Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

"Pardon?" Laze asked. "Wait, they want you to move the groundies – and their artillery – through the In-Between, don't they?"

El nodded.

"Didn't we just go through all this a week ago? You can't move that many people. What did Sol say? You need a connection with them. And General Cannon saw how hard it was for you to open the doorway."

"Well…" El started.

"But, it wasn't hard," Nidina interrupted. "Not the second one, at least, when we were coming back. Even half-dead – no offense – and with only one arm, El practically snapped her fingers and the portal opened. And, maybe it was the adrenaline, or the shock from the battle, but I feel like we got back in less than half the time."

El pointed at the other woman across the table. "That's the same thing the generals latched on to. They're going to work to mobilize the troops as best they can, I guess, but they're also expecting me to figure out a way to move more people through the In-Between."

"It could shave weeks off of travel time," Nidina said. "More for the groundies. It'd give us a chance."

"All great, in theory," Laze said. "But how are you going to do it?"

"No idea," El admitted. "Nidina is right though, that doorway to come back was easy. I barely had to think about it, and there it was. Burn it, if I wanted to, I feel like I could open one right here, practically directly back to Bits's ship."

"Please don't," Laze said. "I doubt the ship is still there, and I don't feel like a cold dunk in the same water as those seawyrms."

"Fair," El agreed.

Nidina leaned in close and spoke low enough only the two women at the table could hear her. "An aftereffect of the Ember stabbing you in the chest?"

"Not exactly stabbing," El said.

"Looked pretty stabby to us," Laze agreed.

"Whatever," El grumbled, though, really, they weren't wrong. Her voice stayed low as she continued. "And, maybe? I definitely still feel… an energy running through me. Like I was saying to Nidina before, I think it might be why I'm not curled up in the fetal position somewhere from how much my arm hurts."

"Did you tell them – the generals – about what happened with the Ember?" Laze asked, a clear look of worry on her face. "Not about the ring, but with the stabbing you part?"

El shook her head. "I… may have omitted that part. Did either of you…?"

Nidina and Laze both shook their heads as well.

"Didn't seem right for us to talk about it," Laze said.

"Something about it feels like a secret," Nidina admitted. "Why just you? We were right up there beside you."

El tapped the center of her chest with her good hand. "Something to do with my different Spark? Best I can figure out."

"Do you think you can do it?" Laze asked. "Bring that many groundies through the In-Between with you, I mean."

"I don't know," El said. "There's a big difference between taking you guys through with me, and a bunch of people I have no connection with. But, I definitely feel closer to it than I did before we left. Maybe that Ember did something."

"Does Nexin know about it?" Laze asked.

"Do I know about what?" Nexin asked, from suddenly right burning beside El.

El nearly jumped out of her skin at her brother appearing like magic on the bench beside her, then winced as the sudden motion pulled on her bound arm.

"Sorry," Nexin said as El pushed the pain back down. "I didn't mean to startle you like that. How is it?"

"It's fine," El said, blowing air out between her teeth. "Really. Well, no, it's not actually fine. My arm looks like one of those anatomy dummies back from training under all this, but it'll heal. How the Blaze did you get here without anybody noticing?" She finished with a punch to her brother's shoulder, though the look on his face said making her jump – and the pain it caused – hurt him far more.

"I was practicing," Nexin said, then held up a hand before anybody could ask another question. Whether it was because he was a higher rank, El's older brother, or just because he was Nexin, all three of the younger Firestorm snapped their mouths shut. "First, what do I maybe know?"

El gave a quick look around the group, but nobody besides her friends was anywhere near enough to overhear. "When the Ember exploded back in Wirock, part of it… like a ribbon of fire… hit me in the chest. Went straight into my Spark, I think."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"What?" Nexin said, shifting on the bench to get a better look at her, his eyes searching her face. "Are you okay? Any side-effects?"

"Arm aside – and the overall beating I took at the hands of that Avatar – I feel better than ever," El said. "Which is the only real side-effect I've noticed so far."

"We're also thinking it helped her open that door to the In-Between to get us back more easily," Laze added.

"I was wondering why that one was so quick," Nexin said, nodding slightly. "You sure that's it though? Nothing else? No urges to burn the world or wrap yourself up in double-forged electrum?"

El gave her brother her best glare, but Nexin was long since immune to it. "Nothing like that. No Ember influence at all; it was well and good asleep before it blew up."

"It did kind of seem like it noticed you up there," Nidina said, her eyes looking up at the ceiling like she was remembering what'd happened.

"Well, I do have a history with Embers," El said. "Since I brought that one back from Guld, and it tried to take over my Spark." As soon as she said that, the room around her vanished in the haze of memory. Gone were her friends and the tables of the mess hall, replaced instead by the dark stone walls of a small room.

Script glowing like the sunrise lay etched in the walls, floor, and ceiling all around her, while in each corner a small brazier sat burning. The script seemed to be tightest around the torches, like they were somehow the source, but El's eyes traced the writing along the floor to wrap around her in a circle where she sat. Directly above her on the ceiling, the pattern repeated itself, leaving a blank spot directly above her.

Fascinating – and terrifying – as that all was, it was the four torches that kept drawing her eyes. Whispers seemed to flow from them, twisting in the air, just below what she could actually hear, but loud enough they couldn't be her imagination. And, now that she looked at them, each of the four torches was a little bit different.

The dancing flames of one torch seemed to hold another place inside of it, like looking through the window of a burning building. Tall trees and a sense of a vast space filled El's mind before her head turned to the next torch. From this one, thin tendrils, like stretching claws, reached for the other three torches. The small hands seemed to pick hints of the others out of the air before pulling them back to itself, pulsing with each small meal. A hint of growing strength bled from this torch, but it paled compared to a pulse of power from the next torch El looked at.

This torch flared brighter and brighter, to the point its light filled the room, and then just as quickly, its light vanished. Little more than a smolder remained on the wooden torch, but even as El watched, the flame grew brighter again. Stronger. Like almost being snuffed out had increased its determination to survive. To become more powerful. Again, the torch's flames bloomed in intensity until they once again filled the room with their light, only to vanish once more. Except the process continued to repeat, and even though El only let her eyes linger a moment, she could sense the eternal struggle to increase its power, like learning from mistakes. Or defeat.

While her mind pondered the meaning of it, the fourth and final torch in the room caught her attention. This torch gave off a much subtler impression than the others, almost like it was dormant. No, that wasn't right. It didn't sleep – it shifted. The form of the flames, the shape and texture of them, constantly changed. First a flame connecting to somewhere else, then a fire with barely visible arms reaching out, to a cinder growing in strength from nothing, over and over.

Something about this torch – This Ember – seemed to mimic the others around it. What could it…?

"… in there, El?" Nexin's voice shattered the memory, the mess hall returning all at once, and El leaned heavily forward on the table. While this wasn't the first strange memory she'd had over the last week, it'd been by far the most vivid. Those torches in the room with her, they were definitely Embers. But, what were they doing there?

And why was I there?

"Sorry," El said. "Double toppings."

Nexin's eyes narrowed as he looked at her – as he saw straight through her lie – but just as clearly as she saw his feelings, he must've seen hers. His face said they'd talk about it later, when they were alone, and El gave him the smallest nod in thanks.

"Back to you, Nexin," El said. "What was this about practicing?"

Her brother shifted on the bench so he was facing the table instead of angled towards her, and he brought his hands up in front of himself. As if he was staring at something in his palms, he clenched and unclenched his fingers several times before he spoke. Even then, his voice held a note of something El had never heard there – frustration.

"I wasn't strong enough," he said. "This was the third time, and I should've learned after the first two."

"Not strong enough?" Laze asked. "You?"

"Me," Nexin said, nodding without looking at the three women around the table.

"What are you talking about, Nex?" El asked him.

He looked up at her, a sardonic smile cracking his lips, then held up his left hand. "First, the Stormbearer." He raised one finger. "The Pyre's golem." A second finger went up. "The Depths." The third finger. "Three fights I lost because I wasn't strong enough."

"You're comparing yourself to the avatars of literal gods," Nidina said.

"So?" Nexin asked.

If anybody else had said that one word so simply, El would've laughed in their face. Nexin, though? He meant it, and part of El didn't disagree. He'd always been so far beyond everybody else when it came to their magic, he was like another level of existence. Why wouldn't he compare himself to those things?

"You're plenty strong, Nexin," Laze said, obviously trying to comfort him. "Way stronger than all of us."

"Not strong enough," Nexin said.

Laze started to say something else, but El raised a hand for her friend to stop. Comfort wasn't what Nexin needed right now.

"Practice?" El asked again.

Nexin nodded. "This third loss made me realize I've been taking my power for granted. I haven't been pushing myself, or trying to get stronger. Not in years."

"You've pushed yourself," Laze said, unable to hold the words back. "You train with us all the time."

El saw it though – even if her friend didn't – and she spoke to her brother. "You've pushed us, not yourself. You've helped us get stronger, but we're not enough to really challenge you." Saying the words – admitting the truth of her weakness – hurt, but she could see the relief on her brother's face when he didn't have to be the one to say it.

"Exactly," Nexin said. "If I'm being honest – and I have to be, with myself and you – I've always been holding back. I didn't try to get better or explore what I'm capable of. And in the fights against those three, it showed. I need to practice. Stretch myself and push my limits. I need to see how far I can take myself, and to do that, I need opponents who I can go all out against."

"Which isn't us," El said slowly, mapping out what he could mean as she said the words. "Which means you want…?"

"You to take me back to Pili," Nexin said. "I need to go back there. It's the only place I can find my limits, and surpass them."