Blue flames coiled around the room before gathering into the crude outline of a small bird. The image wavered unsteadily for a moment before collapsing into a shower of sparks. I sighed and closed my eyes, savoring the feeling of the heat in the room sinking into my skin.
Memories of the countless years I spent training the green flame flashed through my mind as I tried to think of some way to speed the process fot this new talent. My teacher had always said that to truly master an innate talent you must first understand how it worked. While learning, I had plenty of chances to experiment with the green flame. There was never a shortage of corpses wherever we went. Unfortunately, the blue flame would not be so easy to test. For that, I would need living test subjects.
For a moment, I considered experimenting on prisoners Svend might have locked away somewhere however I quickly dismissed that idea. In the past, I might not have even hesitated to do such a thing. Now, I could not help but stop and think how my family would feel if I did that. The idea of seeing their disapproving and disappointed expressions made my chest feel tight in a way I did not fully understand.
“I have to find willing subjects to test my power on, even if I can only test making them remember plesent memories,” I mumbled to myself, breaking the silence of the empty room. The hundreds of red crystals that lined the walls pulsed slightly as if quietly responding to my statement.
I shook my head and stood up. My muscles protested in agony at the movement but I managed to keep a straight face despite the pain as I brushed the dust off my clothes. I walked over to the door and placed my hand on the carved patterns of the stone. Green flames ignited to life and began to flow along with the pattern carved there like liquid. I paused and bit my lip. The green flame flickered away without completing the pattern. I took a deep breath and a blue flame ignited instead. It followed the same pattern before flowing into four separate holes at the edges of the door. There was a faint click as the door unlocked and began to swing open.
I left the room of soothing heat behind as I walked up the gently sloped hallway back towards Svend’s mansion. My legs protested the strain but the walk gave me plenty of time to think. My progress with the blue flame had to be accelerated. Sebastion would learn of my revival soon. Even if he was delayed by weeks after our prediction, there was no way for me to regain my full strength before he arrived. Even at my full strength, there was no guarantee I could defeat him. He had already killed me once after all. My only hope was to either deceive him with one of my undead or surprise him with an ability he had never seen from me before. With so little time to prepare, I could not afford to rest. I needed strength and I needed it now.
Finally reaching the end of the long corridor, I found myself back in Svend’s mansion. Absolute silence resonated through the halls. I had spent all morning in the training room and had no idea where anyone was. Though I could guess. Svend and Cyra were probably at the rally location for the growing army. Charly was undoubtedly still in the library. I had no idea where my parents were, but Donte would be easy enough to find. All I had to do was look for the giant floating island in the sky.
Sure enough, the Preateritum ruin was at the back of Svend’s manor, floating just off the edge of a balcony so that we could enter and leave easily. Standing at the edge of the Island, one of my newest undead, Sigmund sat perfectly still. A long thin dueling sword laid unsheathed across his lap. His eyes stared out at the unmoving scenery of the city without even blinking. I would have thought he was a statue if not for the connection I shared with my undead. He was not fighting against my control right now and seemed perfectly content to just sit there, so I let him be and continued inside.
Donte was easy to find, standing in the entrance hall with his sword in hand. He was sweating profusely as he swung the sword over and over again in the same repeated pattern.
I entered the building to a scene of dark boiling clouds on the ceiling overhead and Donte mumbling to himself in frustration as he swung his blade again and again. “What do you mean my swordsmanship sucks? Do you even know how to use a sword? I have beaten trained knights, you know?” Donte paused for a moment, listening to something only he could hear before growling in reply. “No, they were not awful knights. They were fully trained and really powerful.”
“Talking to yourself is not a good sign,” I said with a grin as I walked into the entrance hall.
“I am not talking to myself!” Donte shouted wildly, “Mare won’t shut up! She is constantly chattering nonstop. I can’t stand it! I just want one minute without that pipsqueak in my ear.” The image of the clouds overhead turned dark and stormy and a small flash of lightning jumped across the clouds threateningly. “Go ahead, shock me again. It barely even hurts anymore,” Donte shouted back in challenge.
“Why do you insist on antagonizing her?” I asked with a shake of my head.
“Antagonize her?” Donte replied in exasperation, “You heard that brat talk. Every third word is an insult. She is antagonizing me!”
“If you just ignored it, she would probably grow bored sooner or later.”
“Easy for you to say. Have you ever had a girl mock you when you are trying to pee or start chattering in your ear when you lie down to sleep? It is torture!”
I shrugged, unable to help Donte in any meaningful way. “If you want her to quiet down, you need to gain full control of this place.”
“Now you sound like Mare,” Donte sighed.
As Donte and I talked, my mom walked out of one of the far doors, I recognized as the way to the kitchen. “Well, at least one of my children decided to show up for lunch,” My mom said with her hands on her hips, “I swear, between you spending all your time regaining your strength, Charly never leaving the library, and your father constantly down of those freezing crypts, I was starting to think the only ones who lived here were Donte and the menagerie of animals you let roam the halls.”
“Sorry, Mom,” I mumbled as I looked down at the floor.
“It is not your fault, Wren,” my mom said with a shake of her head, “Your father and Charly lose track of time too easily is all. However, that all stops now. Starting today, I am making lunch and dinner mandatory family meals. You two go fetch the others.”
“Yes ma’am,” Donte replied with a mock salute before he quickly ran off.
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I wanted to tell my mom that I did not have time to spend in distractions with the quickly approaching deadline of both Sebastion and the Demons. However, under my mom’s imposing gaze, my courage instantly dried up. I knew there was no room for negotiation and quickly scampered away to find the others. I felt my chest tighten and realized that in my rush for strength i nearly forgotten what it was for. A couple hours a day would not change much since how long I could spend absorbing energy was limited anyway.
Charly was easy enough to locate. He did not look like he had moved since the last time I saw him, still sitting at the library table and reading quietly next to the girl that could do nothing else. My dad took much longer to find. We knew he was in the catacombs deep underground, but you could walk those catacombs for days and probably not find the end. Ever since our talk, my dad had been searching for the corpses of his parents and sister among the endless thousands of faces. The Kala people did not have any real organization method of storing the bodies so, each and every row had to be searched one by one. I wished I could help him in some way but nobody else here had ever seen them before. Only my dad knew what his family looked like.
It was only after searching the catacombs for nearly thirty minutes that Donte and I found my dad. By that time, I was absolutely freezing. The damp, piercing cold only made my aching body hurt worse. Even being prepared this time and bringing a coat along, I could not stop shivering endlessly with every step through the catacombs. I did not understand how my dad was able to handle being down here for hours on end.
Even after finding my dad, he was reluctant to leave and it was only when I mentioned how frustrated Mom was that he relented and followed us up and out of the catacombs.
By the time we returned to the floating island, my mom had set up a blanket covered in food outside, overlooking the beautiful scenery of the city below as well as some pillows for us to sit on while we ate.
“This far north, it will not be too much longer before winter sets in,” My mom explained as she sat down at the picnic area and motioned for us to do the same, “As such, I thought we should enjoy what little nice weather we have while it last and spend this small moment of peace while it lasts… That means no books, Charly.”
Charly paled as he quickly tucked away from the book he had snuck out of the library and was planning to read while we ate. I laughed and sat down next to him, jostling Charly playfully.
Taking a moment to sit and eat with my entire family was far more relaxing than I thought it would be. For just a moment, I was able to forget all the worries weighing down on my shoulders and simply laugh with everyone. I found myself wishing this peace could last forever but I knew that was impossible.
It was not long before the conversation degraded into the only real way my family knew how to bond when Donte challenged my dad to a sparring match. The clatter of wooden swords soon rang out across the floating island, giving us a show along with what little remained of lunch. Even the unmoving Sigmund, who had not reacted to our presence the entire lunch, turned to watch the sparring match.
My mom shook her head with a sigh. “These boys cannot sit still for a single moment. I guess we are training with swords this afternoon. Wren, help me clean up the dishes then we will join them. Charly, you should join too. You need to do something other than sit and read books all day. A bit of physical exercise will be good for you.”
“Do I have to?” Charly complained with an exaggerated grimace.
“Yes,” my mom replied with a firm nod.
I laughed at Charly’s reluctance as his shoulders drooped and he slowly shuffled over to the spare wooden swords used for practice. I helped my mom clean up the dishes, carrying them all inside. I volunteered to clean them all since my body was still hurting too much for an extended exercise and let my mom give the boys a good thrashing.
I was humming while washing the dishes, still smiling from the simple but enjoyable picnic when I felt a tug at the back of my mind. Pain suddenly tore through my mind, causing me to drop the plate I had been washing. It hit the ground, shattering into a thousand pieces, but I hardly even noticed.
My focus was instead on the sudden horrible headache and regaining control of the undead that suddenly wrenched itself free of my command.
Sigmund! He had once again torn himself free of my command without any warning. I felt a chill down my spine as I realized that Sigmund had been outside with my family.
Clutching my head and resisting the pain I stumbled towards the door. I connected with Nox and commanded him to assist immediately. A furious roar rang through the mansion as I rushed outside as quick as I could manage.
I dreaded that Sigmund had attacked my family as he had with the Demonkin last time he broke free of my control. I expected a fight to have broken out. I expected the worst.
Instead, when I burst through the doors and stepped outside, I found the undead man standing in front of my family, lecturing them on their awful swordplay.