🔥 The Path of Fire (Path of Light and Fire Book #1)(Completed) 🔥

Chapter 27.2: Brotherly Love

"I am not your brother," Sabin spat in Yuago, more out of stubbornness than any real belief. The pieces clicked in place. This was why Aegis had taken him in and why he had fire magic. It was an effort of a desperate king to have a spare in case this one died.

I may not even be a Serien.

He tried to force himself from those thoughts. His pity party needed to wait. The others needed him thinking clearly enough to see them safely free.

The man frowned. "Of course you are my brother, Yusabin. I am Yulan, the Reincarnation of Yua. I have it from a reliable source that you were not killed as a baby as you should have been. And now you enter my country ready to steal my throne."

Sabin frowned in turn. "I care nothing for your crown or country. I am here for a greater purpose. To find a Serien."

Yulan laughed a laugh filled with an honest humor, as if Sabin had told the best joke he'd ever heard. "You can't honestly expect me to believe that, do you? And save your tricks of fire. You are a First Blood, of course you have them."

"My companions are..."

"Free to go, as long as they vow never again to cross into the borders of Yua." Yulan dropped his hand from Sabin's shoulder. "It is you I want, Yusabin, nothing more. The Acadians provided the intelligence I needed to find you and for that I am grateful."

"Then why did they attack us?"

"It wasn't on my order," Yulan said. "I told them to hold you for me. That is all."

"Horse manure."

Yulan laughed again and Sabin decided this was a man who did not take anything seriously.

To be fair, he does hold the advantage.

"The longer you live; the more people find out that you're not simply some kone used to keep me on a just path. Do us all a favor: take that sword of yours and kill yourself."

Sabin blinked. Yulan's eyes flitted to his sword as if he expected Sabin to do it.

No chance of that happening.

"Is that why they hold?" Sabin asked. "They see me as a possible sovereign and they wish me no harm?"

Yulan's smile dropped and his eyes flashed red. "They are holding because their true Reincarnation of Yua demands it! I could send them crashing down on your party and end you all, right here and now if I wish!"

"I'd kill you before you gave the command."

"There it is!" Yulan thrust his finger in his face. "There's the fighter I knew you had to be. No Yuan noble, no matter how much of a mistake you were, would simply give their life when the throne was in their grasp. It's why you killed these innocent men, so you could stand in front of me on solid ground."

Sabin sighed.

At least this discussion gave me time to heal.

His seconds strode forward. Sabin drew Wade and prepared to fight.

Blades hissed behind him.

I didn't even hear them approach.

Glancing back, Turrent and Leena were just behind him. Turrent was a coiled spring, ready to attack at the slightest movement. Frost crackled along Leena's fingertips.

The woman put her hands up as a sign of non-interference and spoke in Standard. "Yulan, have you decided whether or not you will join this man?"

Join me?

"I was weighing my options, First Blood Ira," Yulan started.

Ira. Why does that name sound familiar?

"Weigh them soon," she admonished. The way she spoke to him made it clear that whatever she was, she outranked him.

What outranks a prince? A queen, maybe?

"I'll save you the trouble of weighing the truth of his words," Ira continued. "Yusabin is a Serien, as are the people behind him. And as I have told you before, so are you."

"Oh, Gaia tits!" Leena massaged her temples. "He's the sixth one?"

"You have a nice pair yourself," said the man standing next to Yulan. "Hruh women are known to be quite...feisty and I enjoy the preview."

"Seriously, Berius?" Yulan asked. "Even now?"

The muscled man shrugged his shoulders and grabbed his crotch in Leena's direction.

Leena glided her hand over her chest, leaving a sheet of ice that covered her nudity. "Go ahead and have a touch. A bit of a warning: I start cold and you might get frostbite."

Flames flickered in Berius's eyes. "I'm sure I could warm you up."

Yulan rolled his eyes and turned his attention to Ira. "I am not a Serien, nor do I have any desire to be. I am the Reincarnation of Yua."

"You can be both," Ira said.

Yulan clinched his teeth. "First Blood Ira, you are my karamogo and were once the Serien of Fire. You have my respect, but you do not command the Reincarnation of Yua."

A cold breeze swept through the battlefield and Sabin shuddered. It reminded him of the cold nights in Toro, when his father would sneak off to meet a Yuan woman. He'd first saw her on accident when he was eight and twice a year after that.

I thought she was Aegis's secret lover. Was she checking on me?

"Are you my mother?" Sabin asked.

Ira narrowed her eyes. "Why would you ask such a thing now?"

Sabin swallowed the bile in his throat. He'd thought he buried those feelings of inadequacy.

No one wants to be your mother, Sabin.

"Enough of this chatting," Yulan said. He waved his hands and Berius and Ira quieted. "I have decided. I will fight this man and our outcome will decide if I join him. The voices of Yua agree."

"Berius talk some sense into him," Ira commanded. "You are his Wing. Do not let him do something foolish."

Berius crossed his thick arms. "It is not my place to judge his wishes, only to support."

"Seriens," Yulan hissed. "The other five are sufficient for whatever mythical battle is coming. This one belongs to me."