The Firelands

79 - Wind in Wings

16th day of the forth Month, Worth's Moon

2:45 pm

The Forgotten Temple

The whistle that echoed through the room shook the stones to their very core. Nero and Reko threw their hands to their ears, screaming in pain, blood spilling from their ears as their eardrums burst.

Theth dove forwards as his bag that fell from Nero's hands, gathering it close as Rune screamed and screamed and screamed. The rocks around them started to crack; the floor juddered, pebbles tumbling down around them from the ceiling.

Theth ran for the door, grabbing the handle, forcing it down but it didn't open the door. He started to slam his shoulder against it, trying to force it open until a crunching agony shot through his shoulder and he backed away, hissing, gripping his arm.

He needed to get out! How did he get out?

He spun around as rocks started to fall around them, then looked up and stared in shock. Rune's screaming was literally bringing down the ceiling.

Theth's spread his wings and launched into the air, racing straight for the hole that was forming, barely big enough for him to squeeze through. His wings vanished and he collided with rock, snarling in pain as he forced his shoulders up through the crack, the jagged edged tearing through his clothes and grating against his skin. He threw his bag into the room above, clambering up and a hand closed on his ankle, dragging him back down again.

He shrieked, scrabbling to find some purchase on the stone floor, his nails dragging along the ground as he was pulled down again.

"Stop," he gasped, his muscle aching he fought to stay above the surface, pulling and pushing, kicking. A piecing pain speared into his calf as one of the twins drove something sharp through the skin making him scream. "Stop it!" he screamed, kicking out, feeling his foot collide with one of them.

"His back!" the other shouted, "through his spine!"

Theth went wild. Struggling so violently he managed to suddenly rip free and he scrambled upwards, crawling away from the hole. His spine! They wanted to drive whatever they had used on his leg on his spine?! They were going for his spinal cord. They wanted to paralyse him.

He snatched up his bag and ran. He felt sick. The terror in the pit of his stomach was so severe he felt he could throw up. He could hear them behind him. As he hurled the door to the room open he could already hear them coming up through the floor. He ran, as fast as he could, his lungs throbbing as harsh air rushed through them.

The others. He needed to find the others.

Incendio? Where was Incendio? Kalen? Zedkiel? How could he find them again?!

A sensation rippled through him. He looked to the left hand wall as he ran.

Kalen. He could... sense Kalen. He was beyond that wall, running a path parallel to him.

"Kal," he gasped, and the feeling faded. Kalen was veering off down another path, pulling away from him, leaving him, disappearing back into the depths of the temple.

And then a different sensation. The feeling of fingers in his hair, closing on it. The speed he fled the sensation surprised even him. The fingers missed him and he raced onwards.

A door.

Up ahead.

It was thrown open by an invisible force, the force so strong it shattered the door when it impacted with the wall.

Darkness streaked with shards of light lay beyond. A balcony! He was going run out onto a balcony.

Where did he go from there? Were they other doors or did he have to jump?

He found out a second later when he hurled himself onto the balcony and had to keep going. There was nowhere else to go but over the edge. He took a running leap, his foot hit the stone railings and he threw himself into the air. He fell.

The cavern he was in was colossal. Ice made up the floor; stone pillars tore upwards through it, leaning at angles, choked by vines.

His wings spread and he soared upwards, arching high, catching the sight of the twins as they appeared on the balcony, looking around for him in the darkness. They couldn't see him so well if he avoided the light. His wings, his ugly wings, didn't stand out so sharply against the gloom as he soared away towards the centre of the hall.

And then he spotted something.

There were people in the hall.

His breath hitched in his throat.

Zedkiel!

He was trapped, tied against one of the pillars, horror and distress in his flawless features, tears in his eyes as he stared across to another pillar where a figure lay tangled in vines, asleep or unconscious he didn't know.

And there was another person. Zedkiel's older brother.

He was lifting a blade, high above his head.

Theth's eyes widened. He was going to kill whoever lay amongst those vines. And whoever it was, their death would kill Zedkiel. Theth could tell that much with the barest of glances towards Zedkiel's face and the scream that erupted from his throat, raw and torn, unlike anything Theth had ever heard before.

He dove.

He came down at such speed it made his eyes water, the turn he made jarred his senses. Eldor barely had time to see him coming and get out of the way before Theth rocketed between him and the victim – a sleeping girl.

Their shoulders collided. Eldor was hurled backwards; the sword tumbled from his grip, hitting the ground below with such force the handle drove into the ice, the blade pointed up, trapped and useless. He whirled around, rage in his eyes as Theth soared back into the air.

The twins had spotted him. They were following him again. He flew onwards, towards another balcony on the opposite side of the hall. The door flew open as he approached and he didn't even bother to land. The corridor beyond was wide enough to take the full expanse of his wings and he shot through.

He needed to shake the pair. If he could lose them, hide from them, anything, he could get back to the others. He knew where Zedkiel was now. Surely the other two could find him as well. He just had to shake these two.

And pray that Dayandiel wasn't here. Three enemy in one place and no one to help him? He'd be killed.

There had to be something he could do! He was supposed to be able to control the air, damn it! He was up against angels! It was a perfect weapon and yet he couldn't do anything!

He was scared. He was angry. His emotions were strained to breaking point. How was this any different to when Kalen had gone rogue? His powers then had been incredible and now...

Theth blew into a high-ceiling hall and suddenly stopped.

Air was swirling around him. It was cold and fast. There was air moving in an unnatural way around him and he only felt it now because he wasn't moving.

He stared, reaching forwards. The air coiled around his fingers, leaving icy trails across his skin. Slowly he turned, looking back down the hall. He could hear them coming, looming out of the darkness, wings out stretched, zooming down the hall.

Theth pointed towards them as they shot into the room and winds collided into them.

Their wide wings caught the air, their startled cries echoed after them as both were hurled back out of the room, pushed over a hundred feet back down the hall before they were able to close their wings and collapse to the ground.

Theth looked at his hands. Rune stuck his head out of the top of the backpack and looked at him. Theth smiled, almost laughing.

Alright this, this he could work with.

Spreading his wings, he launched into the air, racing into the high shadows in a corner of the room, settling on a ledge and watching the door, waiting.