chapter 5

Chapter 5 Nix

Year, 4004

“How did you escape?” She loomed over me like a torturous shadow, stemming from the fiery core of the earth. The strange wooden chair I had been forced to settle in was hard and unforgiving. I realized I had been sitting in the chair silently for too long.

“Ugh.” She rolled her eyes and walked to the screaming pot over the fire in the canter in the dark cave. After a few seconds she came back with a steaming mug. She handed it to me and sat on the stone shelf across from the chair. I looked down at the dark sludgy liquid in the clay cup. I looked up at the girl. She nodded as if to say, drink it.

Should I drink it? It could be poison. But it could not be. No! She is a sorcerer, it is definitely poison. Thoughts ran rabid through my mind. She smiled, sensing my hesitation. This was no ordinary smile. It was the kind of smile that could melt all the hatred and fear the world had been frozen in. I bought the mug closer to my face so I could smell it. It was an explosion of scent, sweet like flowers and bitter like rain. I sipped the drink and everything changed. The dark room was lighter. The cold walls were seamed warmer. The unbearable chair was inviting. The evil sorceress seemed like a regular girl. Everything was clearer than before.

“What is this?” I asked staring up at her like a she was a goddess. She smiled.

“Just some herbs to help calm people down. It’s not dangerous it fact it can sometimes heal serious disease. Polio. Cancer. Every type of hepatitis." She walked over to the wooden chair across from me, taking a seat. She crossed her legs and peered at me with a sideways glance. "So tell me, how did you escape?” The question came out urgent. “More importantly how did you get here so fast? The convoy was a mile from Servus castra, a three days walk from here.”

“I honestly have no idea how I did it. One step I was flesh, bones, the second step I was water droplets slipping across the entire nation, and the third I was hiding from you.

“What, you jumped out? Thats incredible!” She stood up waving her hands madly and passed to a table tucked in the back of the cave. She wiped around,

“Wait, are you, no you can’t be!”

“What is jumping out? And who do you think I am?” I could feel the doubt and fear creeping back into the corners of my eyes, leading fog over my vision like a mask.

“Jumped out is just something I say. It just means teleported.” She walked towards me and I shrank as far back in my chair as I could. She pulled me up despite my weak defence. She guided me back to the table. A book, the color of aged cream with the scent of promises yet to be fulfilled sat on the carved wooden surface. The black writing was  weathered, but readable. I read the words scrawled across the page and everything I thought I knew shattered.

“This is the book of the past present and future.” She paused watching me in revery. I reached out as though the book had possessed me. My fingertips grazed the smooth ancient paper and it glowed. The letters lifted off the page and danced around my arm before landing on my palm, searing it. I pulled my hand back.

“What the hell?” The words flew back to the page fading into black again. She grabbed my hand, flipping it palm up to reveal the scorch left behind. It was one word. Acqua. She pulled off the black bandage wrapped around her hand and held it up so I could see. Burned there, in black scorched letters it said, Ignis.

“Who the hell are you?”