STORMBORNS

The Hunt

The roof tiles were greasy in the hands of Aria which could not stand easily. there were shouts along the broken window, behind them, and reading between the lines, in a few seconds armed forms were then clambering at the broken window.

Move, said Kael in monotonous voice.

So they went on the slanting roof, scraping their boots on stone. In the Academy courtyard chaos prevailed below. Learners covered the floor with their instructors screaming at them to do this or that. The bells of the alarm kept on blinking, low and tenacious and rolling round the cliffs like a menace to all the kingdom.

Aria's breathing grew uneven. The tempest that was within her had not quieted. It felt against her ribs, her throat and demanded to be set free. Thunder was droning overhead, with heavy clouds being much more unnaturally fast-formed.

I can not help it, I told her, and panicked. There was a feeble flicker of lightning in her fingertips.

Kael grabbed her wrist when another burst was ready to burst forth. He drew her into his arms, one arm stretched over her shoulders and another nail screeched very near the roof-line.

"Look at me," he said.

One hardly caught him amid the wind.

"Aria."

The hand clenched her back and stabilized her. Not forceful. Not restraining. Steady.

"Breathe," he said quietly. "It's reacting to your fear."

A shout was answered at the back of them; a soldier got the roof.

Kael leaned nearer and now his forehead touched hers, and the blue flame of his free hand flickered as low as possible. She was not scalded by the hotness of it. It felt controlled. Intentional.

"Focus on me," he said. "Not them. Not the storm."

Her breast was lifted and dropped. Still she made herself look at his face.

Gradually the lightning that was crawling upon her skin faded.

The thunder overhead had lessened and become a growl.

The air was cut with a blade towards them.

Kael swung about and freed her and slung his arm back. Fire of blue flashed in a bent shield which bristled at the blow. The soldier was shocked to his feet.

It was no longer panic in Aria; it was something stinging.

Choice.

this time she made a deliberate gesture with her hand. The storm revolted, not thus, but inclined. A thin line of lightning flashed ahead and hit the weapon of the soldier, smashing it off his hand and not killing him.

There was a period of half a second silence.

She had controlled it.

"Go!" Kael urged.

They darted away once more, and were at the distant part of the roof where there was a slender ladder of maintenance, cleft to the stone wall. They scanned downwards, falling to a side corridor, which led in the direction of the older part of the Academy, a spot that was seldom frequented save as a place of deposit.

It was behind them that soldiers repulsed.

More Vanguard army was taking position below in the courtyard.

On the balcony above where he looked down on the disorder, one figure stood immobile.

The storm cloud was with a disinterested gaze followed by Lord Sereth, High Councillor of Defense. Nor did his silver-lined robes most the towards the increasing wind.

So, he thought to the commander on his side, it wakes up again.

The commander frowned. And shall we put her, my lord?

Sereth's lips curved faintly. "No. Storm is an asset that should not be wasted. Capture her. Alive."

"And the boy?"

Sereth had turned his eyes to the glitter of inartificial blue flame that flashed down the roof below.

"...Bring him as well."

Those were not heard by Aria or Kael.

They ran corridors with dimly lit wall-lights and dusty statues and long-tarnished banners of long-forgotten graduating classes. The farther they advanced the less sound there was. The bells of the alarm were now at a great distance, and the sound of the feet only faintly trailed at a great distance.

At last they ducked into a former training room, and closed the sturdier and wooden door behind them.

Silence fell between them.

Aria sat back and cried against the cold stone wall, sliding down till she was sitting on the floor. She had a trembling in her hands, but the lightning had become naught.

Kael was in the middle of the room gazing at his palm.

There was a blue, faint flame that burst up again.

It was something he had never done, he said to himself.

"The shield?"

He nodded. "My fire has always been red. Controlled. Ordinary." His jaw tightened slightly. "That wasn't ordinary."

Aria studied him. "It protected me."

Something bothered him in his face as he stared at her. "I didn't think. It just... happened."

Trying to sort out all this, she pulled her knees to her heart. "Why would they attack me? It was just the ritual."

Kael hesitated.

There always needed to be rumors, he admitted. "About storm wielders. The fact that the Council does not trust them. The reason being that they are so powerful that they are beyond control.

She swallowed hard. "So they eliminate them?"

He didn't answer directly. He didn't need to.

A severe shock fell on the outside door of the corridor somewhere down the hall. Soldiers were searching.

Aria closed her eyes briefly. "They were ready. The men were already close to the hall."

"Yes," Kael said. Dressed as they were, they were anticipating something.

That idea sank down between them.

This wasn't an accident.

Approaches were made with a footstep.

Kael extinguished his flame. There is one more way out here. It results in the reduced levels of the archives. Majority of the students are unaware of its existence.

"You do?" she asked softly.

"I explore," he replied.

The other blow struck the door of the corridor. Splinters cracked.

Aria forced herself into a standing position. In case we get out of the Academy grounds they will pursue us all over the kingdom.

"They're already hunting us."

He walked towards a slender stone panel at the rear of the room and smoothed himself up against it. When a second tense moment had passed the panel swung inwards to give a glimpse of a dark edifice of stairs, with an ascent leading down to deep shadow.

Before entering the house, however, Arias hesitated.

"Kael," she said.

He looked at her.

"Why did you help me?"

For a moment, he didn't speak.

Then in a low tone, because when your tempest reigned, my fire replied.

Their eyes held.

Something there was, which neither of them comprehended.

An additional crash resounded in their rear.

Decision made.

They all crept down the obscured staircase, just in time to see the training room door splinter behind them.

Over, lord Sereth turned his back on the balcony.

Close the bottom levels, I said to myself. Then, onward, storm has wakened, and we will know how far the storm is going to run.

The hunt had only just begun.