The Eternal Flame

[Merelas]

(OOC: This was written to take place after the incident with Yui, which I’m assuming will someday have it’s own RP thread in the conservatory, which will be fun! Also, many thanks to Valdar and his patience for putting up with my endless questions about the void, as well as everything associated with it. The Valdar Stories, The First Scars, especially, were an inspiration as I created and continue to create this work.)

 

BIC:

 

“You fool! You could’ve gotten yourself killed… I told you, the realm of fire leaves deeper tracks than that of either shadow, or the void! I told you that he had marked you, and remembered who you were. You are damn lucky he never found you,” lectured Valdar.

 

I had just found my way back into the Drawing Room, via the fireplace. Two weeks of searching for Yui Temae after her hasty flight from the Keep that night when… whatever it was happened. I think it was at this point, before he launched in on his second lecture that I passed out.

 

I awoke to see Salinye looking down over me in the hospital wing. Her beautiful blond curls (and that one particularly unruly one) hung over her face, and she looked slightly frightening like this, as though golden tentacles were attacking me from her face. I jumped.

 

“Bright Star! Merelas, what’s wrong?” Salinye called, jumping back a bit.

 

“What? Oh… nothing… you just… startled me, is all,” I said slowly, eventually coming to terms with where I was and what had happened. My head was pounding, but I forced myself to sit up anyways. Grasping my head between both hands, and wincing for a moment, I inquired of the mage before me, “What time is it? How long have I been out? Is Yui—?”

 

“Shh… Yui is safe, wherever she is… Valdar assures us that if she were harmed, he would have known by now. Aegon has come since you left, and he’s worried sick. And for your information, it is a little past midday, and you have been unconscious for three days,” Salinye replied, with all of her usual calmness and grace.

 

“Three days… how…?” the pounding wouldn’t stop, and it was greatly interfering with my ability to think. I rubbed my temples gingerly, and then fumbled at my neck for Chrissiania’s Jewel.

 

:Chris, dear… I could really use a respite from the pain, if you don’t mind:

 

:Merelas… I believe that you have come to depend on Kushel and myself far too much. I’m afraid that I cannot offer you my abilities this day. Seek help from those around you.:

 

With that, she blocked my mind… I could always feel it when she did that… it was a sort of walling off, as if I couldn’t even think about the jewel, her, or Kushel very well.

 

“Damned thing,” I muttered, and Salinye gaped at me in surprise.

 

“Merelas… you don’t curse…” she said.

 

“I learned a few words while I was on my… quest, you could say. Sal… is there any way a healer could cure this headache… it’s killing me. I can’t even think, and I need to get up and function.”

 

“Well… the healers aren’t in right now, but… I suppose I could make you some herb tea. Would that help?”

 

Restraining the urge to yell at the absence of healers and my artifact’s refusal to cooperate, I nodded with my teeth gritted.

 

As Salinye walked over to the work-counter (healers were always mixing herbs and other things), she looked at me curiously. Only after a several moments did she break my gaze.

 

“What?” I asked her, as I had never taken kindly to people staring at me.

 

“Well… it’s just…”

 

“Salinye, out with it!”

 

“Well… we didn’t know if you were even still alive. You were gone for two weeks, and Valdar said that he couldn’t tell if you had been killed… he didn’t know enough about your firewalking to tell, he said. We were all so worried.”

 

“Well, I’m back, aren’t I?”

 

“Well, yes, but you’re—“

 

“Chopped up?” I asked, cutting her off.

 

“Yes,” she answered, after wincing at the terms I had used. She was obviously referring to the gashes and cuts that I had sustained while I was searching for Yui. I was never hurt while in the fires, but I had to go out sometimes. For rest, especially, it was dangerous to stay in the flames. Most times, I had to appear in the grate of some inn or commonplace that wasn’t being too carefully watched. Usually I had pulled it off well enough, but unfortunately, when I was exhausted sometimes from three days without rest, I couldn’t be so graceful on my re-entry.

 

People didn’t take kindly to me barging in through the fireplace, without so much as a knock. And then, after that, there were fights. I sustained enough wounds to severely slow me down… that was the only reason that I had come back to the pen. If I had been able to go on, I would have.

 

I had accomplished absolutely nothing. That was what bothered me most, I think—the fact that I had been gone for two weeks with maybe four days where I stopped moving. It angered me to no end.

 

And as soon as I was up and feeling better, I would be moving again.

 

Out of the frying pan, into the fire, I thought to myself, and enjoyed a bit of my own joke. Presently, Salinye returned with a cup of steaming peppermint tea, which I accepted gratefully, and sipped.

 

As I drank, she watched me. I got the distinct feeling that she wanted to say something, but was holding back.

 

“Salinye, if you want to ask me something, then ask,” I said, after a few moments of uneasy silence.

 

She hesitated. After another moment or two, she plunged in. “I was wondering… if you saw her? Or if you found her? When you asked about her, it seemed as if—“

 

“No. I didn’t find her,” I said, rather coldly. I avoided her eyes, but I could hear the hurt in her voice, as she replied softly, “Oh.”

 

We sat for a few minutes more, with me sipping the tea that she had made me, before she stood, saying, “Well… I’ll be back, or I’ll send someone in later to check on you. You should sleep some, it will do you good,” she said the last part over her shoulder on the way out, and I could tell that I had hurt her feelings. As sad as it was… at the moment, I really didn’t care. I was too tired, too hell-bent on my cause to care.

 

I finished the last of the tea, and set the cup and saucer on the floor next to the infirmary bed. Leaning back, and resting my head on the pillow, I wondered how I would ever find Yui, in the vast expanse of the multi-verse. What if I did manage to find her? What would I do? What would I say? Slowly, my eyes closed, and I yielded to sleep.

 

They were closing. Quickly, I twirled, almost pirouetting—:Extend!: the whip sprang to obey, lashing out savagely at those who charged in, the barbed ends of it sending them sprawling as fast as they could come.

 

Faster and faster I spun, never stopping. It was as though I were a ballerina, nearly, and I used all of my strength and elven grace to continue the spin. Finally, I had cut a circle around me about ten feet in diameter. I slowed to a stop, and was dizzy for a moment from twirling for so long.

 

:Coil!: I thought, and flicked my wrist upwards. The whip sprang towards me, and wrapped around my body, over my right shoulder, under my left, and over again.

 

Grasping Brightflame, with both hands on the hilt now, I held it straight up, arms extended. Closing my eyes, I called upon the power of my ancestors—my power—the power of fire.

 

Immediately, it sprang up all around me, as an inferno of flame, crackling and hissing at my enemies, daring them to come and attack. A ring of fire surrounded me now, aside from the inferno itself, burning blue. As one poor sap charged through it, he was burnt to a crisp before ever reaching me.

 

“Flame of Shroleyannè!” I bellowed to the sword, and I swept it down before me with a flourish. A jet of liquid flame burst from the tip. Like a giant eraser removing an artist’s marks, the flame decimated any who came before it.

 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. One of the pursuers had vaulted the flame ring, and were inside the circle now. Quickly, I doused the flame, and moved to strike him down with the sword of my fathers—

 

Too late. Even before he touched the “floor” of the void, his longsword made an arc that came right across my throat. My head bent backwards—

 

“NO!!” I screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed, turning and kicking my legs out, and scattering the cup and saucer that had been there. They shattered, the broken pieces spreading across the floor of the infirmary. I sat, with my head held in my hands, as the attendants came rushing to my side.

 

I’d had the same dream, again.

 

“Mr. en’Bella! Are you all right, sir?” One of the healers rushed in—she was beautiful, with chestnut hair that trailed down her back. Concern marked up her pretty face as she looked over me. Slowly, realizing that I hadn’t responded, I nodded, and spoke… “Get me Valdar.” It was a croak, really, but she understood, and fled the infirmary with haste in her steps.

 

The others came and checked my pulse, then my aura, and then searched for curses and enchantments before I finally threw them out, angrily. In this state, I couldn’t stand to have them hanging over me like a paralyzed little child. Luckily for me, there were no other patients in the ward, and I had free reign.

 

It was almost an hour before that healer came back. She informed me that Valdar had left the keep, the day I had returned, but that he had promised to come back within a week.

 

Four days, I thought… It could be four days before he gets back. I shook my head, dismayed. There was nothing else for it—I would have to wait.

 

The healers and their assistants were more than kind to me as they performed their duties over my nearly broken body. I was grateful to them, but at the same time, angry that I could not act. I would wind up in fits of screaming, and terrifying the healers to no end. Usually they would wind up fleeing the ward, and leaving me to myself. There had still been no word from Yui or Valdar, and I was worried. Salinye, Gyrfalcon, Peredhil, Ayshela and others visited me regularly, with much the same results. I always ended up offending them in some way, until one day Gyrfalcon made me see sense.

 

We had been arguing about something… I forget what it was exactly now, but it had been terrible. I had started shouting, and had risen to my feet. He threw the punch suddenly—I never saw it coming. He was so strong that I fell backwards, hitting my head against the wall above my bed, and slumping down onto it.

 

Gyrfalcon stood glowering over me, and rubbing the knuckles on his right hand.

 

“What in the nine hells was that for?” I asked him, my voice soft and a trifle scared. He was filled with power in that instant… it radiated from him, and I believe it was one of the few instants in my life that I have been afraid. Then again… this story has many of those few instances.

 

“Grow up!” he growled, plunging onward, and not allowing me any further chance to speak. “You’ve been acting like a fool, and one who’s hell bent on making everyone around him suffer at that! You think you’re the only one upset here? You think you’re the only one who wishes they could do something for Yui? Well think again!

 

“We’re on your side, damn it! We come here out of courtesy to you, in order to try and help you recover, and to speak to you… to keep you company, for gods’ sakes! And how do you repay us? By being arrogant, self-centered, and downright asinine! You’ve no idea how many times Salinye has come to me distraught, nigh on tears because of your behavior! I told her that you were dealing with a tough thing, and it’s true, but so are all of us! You don’t have to take your feelings of… of self-doubt, or stir-craziness out on us, you know!”

 

I slumped on the bed before him. The fear that I had felt earlier had been replaced by a kind of guilt. I knew that what he was saying was true, and that I had no right to inflict upon them the grievances that I carried myself. My eyes slowly fell to the floor, and I avoided his gaze. Then he moved—he went and got a cloth from the healer’s counter, and he wiped the blood from my lip.

 

Slowly, he sighed. “I didn’t mean to hurt you… but you had better believe every word of what I said,” he said, rising, and he turned to go.

 

“Gyrfalcon?” I called, and he stopped just at the door.

 

I paused for a moment, searching for words. Eventually, when I found none, I simply said, “I’m sorry.” He nodded, and left.

 

I wept, then. For hours, and hours, I wept. When I stopped, and I had the coherent thought to look around me, the moon had risen and was well on its way into the sky. I guessed it to be about midnight, perhaps an hour past. Looking around, I straightened the blankets and pillow on my bed, and lay down to rest.

 

It was then that the thoughts of that dream came, and I decided that I would not, could not sleep this night. I sat up in bed, and pondered over it. I hadn’t had it when I was passed out… but then, I hadn’t been conscious. Last night had been the last time… but before that?

 

I thought hard… somehow it was difficult for me to remember, even though I had been impacted by it so much. It had been while I was in the flames, I knew that… but I couldn’t remember exactly which night.

 

My thoughts were interrupted suddenly, when I heard voices outside the infirmary. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought one of them was the chestnut-haired healer whom I had sent after Valdar when I had woken from that nightmare. I couldn’t make out every word, but I strained to hear… they seemed to be arguing about something.

 

“… and he asked to see you as soon as he woke up.” That was the healer.

 

“Yes, I had assumed he would do so,” replied a male voice…. It had to be Valdar. He continued, “Really, Moira, I must see Merelas.”

 

“Mr. en’Bella is no doubt asleep, and I really think it would be best if you left him to accumulate as much rest as possible,” she was getting angry, it seemed.

 

Then Valdar replied something to the effect of ‘I doubt he’s getting much sleep.’

 

“Which is exactly why you should leave him to his rest! This can wait until the morning.”

 

“I really don’t have time for this,” he said, as though he had washed his hands of the whole thing. The door opened then, and I looked up. It had been exactly who I’d thought: Valdar, and the healer, apparently called Moira. Valdar looked at me, and knowing that I hadn’t been asleep, glanced at Moira triumphantly.

 

“Valdar,” I said, standing and crossing over to him, “It’s good to see you.”

 

“And you. Moira, leave us please.”

 

“Valdar, sir, I must protest that—“

 

“It’s all right, Moira. The things we need to discuss best be kept private… you can leave us in peace,” I said. Moira frowned, glared at us both, and turned on her heel to leave.

 

“And if you would close the door behind you?” I called to her. I heard her sigh angrily, and slap the door behind her earth-shatteringly.

 

“I really don’t have much time,” Valdar said, and I nodded.

 

“Of course. Would you care to sit?”

 

“I’d rather stand,” he replied briskly.

 

“I see. Well, I feel that I must sit down,” I returned, and walked to the bed. I sat on it facing Valdar before continuing, “Lately, I’ve been having this—“

 

“Dream. Or rather, night mare, I suppose.” Valdar had cut me off.

 

I was shocked. How Valdar could know any of this was beyond me, so I simply nodded dumbly.

 

“Tell me about it.”

 

“Well, I’m running away from all of these…” I paused here to think of a word, but failed. “beings that are following me. Finally they’ve caught me, and I have to make my stand. So I fight, and then…” My throat tightened. It was frightening eve to speak the words. “I see my own death.”

 

“Where are you when this takes place?”

 

“I suspect the Void, only I’ve never been there. I don’t understand it,” I said, shaking my head.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, how can I have a dream about something I’ve never seen or encountered? And why would I be in the void?”

 

“Perhaps it’s a premonition,” Valdar said, although it was a trivial matter and he had dreams of the future all the time.

 

“So—so I’m going to be a planeswalker?” I asked incredulously.

 

Valdar shrugged. “I’ve no idea; it’s your dream, not mine. I had assumed something like this would happen to you, but I didn’t know to what extent,” he said.

 

I looked down. A planeswalker? How was it possible? I had no magic abilities that would help me there, and my fighting skills were (at best) only above average.

 

As though he could read my mind, Valdar spoke, “It is uncommon for a planeswalker to be a fighter, but not unheard of. I realize that you have no magical talent, but you seem to have an affinity for magical items. A few artifacts can bring you up to void standards There’s also your natural ability to control flames to be considered.” It was all very matter-of-fact… and that was perhaps as startling as the words themselves.

 

“I have an affinity for magical items?” I asked, puzzled.

 

“What do you call that thing around your neck? And that flaming sword? I suppose those are just trinkets?” he asked sarcastically.

 

“Oh… oh, yes,” I said dumbly. They had become a part of me to the extent that I didn’t even think of them as powerful artifacts anymore.

 

“Yes,” Valdar said somewhat impatiently. “If you really want to find out, I can only suggest that you make your way to Sigil,” he continued.

 

“Sigil? What is Sigil?”

 

Valdar looked upward for a moment, as though wondering what he had done to deserve my incompetence. It took much self discipline to control my temper in that moment.

 

“Sigil is a nexus. It is a connection to all planes, all realms of existence. It is a massive city, and there are several ways you can get to it.” He paused, and after a moment, added, “or rather, several ways I can get to it. There is probably only one route for you.”

 

“And that is…?” I questioned.

 

“A portal. They are very common, especially on this plane, but you must have an activator for said portal. In fact…” he trailed off at the end of his sentence. I quickly pressed the subject, and he continued, “In fact, I happen to have the activator for one such portal in my chambers. Please wait here,” he said, turning.

 

“Where do you think I’m going to go?” I asked sarcastically. He smiled at me over his shoulder, and nodded. He left the room, and I slumped back to rest on my pillows.

 

No sooner had I begun to wonder what was taking him so long than he walked back in, unaccompanied by Moira this time. He was hindered slightly by the fact that he was carrying a large axe.