Sparks In The Sand

By Aryan Singh Nagar

The clang of blades pierced his eardrums. Heltz dropped low, supporting himself with his left hand on the ground, deflecting the sword upwards in one smooth motion. Freilinde immediately put distance between them, assuming a counter stance as solid as an obsidian wall. “Wither me if you aren’t surprisingly defensive today, Leini”

“I have seen enough fools for a lifetime, drop this madness right now Heltz,” Frei said with a look of concern apparent on her face, “You are not ready for steel yet.”

Heltz rushed to cover the distance between them; Frei stood still and took the attack straight on, spinning to her left as she slid her rapier on the edge of his longsword. Heltz raised his right hand to block her elbow from striking his temple, he was almost too late.

The shock of the blow reverberated in his head, screeching like a pack of famished Skimmers. It happened too quickly after that for him to make sense of it. One moment something pointed struck his right flank, the next he knew he was in the air. His chin flared with pain, but his body refused to respond. Frei grabbed hold of his right wrist, twisting his arm all the way to his back till he dropped the blade in pain.

When his senses returned to him, he realized he had been pinned to the ground, his sword knocked away. It hurt to breathe, the taste of blood and sand filling his mouth. Again, I lost again. “I yield,” he said, straining the words out of his mouth.

The weight pinning him lifted and he got himself to sit with his back to one of the surrounding Fletchia trees. Let’s hope it doesn’t break. All his muscles cried out in pain, he had pushed her too far today. Frei stood there, looking down at him, as if ...judging him. The suns shone bright behind her, disabling him from seeing her expression. He didn’t want to see it anyways, the glistening tears told him enough.

It was truly something to laugh at, how in all these years he had not been able to defeat her once, armed or unarmed. The fact that he was 25, at the peak of his life, only rubbed sand in his scabs. He had not once been able to best the woman in combat over the last ten years, since the day he had begged her into training him.

She was an odd woman. Her skills in combat were unmatched in their wagon crew, having once fought ten brigands at once to buy them time to escape. Yet here she was, shedding tears for having hurt one of her own children. It was at moments like these where he realized the age gap between them. Frei was 55, but none who looked at her would believe it so. Her head of red hair as if a flame had took form, her deep blue eyes like the oceans told of in legends, her smooth dark skin & sharp features; she hadn’t changed at all in the time he had known her.

She sat down beside him, extending her arm to offer her flask. Heltz paused, but took it when he realized he had already emptied his allotted flask for the day. Oddly enough, she never said a word. They spent the rest of the day sitting under the shade of the Fletchia trees, two fools blinded by ambition & love.

***

The smaller sun had begun to set by the time Freilinde chose to break her silence. “Why did you do it?” she asked Heltz, lying there beaten and bruised from their spar.

”You are not ready for steel yet, Heltz. And if you keep going on with these stunts, you might never be chosen” she said in a voice as stern as she could manage. Her eyes hurt from all the crying, her heart was shattered when one of her own was hurt. Is this what the Maiden of Steel has been reduced to? It hurt to think of the past, when the world was a different place, when people upheld ideals larger than their existence, when god had not decided to give them a slow, painful death.

No, don’t think about that. Present, I have to be in the present. Heltz let out a pained groan, and then responded “Ten years, what have I achieved in these ten years? Erna was able to bind her SoulBlade in three, Abel did it in five”

“There will be way more people who cannot bind one, but that doesn’t have to mean their efforts were wasted,” she said, reminiscing of her youth, “All we can do is keep trying, Keana”

“Easier said than done. How am I supposed to find someone to bind my blade with when you do not allow me to use it unless under supervision” Heltz grunted

She had only ever wanted to prevent someone unworthy from binding his blade, had she been too restricting. What am I supposed to do in this scenario; If only one of them was here, Feikladt, Xenida ...Ashel.

Her blood boiled as she remembered the rat, Ashel was the one who had made everything go wrong. She had put her trust in him, even when he had casually claimed that he would sacrifice them all to meets his ends. If she had killed him that day, would the world be a better place? Would my children have lived better lives? There was no way to know anymore. Everyone was gone; she was the only remnant of a lost era.

No, don’t think about that. “Heltz, would you like to try binding your blade to mine”. The lad almost fell off his back at her sudden suggestion, He does get flustered easily. She extended her right hand out and her SoulBlade formed out of the heat haze. A majestic crystal rapier shone in her hands reflecting the twilight rays, a symbol of hope, and proof of a hero.

***

Heltz stared at her blade, Holy Rains; the blade was as beautiful as he remembered. He found himself unable to look away from the sight in front of him, twilight warping around Frei’s form, a shimmering gray aura distorting the colors around her. She gleamed with an ethereal glow that lasted till it was completely dark.

Heltz extended his own hand, ashamed of his weakness and looked away from the thing that appeared in his hand. A crooked dagger of dull red crystal with no glow of its own. Just a fancy decoration. Freilinde extended her arm to touch his dagger with the tip of her rapier.

A faint red glow emerged from the dagger–that always happened during the binding process–but some unseen force repelled the weapons from coming into full contact.

“Alright, close your eyes & take slow deep breaths, relax your body & mind completely,” she said before proceeding to do the same. These steps were not essential to binding but sometimes they did help in getting the participants to a heightened state.

Heltz did as instructed. He felt her radiance seep into him, the boundary between their senses blurred. He could feel her existence seeping into him. But inside him was nothing but a flame that could only consume, her aura stroked the flame but it refused to connect. Then the visions began.

He felt stationary cities fashioned out of marble, mountains that pierced the clouds, salty lakes with no end in sight. It was as if the myths had started to take form in his consciousness, he witnessed a world of unparalleled beauty. He felt it all burn down like wax. Huge swathes of land erupted, the air was acrid smoke, and the sky was colored red as if heavens itself bled. The easy part was now over.

The screams belonging to a million different people began to resound in his head. They clawed at his mind but he pressed on, as somewhere within was the thing he was searching for. The essence of his existence, his flame. The cacophony of the damned made his insides quiver. If there was hell, this had to be it. He reached for a hole in his self, a void that sucked in everything. He tried to grasp it, Come on, hang on for just a little more time you withering fool. Heltz snapped.

His consciousness returned for a split second, but it was gone as soon as it had come. All he managed to grasp was a voice calling out his name as he fell amidst the desert sands.

***

Ernalien shuffled uncomfortably in her clothing, her coat pockets jingling with the coin she had won today at the bar. What a bunch of wizened heads, she thought. They had bet that Heltz was gone for real this time, but she knew him and he always came back.

The room smelled of herbs and concoctions derived from various animals & herbs. The apothecary’s wagon was the place she had grown up in, she could identify each vial just from its scent. The master had made sure to drill all that knowledge into her head.

For all her skill in medicine & surgery, it did not interest her even a single bit. What she lived for, was the chance to face off against stronger and stronger opponents. She had already managed to best all but one individual in her city. Freilinde was in a different realm compared to everyone else she had faced, she had raised & taught her for 23 years now, and still she always had more knowledge to impart. What she didn’t understand was why she would bother herself so much over someone like Heltz.

“What does she see in you that I can’t?” she questioned his sleeping form from the bedside chair. He shared the flaming red hair & blue eyes of Freilinde, but she had already put an end to any rumors that connected him to her ancestors. Other than that, there was nothing remarkable about the lad.

Average build, average height, unrefined taste, worthless company. What about him kept a hold on Frei, she had to figure out. Maybe one day she would, for now she was stuck tending to him. He had attempted binding yet again, he had failed yet again. No surprises there, the boy just didn’t have the spark in him. Yet still Frei kept encouraging him to try & bind himself with someone.

The boy woke up and stared at her, he was not a man of many words but today something was off. He didn’t say anything and just kept on staring.

“What is it?” she said as she walked over closer to the bed.

“Nothing, I was just thinking of some way to start the inevitable conversation,” he said in a voice rough with lethargy. She helped him sit up using her arm as a support and poured him some water mixed with the powdered bark of Geil trees. He would need the medicine to numb the pain.

“So, same story this time?”

“You can say that, I still can’t think clearly about what exactly happened,” he said. Binding was a taxing process, physically & mentally. It had driven a good amount of people mad or apathetic. She tossed him half the coins she had won and kept in a separate purse for him. “Your friends weren’t very optimistic about your survival”

This had become some kind of routine for them, every so often he would end up near dead, and just when everyone had given up all hope, he would rise. Erna liked that perseverance of his if not anything else, as long as it helped her bank on those other runts.

“Well, now that you are alive again, I think I will see myself out of here”

He stared at her as if shocked for an instant but regained his composure. “Lost interest in why she drives me to try it again & again” he said with a self-assured look on his face.

“Not like you would have anything new to tell, how many times have you seen the end of the world now.”

“Twelve?”

“Not the point I was trying to make, at this point you might as well be a madman raving about his nightmares for all anyone cares. The companions tolerate you only because Freilinde stands for you, they would have long abandoned you to wander the sands if not for her.”

“...”

“Ahh, grab a hint you wilted sapling. I am asking you to not make any more trouble for her than you already are. She is getting old even if it doesn’t show at all”

Heltz didn’t speak anything, just slowly slipped back into his bed. So much for trying to help him for once. Erna left the wagon, gently closing the door behind her.

***

Ashel breathed in the scent of the desert, how long had it been since he was last here. The world looked completely different from what he remembered, but he expected that much. He did trigger an apocalypse the last time he was here, this time he was here to save the same people he had doomed.

“The saint of silver binds the world with chains, the lord of blades chooses to hide, the allmother burns all that oppose her, the maiden continues to hope for a miracle”

His companion screeched at his proclamation. The little skimmer was growing bolder by the day. I can use this. “Yes, yes, of course I am not forgetting myself. The fool who seeks to drown this world in chaos once again. Extending his right hand out, he summoned his Soul as a sword; a bright yellow serrated longsword emitting more than enough light to alert the scouts of his presence.

He let go of the sky, and zapped straight down into the center of the camp below.

***

The ground rumbled as the lightning bolt landed barely 10 steps away from her. Erna shielded her eyes with her coat, as she was pelted by hundreds of tiny rocks & a vortex of sand. She leaped back and summoned her SoulBlade, its marble white steel glistening with condensation as its bulk formed from nothing. Many people had told her it was too thick & too heavy to be a practical weapon, well some of those people were now dead and others were worse off.

The sands cleared to reveal a sickly young man barely in his 20s, his hair as white as her blade. He held a serrated yellow longsword in his hand and was talking to ...a baby skimmer sitting on his shoulder.

“Well, now I guess I have seen everything. Name yourself trespasser or you shall be struck down by decree of Emperor Austien”

“That’s a surprise, little Austien is an Emperor now; this might be more fun than I had imagined” the youth said in an aloof tone.

Erna charged in without hesitation using the momentum of her sword to spin herself in position for an overhead slam. The youth barely gave her any thought, as he casually dodged her attack as if the sword was nothing more than a feather

The ivory blade struck the ground, tossing Erna into the air. She used her remaining spin to deliver a kick to the youth’s neck but was promptly blocked with a gloved hand. He grabbed hold of her foot and threw her into the camp fence as if she weighed no more than the skimmer on his shoulder.

Her body cried out in pain, this was a first for her. Finally, a worthy challenger. She raised her sword to point at the twin moons, burning red crescents in the sky above.

The world was enveloped in a brilliant ivory light. She took a deep breath and became one with her blade.

***

Heltz woke up to a world that had gone mad. Wagons were being blown away like dust in a storm, except his wagon which seemed unaffected by the winds raging outside. He crawled his way out of the apothecary, stumbling into tables & walls as the winds jostled the wagon.

The scene outside was something straight out of his visions. Red mist, swirling sandstorms, the twin moons like gashes in the sky’s hide. Sparks flew in the sky as two blurs collided ceaselessly with a pillar of golden light. Ivory white & Ethereal blue, Erna & Freilinde.

The gusts prevented him from approaching the scene of the ongoing madness. Rocks were being blown about like they held no weight, the winds danced in unpredictable waltzes. It took all he had to keep on looking.

***

Ashel had returned, Freilinde thought, the snake raises its head again. This time she would not let him take everything from her again. This time she would not hold back. Her fury rose higher and higher until her blood seemed to boil beneath her veins. She hadn’t relied on fury in a long while, the power always disgusted her, but he was a foe she could not take chances with.

Erna was doing a good job keeping up with her & Ashel’s tempestuous swordplay. Only she didn’t know that this was only the beginning. Freilinde leaped to her 3rd ascension, the ethereal blue aura around her turning a ghastly purple. Ashel just smirked as his golden turned orange.

Their blades collided & the fabric of existence was stretched to its limit. If this goes on for too long, the astral ramifications would be catastrophic.

Erna stormed in, cloaked in her ivory sheen, but was knocked away by Ashel’s longsword. She would be no more help at this point. Frei strengthened her resolve & darted forward leaving a trail of afterimages, she ran faster than the normal human eye could see, but Ashel kept pace.

Their swords locked like a pike of ice striking a thunderbolt. “It doesn’t have to be this way Lin,” Ashel said “I am not your enemy, you know it”

“I would be a withering fool to think of you as my enemy,” she said, blood seeping from her eye sockets, her nose, her ears; “You are a parasite, a parasite that drains all it associates with of life; you are not evil, but your existence will lead the world to its ruin”

Ashel grimaced–she had struck a nerve–but immediately darted away from his position as Erna trailed by where he had been standing a while ago. How is the fool girl managing to keep up? She had lost sight of Ashel for a microsecond, but now he was nowhere to be seen. She braced herself for a strike as the storm raged around her.

Erna darted in & put her back to hers. “Any idea what this thing is after”, she asked failing to mask the exhaustion in her voice. “It’s too soon, he should not be here, and the vessel is too immature” Frei said with calm like the edge of a knife.

“Right, I will pretend I understood that,” the fool girl snorted, “Anything you want me to do?”

“As you are right now, you cannot even be a distraction for him. I will keep him in check; you take Heltz & make for the Final Sanctuary”

“Now who is the fool girl here? The city is closed off to all outsiders. You expect me to break into a place you couldn’t.” Frei smiled and with a smug look that didn’t suit her face at all, she said “Not you sapling, Heltz is the key.”

Erna asked no further questions, there was no time to. She left at the first opening she could find in Ashel’s tempest of slashes. I hope the rains bless you two, go forth my children, show this world that men can defeat gods. Frei reached her 5th ascension, & the world was painted red.

***

Heltz stood his ground against the raging maelstrom ahead, his body crying out in pain. Deadweight, that was what he was, what he always had been. Not this time.

He thrust his arm out summoning his soul, the dagger appeared in his hand, glowing with a gentle red light. He took cover behind a wagon and used the dagger to carve out a plank from the attached cart. That was the best shield he had at the moment.

He trudged along, one painful step after another. Keep going, keep going, ...must keep going. His legs gave way as he fell to his knees, the plank barely protecting him from the stormwinds.

It was then that he noticed the oddity, the dagger was still glowing. Odd, it never glowed for long after being summoned. Maybe a miracle will happen after all. A white hunk of metal pierced the ground in front of him.

“Well, look who we’ve got here. Prepare boy, we are hightailing it out of here” Erna said as she descended from the sky.

“I won’t leave her behind, there has to be a way” Heltz grabbed hold of the white greatsword to prop himself up. The marble glow enveloped him. He felt fear tinged with excitement flow into him. The joy of battle, Erna’s self was flowing into him.

“She did tell us beforehand that something like this might happen, but seriously what even is that thing. He shouldn’t be able to move that fast after having his soulblade shattered twice” Erna said, ignorant of the miracle that was happening right beside her.

Heltz’s dagger pulled closer to the white metal, glowing with a light pink radiance. Finally, finally he had done it.

***

They jerked back in surprise as their senses merged with one another. They were no longer separate existences, they shared their sentience between their 2 bodies.

By Aryan Singh Nagar