Fire of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 4)

SIXTEEN

The sun had barely risen when the group set out, all of them travelling along the edge of incending creek in search of the mysterious flame that had been elusive to the world for more than a thousand years. Ariel rode in front of the group as was usual; Morgan riding by her side in order to help her navigate with the map alongside the crystal. Behind them, the rest of the group rode in no particular pattern.

Looking from her side to where Freya rode at the edge of the group with her hazel eyes trained on anywhere else but them, Kyra couldn't help thinking back to the conversation she'd had with the pale blonde archer the night before. "Freya, can I speak with you for a second?" she had said to her, catching her just as she was about to settle in for the night.

"Make it fast," she replied, not pausing nor slowing down in her activity, "I'm supposed to take first watch over the camp with your friend Lucian and he's already waiting for me." In actuality, Kyra knew that Freya wasn't being truthful. There was no watch over the camp; and even if there was, Lucian wouldn't have wanted her, or anyone for that matter, to lose their sleep over it, especially before what might turn out to be a very important day, just so that they could keep watch with him.

However, the Soul of magic didn't call the pale-blonde archer out on it; choosing instead to concentrate on what she had to come to discuss in the first place. "You see, I've been thinking about you and Morgan," she began, "and I think that it’ll be best for the both of you to let us take care of the rest of this quest."

"What do you-?"

"Hear me out first," Kyra cut in before Freya could take offence at what she had just said; she had actually prepared for it beforehand. "Look, you and your brother have been away from your settlement for days now, away from the people that love and care about you. I know that you believe in the importance of this quest and you've been immensely helpful, most of all to me. By the spirits, you even saved my life. But I think it's about time you returned home."

"Forgive me, Kyra, but I can't," she replied, looking directly into the Soul of magic's eyes as she said it. "I know that you and your friends are powerful and all, but Morgan and I gave our words that we're staying with you till the very end of this quest. So, until it is, we're not going anywhere."

A part of Kyra suspected that the real reason why the pale blonde archer wasn't willing to leave was because she couldn't think to leave what was arguably the most powerful weapon in the entire realm in the hands of outsiders; and she didn’t blame her for it really. To her, they were just a group of people from the main realm which she had been led to believe would destroy the Barren landers if given half the chance.

And so, the Soul of magic didn't fight the pale-blonde archer on that either. “Just be careful, Freya,” she had said to her before letting the conversation drop there and then.

"What’s the deal with you and Richard?" Kyra suddenly heard Isidora ask her and she abruptly snapped out of her thoughts.

"What are you talking about?" she returned, a little confused at the dark witch's question.

"Come on, Kyra," Isidora said, "I know that you understand exactly what it is that I'm talking about." She gave her a stern look to go with her statement.

But all Kyra did was sigh. Truth be told, she was about done with the dark witch being unnecessarily cryptic. "Look Isidora.” She stopped her horse to face her squarely. “I don't know what it is that you think you saw between Richard and I. But whatever it is, I can tell you it's not true."

Isidora was about to give the Soul of magic a suitable response for what she believed was a clear denial of the obvious when Morgan suddenly announced, "We're here!" and the group stopped. He checked with Ariel and she nodded affirmative after checking with her crystal.

Here was actually the mouth of a cave in a mountain that although was very tall was hidden behind a thick blanket of fog and snow so well that no one could have known it was there if they weren't close to it. Through the fog, the group saw a thicket of bush cover the entrance of the cave, the environment so undisturbed that they suspected that no living thing had been in the area for a while.

But Richard wasn't planning on just believing what the sight inferred was true. "Everyone, be on alert," he said to them before they pulled away the thicket and proceeded into the cave.

On getting into the cave, they realised that it was nothing like the ones that were known throughout the Barren lands. For one, it was extremely cold; as in almost as cold as the temperature outside. It was also eerily quiet, the only sound heard coming from the running water seeping out of the cracks in the rock to flow outside and become what they realised was the source of the incending creek.

But not so far from the cave's entrance, the group reached a compartment, which as they had begun to suspect with everything in the cave, was unlike the others of its kind. It was actually of a slope form, descending not so deeply downwards to the ground. The level ground itself was actually big; accommodating an area so wide that it resembled an average sized courtyard in the Kingdoms region. Surprisingly, the slope's ground looked like normal soil instead of rocks like the rest of every site in the mountain was made out of.

However, the main surprise of the day was that which waited the group, buried in the middle of the ground in the aura of mystery that was worthy of  the very thing that a lot of people had tried and failed to find; the Conqueror's flames.