Strayer
Legacy Name: Strayer

Within days we found ourselves marching to the east, toward the white castle town of the Prisms. The beings of light, holed up in their enormous city, were very secretive. Visitors were allowed very rarely, and they were shuffled immediately to the palace for whatever business they'd come for. Despite them having dominion over the beautiful light of the world, there was a darkness in the palace spires…
Our large presence must have frightened them. Within moments the king himself had descended to the gates.
I found myself face to face with him.
...Or rather, face to chin. I needed to take a step back and crane my neck to meet his eyes.
“Scarlet.” He spoke with a snarl, his pale yellow eyes glaring down at me. His hair was blue like the sky and long, pulled into several ornamented ponytails. “You dare threaten us?”
My heart skipped. “No, sir, no threats.” I strained to not put up my hands by reflex – don't look dangerous, I thought. Still, I felt blue sparks tickling my fingertips. “Please.” Despite my confidence when speaking to my own people, my voice quivered in the great presence of the king. “My people ask only for help. Drought plagues our land. We cannot survive there any longer. Please reconsider your restrictions...”
“Silence.” He said it sternly, not raising his voice, but I was certainly silenced. “The restrictions of territory were not put in place by me, fool, but by the gods themselves. You defy the source of your own flames?” His eyes left mine for a brief second to examine my hands. “...Blue.” He said simply.
I hid my hands behind my back quickly. “It's… um,” I felt my composure slipping rapidly. “A nervous habit. My flames. I mean no harm, I-”
A commotion behind the king made me trail off, and a youth suddenly appeared beside the king, roughly shoving him. His long, dark blue hair whirled about him, untamed.
“Father!” The boy shouted, his golden eyes irritated with tears. This was the oft-mentioned prince Mythras, I thought to myself. He looked much like a darker version of his father, though they shared their pale skin.
“How dare you leave the palace.” Again, stern and stable.
“Please listen to them! Look at him!” Mythras turned to me and met my eyes – we were about the same height. “He's scared for his people. He's hungry. We've never had anyone as thin as him in our city!”
The king heard his son's ranting, but didn't seem to be listening. “You two would get along.” He said finally, looking at us both.
I smiled a little at the caring prince, and he gave me a weak smile back. I wondered for a moment if he'd had a childhood like mine, full of mischief despite misery.
“Disappointments and rebels.” The king lifted his hand.
All the terror welling up in me finally burst and I jumped back, shielding myself with my hands and tufts of blue flames.
But nothing came.
“You see how quick he is to use his fire?” The king's voice finally raised and boomed. He was addressing my frightened, exhausted people, as well as the crowd of his own behind him. “At the slightest threat he uses his blue demon flames against me. How is fire of that color benevolent?!”
I only stuttered a response, my head whirling as I tried to quiet my hands. Somewhere in there was a mumbled apology.
“Strayer is our king!” Came a voice from behind me somewhere. “He protects us and cares for us, when you will not!”
“I am the only king!” His son clinging to his cloak, the hulking figure lurched forward. “First you poison our world with your ungodly heat, and now you have false idols?!”
A riot seemed to erupt. All of a sudden my people were chanting my adapted name, calling me their only true king, and their leader.
I could barely see straight. I only half noticed when prince Mythras stepped between his father and I. “Please, father, don't hurt them,” he pleaded to deaf ears.
“If only you could have lived long enough to kill all of your land and yourselves.” His voice returned to the calm level as he closed his eyes. “Unfortunately, Scarlets have a terrible habit of staying alive.” Gritting his teeth he looked at us all again. I knew he saw us only as a mob, a hivemind knowing only hate and rage. He couldn't see the sorrow and suffering behind any of it – only the end result. “No, you rats,” shaking his head, he continued, “Your so-called king's hubris shall be your demise.”
The last thing I saw was his hand being raised, and a whirl of Mythras' hair.
Everything else was sound.
It all started with a roar. It took me a moment to realize that it was in fact dozens, maybe hundreds of voices all crying out. I felt the ground beneath me move despite my stolen vision.
“Hear your people, rat with watery fire.” The king's voice again. “Hear them scream their hate for you, as you've killed them.”
Everything sank beneath the sand. I couldn't see, but I felt. Somehow, all at once, we were back in our territory, our ruined home. People scrambled for their lives, but the earth swallowed them.
I realized then that I was seeing it all in my head – in my mind's eye.
I saw the terror on their faces as they were pulled under, sand pouring into what seemed like an endless hole, perhaps to the center of the earth.
I let myself fall with them. The last thing I heard was my name, screamed by a young prince's cracking, terrified voice.

Watery fire were the first words to go through my mind when I awoke.
I was alone. The room was dark, with small torches faintly lighting around me. It was large, with rows of columns on either side of me. It looked like a palace hall, but where…?
Oh, god.
I recognized it. I knew where I was. I had been in this very room before, over a decade ago. In this room I had sat happily with the last people to feed me. We were all sharing what little food we had, and we were joined in a circle, laughing and talking…
It was our palace. The Hall of Flame, the Scarlet place of worship and joining. So long ago now we would gather here, enjoying company and fun in spite of everything.
The earth was still alive, then.
Now it was abandoned and cold, but the torches--
I scrambled to my feet, struggling with oddly heavy clothing. Rushing to where I thought a window should be, I saw only a dark impression. No windows…?
Enjoy your prison.
I knew the voice. That awful king, of course. But I didn't quite hear it, it was-
This is the last time you will hear me speak, and it is only to your wretched mind. This is where you belong. In your fallen temple of demons, beneath the sand that was once healthy earth. This will be your prison and your grave, Scarlet.
I shouted into the darkness, whirling around, trying to find the source of the voice. Maybe it really was in my mind…
But you will never die. Not while you reside here. Not until there is, say, another like you. With your fire of water. Or water of fire, whichever you seem to wield. You will see everything, and they must see nothing. Not until then will you be allowed free of your new hell, and be allowed to perish.
See everything?
I regretted asking as soon as I did.
My people were dead, and I saw it. I watched them sucked down into the sand, over and over. I started to recognize faces. I saw the defiant girl who told me of the king's viciousness. I watched the light fade from her eyes as she disappeared beneath burning hot waves.
I had killed them all.

How long had it been?
I paraded my palace, running my hands along the sandstone walls, humming to myself.
The images didn't really bother me anymore. It had been long enough, I could push them out. Who cares, right? I'd ask myself, laughing as I kicked at a loose stone.
“Finally, something interesting!” I called out one day, my blank eyes staring at the ceiling. A boy with green eyes. “Beautiful eyes, kid!” I yelled to him, up through the miles of sand above me. I hoped he could hear me.
I could see them again. I smiled. Little ones with fires burning in them. Their golden and green eyes shone through any darkness.
Maybe only a few, but they were there.
“You're alive.” I'd spent my infinite years laughing at nothing, but finally, there was something to truly smile about. “I can see you. All of you. You're all alive and breathing with fire, right?”
Well, just the one.
I laughed again.
“I hope one of you has blue flames!” I spun in circles, admiring my clothes for the millionth time. A beautiful red coat, fine jewelry on my head and around my neck. “He gave me the clothes of a real king, how nice of him, right!?” Though I'd been living in them forever by now, they still dazzled me.
Grinning up at the ceiling again, I closed my eyes and saw the beautiful children of my dreams. It really was true – the world can't exist without balance. You can't simply kill a Scarlet, I told myself for so long. And certainly, you can't simply kill them all at once.
“As long as I live, We do.” I sat down roughly in the middle of the room, my eyes still closed, staring at the ceiling. “I hope I can meet you all someday.”
Sighing, I opened my eyes.
“...I'm sick of this place.”

[art by User not found: nickey][profile, overlay & story by me]