The Eternal Flame by Marc Mulero

Author:Marc Mulero [Mulero, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

The Dark Zoo

Steam shot from the shider’s hatch as three silhouettes stepped out onto unfamiliar terrain. Afternoon daylight was waning, but it seemed brighter because of the endless water pockets twinkling in the light as they fell in slow motion - obols, Windel knew, which meant thick air and strange creatures.

Why again did I agree to this? She sighed audibly. Damn.

Windel ran her fingers across another fresh bruise wrapping her chin, feeling the tenderness that was soft to the touch. She grimaced. The shift in her bodyweight from walking down ramp evoked a twinge in her abdomen. Two cracked ribs… that’s okay. She knew the feeling from her Carrier days, taking comfort in her old trainer’s words: ‘If you can still breathe, be grateful, because that means you didn’t puncture a lung.’

She watched as Vasa marched triumphantly down the ramp with those two punishing long swords swaying at her hips. Some darkness in her wanted to poke her mentor in the back – just for a flesh wound – so she could feel what both Windel and Ohndee were suffering.

Vasa ignored the obvious strife of the defeated girls wallowing at her back. “My father used to take me here to train when I was young. I remember my mother let him since it was far enough away from battleground conflicts, but if she knew the dangers that lurked not far out…” She hooted to herself. “She would’ve slayed my father herself.” She looked over her shoulder after receiving no response. “Don’t look so glum, girls. I’m about to tell you how I was manhandled to ease your woes. My father used to tell me that it would be impossible to beat him in a duel of equal temperaments. It would be impossible because of his strength and experience. Then he proceeded to beat me. It is a familiar cycle you two are suffering. But if the end result is greatness, why fight against it?”

Vasa inhaled deeply and observed the sky, obviously reminiscing over dear memories. “He said I would have to be relentless to ever stand a chance against the mighty. ‘There are ancillary skills that must be sharpened like a dull blade,’ he used to say. My vision, my agility, my sense of surroundings, it was all molded here. ‘First person to burst a pocket loses.’” She laughed. “Those were fun times. Don’t worry though, I’m not going to beat you bloody again. We’re here for a different purpose. It’s just nostalgic to me… to think my Trials would send me here again. It’s almost as if Seren knew of my past.”

Windel sighed loudly. There it is again, that cult-like thinking. Seren isn’t all knowing… is he?

“Enough wallowing. You girls pled your cases, accepted a challenge, and lost.” Vasa sliced open two static bubbles at either of her sides, letting the water fall to frame her as she straightened. “The UnderSpire is out of the question.”

Defeated, Windel and Ohndee continued marching out of the shider dejectedly, glancing at one another in shame.

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