Source Fire: A Young Adult Fantasy (Arcturus Academy Book 5) by A.L. Knorr

Author:A.L. Knorr [Knorr, A.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Intellectually Promiscuous Press
Published: 2021-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

11

Absolution

The large van that had picked us up from the London Airport hummed along the curvy, forest-covered roads leading to Dover. Ms. Shepherd and Mehmet had gone their own way from the London Airport: Shereen and Mehmet to the agency to visit friends, and Ms. Shepherd to her flat in London, claiming that all the stress was wrecking her immune system and she felt like she was coming down with something. When she’d rested, she’d visit Basil to discuss the long-term home of the sculpture.

We called it a sculpture, but only because there was no better word for the remains of the final progenitor. She sat on the van’s floor, cradled inside a lined wooden crate, hidden from view. I was glad I couldn’t see her. Tracing her features made me feel a sadness I didn’t have the energy to cope with. It was the stamping out of the majority of idle fires, yes. That was a burdensome reality I knew would hit me when the madness of these days passed. But it was more than that. This mage had lived a full life, maybe even much longer than your average life. The headmaster had confirmed that magi had normal lifespans, but this mage was not your average fire magus. She was an original. A mother to all those who carried a green idle. She was the matriarch from whom Isaia had sprung, and Gage and Ryan and Shereen.

That made her also my mother. Adopted, anyway. Chad and his twin sons were born with different colored idles. So, it was not genetics that determined a mage’s idle, but something else, something more mysterious. Perhaps something in the nature of the person, rather than the blood. Perhaps the birth date, or the position of the stars when a mage was born. Whatever it was, it gave Basil’s agency fodder for research for years to come, even if there were only green idles left to study.

I wondered how my progenitor had come to be in this state. Had she died a natural death, but her body couldn’t decompose in the way of flesh because of the heat? I pictured her slowly hardening into the volcanic rock-like substance of which she was now made. Her fire perhaps slowly, or maybe even quickly, baking her into her final form the way terra cotta solidifies in a kiln.

Ryan and Basil sat on the bench facing me and Tomio, our backs against the van’s steel sides. The vehicle had been delivered by a rental company, the keys passed over to Davazlar, who’d opted to see the sculpture delivered to the academy before he parted ways with us. The game-maker was currently driving. He appeared immune to exhaustion.

We had reached Dover before I sent Georjie a text, letting her know we were back. She responded that she’d gone for a long walk down the beach. She’d return now that she knew we were home, but would arrive back at the manor after us.

Ryan was slouched against the van’s wall, his head down.

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