Yvette couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the thing before her, struggling to come up with a proper word to describe it. Egg maybe. Or perhaps crystal? Even star might fit. Living lightning? Fire? Winds? It was the embodiment of the elements themselves. No, even that didn’t do it. A living storm encased in an egg of crystallized lightning. Even that seemed like too simple an explanation for the thing before her, but it was the only way she could imagine to describe it.

It dominated the center of the volcano, many times her height and width. It was egg shaped, but the ‘shell’ seemed as if it was made of living lightning which flowed around it, protecting the winds, rain and fire that rippled from within, crashing against the ‘shell’, but not piercing it.

Most surprising of all, though, was how silent it was. Despite the fact a veritable storm was occurring within that massive egg, the only sound was the winds from the open ceiling of the chamber and a soft, ominous hum. Despite the storm being many times fiercer than any storm she had ever seen, it didn’t make any actual sounds.

Yvette felt a nudge on her back and glanced back begrudgingly. “What?” she asked, barely resisting the urge to turn back towards the display before her.

“That,” Gervas whispered, pointing to the right.

Yvette looked down and her eyes widened. The egg had been so massive she had missed the other feature of the chamber. A massive, glowing seal had been created on the ground and two people were sitting on the edges of it, waves of magic so thick they were physically visible washing over the pair. The ground was covered in what she could only imagine were ‘feathers’ of the great bird, though they looked more like shards of crystals. She knelt down, even picking one up and staring at it, electricity bouncing off the tip of it. Had she known how beautiful they were she would have studied phoenixes more when she was learning.

“Impossible,” Nautia whispered, her trident shaking in her hand, her lips curled back in a vicious snarl.

“The seal?” Yvette asked, inching a little away from the mermaid. Even she could tell that the woman was furious, though she didn’t know why. “Is that it?”

“Yes, it is,” Nautia said, her eyes not coming off the pair wreathed in magic. “He can’t be here, though. He died. He should have been on the vessel with the other mages,” she said, taking a step towards them. “When it exploded, when everything went wrong, he should have died as well. He couldn’t have survived. He--” The mermaid then went entirely still and slowly her head lowered. “He betrayed us. He was a traitor. It’s the only way. The reason everything went wrong. How they arrived without any of us knowing. He had to be behind it.”

Yvette gulped and eyed the mermaid nervously, wondering what she intended to do. She looked ready to tear the mage apart with her bare hands.

“Quiet,” Gervas said softly. “They don’t know we’re here and there’s no telling what they’re doing. We don’t want to--”

Nautia suddenly took off, running through the chamber towards the magically wreathed pair.

“Nautia!” Gervas yelled, running after her, but it was too late. Yvette could only watch helplessly when Nautia paused and held her trident aloft, lightning coating the metal before she hurled it through the air. The weapon cut through the magical energy surrounding the pair with ease.

Only to embed itself into the chest of one of the sitting men. His eyes opened and, unfortunately, Yvette couldn’t see what else happened as it was then that everything went wrong.

The silence of the egg ceased and suddenly the living storm sounded just like that, the deafening booms of lightning erupting outwards with such force that the chamber shook and rocks fell from the walls, crashing around them. Yvette shrieked and lifted her hands to cover her ears, but it did little to deafen the sounds.

The shell of the egg began to unfurl and she realized that it hadn’t just been a shell, it had been the wings of the mighty phoenix. Unfurled it towered over them, possibly as large as the great leviathan she had met at the bottom of the sea, dominating the chamber with its mere presence. Unfortunately it was nowhere near as much of a conversationalist. Its body was, somewhat, shaped like that of a bird, except it seemed to be glowing with a blindingly bright light, as if it was the lightning itself. Flames and lightning coursed along its flesh while the winds swirled around it, creating a small tornado around its awakening form.

From the seal threads of shimmering light leaped out, latching onto the great bird, though they didn’t seem to impede its movements. In fact it didn’t seem to struggle at all, instead only flapping its mighty wings a few times and sending bolts of lightning raging through the air, creating massive, charred craters in the walls of the cavern and causing more boulders to fall around them. Yvette quickly stepped further into the chamber, trying to avoid falling rubble as he went. It took her a few more moments to realize that the bird wasn’t actually rampaging, in fact it was calming down.

The seal wasn’t binding or trapping it, merely trying to put the massive creature back to sleep. Yvette couldn’t tell if the seal was just that powerful or if the phoenix was that exhausted, but either way it seemed to be having an effect. The wings began to lower themselves, wrapping once more around the body in a protective egg and, as quickly as the storm had started, it stopped.

Unfortunately Yvette’s ears were still ringing and if there was any thing else she should be listening for she’d never know. On top of that she kept seeing white spots in her vision, the problem with looking so deeply into the center of that storm. As loud as it was she doubted it would be long before reinforcements arrived, especially once they realized that the guards who were supposed to be guarding the tunnel were gone. How long did they have before reinforcements arrived? Ten minutes? Twenty? They needed to move fast.

Yvette started to move towards the seal but froze when she saw Nautia and Gervas. Both were laying on the ground facedown. She felt panic wash over her when she realized they weren’t moving. Had they been by a stray bolt of lightning? Were they dying? Was Gervas dead? Any thoughts of the seal evaporated and instead she ran towards him, quickly sliding down to her knees by him. She asked Gervas if he was okay, but her ears were still ringing and she couldn’t hear it. After a few moments of shaking him he reached down and shoved her hands off him. Relief washed over her and she couldn’t keep a smile from her lips. He was okay. He was alive. She wanted to tease him about running into the jaws of the monster, but she doubted he could hear her any more than she could hear him.

Ugh, he was such an idiot. He--

““Stone impale.””

Despite the ringing in her ears, she could still hear the words. Told in a language that she could likely never speak, and yet anyone could understand. Even through the ringing in her ears the words penetrated through her and there was no doubt what they meant. They were telling the stones of the world to impale her, Nautia and Gervas.

Yvette tapped her bracer with her left hand and spared only a second to look up. Spikes of stone had formed in the walls of the chamber and were already flying at them. She had a second, maybe two, to do this.

There wasn’t enough time.

She had to do it, though. She focused, throwing every bit of magic her body possessed into the spell, she transformed once more. Taking the form of a great dragon turtle, she threw herself over Gervas and Nautia. The spikes impaled her back, some glancing off the partially formed shell while others pierced deep into her body, tearing into flesh and penetrating the organs of her new form. Fresh agony raced through her body and, were she human, she knew she’d be dead. Even in this form she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t die, she had no idea how the organs of such a creature operated or how long she would be able to hold this form.

Worse, Yvette felt so tired. She’d never rushed a transformation like this before. A few seconds, sure, but never reactive like that. She wasn’t sure she could hold this form much longer even if she wasn’t wounded in it.

The stone stopped hurtling down at them and she let out a sigh of relief. She turned her head towards the only other person in the chamber, the man who had been sitting by the mage. The trident was now on the ground, the tip covered in blood and the mage not moving. However, the other man was now standing and staring at them, a look of fury on his face. The magic no longer rippled over him so she hoped that was good.

Yvette slowly pulled herself away, moving off Gervas and Nautia. “Yvette, are you okay?” Gervas asked.

Yvette nodded, but she knew it was a lie. Every movement sent bursts of pain through this body and it was taking all she had to not end the transformation now.

“This is why you don’t run off without assessing the situation,” Gervas said, glaring at Nautia.

“The traitor is dead, I have no qualms. It is but one mage left. The prince,” Nautia said.

“One too many. Yvette, tend to your wounds, then join us,” Gervas said before running towards the man.

Yvette watched them run towards the man, only for the man to narrow his eyes and utter a few sharp words. Fire burst, incinerate. Flame surrounded the man and then lashed out at the pair, the mermaid leaping and rolling away, while Gervas moved aside, his blade flicking out to cut through some of the flames that were close enough, dispersing them. The flames then crashed into her form, but even wounded they did little more than agitate the wounds she’d already received.

But that was enough. Yvette could no longer hold the form. It collapsed, her body shrinking down to the ground and the thick spikes of rock falling away from her. The pain faded, fortunately, though the exhaustion didn’t go with it. She collapsed a moment later, landing on the edge of the seal, surrounded by shards of stone. Join them? There was no way she could do that. She couldn’t even stand. But there was still one thing she could do. Pulling on what little energy she had left, slowly she crawled towards the seal, reaching out to put a hand on the edge.

Yvette wondered if the prince was drawing magic from it now. His magic seemed to be true naming magic, so the power he’d displayed was hopefully not what he could normally do. She’d never heard of true naming magic being anywhere near that powerful so she had to believe he was. She reached her magic across the seal, testing it and--

Pain.

Yvette felt it impale her back, her eyes going wide in shock. She slowly turned her head, only to see more of the spikes of stone had been launched. She’d been impaled.

Yvette couldn’t move, could barely even think. She could see the pool of blood under her, but it didn’t hurt as much as she’d thought it would. Oh, it certainly hurt, but it had hurt a lot worse the first time. Or maybe she was just so tired? Honestly the main thing she felt was cold and exhausted. So close to how she had felt last time she’d been so hurt.

How long ago had it been? She couldn’t help but almost crack a smile at the irony of it. Last time she’d been saved by the Mage’s Association. Now there wouldn’t be anyone to save her. Would Gervas notice? Would he be okay? She hoped so. She felt so tired she couldn’t even lift her head up to see how the fight was going anymore.

Still, maybe there was one more thing she could do. She forced her magic to flow over the seal, feeling it once more. She felt a little annoyed when she did. The seal seemed to be designed to draw in and control the power of the phoenix, storing it and directing it. However, nobody was drawing from it now. It was such a delicate thing, so easy to push apart. So much easier than the one the dragon turtle had done. Clumsy and delicate.

Unfortunately Gervas had been right. She could feel all of that magic inside, waiting to burst forth. The power, the might of the phoenix. When she released it it would probably kill her. Were she not about to die, she might have been more worried.

But Yvette closed her eyes and let the magic flow out from her, one last time, knocking aside the fragile pieces of the seal to send it all toppling down around and into herself.

She could feel the magic gathering and pooling, before it surged back towards her, following the path that she had carved when she had broken it. She closed her eyes and smiled when she felt the approaching storm.

Her last thoughts before the wave hit her and the last of her life left her was of only one thing. She hoped that Gervas would still see her as one of the good ones.

Then the wave of magic hit her and any peace she had gathered vanished when she felt her very soul shatter.

MelodyAvant

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