Escape

            The pain was excruciating. Lemine’s legs felt like they were on fire. His legs collapsed and he fell into the nearby hallway wall. He had been fighting his way back into the chamber Faro had been trapped in. Deep within his mind he knew it was hopeless, but he had to keep trying. Anything that had been inside that room would have been crushed under the weight of the temples ceiling. But he had to keep trying.

              “Who the hell was that?” The face of that man was burned into his mind. Black eyes. Lemine doubted he would ever be able to forget it. This temple had been designed to keep him trapped inside its walls, but it did little to stop his escape. It felt so strange, having his fire pulled out of his control. In his years as a thief it’s never happened before. It goes against all teachings of elemental shifting.

              A loud crack brought the thief back out of his thoughts. With the limited light inside the tunnel he couldn’t make out what the noise was. Crack. There it was again. What was that? Then a third time. His heart began to beat faster. Removing one of his gloves he reached towards the spot he had heard the sounds and slid it across the wall.

              A large crack in the stone walls was all he needed to feel. A chunk of stone fell to the floor and Lemine ran. Sounds echoed through the dark hallway with a deafening brilliance. Each snap confirmed his fear. The shock to the temple and the collapsing center had caused the entire building to become unstable. Faro would never be rescued. If he didn’t escape now, he would join her and it wasn’t his time yet.

              The distance from the entrance to the center of the prison had taken them an hour to trek.  He didn’t know how long it took to get in, but he knew if the building continued to crumble it would only take minutes to come down. In the darkness it would be much more dangerous while running, especially when he reached the stairs they had climbed when they first arrived. One miss placed step and he would fall down thousands of stairs. He had to be careful.

Loud snaps and pops echoed from the walls and floors. The process was beginning to speed up. From behind Lemine could hear the stone ceiling of the hallway beginning to collapse. Moving into a full sprint he was forced to ignore the burning in his legs and lungs. The stairs he had come up on his way in came into sight. Throwing caution aside he began skipping multiple stairs at a time, fighting to keep a good pace. Dust had begun rolling across the floor from the collapsing structure. It hadn’t begun falling freely yet, but it wouldn’t be long before the sheer weight of the building brought the roof down.

              As it began weakening larger pieces and soon the floor was beginning to give. The vibrations were shaking his legs, causing him to stumble into the walls. Faro had always warned him that he needed to work on running but he never bothered to listen. He wouldn't have much longer before the structure gave way entirely. With a deep effort Lemine pushed his pain aside and kept sprinting.

            The pathway flattened as the winded thief reached the bottom of the steps. When he had entered the temple the stairs seemed to be needlessly deep within the structure. Now they were a sign that the exit was close and escape possible. Light was beginning to fill hallway as the entrance grew closer.

            Part of the ceiling hit the floor ahead of Lamine, forcing him to leap over the rubble. Part of the archway near the front of the temple had collapsed. With no place to run he stopped and fell to his knees, fists pounding against the solid stone. All the effort, all the pain, brought him within feet of freedom.

            Tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to catch his breath. Deep cramps were already beginning to set and locking his legs uncomfortably in place. Exerting himself for such a long time had brought so much pain. The tears pattered on the floor quietly. Placing his hand on the collapsed archway he sobbed silently.

            Within the depths of his mind he could feel the heavy burning of a nearby fire. His eyes snapped open. If there was a fire nearby than there was still a chance. Focusing on that flame Lemine sent his will out to it. Fire would listen to an elementalist like him… he just needed to reach it. Reaching further and further through the cold night air he finally found it. The sudden warmth made him feel like he was alive again. As his energies mixed he took control of the campfire.

            The building had temporarily stopped collapsing, and Lemine thought of a plan that might get him out alive if he was fast enough. Forcing his mind to relax he concentrated on the fires burning brightly outside. Under normal circumstances Lemine had problems making flames listen to him. But this was hardly normal circumstances. Stress and distractions would make controlling his gift much harder. There was no choice, either do it or die.

            Most flame elementalists considered the awkward man to be no more than a disgrace. The nation of Fatir was proud of their shifting prowess and most of its citizens laughed openly at such weak elementalists, such as himself. Only a year earlier Lemine had suffered his last insult from his fellow countrymen during a duel with a child. This had hastened his fleeing from his homeland.

            The disgrace might not have been so severe if the child hadn't been seven, or female. At nearly twenty it should have been no contest, but the young royals publicly humiliated Lemine for the loss. Not even an hours later he had packed a his few worthwhile possessions and began his journey to start a new life.

            His will finally took control of the fire and he began pulling it closer to him. As it struck the outside wall he searched, using the flames to feel the stone. Finding small cracks he focused the fire into the small area, burning away a small hole in the wall. Smoke filled the enclosed hallway as the fire burned closer. Cracks spread through the stone face and began crumbling away.

            Grabbing a piece of the floor that had fallen besides him he waited. When it was weak enough to break he got ready. To build courage Lemine decided to count form ten to one. Once he reached one the stone was thrown through the weak wall, breaking it apart. Without any support, the ceiling began collapsing. Lemine through himself from the temple and landed in the cold Duzee air.

                The chill of the night air stung his face but he didn't mind. Cold dew dampened his clothes and chilled the back of his neck. It had never felt so good to be cold before. A grunt of pain left his throat as he pushed himself onto his elbows. A sly smile crossed his lips. It was a wonder that he survived the event.

                Lying on his back he watched the stars twinkle overhead. In that moment he didn’t even care that soldiers would be closing in on him shortly. Nobody was supposed to be inside of the temple, or prison, and now that it had collapsed they were sure to arrest him. It wouldn’t be the first time he had been arrested, just the first in this country. Duzee wasn’t a harsh country when it came to punishing criminals… until you got to capital crimes. Those were punished especially harshly. He assumed that collapsing a several thousand-year-old temple wouldn’t be looked at fondly.

Wind blew a strange metallic smell to his nose as he laid on the ground considering his fate. Even though he had no strength left he managed to rise onto his knees. Littering the ground around him was the bodies of the soldiers who had been guarding the temple. Nobody was left alive. Falling to his back again he watched the stars glittering peacefully in the sky. It was so beautiful and strangely out of place among the slain, fallen bodies of the guard.

            Now Lemine could hear them. Soldiers rushing closer to him. The gates to the valley were a good distance away and it would have taken them a considerable amount of time to reach him. Lemine had not realized how long he had been laying there staring at the stars, but it felt like an eternity.

            As the men approached he made no attempt to resist. Muscular arms picked him up and dragged him through the countless lines of men. When they had finally dropped him to his knees he realized someone was standing in front of him.

            With more effort than it should have taken Lemine looked up at the man. He had never personally met the tall thin man in front of him before, but he knew who It was. His long black hair flowed gracefully over thin shoulders. He almost looked feminine but his eyes where sharp, and unkind. A long white and green coat protected him from the cold Duzee air as it snapped against his calves in the wind.

            Those silver eyes looked back into his and in that moment something became clear to the simple thief. Whatever Faro and he had released from the Temple of Six was important enough of a threat that one of the six elemental emperors had come deal with it.