Burning Flowers

  “So…you wanna explain why we’re suddenly on a mission?”

  Moriya didn’t bother turning to Elias beside him, tone overflowing with irritation. “When I was getting Theo’s pen in the morning, I ran into the head of MATS—Narci. He stopped me and told me to go take care of it. I couldn’t say no.”

  “Ew,” spat Chelsi from the back of the group. “Narciluka. He’s creepy. Blegh.”

  The professor’s response was unenthusiastic. “He’s not a good person, but it’s not like he’s the one who hurt you last Circle. Besides, he knows I’m great at my job.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” complained the physician loudly and sarcastically. “Great at killing people.”

  “Funny, cause you’re great at saving people,” pointed out Kor with an amused look in Chel’s direction.

  “Yeah, funny,” grumbled the physician. “Funny is what that is…”

  “It’ll take us a bit to get there, right? Since we can’t go by cart?” asked Callie, returning to the main topic.

  This was something that Theo was more than just slightly worried about as well, as his internal clock was running on a different schedule today. “Tetche is…farther north than the Academy, so we’ll have to stop somewhere. Good news is that the conflict is expected tomorrow night, so we have a night to rest, and northern Chloris is currently not under any political influence. While travel should be relatively uneventful, carts aren’t a safe option.”

  “Ooh,” Selene spoke up, trying her best to repress her excitement. “Do we have time to stay somewhere nice, or are we back to camping?”

  The tactician shook his head and gave Selene an apologetic smile. “The most efficient way is through the Uphesian Steppes and then through the Ethian Hinterlands, so even though we can pass by the Academy, camping will be the most time efficient. We’ll have to rely on you again. Sorry.”

  “O-oh,” pivoted the botanist, tempering her smile. “That’s okay. The time we spent in Syarktos was fun. I’m looking forward to visiting Tetche—I haven’t been there before.”

  “You haven’t been to most places, princess,” teased Kor with a smile and sigh. “That’s why you left.”

  Moriya let out a surprisingly morose sigh. “It’ll probably look different under siege. A shame. I’ve visited a handful of times over the years, and it’s a pretty mountain town.”

  It was Theo’s turn to be taken aback. “Oh? When? Why?”

  Moriya let the awkward insistence sink in before tilting his head back and eyeing Theo wearily with the hint of a smile on his lips. “Chel may have only realized where Faris was born sixteen Circles in, but I’ve known where you were born since the first.”

  * * *

  Whether it was because Moriya was right and the town was under siege, or because time had simply degraded a weak, age-old memory, but the town was practically unrecognizable.

  Darkness had descended about three hours ago, faint moonlight the only thing peeking out from the cloudy sky. Weak flickers of fire burned feebly in the streetlamps illuminating an empty street with its distinct fiery-orange spell-candle color—they must not have been lit by a proper spell-caster, or the caster had wanted to save a few lines to preserve their tome.

  The village, known as a MATS and Ancient-friendly community bordering the Hythian Gulf and across from the western mountains of the Royal Boundary, was not only tight-knit and reclusive, but had clearly suffered from the ensuing war between the other political factions from which it had tried its best to stay away.

  Walking past several deserted buildings, dodging pieces of homes, furniture, and books, Theo looked around uneasily at the main stretch of road leading into the village with Moriya and Callie by his side.

  “Where…where is everyone?” whispered the support.

  Moriya answered before Theo could. “Likely hiding.”

  Right on cue, a loud explosion erupted from the distance, accompanied by a giant ball of fire hurtling into the sky.

  “Well, look at that,” noted the professor dryly. “They’ve already started without us.”

  “Is that our cue?” asked Elias through the class-wide comms. “Might be maybe thirty minutes to get into place?”

  Theo picked up his pace but did not waver. “Let us try to locate the Ancients before anything else. Stick to the plan and head over, but don’t engage until I give you the orders.”

  “Got it,” accepted the duelist, the leader of his group now that Callie was with Theo and Moriya.

  “—boss,” added Chel, the smile apparent in her voice.

  “Professor, can you explain to me why she calls me boss?” muttered Theo under his breath as he walked ahead of his teacher and started another scan of the area.

  Still no one. Are they all at the center? Have they evacuated?

  “Same reason you don’t call me Nate—old habits die hard.”

  “It’s polite. You’re my professor.”

  “And she thinks you’re her boss.”

  “Can she not call me something more normal? And why are you bringing that up? Do you want me to call you by your first name? I know Ty did.”

  “She called me by my first name because she considered me a friend. Are you my friend or my student?”

  “What kind of—”

  “Hey…there’s a light coming from over there.”

  Both Moriya and Theo turned to where Callie was pointing.

  It was a light at the beginning of a path leading up a small hill. At the top of it were two small cabins beside each other, one bigger than the other, both dwarfed by his room back at Em’s.

  He could imagine the snow in the winter blanketing the wooden steps he’d sit on that went up the hill. Imagine the raised edge right after entering the cabin they lived in, where they’d leave their shoes. And if any snow got in, his mother would always dutifully brush it away before it could stain the old, aging wood.

  The soft bed he spent most of his days on, feverish and sick more often than not. A hot towel over his forehead as his blurry-faced parents hovered over him and spoke a muddled language, expressions plastered with worry. An old lady who seemed familiar, who visited often and gave his parents more worry, leading up to the day he had been carried away…to that Hall of Anasot he remembered better than any other home.

  “Let’s continue. There’s no one there anymore.”

  Theo returned to reality.

  The cabin was run-down. Some planks were missing, and the hillside where it sat was flooded with wildflowers and overgrowth. The steps were barely distinguishable, and several tiles were missing from the roof. One of the windows he never grew tall enough to look through had a hole the size of a stone, its web of cracks in the glass shining from a bright light on the windowsill. It was brighter than the spell-candles lighting the streets, as if it had been lit by someone else.

  “Y-yes,” stuttered Theo, rushing to catch up to Moriya again and continuing down the ruined path.

  After a few minutes of complete silence, Theo piped up, “Elias, where are you?”

  “Not there yet, but shouldn’t be more than twenty. What’re your orders, boss?”

  The tactician groaned. “Oh, come on, Elias. We’re—”

  “What, she started it,” interjected the duelist quickly.

  Ignoring the comment, Theo looked up at the silent night sky with a tinge of worry. “Stay hidden and get Kor to scout up front. They’ve gotten quiet. We need to get a better idea of the situation.”

  “Understood.”

  “B—”

  “Okay, quit it,” sighed a rough and cold voice.

  Theo, who was regretting taking Callie and unknowingly creating a seriously unhinged squad of students, finally felt a bit of relief at hearing his caster’s voice. “Let me know what you see, Kor, and we’ll go from there. We’re approaching the village center as well—hopefully we can locate the Ancients.”

  Just as they resumed walking, Moriya spoke up again. “You seemed pretty unaffected, seeing your childhood home.”

  Almost tripping over a raised piece of cobblestone, Theo hastily straightened and stuttered through a reply. “W-well, I…I accepted it a long time ago. After Em brought me home and told me about my parents. Not looking back, starting a new life. Besides…it looked less lonely with that light inside.” He caught himself smiling wistfully to himself. “Wonder if someone from the village maintains it.”

  Moriya kept his gaze forward. “Wonder if it’s a friend.”

  “Yeah…I wonder.”

  They continued walking as Theo focused on the task at hand, noticing that the buildings were gradually becoming less run-down, but not a single soul could be seen yet.

  “When did you want me to set down traps?”

  The tactician shook his head at Callie. “No, we should get closer first. We’re still not sure where the enemy is. What do you think, Moriya?”

  “I wouldn’t bother with the traps at all. There’s a reason both you and I are here, and that’s—”

  “We’re going to avoid as much bloodshed as possible, I told you.”

  “I don’t think you have a choice, caster.”

  As if the concealed enemies were waiting to hear just that, there was suddenly a shuffling in the distance. Theo’s head turned, and he raised an open palm in front of him.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Wall Barrier.

  Heart pounding, Theo watched rock shards crash into the shield just as it was erected, shattering it into thousands of rainbow shards.

  Mumbling another spell, he veered to the side, detached from his companions, and flicked his wrist toward the shadows.

  Puncture.

  A giant rock formation erupted from the alleyway where the two shadows had been hiding behind.

  Clink.

  “Tch.” Theo frowned, quickly weaving a repeat of the spell, except this time he didn’t hit a barrier as two shadows flew into the middle of the main street.

  Feeling a barrier wash over himself, no doubt from Callie, Theo briefly turned to a stone-faced Moriya before seizing the opportunity to question the scrambling individuals in their way.

  “Can we settle this without fighting?” he entreated loudly, watching one pull out a sword and the other send a ball of darkness in his direction.

  He sidestepped and conjured his own sword to parry the second individual, granting them a few more seconds to speak before he demanded again, “Why are you doing this?”

  But the sorcerer sloppily mumbled his way through a sentence, and the other relentlessly bashed Theo’s glowing sword with his own.

  Well, this won’t last forever, winced the caster-tactician as he used both his hands to grip his sword, wishing he had practiced some dueling despite being so physically frail.

  “We really don’t want to kill—”

  “Like you won’t!” yelled the swordsman as it finally sank in what spell the other enemy was in the middle of casting.

  Miasma.

  Theo’s mind went into overdrive as he stumbled back, in slight awe at how they acquired such an advanced spell. “Callie, Purification!” he commanded before beginning an augmented Petrify spell, betting on the fact that the counter-spell would be complete by the time he completed his spell.

  Darkness—true darkness this time.

  He pressed forward and leaned on the weight of his enemy’s weapon—it was easier to know where at least one person was rather than step back and lose them both in the poison.

  Besides, any magic can go into the barrier—this Miasma’s too weak to break through it.

  When Theo started tiring of parrying his opponent’s blows and began wondering whether Callie had heard him, the poisonous fog lifted, replaced by a tingling, healing sensation.

  There.

  He sent away his sword and completed his spell, directing it toward the one in front of him and the other—

  Wait, where did they go?

  He stopped, scanning the field until he arrived at a dark shadow standing over a dark pile on the ground.

  “You’ve got to kill them faster than that, my friend.”

  Theo took the moment to catch his breath. “I…I wanted to see if I could get them to talk.”

  Which the one remaining one did, at that very moment. “Come on, kill me already! Kill me, and a hundred more will come—we’ll fight you all with our dying breaths if it means the freedom of the people!”

  It’s for the Ancients. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hundred lives, if that’s what it takes to recover a single one.

  Dodging the spit of his enemy with a pained look, Theo steadied his hand against his enemy’s chest. “I…I’m so sorry.”

  Again, break them again.

  Burning, rotting flesh.

  There was no need to listen to the words. He was trying to survive.

  Defeated, the swordsman toppled over with a light push from the tactician, who sighed before applying a tactician’s barrier on them and continuing down the lonely road. “Callie, rescind the area. Let’s go.”

  “W-wait,” cut in Kor from the other side. “Theo, we’ve got a lot of angry lookin’ people here. I spot maybe four, five MATS. Three duelists, one caster. A support-healer must be somewhere; I sense a weak healing field. Some are already down.”

  “Enemies?”

  “Hard to see clearly—they’re still fighting. Easily…fifty more? How did they get up here? Graces.”

  Theo could feel his pulse and pace picking up. “You and Elias go on the offensive; Faris will cast, and Chel will heal. Sel, work on patching up the other MATS people first before you join Chel. If she doesn’t need help, you have your bow. Does that work?”

  “Any way to let them know we’re not here to kill them?” Selene inquired with justified worry in her voice.

  “Scout left before we did. Now go,” directed Moriya passively, eyes focused on the road in front of them.

  “’Kay. See ya soon. Stay safe,” murmured Chel, the ire in her tone not lost on the class as silence descended upon the three again.

  “I still think it’s weird that you’re not on that team,” added Theo, spotting a fork in the road far up ahead. “Thought you enjoyed fighting.”

  “I’ve got to deal with the Ancients, unfortunately.”

  “Does it have to be you?”

  “If they don’t recognize us, it’ll be dangerous.”

  Before Theo could let the words sink in, he spotted two groups of people coming from both bends in the road up ahead.

  “Look. Time to redeem yourself.”

  “Oh, shut up,” grumbled Theo disrespectfully, coming to a stop. “Callie, how long does it take you to precast for offensive magic? Not the full one.”

  “Twenty seconds.”

  “Oh, this will be fun. It’s going to be overkill with Callie here.”

  Ignoring Moriya’s, he met his support’s eyes. “Okay. Start casting once we start walking—we’re still a bit out of range—and if anyone attacks you, you’ve got your spear.”

  Callie nodded solemnly, putting a steady hand on the polearm on her back.

  “Ready?” asked the professor from beside him.

  Theo nervously patted his pockets. “Yeah.”

  “Remember—don’t think.”

  Waving and nodding briefly first to Callie, Theo turned around and followed Moriya down the road, side by side.

  “What spell do you want me to use?” asked Theo under his breath before casting a simple tactician’s barrier.

  “Anything you want. Like I said, don’t think.”

  “Anything? What about an Ex spell?”

  “If you like.”

  “What about a Break?”

  “If you like.”

  “Professor, you’re kinda insufferable sometimes.”

  “Thank you.”

  Feeling Callie’s offensive magic enhancements trigger—a tingling, addictive feeling—Theo rolled his eyes at the professor’s answer and racked his brain for what to do to the twenty-odd targets charging toward them.

  We’re going to attract attention regardless. Can we kill them discreetly? What would be something relatively inconspicuous…though if—

  The ground began to shake.

  “You’re really not thinking, are you?” yelled Theo over the rumbling, his gaze meeting his mischievous professor’s before snapping back to the stumbling enemies in front of him.

  Now that he had been bought some time he didn’t need, Theo began casting a spell from Em’s book. It was a Grade V trigger spell he hadn’t used in a long time, and frankly he wondered why it was included in the first place because it was a simple dark-damage-and-sleep spell, but Em liked it. Presently, it was as merciless a death as he could give them when he shouldn’t have been thinking about the wellbeing of his enemies in the first place.

  “Ooh, that’s a good one,” said the professor with a smile, which made the caster do a double take. “I don’t have that one, but I like it when you use it. I’ll wait.”

  Smiling. He’s actually smiling.

  Theo turned back to their enemies, who had considerably closed the gap while he and Moriya were bantering, watching as weapons, arrows, even a spell or two were sent in their direction only to miss their mark or get reflected by the barriers.

  Yes…don’t think.

  With his enemies not ten seconds away, he took a deep breath and swallowed, forcing down his childish thoughts to leave a single merciful, disgraceful word:

  “Nightfall.”

  The sound of bodies collapsing and weapons hitting the floor echoed down the empty street, bouncing off the unoccupied shops and buildings, leaving nothing but two sorcerers at the center of what would be a massacre.

  “Very clever of you,” praised Moriya, walking up to the one who had made it the closest to them and brushing their limp hand with the tip of his foot. “Generous, even.”

  And then, with a few short sentences that were as graceful as his honeyed words to Theo, he cast an enormous black sphere the size of a house onto the bodies, drawing them in and suffocating them before relinquishing their cold corpses onto a neat pile on the ground.

  Theo’s heart pounded loudly as he watched the orb disappear into thin air, feeling like he had been on the brink of being sucked into the darkness himself.

  “You said not to think,” he whispered, watching his professor proceed down the street.

  “Maybe I thought a bit.”

  Standing still in front of the bodies of those he had helped kill, Theo recalled Em’s words to him.

  I don’t know what lies were spoken to you, what you have been led to believe, but you are on the wrong side of this war, Theo.

  “Let’s go, Theo.”

  A gentle hand tugged on his arm and dragged him along the path until they were past the bodies, and they had reached the fork in the road where the professor stood motionless.

  “Okay, you go left. I’ll go right. You take Callie.”

  Theo narrowed his eyes at the professor. “I thought I was tactician.”

  Moriya stared back unflinchingly. “Professor overrides all. You should know better.”

  Theo sighed loudly. “Fine. Let me know if you find anything.”

  * * *

  Making their way silently down the path, turning his head at every small sound, Theo tried to find anything he could recall from his brief childhood in Tetche while he scanned his surroundings.

  Nothing. Not a single memory in the paved stones underneath his feet, in the storefronts he passed, in the benches and in the barely lit lampposts. It was not home. It was a reminder of where he had been abandoned, a reminder of what he had now—vivid memories of Syarktos, of Em, of the Academy and his class, of Ty.

  Abandoned.

  “Hey!” a shadow yelled, tucked inside a dark alleyway. “Hey, there’s someone here!”

  “Oh, Graces,” Callie squeaked, looking back and backpedaling. “I’ll do the full rotation.”

  Not sure why she was going to waste doing a full rotation at first, Theo’s eyes finally caught sight of a shadowy mass of people turning the corner. “Oh, Graces,” he echoed in a whisper.

  “Hey! You two! Identify yourselves!”

  Another twenty, at least, all in a huddle and barely distinguishable from each other. Was he really going to do it this time? Wasn’t he supposed to be freeing the Ancients from MATS? Why was he doing their bidding? Just because Moriya said so, because the head of MATS told him to, because he trusted him?

  Unable to think of an alternative to conflict, unconvinced that both he and Callie could get away without either side getting severely hurt, Theo spouted the first crowd control spell he could think of off the top of his head—Frostflurry.

  Stepping back like Callie, watching the glimmering ice fragments float in the air and attach themselves to his enemies, it finally dawned on him far too late that Moriya had split up with him solely because he wanted Theo to kill. Like he had killed the sorcerer on the hills of Lycea, the scent of burned flesh still lingered in his mind to remind him of the inescapable truth.

  How easy it had been before, to kill without a conscience. Without thinking of the consequences, without thinking about what Ty would have wanted, without thinking about what kind of person he aspired to be for her, the world he wanted to leave behind for her.

  The Ancients. Her people.

  The soldiers…taking the Ancients hostage and placing them here as a trap for MATS—shouldn’t Theo defending the Ancients be equal to fighting for the right side?

  Change this foolish path you tread while you can still make the right choice.

  Crumbling under the pressure, unable to pull off what he had done in Blackire because he knew now the weight of the spell he carried and its repercussions, Theo watched as arrows, weapons, and spells were pelted in his direction, all which were blocked by Callie’s shields while he tried to find an alternative. Another answer. Another choice he could make, another branch in the path.

  “We’re just looking for the Ancients!” he finally yelled when he could no longer run, and the faces of his enemies were illuminated by their weak spell-candles. “We mean no harm, truly!”

  But his words fell on deaf ears as the soldiers continued to advance, even running through the flame wall he had erected.

  The frost melted into droplets, and the swarm grew around him.

  I’m just protecting myself, he tried to convince himself as he raised a hand up to the sky. I’m just protecting myself. Where’s Moriya? I’m—

  I’m so scared of watching another person I love die.

  Hearing the voice in his mind quickened his casting. It made his stomach turn, his hands tremble, his legs threaten to collapse.

  I’m so sorry.

  A cloud of violet sparks coalesced above his hands, its sparks reflecting off the terror-filled eyes of his enemies as their weapons continued to fly in his direction, cutting through his spent barrier and tearing through his cloak and skin as he choked out the trigger word.

  “Ex-Katagid.”

  The ground rumbled, absorbing the pitch back thunder like the beads of water left behind by the Frostflurry.

  Half of them wilted like dead flowers right before his eyes.

  Burning flesh, they would not let him forget.

  But he wouldn’t die, not here. He couldn’t do that to him, and he couldn’t do it to Moriya, who knew all along. This had all been predestined, written into the history of the burning earth by an omnipotent and hateful Mother.

  “Callie, continue with the barriers,” he whispered, paying no mind to the wet blood—or were they tears—trickling down his face as he began speaking a Nightfall again, this time knowing what he was going to do when it finally triggered, and his nine remaining enemies fell to the ground in front of him.

  Conjure Saber.

  A sword materialized in his hands as he walked up to the first body.

  What’s your name? he heard her voice ask.

  He hovered the shaky sword over their chest.

  I’m going to return you to the Earth Mother now. Is that okay? she continued to whisper in his ear.

  He pushed down until he met rock.

  One.

  * * *

  Silently trudging down the road with a heavy conscience, the tactician finally stopped after rounding a bend in the road leading to the village plaza.

  Right there—shadows in the distance. Six of them. Huddled around a gentle light at the center of the village, all of a medium stature with slim but bulky builds.

  The convenience of it all gave Theo pause as he stared at the individuals under the veil of the night. Still like statues, unmoving. Hands at their sides, heads down. One had long hair, one had short hair. Some had hoods on.

  “Nice view from here. I can see the other kids.”

  Theo snapped his head up, not ten steps away now. He swore he could hear the professor’s voice in real life and not through the binding spell. “A-are you on a rooftop? Can you see the Ancients?”

  “I can. They haven’t noticed me yet, though. Why don’t you try?”

  Before he could even retort, the faraway figures raised their heads in unison.

  He froze, a chill running up his spine.

  “It is as She predicted,” spoke the first with rumbling tones and imperfect pronunciation.