Branded By Fate

Chapter Two: The Brand Of Fate

Orla ran as fast as she could to the council chambers, her only concern now was her father, for the urgency In the voice of her latest companion was anything other than casual.

Blaze ran across the stone street, shouting and screaming for everyone to get inside and underground now.
Staring up at the sky he watched in horror as the first funnel touched down in what he estimated to be only a few short miles away, the sounds of screaming and far off destruction followed shortly after.
It was in that moment he realized the true and devastating power of his uncles elemental gift. Suddenly all those war hero medals from wars he never talked about, but had occasionally displayed over the fireplace during business meetings made perfect sense. His uncle was an army alone.

"Uncle!" He cupped his hands over his mouth to shout up at the heavens, but over the sounds of the deafening high powered winds, it was futile.
This was so much more than the swirling of leaves for him to play in, or the occasionally waterspout that his uncle had created to entertain him as a child, this was nothing short of a complete devastation.
He knew he had to do something.

Scouring the clouds far above he spotted a pair of feet hanging below, wearing only one shoe.
Setting down his bag, he quickly removed his coat, balling up his fists, he unleashed his gift, and the flames that were his unintentional namesake quickly engulfed him, controlling the flame, and next providing thrust behind himself with his own power, he launched himself into the air and towards his uncle.
He hated flying, in fact it was something he rarely did, as it the level of flame it took to maintain thrust was exhausting.

The distance between himself and his uncle was quickly made, and the heat of his fire evaporated the clouds between them, leaving both the man and his nephew visible to those below.
As he drew near, it became painfully obvious that his beloved uncle was in the midst of a severe episode.
His eyes were shut completely, body thrashing, and he was lashing out with his hands to strike at invisible foes.
"Stop hitting me!" The old man cried out, and it was barely legible over the mixed noises of the howling storm and the cracking of the flame.
"I've done nothing wrong!"
He cried out again, in a pitiful panic.

Blaze had seen him have mild episodes before but nothing, nothing quite like this.
"Uncle, you have to stop!"
He called out, watching as the second large cyclone touched down, leaving smashed buildings in its wake.
"Can't stop! Can't stop! Must protect the kingdom!"
The third funnel was at a crescendo in the sky, and in horror he realized it was right above the large city hall.
He glanced around in panic, trying to formulate any sort of plan, because if he did nothing, his uncle would unknowingly kill thousands, but his own gift was also a weapon, and anything he could do with it would only result in burning his uncle to death, mid air.

Blaze was no strategist, but killing his uncle was not an option he could live with. Sightings a pond in the park a few hundred feet from below where they both hovered, Blaze made what he felt was both the bravest, and stupidest decision of his life.
He drew away from his uncle, putting another 50 feet between them, and just as the top of the largest and most devastating cyclone was about to touch down on the roof of city hall, he lauched himself forward and extinguished his own power just a second before latching onto his uncles body in mid air.

Together they plummeted, and with no way to aim himself without the use of his gift, Blaze closed his eyes, braced his body around the old man's as best he could, and hoped for the best.
The cool water of the park pond engulfed them like a mothers embrace, that is if a mothers embrace was violent and felt like a full body smack.
He was knocked out cold, but alive.

Many arms pulling him from the water hazily brought Blaze back to consciousness.
"Uncle!" He cried out weakly, but panicked as his body was set down onto the grass.
"Blaze, steady, its me, Orla."
He heard her kneel down to meet him, out of breath from running to the park from the city hall.
"Bind that old man!" He heard the throaty voice of a gaurd order.
"Orla, please..." he begged, fighting consciousness.
"Do not let them hurt that man. Thats my uncle!"

He awoke in a soft white bed.
Groggy and with a pounding headache.
"Oh good, your awake!
A soft voice greeted him from the bedside, Orla's voice.
"Orla?" He called out groggy and weak.
"Where am I? What happened?"
But before the Sentence was out of his mouth, he remembered.
"No wait, I remember!" He sat up straight in the bed, headache pushed away by concern.
"My uncle! Where is he?"

Orla only smiled and took his hand.
"Safe, he's here in the hospital as well.
The emperor has ordered him to remain heavily sedated for the time, but he will not be executed with the others."

"Others? What others? What are you talking about?" Asked a confused, black, blue and bruised Firestarter.

"I have quite a lot to tell you."
She squeezed his hand.
"Your uncle was an unfortunate and unwilling pawn in a larger scheme.
The tyrant general Sirkan had a terrible plan to assassinate our emperor, my father, as well as every other foreign dignitary and ambassador that was at that meeting inside the council building, and he kidnapped and tortured your uncle until he had a breakdown severe enough to unconsciously decimate the entire capital to cover it up.
When you sent me to my father, I saw the assassins enter the building and used my own gift to stop them long enough for the gaurds to arrive.
General Sirkan was in a boat at the edge of the  harbor awaiting it all, unfortunately he escaped before he could be captured, but his men, they confessed to everything."

"Sweet stars..." murmured Blaze in shock.

"His plan would have your uncle kill everyone in the city, and those assassinations, the death of our emperor, all those dignitaries... that would have likely have started a world war." She stroked his thumb with her own.

"So umm, Blaze, you did it, your fate you? You saved the world..."
She leaned over and hugged him, unable to stop herself. He wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her on top of him to fully return the embrace.
"Ahhh!" He began to cry, she quickly began to shuffle off of him, thinking that she had hurt him, before a pain on her own arm told her exactly why he was yelling.
She looked down at the source of the pain in disbelief as an invisible golden light burned matching black bands around their upper right forearms.