heliophilia.
{n.} desire to stay in the sun;
love of sunlight.

~

VALERIE

All my life, my father trained me to deal with close and far range attacks, and the use of a huge variety of weapons. I can even perform fatal attacks with a pair of silk ribbons.

He could have given me some tips on jumpscares as well.

Because when the ground split in front of me and two creatures in red masks emerged out of the hole, I jumped back into the sand and accidentally let go of the staff which was currently in my hand.

Thank you, Father.

Let me give a backstory here.

About three minutes ago, Meenakshi used her mirror which somehow captured moonlight and made it show us a vision of the future. But before I could see anything, Rachelle next to me clutched her head and fell back onto the sand.

Now naturally I thought she was having a stroke and was about to catch her and take her to get some shade. But then she started saying that she heard Gus's voice in her head. And the voice said 'Help'.

Now naturally I thought that the poor girl had begun hallucinating because of the heat, but then Meenakshi said that in the mirror vision she saw an unconscious Rey and Gus getting thrown into two separate dungeons.

So maybe what Rachelle said was legit. But why was she the only one who heard it?

So of course I began gathering weapons, because whatever attacked those two would be coming for us now.

And that was when the ground split in front of me.

And now I'm in the sand.

With two creatures standing above me, wearing red masks and fully decked out in red hooded robes. From top to the bottom. Full sleeved, ankle-length robes. And a red, masquerade sort of mask with eye slits that don't show their eyes and black swirly designs on the front. I shudder as I have an unnecessary flashback of the masquerade balls they held in Mediocris. Ew.

Anyway back to the present.

One of the masked creatures was taller and broader, with a golden swirls accompanying the black swirls on their mask.

We were being invaded already.

I lunge for my staff when I hear a familiar voice, "Valerie wait!"

I turn to see Mikaello and Lia standing behind the weird, not-melting-in-the-heat-in-their-unwise-clothing-style people.

"Wait! Gather the others!" Mikaello calls down to me, and Lia steps forward, reaching her hand out to pick me up.

I accept and straighten up, then dust my special armor off all the despicable sand clinging onto it.

I hate sand. It gets everywhere.

And I didn't even require to gather everyone because the high pitched shout I just uttered captured everyone's attention.

Rachelle runs up to Mikaello and scrutinizes his face, "How do we know you are the real Mikaello?"

"Um, Valerie stabbed me in the hand last night," he says holding up his right hand to show us a long jagged scar on his right hand.

Hey not my problem that he stumbled into my room drunk and I thought he was about to take advantage of me.

Yes, maybe I should have listened carefully as he was requesting me for a glass of water but whatever.

Rachelle nods, "Okay, that does it."

"Why are you accepting that so casually?!" Avalkyra says, her eyes wide.

"Because that did happen. Gus had to-" Rachelle's eyes widen with realization, "Gus and Rey are in danger!"

Finally she gets to the point.

That wiped the smile off Mikaello's face, "What?!"

"Yeah, he's a prisoner, he was in this dungeon and-" Meenakshi turns to the unfamiliar creatures, "Did you do that?!"

The taller creature steps forwards, and I hear a booming voice echo through my head, bones and even the sand around us as he speaks, "I am afraid they ran into the clan of the Cinders."

The voice echoed in my head for a solid minute before I asked the question, "What in the world is the clan of the Cinders? Who are you?!"

Mikaello steps in front, "Okay I don't care who they are just take us to them to free our friends-"

"Calm down child of the wind," the booming voice echoes everywhere again, is there a way to lower their volume? At this rate they'll burst my eardrums off.

"You have yet to give me a reason why I shouldn't just kill all of you," the big dude continues.

...Come again?

Lia coughs, "That is the reason why we came here."

Rachelle steps forward again and smiles at the two creatures graciously, "Can you give us a moment?"

The dude just nods. No damage to eardrums done.

We all huddle up away from the creatures, and Rachelle glares at Mikaello and Lia, "Can you tell me what the hell happened?"

Mikaello glares back, "We need to talk about Gus and Rey first-"

Oh god someone shut him up.

Rachelle sighs and turns to Lia. Lia nods and speaks up, "They are the Blazes, the creatures of this realm. We tried to sneak up on them but they saw through our invisibility walls and then their leader," she points at the big dude, "Pyros was waiting for us. He was aware of our presence beforehand. And he said Aurelius had told him we could come in handy somehow."

"And who are these Cinders?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at the red robed freaks.

"They seem to hate that name. Seem like enemies," Mikaello grumbles.

Rachelle's face lights up, "Well these Cinders have become our enemies and an enemy's enemy is your friend, right?"

Coral smiles, "Maybe we can get a bargain of some sorts."

"That is what you think of our friend's lives?" Minakshi asks with her eyebrows raised.

"Why don't we just kill them now?" I ask. What? They are two, we are ten. We can easily take them.

Lia shakes her head, "The leader is too powerful. Plus how will we get to know where the key is? We need to make a deal like we did with Aurelius. And I think something involving these Cinders is a good way to go."

I turn to see where the two creatures are.

But well, Mikaello is already walking towards them.

"Hey! Pyros! What's your deal with the Cinders?" He asks the dude as if they hang out every week for a drink.

"You ask a lot of questions," comes the booming voice again. Wherever you stand, it feels just as loud. As if the voice is coming out of the sand itself.

"But they are the... rebels, you can say. Our enemy."

"They have made themselves our enemy as well," Rachelle says carefully.

The other dude whispers something to Pyros, and Pyros seems to nod his head.

"We have a proposition for you," the stupid voice echoes throughout my body again, "But we need you to come with us."

I have never seen Mikaello glare so much at someone before, but hey, there's a first for everything.

He snarls, "But what about Rey?" And after a few moments he adds, "And Gus?"

"The Cinders won't harm them immediately, in fact I think they will be taken care of," this time I hear a different voice, maybe from the other companion who had not spoken until now. Well it was less ear shattering than the big dude, but still did some damage.

Anyway, I don't think the dude had finished his sentence.

"What's the catch?" Rachelle asks.

"They might be sacrificed to the Sun."

Of course that was the catch.

"Did I miss something?" I hear a voice behind and I sigh as I turn around to face a bleary-eyed Augustine who seems to have just woken from his forced little nap.

~

Is it a bad time to say that in the previous few moments, I had the time of my life?

Because, well, turns out, these Blaze people, they can ride the sand.

And let's just say, they are not a fan of going slow.

We had to make two makeshift wooden platforms which Zarren whipped up in like, two seconds.

I stood on one of the bigger ones with Coral, Kaito, Zarren, Avalkyra, Minakshi, Simba and Pyros. Well, I wished I was on the other one because Simba kept insisting on holding my hand, claiming he wanted to protect me from the sand. I don't think he could protect me from the sand but I gave in and held onto his outstretched hand. He seemed to be very happy about that.

And then we shot across the sand at a speed slightly lesser than the speed of light. It took us less than half a minute to reach the city or settlement or whatever the Blazes had, but those seconds were amazing.

The world had sped past us so fast, and the whole time their was air passing by us at such force, making my cheeks ripple and my hair whip around. Well, Simba screaming for his life was a downer but I accept that the fear was justified.

We are currently standing outside a pair of massive black gates with weird swirly designs on them, similar to the ones on the masks of the Blazes.

Pyros steps forward and presses his hand onto a circular cavity in the center and immediately the gate sinks underground into the sand as if it was sinking into a body of water.

And as we step inside the first thought that hits me is that this might just be the most ideal habitat for a Fire User.

There are huge tents set up in all directions, all made of the same white coloured fabric which strangely looked soft as silk to the eye but at the same time, I felt like it could hold the weight of a few elephants. Why are all the places we visit so freaking weird?

There are lit torches in front of each tent and there are a bunch of Blazes, all in full red robes and masks, the only difference in their outfits being the swirls on their masks. Each masked looked unique and distinguishable, like a faerie's birthstone or a human's thumbprint.

Everyone is passing by us, as if completely unbothered by our presence. That kind of hurt my ego but whatever.

"I have Cloaked us, child of the Rivers," Pyros speaks up next to me. Can this dude read minds as well?

That stuff is getting exhausting.

"Cloaked?" I ask, because I feel I was prompted to ask this particular question.

"I have made us invisible so as to not cause a scene."

Makes sense.

I stare in wonder as we pass through the civilization. There are a lot of products made of glass, which is obvious to find in places with so much heat and sand. There are beautiful glass windchimes of different varieties on the front of every tent. There are people holding mud and glass vessels over stoves, as if cooking something. There are smaller creatures running around, throwing and catching...A ball of fire?
There are some tents with various glass wares displayed. One of the test seems to be selling some of that red cloth. All in all, it feels like a normal civilization to look at.

We walk through the chaotic place, dodging unsuspecting passers by, all decked out in their weird and very unwise clothing, and we reach a tent which is thrice as tall as all the others around. Other than that, it has no distinguishable attributes.

I'm living for this kind of equality. Wish we had a similar situation at Neraida. Where Soul Users were treated as Gods and Non-magical folk were treated as dirt.

We enter the tent and I gasp as my eyesight is assaulted by the brightest kind of light.

I am temporarily blind for a second.

Were they not content with destroying my eardrums that they had to destroy my vision as well?

When my vision cleared, all I can say to describe the space in front of me is...beautiful.

There are several glowing orbs above us, of colours of violet, gold and red orbiting around a gigantic white orb in the center of the room, all of them emanating brilliant light of their own.

All of my companions are bathed in brilliant lights of red violet and gold and I stare at Simba's face which is currently alight with a violet hue.

They feel like a representation of the planets, but I know that's not it. This is something similar, yet very different. The way the orbs move around the center, feels wrong. Unbalanced. Like something is missing. They are moving randomly, slowing down and then faster in the most uneven fashion. There is no order left.

"The orbs represent the attributes of the Sun," rumbles Pyros' voice. I am getting used to this voice. I hope.

He points to the one of the violet orbs, "Attraction."

Then the red orb, "Heat."

And then then one of the golden ones, "Light."

I hear Mikaello speak out, "And in the center? The white one?"

"Life."

"There is something missing in this set up, isn't it?" I dare to speak up, I hope I don't regret it.

I can feel Pyros face me, "Yes, Child of the Rivers. There is. And we want you to retrieve it."

"What is it?" Coral asks, almost in a whisper.

"The orbs of Shadow."

Ha ha ha now wait I'm going to predict what the situation is. The Cinders must have been naughty little kids who stole the Shadow orb and ran away and practised magic with it.

"The orbs channel the specific attributes of the sun into them and are thus the source of our powers. Shadow orbs were never used as the ancestors lawfully forbade us to channel it. But they were stolen when we were celebrating our festival of Light. By the Cinder clan. And I am tired of them being a nuisance to us. So yes, I want you to retrieve the orbs before they discover the true extent of those powers."

I get some points for my psychic abilities right?

"Why didn't you get it yourself?" Kaito asks. Normally I would have thought that no one in their right mind would ask such a question. But this is Kaito asking. And he always knows what he's doing.

"They have curses, to prevent me from finding their location, entering their camp. Against all of us blazes. But now that your friends are in their hands, we can track your friends. Plus I suspect that the children of Nature won't be kept out by their wards."

"And how do you propose we retrieve these orbs?" Rachelle speaks out, "We need more information about them. And I want to make sure we get the key if we retrieve them."

"I take an oath in the name of the Sun that I will hand over the key if you retrieve the Shadow orbs and kill the leaders of the Cinder clan."

The orb in the center glows a bit brighter as soon as Pyros stops speaking.

"Wait a minute, killing wasn't included-" Augustine objects but Pyros interjects.

"You would have to kill them to get the orbs, I don't believe stealing is an option anymore."

Great. Just great. We need to kill some powerful dudes practising dark magic and then bring that source of dark magic back with us. Just for a stupid key.

I hate my life.

~

Hello! How was this chapter? I was feeling particularly creative while writing this one, I hope you enjoyed it!

I would appreciate any kind of feedback you wanna give and please, only read the book if you're genuinely interested, don't feel the need to read it just because your OC is there.

Anyways the next chapter is in Augustine's POV, when the action really begins. Stay tuned!