Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

"I can't believe we made it," Nidina said as the four of them crouched just outside the city limits, snow falling so thick they could barely see a block down the street.

El pointed straight ahead. "Can't you feel it? The Ember, I mean. I noticed it after we got past the second wave of artillery. Up there, with white all around… it was like this small light at the end of the tunnel. I just tried to keep it in front of me."

"Now that you mention it, yeah… there is something that way. Like a… like a pull on my Spark," Laze agreed. "But how did you know it wasn't just your imagination?"

"I didn't," El admitted. "Didn't have any better options up there though. I'm surprised you guys didn't feel it until now."

Laze rubbed her stomach. "Little busy trying to follow you without getting whiplash or torn in half every two seconds," she complained.

"Hey now, I got us through," El replied.

"She did," Dayne agreed. "It could've been much worse."

All four of them nodded to that comment. Five times they'd flown through barrages of golem cannon fire. Five times, El had somehow managed to lead them to safety. Without the cover of the storm, they never would've even made it past the first salvo.

"How do you think they knew we were up there? Could they see us?" Laze asked.

"They must be able to detect the heat of our wings. My mom mentioned a while back that Guld was researching that type of magic. I guess they got it implemented?" Nidina filled in. "We'll have to be careful when we fly into the city."

"We aren't flying in," El corrected.

"Because of that detection magic?" Dayne asked.

"Not exactly. Even if they have that type of magic, it wasn't perfect. Either the temperature of the storm masked us, or it's just not that accurate. Maybe they opened fire because they spotted one of us, or there were so many Firestorm in the area, they picked up that heat signature," El said.

"But that's not the reason we aren't flying?" Nidina asked.

"Have you seen anybody in that street?" El pointed to the short block they could see before white swallowed everything.

"El, it's a burning white-out out here. People are staying inside," Laze said.

El shook her head. "Yes and no. It's not as bad as it was when we were crossing the mountains. The fact we can see those buildings, or the street, proves that. Yes, it's a bad storm, but I think the Ember is keeping its strength at bay. Weakening it.

"The citizens might be staying inside to hide from the weather, but you can bet there will still be guards watching for us to come flying in over the mountains like we just did. Even if they don't think we'll actually make it…"

"That was pretty lucky," Laze whispered.

"…they'll still have people, or golems, on the lookout," El finished.

"So, we're going to sneak in on foot? The Ember is more than a few miles into the city," Nidina said. "That's a pretty long walk in this weather. And there's still the risk of somebody spotting us."

"The storm should obscure who we are unless somebody is right on top of us," El said. "We can always take to the air if we need to."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"What about the others? Think they're already there?" Laze asked.

Dayne shook his head. "Listen," he said, and they all stopped to do just that.

"I don't hear anything," Nidina said.

"Ah, I get it," Laze said. "No sounds of a fight."

"It might be muted by the storm, but the whole point of this was to sneak in. The different wings are each back-up plans to the others. So, we're sticking to the original plan. We'll get close to the temple, find a place to hole up, then wait to see if anybody else shows up. If not, we'll figure a way to get the Ember ourselves and get the Blaze out of here."

"Sounds good," Laze said. "Which way we sneaking in?"

"We aren't sneaking," El said. "We're going straight down the middle of the street. We don't want to stand out."

"We can't," Nidina interrupted. "I mean, we can't go down the middle of the street, if you meant that literally. Guld has very strict… cultural norms. People always walk on the right side relative to whatever direction they're going. They'll even walk a block out of their way to circle around and get to a shop, or do a full loop if they missed where they were going."

"So, we stay on the right side?" El asked, and Nidina nodded. "Easy enough. Anything else we should know not to stand out?"

"Dayne has to go first, and I have to go last," Nidina said. "Tallest always goes first, and second tallest last, when walking in a line. I think it stems back to families or something, to keep the kids in the middle where it's safe."

"Dayne, you good with that?" El asked.

"No problem here," he answered.

"People here speak the same language we do, don't they?" El asked Nidina.

"They do," she answered.

"Okay, try to keep the chatter to a minimum, but at least that won't give us away if somebody overhears us but can't see us," El instructed.

"Any other orders?" Nidina asked.

"One last thing. We're trying to avoid combat, but if it comes to it… the mission comes first. We need to get this Ember back to the capital," El said.

"El… is it really okay?" Laze asked.

"Is what okay?"

Laze looked around and held out her hand, the snow falling and slowly settling on her flame armor. "You said it was the Ember keeping the worst of the storm at bay. If we take it, what's going to happen to the people here?"

"That's not…" El started but stopped. She was going to say it wasn't their problem. Was that true though? Could she really just ignore that question? Looking at her friends' faces, the same thoughts were going through their minds.

"We've been at war with Guld for years," Nidina said. "They're the enemy. We shouldn't care about what happens to them. Right?" she asked, her face scrunched up like the answer in her head wasn't what she was expecting.

"Their golems are the enemy," Laze said. "But, the people in this city? The regular people who had no choice in this war. What are we condemning them to if we take the Ember?"

"We have to do it," Dayne said. "If we don't, this," he pointed at the snow falling all around, "is what we can expect in the capital."

El met Laze's eyes, and gently shook her head. "I have to agree with Dayne. Nidina, how many people live here?"

Nidina's eyes snapped left and right as if she were speed-reading a book in front of her. "Like us, most of the population of Guld resides in their capital, here, but they only have about… three million citizens. There are a couple hundred thousand more scattered in the farmlands between here and the ring of mountains surrounding the last of their territory."

"One percent of the population of Balacin," El said. "Roughly." She shook her head again. "There's no question. We need the Ember to beat back the storm."

"Can't we rely on our Embers? We have so many. They should be enough to hold the storm back until we can figure out how to beat the lizards and the Stormbearer," Laze said.

El shook her head one more time with finality. No, with what she'd read about the destroyer, they needed the Pyre at full power to have a chance. "I'm sorry, Laze. I get what you're saying, I really do, but this is what we have to do.

"Look at it this way. After we reunite the last Ember with the Pyre, we'll be able to defeat the Stormbearer, his newts, and this storm, and everybody here will be freed from this. Burn it, they will probably be better off than if we had to come in here and fight for the Ember."

"She's right," Dayne said to Laze. "This saves them from a siege. They just need to weather the storm for a few days. Maybe a couple weeks at most."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Laze finally relented. "Let's just get this over with then. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get the snow to stop."

"Right. Dayne, you're on point," El instructed and stood.

The big man nodded, stood, and trudged off toward the city, the snow up to the middle of his shins.

El patted Laze on the shoulder. "I'm sorry," she whispered to her friend, and Laze gave her a nod in return, then followed Dayne.

Was Laze right? Who was El kidding, of course Laze was right. And why hadn't they even considered the question before? The Church's control of their Sparks, of course.

Burn it.