Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

After lunch the next day – her last fiery pork bomb, mark two, for the foreseeable future – El stood in the parade square near the Pyre's church. Despite multiple Embers having already been returned, the massive, city block of flame burned as strong as ever. Except that it was tinged with blue now from her interference.

Given everything with the Depths, it's probably smart we stopped returning Embers for the time being. If it drags out too long, though, will we have to start worrying about the Pyre waking up again? I really hope not. One god at a time is enough of a hassle…

"Should've known you'd be early," Nexin said, drawing El's eyes away from the Pyre.

"You're one to talk," El responded. "Guess it runs in our blood? We're both a good twenty minutes early. Everything go okay with the generals? We going to get court-martialed?"

"I smoothed things out," Nexin simultaneously chuckled and grimaced. Apparently things hadn't really been as smooth as he claimed. "Took most of the night though. Sorry, I wanted to stop by your room to talk about a few things…"

"We've got some time now. Nidina and Dayne are stoically on-time, and if Laze isn't exactly two minutes early, I'll eat my hat."

"You don't have a hat," Nexin smirked. "Looks like you have something new over your shoulder though. What've you got there?"

"Oh, this little old thing?" El said, practically spinning in place so Nexin could see the hilt floating in the air behind her right shoulder. "Just a little something Felps whipped up."

"Uh… where's the rest of it? And… how is it doing that?"

"The In-Between," El said. "Magicy-stuff, according to Felps. Got me thinking though – maybe I need to reconsider how I can try to get troops to Pili."

"Going to carry them on your shoulders like a backpack?"

"No room. Spices are too important," El said. "But, seriously, I was thinking about the In-Between too, I don't know, linearly? Being able to do this with the sword means there's a lot more to this power than I considered before…"

Almost like it was a trigger, the memory of the black, stone room flashed in and out of El's vision. One torch – one Ember – in particular, growing larger like it demanded her attention. Within its dancing flames, tall trees stretched out of sight, only to vanish with the next flicker. Trees, flame, trees, flame, trees, flame; the image shifted faster than she could blink, and suddenly El was back in the present, though she found herself leaning on Nexin, concern written on his face.

"El, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I…" El started. "No, I'm sorry, that's a lie. I've been having these… strange memories. Of a dark room with Embers in the corners. I don't really remember these things happening, but they feel so real. Like a curtain is being peeled back…"

She looked at her brother's face as she spoke, half expecting him to give her the you're-a-completely-crazy-little-sister look. Instead, he was nodding, like he understood exactly what she was talking about. Wait, if he'd been in some of those weird memories… did that mean…?

"You're getting them too?" she asked quietly, not even sure how she wanted him to respond. If it was just her, it could be her imagination, or maybe some side-effect of her new Spark. If Nexin was having them too, though, that meant they were real.

"I am," he said, just as quietly. "Have been for a few weeks now. That's one of the things I wanted to come by and talk to you about last night."

"Do you know what they mean?" El asked. "Are they real? Did something… happen to us?"

"Whoa now, one question at a time," Nexin said to her rapid-fire assault. "I don't know anything, but I've talked with Sol about it…"

"When did you two become buddies?"

"I wouldn't go so far as to call us buddies," Nexin said flatly to her interruption. "I started getting the flashes – the memories – more vividly while we were in Vestis. I don't know about you, but for me, they're different from memories. It's like…"

"Like the memory overlays the real world," El finished her brother's sentence. "Like you're really back there… or there is here. I don't know."

Nexin nodded. "Exactly. He noticed me having an episode. Well, more than one, really, and I told him what was happening. Not the content of the memories, not exactly, at least, but enough."

"What did he say?"

"He had a theory, and with some time to think about it, I suspect it's at least partially true. He believes the Pyre, or maybe the Church, used control over our Sparks to block our memories. That's why they're coming back so intensely now. With both the Pyre and the Church gone, the magic seals are breaking down."

"Sometimes it seems like the memory is burning away at the edges," El said, nodding as she thought about it. "Wait… my memories of the orphanage are the same. Was that all a lie? Is that why I can't figure out where it was? Or who I knew there?"

"I think it might be," Nexin said softly, and an odd sort of pit opened in El's gut.

All those people she'd known – all her friends – they weren't real? Her whole childhood too? Was anything about her youth before the Firestorm true…?

El's eyes widened as she looked at her brother in front of her, while her mind continued down the 'what-if' path. If everything about her childhood was false, was Nexin…?

"I am your brother," he said, as if reading her thoughts. And, knowing the way he could give her one look and know what she was thinking, that was probably exactly what was happening. "Parents or not. Blood, or not. You're my little sister."

"But, what if we're not…"

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"We are."

"You don't know…"

"I do."

"How can you…?"

"Because you're in the memories in that dark room too," Nexin said, putting his hands on her shoulders. He was careful about her injured arm, but even if it did hurt, El didn't feel anything. The thoughts going through her head had made her whole body numb. "We were there together. Almost always together. So, I know we're family."

El leaned into him, putting her head on his shoulder as he wrapped her in a tight hug. Maybe it wasn't true, but did it need to be? Nexin said they were family, and that was enough. Just the thought of losing that connection had sent her spiraling, but his simple reaffirmation was a huge relief.

"Thanks," she said, a minute later as she stepped back. "Glad you didn't take that opportunity to disown me."

"You'd hit me," he said with his usual smile.

"I'd try. I still haven't caught up to you, yet."

"Yet."

She nodded at the brief levity. "Nex, if the orphanage wasn't real, why do I still feel like there were other kids there? And, what was that place? Really?"

Nexin looked around to make sure there was nobody close enough to overhear before he answered. "I think it was a laboratory. And… there were probably other children."

"A lab? The room… they were experimenting on us?"

"And the others. I vaguely remember other children when we were very young. But, less and less of them as we got older."

"What kind of experiments…?" El started, but cut off as the answer came almost as quickly as the question. "Embers. They were doing something with Embers and our Sparks, weren't they?"

"That's the best answer I can come up with," Nexin agreed. "And, it probably worked. El, when we were in Vestis, Sol told me about the Vestish magic. They used their Sparks to travel, with a single step taking them anywhere from a few feet to miles. I… can do that too.

"I'd always thought it was just me being able to use my Spark more fully, but what if I was wrong? In my memory, there's an Ember that's constantly moving around in its bowl. Like it's trying to get out. I think, somehow, they managed to transfer part of the Vestish magic to me."

"The In-Between," El said immediately. "There's an Ember with a connection to the In-Between in my memories. That must be why I can use it. And, there were three other Embers in the room as well, so it can't be just that."

"I don't think it is," Nexin replied. "My plasma matches another Ember from my memory, as does my ability to control flames I'm not connected to. That Ember had three other flames rotating around it."

"And the fourth one? Or… did you have four too?"

"I did. The fourth one was… big. Strong. Pure. I think it might be why I'm more powerful than the average Firestorm."

"Nex, you're stronger than the Elite Firestorm and the generals as well. Don't sell yourself short."

"Why not?" he said, frowning. "If what we're saying is true, it's not my strength. It's borrowed, at best, or more likely stolen. I'm not special, and, that oddly hurts more than it should."

El's brow furrowed at her brother's honesty. He'd always been so… stable. She'd never imagined 'being special' was important to him – he'd never given a hint of it. Nexin had always been supportive to El. To her friends, too. But, he was also wrong.

"I… don't agree," she said, rapping the back of her knuckles against his chest above where his Spark would be. "Even if some of your power comes from those Embers – or what the scientists did to us – you said it yourself, there were others. So, where are they?" El held her arm out to the side, palm up, like she was going to introduce somebody who wasn't there.

"If there were more like us, I think we'd know about it. Even the Ignitio were 'just' strong. Not strong like Nexin-strong, but regular-guy strong. What happened to them then?

"They probably didn't survive," she forced the words out, despite how they wanted to catch in her throat. No, grieve over those kids later. "We did. So, maybe we're not special because of our magic, but we are special because we lived through whatever was done to us. And we're still here."

Nexin looked down at El for several long seconds without saying anything, until he finally nodded. "You're right. It was a stupid thing to get caught up on, anyway."

"No, that's not true either. Whether you realized it or not, it was part of your identity. You never flaunted it or rubbed it in other people's faces, but you were – are – different from other Firestorm. Nexin, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter where our magic came from – our Spark or the Embers – just what we do with it.

"And how you help me get strong enough to put Sol in his place. That needs to be a priority," El said, and Nexin's lips cracked into a smile. "Have to wipe that smug smile off his face. Unless you're too buddy-buddy now?"

"You know I'll always choose my little sister over a buddy," Nexin said.

"Good, and don't forget that." El punched him gently in the chest again. "When we get back – after everything is settled with the Depths – can we figure out what happened to us as kids? Together?"

"Together," Nexin said.

"I hope I'm wrong, you know," El said, her voice quiet. "About us being the only survivors."

"Me too, even if we means we're less special," Nexin joked.

"You'll always be special to me," El responded.

"Is it possible for you to sound any more sarcastic?"

"Only time will tell."

"You two are predictably early," Sol called, and the two siblings turned to find him walking in their direction. "And from the looks on your faces, you're up to no good. Are you going to get court-martialed?"

"I asked the same thing!" El said. "And, no, we're plotting your inevitable loss to me when we spar."

"Won't happen."

"It could."

"No."

"You can't know…"

"I do."

"You won't…"

"I will."

"Enough!" El snapped. "Why won't either of you let me finish my burning sentences? You really are all buddy-buddy!"

"I'm not sure I'd qualify our relationship as buddy-buddy," Sol said. "Comrades in arms? Chef to assistant chef?"

"You're the assistant," Nexin said immediately. "And a bad one at that. No chef in their right mind uses the salt you do."

"Looks like everybody else is here," Nidina said, coming up to join them with Laze and Dayne beside her. The big guy was walking a little stiffly, but the fact he was walking at all was still pretty impressive. Then again, the same thing could probably be said about El.

Huh, I wonder if the exploding Ember was attracted to me because of those experiments Nexin and I are starting to remember. And, besides the In-Between, what did the other three Embers in the room do…?

"Hey Sol," El said, a thought occurring to her. "Nexin said something about you telling him the Vestish magic was related to travel."

"I did," Sol said.

"Do you know a lot about other country's magic? Specifically one connected to the In-Between?" El asked. If she had gotten those powers from an Ember, that had to mean there was somebody out there who knew more about that particular magic.

Sol rubbed his chin in thought. "You think they could teach you?"

"Something like that."

"There are a few possibilities, actually," Sol said. "I don't have extensive knowledge of every country's magic, just some of the ones where I lived before arriving here – such as Vestis. However, I have a few ideas, and with the library in Vestis at our fingertips, it's an excellent place to start."

"If El can figure out somebody to teach her more about the In-Between," Dayne spoke up. "We should help her find that first, then she can go there while we keep looking for information on the Depths."

"It should be easier to find which country uses that kind of magic – or at least narrow it down," Sol agreed. "Sounds like we have a plan."

"Good," El said. "And Laze? Nidina? How about you two?"

"Think you can drop us off close to the coast where we first got on the Bucking Bride?" Laze asked. "It's only been a couple of days, and if Bits was going to drop Tas off again, that's probably the best place to start looking. I figure meeting up with him will be safer for both of us."

"And that would get me close to where the fighting is," Nexin added. "El, can you do it?"

"I actually think I can," El said. "Okay, we'll drop you three off first, then the rest of us will head to Vestis." With that, El opened a portal to the In-Between. It came so fast and easily, everybody – El included – just sort of stared at it for a second.

"Well, what are you waiting for? In you go," El said. "We've got another nation to save."