Lorelie: The Cartographer

Chapter 2

Splinters of wood and stone crash around me as I land atop Validen with my full weight, knocking the wind out of him as I roll aside. Pure instinct drove my actions as I threw us to the ground, but now we lay between Bartze and the only exit to the town. The water and ale drift towards the now growing mass.

"The selk is still in the city?!" Validen's voice strained as he regains his air yet clear over the cacophony of panic as patrons begin to realize what has happened. Shouts and curses build, as does the selk in the back as air grows drier as it intakes all the moisture in the room. Placing a palm on the stone floor, I reach out into the stonework before thrusting my hand upwards.

"And UP!"

The Floor in between us and the now multi-tentacled Bartze springs into the ceiling. A stop gap that will not last long. Pivoting on my heel, lifting Val to his feet in one motion. "Go! Get the watch! Have them form a tunnel to the docks!" His eyes, still dazed from the sudden action, focus on me for a brief moment of understanding. As he nods in confirmation, thunderous impacts vibrate the building.

THOOM, THOOM, THOOM.

Cracks in the stonework form and begin to weep water as Bartze pounds on the wall violently. Fortunately, we were near the back, the only way out barred. For now. Reaching down and placing my palm on the ground, I reach forth once more. "Damn. I cannot raise another wall or the building will collapse."

THOOM, THOOM.

Taking stock of the rest of the room, it appears only a few patrons have remained, including Sha who is standing at the entrance waving for people to exit. "Everyone Out!" My voice springing those who were still stunned back to reality as they nodded. Rushing behind them, I grab Shahan. "You know the docks better than any. Guide the Watch to the most secluded dock and tell them to wall off a path to the sea." If I cannot stop it from getting out, I would rather it be where it is most likely to flee. Shahan simply nods his head as more impacts from the back of his tavern shake the room.

"Good luck, Ai." His voice is lower than normal as I cannot help but feel for him as he may lose his livelihood.

THOOM, Thoom, thoo...

"HUNGER"

The voice is not audible but echos through my mind. Not only was Bartze a selk, but a hungry one at that. Pivoting back to the tavern, the wall I had manifested would not last much longer as the impacts resumed, each strike an echo of his thirst for memories, a selks only source of nutrition. A hand upon my shoulder causes me to jump and nearly strike the red-eyed swordsman who now looked at me, his sword floating behind him.

"You need to go." my voice seemingly lost to him as he smiled and turned to reach into his leather satchel, shifting though as if nothing was happening around him. Before my frustrations overwhelmed my patience, he produced a familiar parchment. My contract.

"I've taken the time to read your request and I accept." His voice clear in the now quiet tavern save for the bestial echos with each impact of water crashing into stone. "But I will not be cutting down any trees."

"FREE ME"

"What?" A mixture of excitement and hate at his sardonic words fills my body.

"I will not be your lumberjack. You will have to fi-"

"I understood what you meant." my tone flat as rage filled my cheeks. I do not have time for this. Turning towards Bartze, I hold out my arms as light fills them, illuminating the surrounding entrance, before sending the light forward. The light forms two walls funneled to the door of Glastin's.

Red-eyes whistle at the magic, though whether he is actually impressed or simply patronizing I cannot tell. "Can't say I've ever seen someone bend light like that. So what's the plan? Guide it to the sea?"

"Can you steal thoughts as well a paper?" my anger snapping for a brief moment.

His best attempt at looking guilty somehow makes me more angry as he scratches lightly at his scar while trying not to look me in the eye. "Well, Little Royal, I accepted your terms with a few of my own. Just be sure to read it in good lighting." he finally looks at me as his wink nearly sends my fist to manage his expression.

"I. WILL. LIVE."

The echoing thoughts bring red-eyes to a focus as he looks down the funnel that could spell our doom. "He seems.... Sad." Another wave of impacts cracked the wall down the middle. Water was now shooting forth from the holes formed from the damage. For a brief moment, the water stops. No longer pouring from the wall. Behind me, I can hear the watch shouting orders for the first time since Bartze transformed. Then, all at once, the sound of what could be a thousand waterfalls fills the room and the wall that I had formed is rent asunder as the world around me fills with water and ale.

As the flood begins to submerge both of us, I grasp at the ground seeking anything to keep myself from being swept away. 'Crimson' has thrust his sword into the stone, using it as a handhold to keep himself from being thrown out the door. "Keep an eye out for his core!" His voice nearly drowned out by the rapids that had formed around us. Nothing of the sort has washed by us and the core of an elemental is the only solid shape that exists within one, so it would not be able to slip by easily.

"I am not sure a funnel was the right choice," pointing at the rising water beneath us.

"The water will be the least of our worries!" his voice strained as he heated his blade, pointing it straight up before bringing it down on a wooden table that had been lifted by the water and thrown towards us. He sliced the table in two but nearly vanished out the entrance as he catches himself once more by thrusting his sword into the floor. "Look out!" His warning was just in time for me to turn back towards the tavern to a chair careening towards me. As I pull my hand from the ground, the stone follows it forming a hilt and blade as I strike in an upward motion. The stone was not sharp enough to cut the chair, instead scatters the chair to pieces as I sent the earth through it with force. The hilt of stone still in my hand as the water suddenly swells around us, compleatly submerging us a 'Crimson' shouts "There!"

A large blue sapphire drifts towards us. The dull surface is an indicator of its malnourishment. As it approaches, the water around us thickens and the pressure of even the slightest moisture multiplies, making it hard to move towards the gem. 'Crimson' grins excitedly as Bartze moves closer, his voice drowned out by the water overtaking my ears is followed by a massive hiss of steam as his sword is wreathed in flames. Bartze rears back as the heat fills the room, allowing me to emerge from the water as massive tendrils form once more and begin to strike at 'Crimson'. Using the distraction, I once more form a blade of stone, this time compressing the edges to a fine point before jumping in to assist.

"MOVE"

The voice is a precursor to an onslaught of strikes that push both 'Crimson' and I back towards the entrance to Glastin's. All of my focus is on simply surviving as I dodge and slice at tendrils as they never seem to end. After a brief and wild flurry of tendrils, they suddenly pull into the sapphire for a moment before erupting once more as 'Crimson drives forward with his fire only to be overwhelmed in a hiss of steam and rain as it throws him out the door where the lights of the streets have vanished. Another coiling of water causes me to jump back though the entrance, landing next 'Crimson' who has righted himself, the lights from his sword the only illumination as Bartze swells once more, filling the room with water, snuffing out any light source from within. The street had been enclosed, and the watch had succeeded in making a tunnel of stone, though how thick it was made to not threaten to cause a collapse of the area, I was not sure of.

"Keric." 'Crimson's' voice strained as he stood once more, blade igniting in a roar of flames. "My name is Keric Lulumbra. In case we don't survive this."

Nodding in reply to Keric, "Adiance Lorelie. Not 'Little Royal'."

Raising my impromptu stone sword as the water begins to push upon the glass of the tavern, held back by Bartze from spilling though the entrance, the glass straining to hold back the pressure. As the panes threaten to crack, the pressure stops. A moment of silence fills the tunnel as I inhale deeply in anticipation of the flood that is to come. All at once, the water shoots forth from the entrance, forcing me and Keric to evade a jet stream of water as the massive sapphire of the selk flies by, carried by the sudden stream down the tunnel the watch had formed. "Dammit!" exhaling the breath I had taken in as I expected the wall come down under the pressure. Keric breaks into a sprint as I follow in tow, the water trail down the dark tunnel clear in the light of Keric's sword. In a haze of darkness we give chase to Barze towards the sea, the tunnel winding to follow the roads of the dock ward. The reflection of blue as we turn a corner is an indication of the gap we are closing as a whip of water lashes out, striking the stone and leaving a massive gash under its strike.

"Careful. We should be near the sea now." Any open source of water would allow Bartze to build up water once more, this time in massive quantities. "Can you make an opening for me to pass him?!" Shouts echoing through the tunnel with no way to convey plans subtly. Keric simply nods as he lunges forward, waves of flames emitting from his sword carve into the water that Bartze controls as he swings methodically and deftly. His strikes with that large blade appear as if he is dancing. The thought brief as the impacts steamed away from the water in front of us as I lunged forward, dodging a wave of tendrils and strikes to emerge unscathed on the other side. The tunnels end now within view about sixty feet away from where Bartze has made his stand. As Keric continued his assault, I joined with strikes of my own, each swing sending stone and earth in swaths to slow him down when suddenly, Bartze sends a tendril into the tunnel wall.

"THIS. ENDS. NOW."

The thin wall is no match for the force of the water as it shoots through it and the selk begins to swell once more as the smell of saltwater fills the tunnel. We must be on the stone docks. Even with more access to water, the sapphire core of Bartzes dims with the effort as it expends more of itself to swell. As water begins to fill the tunnel, Keric shouts from the other side.

"Seal yourself!"

In an instant, I once more bring a wall between myself and the two. Hopefully it is thick enough to hold. A roar of flames erupts from the other side as wave after wave of heat fills the tunnel before a blast of steam sends the roof of the tunnel crumbling towards me, forcing me to evade the falling debris as moonlight fills the tunnel. The intensity of Kerics' assault increases with each strike as steam surges forth with each flash of fire. The roar from Bartze intensifies unintelligibly, as if he is in agony, with each steam cloud that emerges from the other side of the wall.

"GET DOWN!!"

Kerics' panic clear as I hit the ground as a spiral of tendrils crashes through my defense and the walls of the tunnel, opening the rest of the dock to the sea. The surge had sent most of the water away as Keric brings down his blade once more, flames lashing out at the selk. The near constant roar begins to diminuendo into a whimper, barely audible now over the hiss of steam. The gem-like core of Bartze is now nearly black, the blue-hues nearly gone entirely before the voice rises once more.

"I. Yield."

The hiss of steam stops as Keric halts, breath easy despite the efforts of his attack. Water forms a hybrid of the man I had spent a half hour speaking to and the seawater just off the docks. "I yield." His voice now audible and not shouted upon the ether. The gem nearly the size of his torso is surrounded by water as he kneels on the ground in defeat.

"Adiance. What happens to selks who are captured by the empire." A severe tone matches the serious glare of Keric as he keeps his sword at the ready.

"All unsanctioned elementals are captured, siphoned of any memories they may have accrued." Hesitation fills my mind as I try to finish answering, "And then, they are executed." Wholly unfair towards elementals who simply wish to exist. The thoughts kept to myself. Their sentience should be acknowledged here as it is in other nations.

"And you? Why hide in the city if the risk is death? What were you hoping for?" Kerics blade falls away from Bartze, tho remains in his hand.

"A city has always been a place to enjoy happy memories. A memory shared is not lost and much more nourishing." Barte's voice quivers like water but is clear as shouts from down the tunnel can be heard. "Please allow me to flee." Fear clear in his tone "I simply wished to have enough to get home." The voices in the tunnel grow closer as Keric reaches out to Bartze, sword dropping behind him.

"Then you should be on your way." His lanky form reaches out as the water around Bartze falls away, allowing him to grab his core.

"What are you doing?!" My mind rushing though dozens of instances where those who helped elementals escape only to be tried as traitors.

"The right thing." he shrugged as he lifts Bartze into his arms and places the gem against his head. "Take a memory of mine to see yourself home" The sapphire dimly glows as Keric presses him to his forehead, only pulling back after the gem no longer emits light.

"Halt!" Behind Keric a platoon of the watch has emerged from the broken tunnel. "In the name of the King, We demand you surrender your weapons and the selk!" The guards were now meters away from Keric, weapons drawn, as the guards began to close the gap between them and Keric. "Kick your sword this way!" one of the guards demanded of Keric, who now looked towards me, a gentle smile across his lips as gentle song fills the air.

No. Bartze is singing in our minds! The song is unfamiliar yet soothing, beautiful, and sad. Keric's gentle expression turns to a sly grin as he turns to address the officials approaching him.

"Certainly, officer." He places his foot against his sword and pushes it towards the guard, the blade clanging against the stone work until it stops right in front of the guard. As soon as one leading the charge leans to grab the blade, it erupts into a massive wall of fire as curses and shouts erupt in tandem. Keric, who had just attacked the guard, was already past me when I pulled my eyes away from the flames. It took everything I could to chase him as he dashed towards the sea.

If he is brazen enough to attack the guards! I know what he will do next!

The man who had just assaulted a platoon now stood at the edge of the dock, the sapphire core of Bartze shining in the moonlight as he looked towards me once more, bright red eyes full of light as he smiled once more.

He will be tried as a spy against the empire! He would be executed... Time slowed to a crawl as I rushed towards Keric. My hand reached out towards the stone dock as I leaned forward, ready to use the dock to stop him, as the ground before me disappeared, replaced by a void. The earth below me had vanished as I was suddenly standing in an abyss, my magic unable to find anything to grasp as Keric held up the massive sapphire once more, as if giving him one last goodbye.

Then, he threw Bartze into the sea.