Eternal

“Tut tut Unya, you really shouldn’t have spied on us, now I cannot trust you,” His words rang true and I wondered if our friendship was over, but his face looked almost pleased, and it just did not add up in my mind.

“Please Marcus, I felt the ceiling shake and I had no way of knowing if you were okay after Kat attacked me, I knew she wasn’t the same person that she was when we first met. I wanted to make sure she didn’t hurt you, cause gods help her if she had,” I replied with a vehemence that I was surprised to realise was genuine.

“First of all I had no idea that Kat had done anything to you, I think you need to fill me in there and second I didn’t know you cared so much,” he said, practically bouncing on the spot.

“Of course I do, you’re a friend Marcus and a mighty great one at that, I won’t let anything happen to my friends, so obviously that would include you.”

“Don’t worry Unya, I’m not going to abandon you now, I just need you to know I will not be okay with you ever doing that to me again, but that being said I am very proud of you for being able to pull it off.”

He wrapped his arms around me as his smile brightened up the room and then he made me tell him everything that happened at Kat’s the day before until we were finally ready to leave for whatever location he had pre-selected.

Z

I honestly had no idea where we were, all I knew was we were standing in some sort of field as the sky began to darken with the night. The one thing I did notice was the northern lights that flashed through the sky and that was enough for me to realise that we were no longer in Devon, let alone England.

I stood bare foot on the grass as my black gypsy style dress swayed in the breeze.

Marcus demonstrated what it was he wanted me to do first and my mouth literally ran dry. I had no idea how he could expect me to do what he had just done when we had only been training for a couple of weeks at most.

“Don’t fret Unya, the summer solstice will strengthen your power all you have to do is call for it. I want you to close your eyes and feel the individual blades of grass sway against your skin. Feel the breeze as it strokes your skin and listen to all the noises that are being carried across the air.”

I did everything he told me too and I’m not sure exactly when it happened but I definitely felt an awakening happen deep within myself. It was as though I was one with the earth and air, as though we were connected on a molecular level and a spiritual one at the same time.

I could feel the breeze curling around my hair as we embraced one another like a mother embraces her new born child, it was beautiful and I hadn’t even realised that I had started to cry until Marcus gently wiped away my tears.

“I don’t understand how I could cry,” I stated barely even registering that I had said it out loud, in front of someone who did not know about that dormant side of me.

“The power affects us all differently, I wouldn’t worry about such a reaction,” He replied, trying to settle me, not realising how frayed my nerves were and how even that was unheard of as far as I was concerned.

“You don’t understand and I haven’t got it in me to try to explain it to you. I don’t cry Marcus and to have such a reaction is such a foreign concept to me, it physically blows my mind.”

He clutched my hands within his own as he explained, once again, what it was he wanted me to do and then he slowly backed away, ensuring that he reached a safe distance from where I was standing.

You see the task Marcus had set me was mind-numbing, it did not seem possible, especially with how I caused an earthquake the last time I tried to call upon the earth.

He wanted me to create a ring of fire around myself; he then wanted me to use the air to spread the fire up so it created a wall of fire, at least three foot high. If I managed to do that, I was then expected to call water from the very air to extinguish the flames and then restore the ground to its former state, grass and all, so no one would ever be able to tell we had been there.

The fire was probably the easiest part and I was looking forward to that part the most. I had taken to that element with the least amount of struggle, I felt more connected to the naked flames than any of the others.

This probably went hand in hand with my volatile personality, but who was I to question any of this stuff.

I called the flame up into my palm while maintaining the connection I had with the air, striving up from the ground around me. I pushed the ball outwards so that it hit the ground, with very little effort it to grew around me until I was surrounded by a low circle of fire.

The flames would occasionally lick my skin, and the heat continued to intensify. It didn’t hurt, not in the slightest it was more like a long awaited reunion between lovers.

It felt as though the fire was a part of me, not just an element that I could call upon, something more transcendent than that.

I glanced quickly towards Marcus and saw him nod in appreciation of my work so far, it wasn’t a huge gesture or anything, but it seemed to ground me somehow.

I called on the air to help me spread the wall higher but I lost control as the fire began to grow and grow, until it was at least ten feet tall and spinning around me. It felt like I was standing in the middle of a twister built up entirely of flames, I had no idea what I should do when Marcus was suddenly standing before me.

The flame seemed to be trying to reach him, not liking the fact that he was now intruding on this moment.

“Say the words Unya and I will end this, I promise you there will be no judgement on my end,” he promised this while looking at me with kind eyes, but I knew my stubborn nature would not allow me to back away from this.

I shook my head almost viciously, before indicating with a slight nod that he should remove himself from the centre of what I had somehow created. He noticed the fingers of flame trying to clutch him within their grasp just in time, as he quickly dematerialised before me, but I knew he was only on the other side. Even if I could no longer see him myself, I knew I had no reason to doubt him.

I realised it was time to extinguish the flames that were growing faster and higher with every second that ticked by. I called to the water that was surrounding me, hidden within the very air I was inhaling, but instead of pulling the water to me I seemed to conjure a dark and foreboding rain cloud instead.