Almost instinctively, the three royals were pushed into the center of the group, Frank with them as he was handed to the twins to support. The four guards and two tutors took up a circle around them, using her as the top edge of the circle. She hadn’t had to warn them that this leg of the journey was bound to be dangerous. All they had to do was look at the mesmer on the ground next to her, eyes flashing with hatred as he stared at Jade.
Tevon woke up during her healing, but unable to move or speak, all he could do was struggle ineffectually and glare. So he did that. “Are we taking him with us?” Tisha’s voice was tentative as she stared out of the circle at her once-uncle.
“Yes, we’re taking him with us. I need to see if I can reverse the process, but not here.” Tevon’s eyes flashed in slight panic at her words, but she nodded back to the circle. “Get ready.”
She constructed the wind bubbles around both her group and Tevon, lowering their gravity, then took a deep breath and lifted. There were several gasps as they left the ground, but otherwise everyone huddled a little more closely together as they rose through the darkness. Soon, the flickering flames that she’d barely been able to view became more prominent.
The air began to heat as they neared the top. It immediately cooled again as Jade drew the heat into her, taking it as energy to boost her. They made it to the top of the shaft without any incidents and were now inside the stone building at the base of the tree. Looking out the door, she heard one of the guards mumble, “The cleansing fires of heaven come upon those who turn their face from her.”
She ignored the notes of religious zealotry in his voice as she picked out what she could recognize from among the flames. There were charred bodies everywhere. The trees glowed like red hot embers, though most of the actual flames moved on from the area, instead spreading outwards. Every one of the sickened trees caught fire in her attack, but she could see the mesmer attempting to put the flame out on the healthy basaigh trees. The trees themselves were resistant to the fire, but it was still slowly, if surely, spreading.
“The refiner’s fire leaves only the pure behind…” The words fell from her lips as she maneuvered them towards the flame, the others floating behind her in the protection of pure air. They moved out into the fiery blazes, moving up. She could see the efforts of the mesmer to stop the spread more clearly now. Some were trying to move dirt, some cutting off fiery limbs with their claws to try and throw them back to what had already been burned.
Her magic stretched out from her. It was further than she should be able to reach, bridged only by the knowledge that this was HER fire. She’d created it, and thus it still held remnants of her magic. She could feel the flames in a circle all around her, an epicenter of destruction.
There were so many mesmer; they’d doubtlessly been attracted by the light and fire, and the fact that this was the main nest. They came to defend, only to realize that what they needed to defend was the forest if they wanted to continue living here. Razing the forest was one way to possibly get rid of them, rout them out from their hiding spots...but she didn’t yet know if she could save them or not.
Still, the temptation to reduce their numbers was there. She couldn’t get away if there were hundreds of mesmer chasing them. With that in mind, the fire flared briefly, attacking those who sought to put it out. It was just a brief moment, but she could hear the screams of pain echoing throughout the forest.
The fire began retreating, leaving the live trees as she drew it towards the center of the nest like a swirling vortex of death. It gathered like a fiery tornado, and Jade used that to push her group ever higher, drawing the flame to her and absorbing its energy. The trees that had been embers were now consumed and began to crumble, the energy of life gone from within them.
That gave her an idea, however. She used wind to grab the crumbling trees of ash, and with a colossal effort as they cleared the top of the trees, she burst them apart, sending a cloud of dust barreling through the trees. The entire area below was obscured in ash, the air muffling the choking noises below them.
Her mana sense active, she could still see vague blobs moving about beneath her. Further out, she could see colors; they were the magical creatures who’d been drawn over by the fire, but were hanging back so they didn’t become mesmer fodder. She couldn’t tell what kind of monsters they were from this distance, but they became her targets and scapegoats.
The tainted blood was released from her ring, and she unhesitatingly shot it like little blood bullets towards the creatures she could see in any direction. Squeals of pain as the blood embedded itself in their bodies, or in some further cases, splashed against their fur. These creatures scattered in pain and fright, running away from the remains of the burning conflagration.
They would become the targets for her. The mesmer could sense tainted marks making their escape. High in the sky, they couldn’t see her, but they could scent the creatures she’d tainted. She directed her bubbles higher, sending them rocketing through the night towards the edge of the forest. Reaching behind her, she handed a mirror to the confused Tisha without looking.
“Contact your parents.”
Chapter Eleven – Flight
“Oh. Okay.” Jade spared a glance back at Tisha, who was staring nervously at the mirror. The twins were scooting as close as they could while still propping Frank up. All four of them were staring avidly at it as she saw Tisha feed her mana into the mirror.
“-ad, Jade is calling, maybe she can tell us--Tisha!?” Jade could hear Victor’s voice coming through the mirror as she faced forward, concentrating on shooting them through the sky while still eavesdropping in on the conversation. From what she could hear, Victor was the one with the mirror and had not been looking at it when he answered.
“Give me that!” Ashanna’s voice was practically frantic as Jade pictured her stealing the mirror from her son. “Tisha! Hayden, Hunter! Are you okay? Where are you? What’s going on?” Soft sobs came through the mirror, and she guessed that the queen was having something of a nervous breakdown--perhaps it was one of relief at seeing her children.
“Mom, it’s okay. We’re okay now. Jade saved us.” Hunter’s quiet voice spoke from over Tisha’s shoulder, and Jade glanced back again to see him smiling tiredly at whoever was on the other side. He glanced around, meeting her eyes as she nodded to him, then turned back to the front as he went on, “Right now...we’re...in the sky? Flying.”
“Jade has you all flying with her?” Victor’s voice was filled with curiosity. He hadn’t been there when she showed the view to Ashanna and Derrick. Tisha and the others obviously made some sort of confirming motion, because he let out a sigh, “Lucky.”
“Hey, gimme the mirror.” Jade reached her hand back as she spoke, still watching the trees below. When she felt the cool glass slide into her hand, she lifted it in front of her so she could see the worried and relieved faces of the royal family. “All right, business first now. Flying this many people is not going to last forever. I should be able to get us out onto the plains, but we’ll have to walk from there. You need to warn Marcelle to hunker down, stay as quiet as possible, and no one leaves the bunker for any reason.”
Derrick seemed to understand the quickest as he questioned, “The light?” It took her a second to realize that her pyrotechnics display had likely been visible even from Abala. That tended to happen when you created a huge amount of light in the dark of night. Whether it was her light, lightning, or the fire, the light pollution in the sky would have been spotted.