Eyes followed El and Laze as they passed along the outskirts of the camp, whispers trailing close behind and spreading away like wildfire.

  “Told you you’d be popular,” Laze said out of the side of her mouth, then wilted slightly. “Though, most everybody thought you’d died in the battle.”

  El patted her friend on the shoulder. “Almost, but not quite,” she said. “And, despite my fame, our tent is still separated from the rest?”

  “Yeah. The squad leaders, mainly corporals and sergeants, all have our backs. Word even came ahead from a groundie lieutenant colonel who wants to pin a medal on your chest personally. But…” Laze trailed off.

  “But the Church isn’t so happy with us for calling the retreat,” El finished for her friend.

  “Basically, yeah. We’ve got too much popular support behind us for the moment for them to do anything though, and there’s a lot of anger toward the Church right now.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “People are blaming them for coming in, taking over, and rushing the attack before the groundies were settled, and before we had enough intel on the golems. Tempers are flaring all over the place, way more than I’ve ever seen, and the two cardinals have holed up behind their Ignitio and the least angry troops until things calm down.”

  “Two? Weren’t there three?”

  “There were. Until one of Guld’s golems appeared out of thin air behind our lines. Killed the cardinal and wiped out a third of the Ignitio before the others finally brought it down,” Laze explained quietly.

  “It… wasn’t Scin, was it?” El asked. She couldn’t be that lucky, could she?

  “No,” Laze said. “He didn’t come to the front lines.”

  “Why am I not surprised? What about our leaders? Did we lose any of the generals?”

  “No, our command structure is pretty intact, again, thanks to your quick thinking. When the forward lines started pulling back, well, the rear lines didn’t have much choice but do the same. Other than that one golem who got through, and our artillery which got targeted from the beginning, our rear lines fared pretty well.”

  “El? El is that you?!” Nidina’s voice called, and the woman came running over.

  “Nidina!” El said, and wrapped her friend in a hug. “I’m so glad to see you’re okay.”

  “That’s my line! Where have you been?” Nidina asked as they separated. “And, pardon me for saying this, but you look terrible.”

  El looked from Nidina to Laze. “Really that bad?”

  “I’ve seen worse,” Laze said. “Like the morning after your night with…”

  “Okay, just stop right there,” El said and narrowed her eyes at Laze. “You remember the last time you brought that up?”

  Laze slapped her hands over her mouth and nodded quickly. “Mmmhmm. Haimemmer,” she mumbled from behind her hands.

  “Good. Now, I could really use a few minutes to get cleaned up, and maybe a month to sleep,” El said.

  “You might have time for one, but definitely not for the other,” Nidina said.

  El pushed the sigh down. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you as we walk,” Nidina said. “Let’s at least get you a change of clothes and a facecloth. Our tent is just over there.”

  “What’s the rush?” Laze asked.

  “I don’t think we’re getting that vacation you were hoping for,” El said, and elbowed her friend in the ribs.

  “Depends on your definition of vacation,” Nidina said. “If the rumors are true.”

  “Rumors?” El asked.

  “We lost God’s Claw,” Nidina said as they reached the lone tent on the outskirts of the camp.

  “We… what?!” El asked and stopped in her tracks. “Lost it to who?”

  “A storm,” Dayne answered from in front of the tent, one hand stirring a pot over a small fire. “Hey, El, soup’s ready. Want some?”

  El blinked once. Twice. Three times. “Hey, Dayne,” she finally said. “Yes, please.”

  “It’ll be ready after you wash up,” he said, then turned his attention back to the pot.

  “Right. Okay. A storm?” El asked Nidina as the three of them ducked into the tent. Designed for an entire wing, it was almost too spacious for four.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Yeah, word just started spreading through camp about an hour ago. The brass has called an emergency assembly in about fifteen minutes. All hands on deck,” Nidina said and poured water into a large bowl.

  Fifteen minutes? That wasn’t much time. El looked at the journal in her hands; when should she tell the generals about what she found?

  “Did Oril make it back?” she asked.

  “Haven’t actually seen him, but probably. He’s a survivor. Like a cockroach,” Laze said.

  “Yeah,” El said quietly, her eyes on the journal. With a full assembly called, Oril would be there. If he saw her with the book, what would he do? No, she couldn’t just carry it around openly.

  El unhooked the harness that held her weapons and the small pack she wore, and tossed it on her cot. “Anybody have one of the larger packs?” she asked Nidina and Laze.

  “You must really be enjoying that book,” Laze said with a smirk. “Yeah, I’ve got one. Here,” Laze said, dug the pack out of a small chest, and tossed it to El.

  “Thanks,” El said, sliding the journal and some of the energy bars into the pack, then replacing the smaller one on her harness.

  That done, she slipped it over her shoulders and buckled it closed. The weight difference was hardly noticeable, and El twisted a bit to make sure it wouldn’t interfere with her movements if it came to a fight.

  …a fight? Could she even fight?

  She’d put it off long enough. She had to know. And… if her Spark was indeed gone… no… don’t worry about that until you know.

  El drew the electrum hilt of one of her swords, and stared at the metal in her hand.

  Was she ready for this? No, but that didn’t matter.

  “El?” Laze asked. “Everything okay?”

  El looked from her friend back to the electrum hilt, but didn’t answer. Now or never.

  Please.

  El pushed into the hilt, willing her Spark to ignite it.

  Nothing happened.

  Not even a flicker.

  But, no pain either, and that realization was the only thing that kept El from curling up into a little, sobbing ball on the floor.

  Did the lack of pain mean her Spark had healed? Or vanished completely?

  El turned her attention inward, to that void she’d felt after her encounter with the Stormbearer. It was still there… but there was something else with it. Something small, almost inconsequential in the darkness. A tiny prism of… cold where warmth should be. Ice? Had her Spark been replaced by… no… there was something inside the prism. Protected by it. The tiniest light, like a candle lost in the night, and El mentally cupped it gently, her heart beating faster.

  Like blowing on kindling, she fanned the flame inside the prism. Gently. Carefully. Too strong and she’d blow it out. Forever. With each flicker, her breath held, but the flame came back, stronger and stronger with each passing second.

  Warmth spread through her body, filling her veins and wrapping her skin.

  C’mon, you can do it.

  With a WHOOSH, her Spark burst through the prism and erupted in her chest, as did the sword in her hand.

  And El almost whooped for joy.

  “You planning to fight your way to the assembly?” Laze asked.

  El turned, tears leaking down her cheek, looked at her friends, and gently shook her head.

  “Then why are…” Laze started, then her eyes widened. “Wait. The reason you weren’t flying, it wasn’t because you hit your head, was it?”

  El shook her head, unable to form the words past the lump in her throat. What if her Spark had been gone for good?

  “What happened, El? What aren’t you telling us?” Laze asked, and both she and Nidina stepped in close to El.

  “B-before Nexin arrived,” El said.

  “Nexin? You’ve seen him? Everybody is looking for him,” Nidina interrupted, but stopped when Laze shook her head and put a hand on Nidina’s shoulder.

  El also shook her head. “Nexin is… he didn’t make it.”

  “You said something happened before he arrived? Was that when he saved you?” Laze asked.

  El nodded. “The Stormbearer, you both saw him come down?” El asked, and waited for her friends to nod before she continued. “He landed right in the middle of the groundies I was trying to get to fall back. Not even two blocks away from where I was.”

  “That was bad luck,” Nidina said quietly.

  “You have no idea. The groundies didn’t know what to make of him. Didn’t know to be afraid of him, so they tried to fight back. It didn’t go well.”

  “More ice?” Laze asked.

  “Yes. A hundred lost in two swings of his sword. And more to come if…”

  “You burning idiot,” Laze hissed. “You jumped in, didn’t you? Instead of running like you should have…”

  “They would’ve all died if I didn’t do anything!” El snapped back, then took a breath. “They couldn’t stop the Stormbearer.”

  “And neither could you,” Laze said.

  “I wasn’t trying to stop him. Just distract him,” El countered.

  “That’s no better!” Laze said. “Nidina, you agree with me on this right?”

  Nidina shrugged. “I already knew she did this. That’s why I was so surprised to see her. I heard… how it ended, but I had a captain nearly propose to me on the spot when he heard I was from the same wing. She saved a lot of lives.”

  Laze huffed and crossed her arms, but took a deep breath to calm herself down. “How did it… end?” she asked.

  “Well, I kept his attention,” El said, looking at the sword in her hand, then doused the flames. “But he caught up to me. He was way out of my league.”

  “But, why aren’t you an Elcicle back in Aldrana?” Laze asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you aren’t, but what happened?”

  “He didn’t ice me, like he did the others. He tried to do something… worse. Somehow, he caught my wings. Held the flames like they were solid. And, then he tried to pull them out of me. I felt my Spark ripping out of my body. I can’t… I can’t even explain how much it hurt. And he would’ve succeeded a second later if…”

  “If Nexin hadn’t arrived,” Laze finished for her. “So, you walked back from Aldrana? That’s a long way.”

  “Not exactly,” El said. “I woke up not far from here, no idea how I got there, but I couldn’t fly. I couldn’t ignite anything. I thought I’d lost my Spark, but then I tried and… well…” El held up the electrum hilt in her hand.

  “Do you remember how you got out of the city?” Nidina asked. “Did another Firestorm carry you out? That’s the only way you’d be able to get there if you just woke up. Maybe it was Nexin?”

  El shrugged, but kept the story of the cabin to herself.

  “Like I said, no idea. If it was Nexin, he wouldn’t have left me in the middle of a field. I wish it was him, more than anything, but I saw… I saw… what happened,” El said, and wiped the last tears from her cheeks. “Enough of a trip down memory lane. Can I have that washcloth? I probably look even worse now, and I’d rather not make my triumphant return like this.”

  “Yeah, here you go,” Nidina said, and gave El the cloth and bowl.

  El needed far more than a face wash to feel anywhere close to normal, but it would have to do for now. Just having her Spark back was a relief she couldn’t put into words, but there was still a hole in her heart that would never fill.

  Nexin was gone. What was she going to do without him?