Act 1: Fireproof

At the northern tip of Edenia lies a small seaport village named Grimsby. Not many people know about it. The life there mostly revolves around food and transportation. Nearly all food comes from the ocean, supplemented by various crops from the nearby farms. Most notable, however, was its connection to the Second Continent lying across the sea to the east of Edenia.
The ordinary people had to travel by boats or cruise ships to get anywhere. The privileged ones had the access to the hoverport which offered very exclusive vehicles known simply as hovercrafts or hoves among the younger generations.
These metallic constructs borne on jet engines were used almost exclusively for transporting people than anything else. Their rarity came not from the price of constructing one but rather from the chujin crystals incorporated in the jets which under certain circumstances created a jet propulsion. Their extreme rarity has led the government to regulate their use not just in these flying machines but also in the trains running throughout the whole Edenia.

The port of Grimsby, despite its small size, was a busy place. Cargo ships in the docks was a common sight and the workers had their hands full of loading, unloading and distributing of the goods for the land transport.

Such business was rare at the hoverport which had a very limited capacity and few things to care about. But not today. Today the technicians had their hands full of one unusual machine. Red One was the prototype expanded flying transporter. Most hovercrafts were jet black or dark green with white underbelly. Red One’s main hull was painted dark red and boasted expanded cargo space at the cost of adding two extra jet engines. A remarkable prototype by all means. Even the chief technician rose his eyebrows as he approved the final checkup before its takeoff.

The other workers just finished loading its cargo and as soon as the last crate slid into the holding clamps they cleared the insides. The crowd of eleven people already waited to board it, some with great anticipation, others with great reservations.
A tall woman with long blonde hair and piercing ice blue eyes had to sign the pilot manifest authorizing her to have a full control of the vehicle. She wore the gray and red uniform of the military academy instructors.
The unique assembly of students accompanied her, all military students, all dressed in black and yellow uniforms, all in their late teens. Suspicious and highly trained, they became restless over the time, although their excitement soon turned into a revelation.
“Did you see that? Those crates have KI on them,” said Game and pointed into the hovercraft.
“KI? They are giving us real weapons?” asked Ean and looked at the others to see their reaction.
“I knew it!” rejoiced Soona. “I knew they would appreciate us!”
 “No, this smells bad, like diving head first into a septic tank with our eyes closed,” objected Key. “We’ve got real weapons and fly with an experimental prototype hove with an instructor we don’t know?”
“They did say it’s going to be something special. And at least we know her name, instructor Qierra Thrace, apparently the only one who knows how to fly this thing,“ added Game.
 “I don’t care. Whatever it is, I’m excited!” proclaimed Soona cheerfully.
“Never heard of her, I say we watch ourselves,” stated Key.
“Isn’t she too young to be this qualified? She seems barely over thirty cykes,” wondered Ean.
“Why don’t you people calm down? We’re the top students of the military academy. They wouldn’t harm us,” insisted Zitao.
“He is most free from danger, who, even when safe, is on his guard,” recited Sehun calmly.
“Can you quote something else than ancient Erthe texts?” asked Kolor.
Instructor Thrace looked up and moved her hand towards the hatch.
“Everybody board, now!”
“Instructor,” said Game, “why are we getting Kingdom Issued weapons? Nobody told us about joining a real action.”
His and the instructor’s eyes met. From her cold look he could tell this information was restricted from him. No words were needed. Still, it surprised him a little. He was quite handsome. The mesmerizing brown eyes, shaggy dark hair and a rugged beard made him look much older than he was. Girls liked that and hardly ever could resist him. Those were the younger girls, though, not a woman nearly twice his age.
“You’re stepping out of your way, transfer student.” Key pushed Game from behind and made him step forward, right into the hatch.
“If you got some problems you’d better keep them to yourselves,” whispered Ean to Game. “I don’t think we’re gonna get any answers.”
They paced inside the belly of the beast. Everything was brand new and clean.
“Uh, it stinks like someone mixed carrots with gasoline. I think I’m going to faint,” growled Key and held onto his nose.
“That’s what these brand new machines do,” said Ean while running his finger across the rough and clean rubbery surface of the seats. “But if you’re worried now, wait until they seal the hatch for high altitude flight. We’ll be choking on it all the way through.”
“Still, it’s a remarkable piece of machinery. If anything, we’ve got to see this before anyone else,” noted Kolor.
“Whatever you say, little man,” said Key.
“Very well. Strap yourselves in, everybody. We are taking off now,” said the instructor as she walked between them towards the pilot’s cabin.
“Ean, Game, if you have any doubts you can throw them out of the window. Now it’s time to get excited. This take off will be the stuff of legend,” said Kolor while strapping himself in. But neither of the boys reacted to that.
Key was the last one to sit. Being the tallest and strongest he took on the responsibility to close the hatch and seal it.
The instructor once again checked on all the students whether they have been accounted for and strapped in. Not sooner than that has she returned to the pilot’s seat and finally readied it for the take off.
She turned the starting unit on first which gave her a complete control over the steering fins and rotation of the jets. The handle to her right regulated the input of magic energy into the chujin crystals. Another switch connected the crystals to the power core and the people outside the vehicle could hear the jets kick in. Their humming was still too faint to be heard on the inside.
Everything checked up and so she pushed the handle further in. The workers cleared the premises of the launch pad and the vehicle could take off any time.
“You hear that?” rejoiced Kolor. “This time we don’t have just two but four! Four jets to take us up there!”
“Just shut your mouth already!” scolded him Eyona, she had a fear of flying but did her best to fight it. On the outside she was a tough girl, however hard it was.
Ean was ashamed to admit it, but this was his first flight ever. He felt his muscles tense and fists clench. He expected the vehicle to rise up at any moment. Then he would be disconnected from the solid ground and be given to mercy of this manmade thing.  What if something goes wrong? They might die, all of them. And anything could go wrong. That just happens.
Game noticed his tension. “Don’t think about it!” he shouted through the noise. “Just imagine we’ll be going on the ground.”
Ean looked at him. Game didn’t know him. He could not have known Ean’s inner struggle against his fears, especially those he could do nothing about. The whole situation did not help. He flew in something he did not know, piloted by someone he did not trust, flying to who knows where.
He looked at his classmates. To them it was just another ride, might as well have been on a boat or a train. They did not care. Some of them had smile on their faces, only Kolor seemed to be feeling queasy already, despite being crazy for technology he had hard time controlling his motion sickness, sometimes even before actually being in motion.
Only two girls remained still and, to him, quite unreadable. Arena was awfully quiet all day and, judging from her silence, oblivious to the whole flight thing. It was not quite like her, unlike the girl sitting right next to her, Silveria. The mutant girl with silver hair and blank, pearl-like eyes, she had already been quite an outcast and rarely spoke to anyone. She came from a rich family and naturally had to be familiar with flying in hovercrafts. Even then, she seemed bothered by something. It meant nothing to Ean but for a while he felt that maybe he’s not alone who’s feeling uncomfortable and that in itself brought him some comfort.
Screams of the jets increased and Ean felt the seat underneath him defy gravity and pull him upwards. The instructor pushed the handle all the way to insert the full power into the jets and the vehicle rose higher into the sky. Everyone could feel the struggle of the jets to free them from the clutches of the planet and keep them soaring like a free bird. The vehicle was now fully airborne and so were they.

Now that they stopped rising and actually moved onwards everybody finally relaxed and started acting as if they were on a train.
Game turned to Ean. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Ean just nodded. The air circulation brought in some fresh air and let him breathe normally again. Maybe now he could find some topic to talk about to focus his mind elsewhere.
“Why are you all looking so dumb?” started out Soona. “We’ve got something special coming. They’ve selected the best in the academy for a secret class!”
“That’s even more reason to get worried, don’t you think?” asked Kolor with risen eyebrows.
“Why did they select her, though?” asked Zitao and nodded towards Silveria. “She’s not good at anything.”
Game looked at the girl. She would sit quietly with her hands on her lap. Her eyes were open but he would be damned by the gods if he knew where she was looking. He has never seen a human like her. Her face was actually quite pretty, but those empty eyes and the silver hair...  who knew what else was so special about her.
“Who is it?” he asked Ean.
“Silveria Elenia, a daughter of Kordon Elenius.”
Game rose his eyebrows. “Kordon Elenius has a daughter?”
“A daughter of a noble family here with us. Imagine that,” continued Ean.
“We call her the princess,” noted Zitao.
“She’s a moron,” added Eyona.
“How so?” wondered Game.
“You don’t know how clumsy that thing over there is. She falls asleep in the class, gets hurt in training and keeps everything to herself. Rumors also go around that she has had several people killed,” explained Eyona.
“I’d trade her for her sister any day,” smirked Key.
“You think she’s any better?” asked Zitao. “She loves torturing men just using her looks.”
Key just shook his head. “I don’t care. She can torture me all she wants with that body she has.”
Game watched Silveria carefully. She looked unhappy. She held onto her knees that she kept pressing together. Still, the black headband on her head showed her as a girl who embraced her feminity. Maybe she wanted to appear fragile before others? Maybe she wanted men to protect her?
“What about her looks?” he turned to her. “Hey, what happened to you?”
He startled her and she gasped. He felt her look upon him. Even without turning her head, there was something in her body language that told him that. Still, it was but a glance that wore off immediately. Still, the daughter of the greatest mage in the world and practically the leader of the resistance against the false gods. Such presence was not to be taken lightly. He wondered what made her to be like this.
“She won’t tell,” said Ean. “You can forget about getting anything out of her. And everything you’ll hear about them is rumors.”
“You never know, some of them might be true,” speculated Eyona. “With being so secretive you might be wondering what they have to hide.”
“What rumors would that be?” inquired Game.
“They say her father keeps the eternal life by eating people alive. Or that her sister is collecting favors for her dad by f*****g important people. The most common is the rumors of incest.”
“Incest?” Game looked surprised.
“Why do you think she’s rejecting all the men around her?” snugged Eyona.
“Saving her sweet pot for her father’s man meat,” said Key, looking all mean and disgusted.
Something moved in the corner of Game’s eye and he turned to see Silveria standing up. She stumbled all the way before Key and as he looked up at her she rose her hand all the way behind her shoulder and slapped him with all the power she had.
Everybody froze. Only the dulled screaming of the jets tore through the silence. Silveria stared at Key, tears pouring down her cheeks.
And then she fell. A turbulence shook the vehicle so violently she never got a chance to stand up again. The light behind the windows dulled and the world became dark. The rear or the vehicle rose up and it descended towards the ground, despite the best efforts of the instructor to level it up again.
“What is that? Is that a skyrip?” screamed Eyona but the answer never came.
Something hard hit the hovercraft and took the control out of the instructor’s hands. Two of the jets were gone and the other two could not hold it anymore.
Silveria, the only unbuckled one, kept being thrown around like laundry in a washing machine. But it would not last for long. The vehicle hit a rocky peak which tore its entire bottom asunder. The sparks filled the inside and slightly burned the students’ clothes. The hatch was literally torn away from the back and the air started violently sucking everything out, including the silver-haired girl.
There was nothing the students could do and so they all sat, having their eyes closed, clutching onto the handles around them. The hovercraft kept sliding down the rocky slope, grinding metal, breaking any small trees in its way and slowly losing speed.
Finally, the movement stopped but it was far from over. The instructor rushed out of the pilot’s cabin.
“Take your things! We must leave, now!” she screamed and pushed a couple of the students to wake them up.
Arena was the first to stand up. She helped Zitao, who sat next to her, to stand up. Smoke filled up the entire vehicle. She pulled him out through it, literally walking on a burning ground. The others followed quickly.
The ground shook. Arena stumbled and fell while Zitao lurched forward, rolling down a small slope, right into the wall of burning grass and wood.
Key, Soona, Eyona, Kolor and Sehun emerged out of the vehicle right after them, coughing their lungs out.
To the east they saw a massive cloud of dark smoke rising to the sky, laced with flames and burning rocks leaving a trail as they were hurled high towards the cloudy canopy. The whole area was surrounded by a fiery inferno consuming all life in its way. The hovercraft has created a scar in the ground as it slid on the ground, pushing everything aside and giving the students some space to be safe for the moment. As good as it was, their safety would not last for long.
“Is this the fabled wrath of the gods, awesome and loud, burning all life away?” asked Sehun and looked into the terrified eyes of the others. Nobody would answer that, awestruck as they were.
“Where is Elenia?” asked the instructor while looking past everyone, trying to find her inside the hovercraft.
“She fell out!” answered Kolor, pointing towards the rocky peak where it happened.
The woman immediately took off, disappearing into the wall of smoke to the north.
“Help me with this,” said Ean to Game and dislodged the crates. They both took one to save them from burning.
Zitao’s mortal scream alerted everyone. Arena lifted herself from the ground, seeing him half engulfed in flames. A burning tree collapsed right between them, making any rescue attempt impossible.
“We’ve got to do something to take him out of there!” shouted Soona.
“I can’t lift it, it’s all in flames!” objected Key.
Soona took up two fairly strong unburned sticks. “When I shout at you, kick the tree down to us!”
She stepped away from the tree, putting about three yards between her and it. One, two, three, she jumped over the tree, counting the distance just about right to land close to Zitao.
His legs were badly burned but he was still alive, choking on the smoke.
“You’re not done yet. Come with me.”
She crouched right before him and tried to pull him up and away from the fire. Another quake brought her down to her knees. A fissure opened right behind Zitao, rending the ground right before them. A spray of lava erupted from it. Soona shrieked as it burned her left hand but would not let go of Zitao who was hit even worse. She saw the particles burning through his clothes, melting them away, charring his skin. He tried to pull himself towards her but the pain nearly paralyzed him. She clenched her teeth and pulled his hands, eventually she would get him out of the fire and used her own jacket to put it out of his body.
He would stop spasming and she held him to help him ease the residing pain. But they had yet to get out of the fire.
She took up the sticks and pushed them into the ground.
“Now!” she shouted at Key who watched her from behind the flames.
Before anybody moved another quake expanded the fissure their way and split it in two. They now stood on a separate platform in the middle of a bottomless pit that spat fire.
“I’m sorry, Zitao!” screamed Soona. She collapsed to her knees, laying him on her lap. Zitao was in shock from the pain, he would only spasm as he struggled to catch his breath.
Before his vision appeared a miracle. He could not tell what it was, among all the fiery red and black he saw sparkles of white. Was this the glow of salvation? He frantically pulled Soona’s hand and nodded towards the vision.
They both saw Silveria standing on top of the ridge across the fissure opposite of them. The girl seemed worn out and could not stand properly. More than half of her clothes were burned and ash covered her naked skin. The light Zitao saw was the burning inferno reflecting in her silver hair.
She watched them with her mouth open, panting like a rabid dog. It took her only a moment to notice their situation. She bent down and picked a picked up a broken tree trunk. It burned only on one end was just big enough for her to lift it from the ground. She backed up a couple of steps and ran back towards the edge. Zitao watched Silveria jump across the fissure while pulling the trunk behind her. She landed right next to him and Soona.
No words were said. The girl laid the trunk across the fire wall along with the sticks they already had. Soona understood and pulled Ziato over this newly formed bridge.
She barely got over it when the land around them began sliding down into the fissure. Soona pulled Zitao all the way out of the fire but Silveria was less lucky.
Silveria became trapped in the landslide and watched the faces behind the fire grow more and more distant from her. She looked around, searching for any help. In the same fashion as before, she jumped across the fissure. The wall on the opposite side offered only little stability but she could use the stones, roots, or anything that provided a handhold, to quickly ascend to the top.
The land began to shake again but this time felt subtle and consistent. In the distance across the mountain peak an explosion of dirt rose to the sky and only a second later it tore the sky apart with three shockwaves so massive that the land around them disintegrated.
The shockwave has reached the crash site and usurped helpless Silveria, who barely crawled to the top of the edge. Unable to hold onto anything, she covered her mouth and eyes with her hands. Her heart beat fast, her mind preoccupied with despair and fear.
The nature itself prepared her landing in the cushion of leaves and branches that slowed the fall.
She lied on her back, breathless, watching the massive column of smoke spit beautiful orange streaks of lava and sizzle with lightning arcs. A second later the foreground of her vision filled up with all the rocks, trees and dirt the shockwave has brought. Among them, the large shape of the hovercraft.
She tried to move but her condition would not let her. The vehicle thumped into the ground just several yards before her, its insides scattering around.
The blast washed off and everything became peaceful again. She exhaled and laid her head back to the ground.