As he stepped into the whirlwind, Merik was surrounded by swirling jets of air that should have knocked him back. Instead, all he felt was a gentle breeze wrapping itself around his body. A flash of what he thought was lightning caused him to stop short of his goal. His head suddenly ached as a memory came rushing back.
Jade was lying limp in his arms in the healing pool behind the quarry. He had been listening to her heart, his head pressed against her thin chest. A single tear ran down the side of her face, mirroring his own as he realized she was gone. He raised his head slightly and looked at her face in the light of the single candle. She looked peaceful, ready for whatever afterlife she faced.
As he closed his eyes and laid his head on her chest once again, he realized the forest had become unnervingly silent around them. He glanced up, wondering if danger lurked nearby, but he didn't have long to ponder that thought. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a thin white wisp rise from Jade's open mouth, causing him to gasp in surprise. He watched the softly glowing wisp rise hesitantly above the woman, as if it were not sure it wanted to leave her just yet.
Rather than fading into the night as he expected, the wisp hovered just above Jade's body expectantly. Unsure of himself, but somehow sensing no harm would befall him, he reached out to see if he could touch the mysterious thing. It pulled away from him at first, but then drew closer, eventually wrapping itself around his arm in what could only be described as a loving gesture.
It caressed him for a soft moment, and then with barely a whisper, it was gone, disappearing into the blackness that surrounded him. He could not tell at the time if he had been hearing things or the wisp had actually spoken to him, but now he heard its words clearly. The voice sounded familiar to him. "Thank you," was all it said as it departed from his sight.
--------------------
"NO!" Kala yelled, rushing forward. The wind coming off the storm was too intense for her to follow Merik. After a few steps, she was forced back with the rest of the growing crowd of Servants. Logan and Sam approached, Logan leaning heavily on her friend.
"We have to get out of here now, Kala!" Logan yelled in her ear. "There's nothing you can do...they've tried." He gestured to the others standing around her. "Merik's gone. I'm sorry, but we need to go before that sonofabitch lights this place up." To punctuate his statement, lightning crashed down behind them, striking one of the quarry walls. It was then that Kala noticed the remaining Air Servants ringing the camp.
"Look," she yelled at the others, pointing toward the enemy Servants. "We have to stop them! They're helping him..."
--------------------
Coming out of the trance with a start, Merik remembered where he was, even though he had no idea how he had managed to get this far. Still, the memory had triggered something within him that urged him on. He began walking again, passing both of the women who had joined Tannish inside the protective circle. With Tannish in his sights now, he continued his lonely march.
Despite the strong winds he knew were whipping around him, he felt nothing more than a gentle breeze as he approached the King. Tannish had his eyes closed, his head back, and his arms open wide. Merik had seen that stance once before. He vowed at that moment he would not allow this lunatic to kill anyone else he loved.
--------------------
Sam turned toward the quarry walls, following Kala's gaze. She had noticed earlier that these Air Servants weren't moving around like the others, but hadn't thought anything of it until now. "She's right," she said, releasing Logan and taking a fellow Fire Servant's hand. "Let's go, people."
Kala turned to Logan, who was shaking his head in disagreement. "It's the only chance he's got, Logan. I can't leave him."
Sam glanced over her shoulder, knowing her friend was hurting. "He's tough, Kala. He'll make it, but you need to focus...now get your ass over here and let's take these guys out."
"How?" Kala asked. Sam realized she had never seen Kala appear so weak and distraught...not even when she'd returned to Chicago after losing her two friends to the group of Fallen Servants. Turning to her friend, she took her by both hands and stared hard into her eyes, not saying a word.
"OK," Kala said after a brief moment, her shoulders relaxing somewhat. "OK, Sam...I get it."
"Good; now you're with me," Sam said, winking at Kala. "We're gonna need a diversion..."
--------------------
Merik approached Tannish carefully, occasionally glancing over his shoulder at the other two Servants who were deep in concentration behind him. The storm continued to build around and above them, but Merik knew how to stop it. Kala had given him that answer not long after they'd first met...interrupt the King's concentration.
Standing in front of the man who had killed his brother, Merik reached up and grasped him around the throat, squeezing hard enough to elicit an immediate response. Tannish gasped and reached for his neck, his eyes popping open in surprise.
Merik had not figured out what he would do beyond this initial step. As Tannish struggled to free himself, a sensation Merik had never felt before permeated his body and mind. He felt suddenly ill...very ill...but not the kind of illness one should recover from after a few days of rest. This sickness went deep, and Merik knew instantly that it wasn't his own. Tannish must have felt something too because he stopped struggling and simply looked into Merik's eyes.
Merik could see hatred and anger in his enemy's eyes, but he saw something else as well. Behind the anger, he saw fear. He knew at that moment what he needed to do.
"I'm not going to kill you, Tannish," he promised as the storm began to die back around them. "Instead, I'm going to take away the one thing you value more than anything else...more than your own life."
With that, Merik closed his eyes and placed his free hand over Tannish's mouth...and waited. The response was almost immediate. A dance of white light played across his eyelids, and his mind became still. Three weeks earlier, Merik would never have known he was capable of something like this. But now, as he allowed his mind to relax amidst all the chaos, it seemed he had known this gift was his all along.
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Standing over the unconscious form of one of Tannish's rear guard, Kala looked back toward the storm. As each enemy Air Servant was dispatched, the storm had grown weaker. Now, she could just barely make out four distinct forms within the swirling mass of wind and debris.
Sam stepped to her side, watching the storm as well. "I see him," Kala said. "He's there, Sam. We need to get him out before Tannish..."
"Just stop, K," Sam interrupted. "You don't know what's going on in there. Until we know what we're up against, we've done all we can do."
Kala's heart pounded against her rib cage. She couldn't just leave Merik to fend for himself against Tannish. He'd never survive.
Shaking her head, she turned momentarily to her friend, "No, this is my fight...not his."
"Kala..." Sam began as Kala broke away from her and sprinted off in the direction of the weakening whirlwind. "Kala, NO!"
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Tannish's eyes were as wide as saucers. His mind was a jumble of emotion...anger and fear battled back and forth for supremacy. All he knew was that this man was not normal. He wasn't even a Servant. He was something else...something Tannish could not control. The stranger was the one in control now...and that fact frightened Tannish more than anything ever had before.
Tannish struggled against a mounting pressure building within his body. It felt as if something extremely powerful was trying to escape. He wasn't sure what was happening, but somehow he knew he had to stop it. He pushed the fear aside and called forth the anger, hoping he could use that stored energy to defeat the mystery man...and gain control once more.
As Tannish fought in vain, a fleeting memory passed through his mind. The man had said he was going to take something away...what exactly did that mean?
Tannish jerked involuntarily as the answer surfaced. He knew what the stranger was trying to do now, but he didn't believe it. It couldn't be possible...could it?
--------------------
Merik could no longer hear or feel what was going on around him. All of his being was focused on reaching out to the wisp he knew resided within Tannish...the same wisp he had seen leave Jade's body. He could sense it now, but it felt different than Jade's...tainted somehow.
Merik suddenly realized that Tannish's elemental spirit, for lack of a better way to describe it, was in the process of falling. It made sense now...the sensation of illness he had felt when he first grasped Tannish by the neck...that was the Darkness seeping in.
How could Tannish function with that feeling constantly reverberating through his body and soul? For a brief moment, Merik pitied the man who had murdered so many in cold blood. But the moment didn't last long. It was time to end Tannish's reign of malicious power.
In Merik's mind, he could now see Tannish's spirit struggling to fend him off. Tannish's body jerked and thrashed against Merik's strong hold. Somehow he knew that no amount of struggle would save the King now. Taking an unconscious deep breath, Merik pulled back and away from Tannish, releasing his hold on the man's neck and mouth.
As Merik's hand came free, Tannish's mouth opened wide. A rush of light and what looked like a thin puff of white smoke flashed from his throat and rose slowly into the air over Merik's head. Following the wisp as it lifted skyward, he stretched out his hand to touch it. The wisp paused, as if it could sense Merik's intent. Swirling back down toward the earth, it began to glide effortlessly in and out of his outstretched fingers, caressing him lovingly just as Jade's spirit had done. For a brief moment, Merik thought he could see the fuzzy outline of a face in the thin wisp of air. It paused to look at him briefly before continuing its rise to freedom. He heard the soft whisper again as it floated lazily away: "Thank you."
--------------------
As Kala raced toward Merik, the whirlwind noticeably fizzled and stalled. The swirls of mist and fog settled to the ground, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared. Kala slowed as she took in the scene before her.
Merik was standing in front of Tannish with his arm raised to the sky. A wisp of what appeared to be white smoke rose slowly into the air above his outstretched hand. Tannish looked utterly devastated. He had physically withered and appeared as though he had aged 20 years. The other two Servants within the circle had opened their eyes and were simply staring at the two men before them.
Silence reigned. No one spoke. Tannish's ragged breathing was all that could be heard throughout the quarry. It seemed to echo off the dripping limestone walls.
In one brisk movement, Tannish collapsed to the ground, his right hand reaching for his throat. He began coughing violently. The coughing intermingled with his raspy breathing created a sickly sound.
--------------------
At first, Tannish felt as though he had awakened from a nightmare. The storm stopped suddenly, and he realized he was no longer being held at arm's length by the stranger. His heart hammered against the walls of his chest, and he couldn't seem to catch his breath. When he was able to breathe, the sound that echoed from his lungs was unbearable.
He collapsed to the ground in a fit of coughing, struggling to maintain consciousness as pain wracked his body. It was as if his very soul had been ripped through his skin. But he knew it wasn't his soul that had left his weak body...it was Her.
Gaia's spirit no longer resided within him. Without even trying, he knew he could no longer summon the winds to his will. His power was gone. That was what the man had promised, and it was truly the worst punishment of all.
--------------------
Merik was the first to take action after Tannish collapsed to the ground. Realizing he was still surrounded by the enemy, he turned his head slowly toward Sarah and the other Servant who had helped fuel the storm. Merik's gaze never faltered as he walked purposefully toward Sarah.
As he neared, she took a wary step backward and pushed both hands out in front of her as if pleading for him to stop advancing. He heeded her silent plea and stood still, watching her with eyes that dared her to challenge him. Anger still swelled in his chest, but he knew the war was won. Tannish was finished, and given the way these people had blindly followed him into battle, he assumed they would offer no further resistance without his command.
Sarah opened her mouth slightly as if to say something, but then closed it again and took a deep breath. She stepped to the side so her fellow Servants could see her clearly, her eyes nervously watching Merik to determine whether or not he would make an attempt to stop her.
When he didn't, she spoke. "It's over," she said resolutely, her eyes scanning the crowd. "It's time for us to leave."
--------------------
Kala's jaw dropped as Sarah glanced beseechingly at Merik and waited. He nodded ever so slightly and she moved past him toward Tannish, who was still floundering on the ground. Was it really over? It couldn't possibly be that simple.
Her brain was still trying to process the scene when Merik turned to face the crowd. His eyes seemed different at that moment...distant, yet focused. She couldn't explain it, but she knew something had happened to him inside that storm...something that would change the course of his life.
--------------------
"Holy shit," Logan whispered to no one in particular as Merik moved toward the growing crowd. He watched in awe as his friend stepped lightly over Tannish's prone form, eliciting a brief glare from Sarah who was kneeling at her fallen king's side. The look didn't last long as she glanced from Merik back down to Tannish. Instead of the anger Logan expected to see in her eyes, he saw only pity.
Kala was standing only a few feet from Merik as he approached the crowd, but he didn't appear to notice her. He was staring out at the people before him, making eye contact with each one in turn. When he got around to Logan, recognition dawned and he seemed to snap out of his trance.
--------------------
When Merik found Logan in the crowd, everything seemed to fall back down to earth in one huge splash of realization. Before, he felt as though he was floating just above the ground as he walked toward the crowd. His mind was encased in a fog and yet he was still aware of any potential threat, had one been present. He assessed each person before him, knowing he had only just met them, but feeling as though he had known them his entire life.
When his eyes settled on his friend, the fog suddenly lifted and reality flashed brightly before his eyes. He blinked and shook his head, looking down to make sure he was in fact walking on the earth. When he looked up, Kala was at his side, concern evident on her face.
He reached out and touched her shoulder before brushing gently past her. Addressing the crowd, he began, "This war is finished. Your king is just a man now...like he once was. In the past, he would be tried for his crimes, but this isn't the past."
He turned back toward Tannish, who was rising from the ground with Sarah's considerable help. Tannish's eyes met his and a breath of silence passed over the crowd as the two men contemplated one another. Tannish made no attempt to speak or challenge Merik. He simply looked back down to the ground, leaning on Sarah for support.
--------------------
Sarah knew what was coming next. This powerful stranger would demand Tannish pay for his crimes right here and now, but she wasn't going to let that happen. She didn't know who or what the man was, but she had to try to convince him to allow her king to live.
Slowly she removed herself from Tannish, letting him slip back down to the ground at her feet in his shame and pain. She took a tentative step toward the stranger.
"Who are you?" she asked quietly, but her voice still carried over the crowd.
"Merik," was his reply.
"That's not what I mean," she prompted.
"I know what you mean...you want to know what I am, not who. I'm not going to tell you that."
Sarah wondered if the man even knew himself, but rather than press the issue further, she posed a new question.
"You said it yourself, just as I did...our little war is finished. All we want to do now is go home."
"And do what? Build a new army? Give your former king time to heal and rise to power again? That's not going to happen...not after what he did."
"What he did was defend his people," Sarah began before thinking better of pursuing that line of thought. Attempting to kill innocent people in this camp was not a defense. It was an assault. Tannish's war wasn't with these people...it had been with Kala, but even now she couldn't understand why that had mattered so much to him. What had Kala really done to them?
Merik cocked his head to the right ever so slightly and waited for her to start again. Sarah knew he was giving her a second chance. She took it.
Lifting her chin a bit higher, she said, "I've been with Tannish for a while now. I know the man he's become...and the man he once was. I don't know what he's done to you personally, but the man you see before you today isn't the man I fell in love with. The power changed him. It's changed us all..."
Her eyes dropped to the ground as she remembered some of her own trials and tribulations over the past six years. After a moment, she continued, "So now you've given him a chance to be the man he was again by taking away that power. Are you really going to just kill him after going to all that trouble?"
--------------------
Merik's eyes narrowed as he listened. She had a point. He had done as he promised. He had taken away the one thing Tannish valued more than even his own life. Now what?
"Let us go and you'll never hear of Tannish again," Sarah continued. "I'll see to that. We'll remain in Charleston, but Tannish will resign as mayor. The council can re-convene and hold elections. We'll work with the people instead of treating them like children." She turned and looked down at her fallen king as she spoke.
Merik watched her carefully. Some small part of him believed she was telling the truth. But the rest of him wasn't convinced quite yet.
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As she finished her plea, Sarah began to see Tannish in a new light. Suddenly she realized she had always disagreed with the way he treated the normal humans back in Charleston. Although they were often called Gaia's "children," she believed it was never meant to be a literal translation.
Some of the world's remaining population had been blessed with elemental power, but that didn't make them gods. Gaia would never have wanted that. Her children were the future, and Sarah and her kind were the ones delegated to protect that future.
It was people like Tannish who stood in the way.
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As Tannish looked up imploringly into Sarah's eyes, Merik could tell a light had switched on. It seemed Tannish's captain was more than he had bargained for. Perhaps releasing him to her care was an even better way of achieving his revenge, rather than simply killing the man. Maybe she was telling the truth after all.
She was obviously the one with the power now. Tannish would become a mere pawn if that was her wish. He would do as he was commanded and never harm another person again without cause. That same small sliver of acquiescence was pulsing inside his brain again, telling him everything would be alright now.
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Tannish knew he was beaten. But he wasn't thinking of Merik as the victor. Instead he saw only Sarah, towering above him with a look of both pity and disgust on her beautiful face. He had underestimated her all along. Even now he recognized the very pheromone he had used on her these past months. It wafted over him with a sensual power, assaulting his senses and leaving him wanting more...of her.
When she looked away sadly, he felt heartbroken, as if he would never feel her touch again...never feel the comfort she provided with just a look...never feel the love that radiated all around him when he was in her presence. He knew most of these emotions were being powered by the pheromone, but he couldn't resist. That was, after all, the entire point, wasn't it?
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Kala watched the drama unfold before her. Finally realizing she had been holding her breath as Sarah spoke, she released it in a long sigh. She could see the defeat in Tannish's eyes and the certainty in Merik's. He had made his decision.
Hoping to catch his eye to let him know she agreed, she took a couple of tentative steps forward. She stopped though as Merik looked into Sarah's bright eyes and nodded before turning to face the crowd again. He glanced in her direction, and his eyes softened for a moment.
Still holding her gaze, he said, "Go home...all of you. Follow Sarah's directive. Be the Servants you were made to be...and honor your goddess."