over and over. Something about that – along with the Ember stream from Wirock – was key. Too bad she didn't have time to sort through it now, though, with Salid materializing along the coast. Like Sol had told her to expect, first it was the sparse farms further from the water she spotted. Their small crop fields stretched wide to the side in different shades of green and gold.

Sol had mentioned something about the Storm rejuvenating the crop soil as well, but El really didn't know enough about farming to see if the full fields were normal for this time of year or not. Beyond them, the buildings began to show up much closer together, with roads connecting them. Most of them were little more than dirt paths carved by repeated wagon use, but they changed into wider lanes of packed dirt, and even stone in some places. The houses near the formal roads should probably be called estates by the looks of things, though El completely passed them by.

According to the info she'd been given, the Ember's resting place would be close to shore on a prominent cliff near the center of town. Pulling her eyes from the larger homes, it didn't take El long to find the cliff in question – or the five pairs of flaming wings lifting into the air around it.

"State your name and rank," a voice came over her communication magic.

Before El even had a chance to respond, another voice came on. "Look at the blue wings, Beddy. That has to be the Special Sergeant. The one who punched the Pyre in the nuts. Think she'll give us her autograph?"

"She didn't punch him in the nuts," a third, female voice said, clearly exasperated with the second. "She punched the golem."

"Did the golem even have nuts?" a fourth voice chimed in. "Strange design choice if it did. What point would they serve? How big were they?"

"None of that is really the point," the fifth voice added, an almost clinical edge to it. "Though I'm sure Special Sergeant Vasage can tell us, since she's been able to hear every word you've all said on the open channel."

"Ugh," the third voice said, a facepalm somehow transmitting over the communication magic.

"About that autograph…?" the second said hopefully.

By that point, El had closed the distance to them, and she didn't miss the surprised looks on their faces at how quickly she arrived.

Giving them a quick salute, she finally responded into the communication magic, though not without a bit of a jealous smile at the obvious chemistry between the group. Nice to serve with friends.

"Seems like you know who I am," El said. "I didn't know there were Firestorm stationed here."

"We just arrived," the first voice said as the man in the middle glided forward slightly, hand coming up to his chest in salute. "With an Ember here, the generals thought it would be best if we had a presence."

El couldn't stop herself from frowning. That made sense, but…

"No offense, but only five of you?" she asked. "Not even a full wing?"

Somewhat surprisingly, the man in front of her nodded like he agreed, face stern. "We said the same thing, Ma'am."

Ma'am? I think they were in my graduating class!

"Since the enemy was last seen to the north, the generals felt the risk here, far to the south, was minimal," the wing's leader continued. "I'm actually only the second in command for my wing, but we were split up into three groups, with us being sent here."

"Obviously," the third voice said, and El spotted the woman facepalming again.

"Has there been any sign of the Depths?" El asked.

"Nothing," the man said. "It's been quiet, thankfully. Can I ask why you're here, Ma'am? If I remember correctly, you were still in Balacin when we left, which means you would've had to leave just after us to get here now…"

"You saw how fast she was moving," the fifth voice said, and El spotted a serious looking man pushing his glasses up his nose as he spoke.

"Actually, maybe you can help me with that," El said. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Corporal Beddy, Ma'am," the first man said with another salute.

El returned the salute. "Nice to meet you, Corporal. Please stop with the Ma'am thing, though. We're the same age. Just call me El."

"You graduated from the A1 class," Beddy said. "We were in the C1 class. It wouldn't be appropriate to use your first name."

"Nickname," the second voice said – the one who'd asked about an autograph. "Her full name is Anella, and her brother is Nexin. The Nexin. Though both considered elites now, they were orphaned at a very young age and…"

"What are you, a stalker?" the only woman of the group asked. "Save the fanboy-trivia for later. If Special-Sergeant Vasage is here, there's a good reason for it, and we're wasting her time."

At the stiff – though accurate – reproach, the whole wing seemed to stand a little straighter in the air.

"Felina is right," Beddy said, giving the woman a small nod of acknowledgement. "Special-Sergeant, how can we help?"

"I'm looking for information on the original Salidians," El said, skipping right to the point. "Not the ones here now, but the ones who vanished somewhere between a hundred-fifty and two-hundred years ago."

"Original Salidians?" Beddy asked, looking at the others of his wing. They all gave a shrug like they didn't know what El was talking about. "I didn't realize there was a difference."

"Neither did I until very recently," El said. "You've been here a few days, though. Have you met anybody who might be able to talk a bit about the history of this place? Maybe somebody who knows something about the Ember?"

Beddy once again looked at the others, and it was the man with the glasses who finally spoke up.

"Singel might know something," the man said. "He's been talking my ear off about the Ember's shrine since we returned it, and how there was a second building in the city that seemed very important. It didn't make sense why he kept talking about it like it was important to somebody else, but if it's true Salid was previously populated by different people, that would add up. Perhaps you can start with him, Special-Sergeant."

"Can you introduce me?" El asked, eager to talk to the man.

"Happily," Glasses said.

"Great, and maybe you can tell me a bit more about the town on the way?"

Glasses nodded, then looked to Beddy. "Permission to leave my post?"

"Granted," Beddy said. "Singel isn't far, so please escort Special-Sergeant Vasage and assist with anything you can. We'll contact you if you're needed."

"Understood. Special-Sergeant, this way please," Glasses said, turning in the air and then swooping down towards the town.

With one more salute to Corporal Beddy and the others, El dove after Glasses.