The RisingThe Rising Book One The Darkness Series

Chapter 15

They dug the grave and buried the woman. She didn’t even know her name. Mira sat off at a distance as those who did know her mourned her. She watched as the mourners looked in her direction accusingly, wondering why she didn’t save the woman’s life.

Mira wished she had. She wished she knew how to do that. If she had that ability she would have done it. If she had been able to do anything she would have. Kaiden is too powerful. And she doesn’t know how to use her power.

That has to change if she is to play her part in this fight.

“She’s not going to help us if she doesn’t accept her power, Liem.” Raine told her brother. Her thoughts aren’t quiet.

Liem, much more gently, responds, “I’m aware, but I can’t force her to do something that she isn’t ready to do.”

Mira’s hands squeeze the edge of the table as her eyes meet with Liem’s. She heard the same sentiment from the others. Some thought worse of her. She couldn’t tell them that she didn’t have the power to fight back against Kaiden. His power was stronger than anything she ever felt.

They wouldn’t understand it. They wouldn’t believe her. They saw her as a savior, as the one who was to end this war with the darkness. She was barely an adult! She can’t even drink alcohol yet! Not that it matters to them!

Suddenly her hands felt hot, too hot. Removing them from the wood table, she shifted her position, rubbing her hands on her legs. Mira didn’t notice the burn marks on the table in the shape of her hands. She didn’t see the bright orange embers of the wood still burning.

She was angry that they felt she was responsible for the woman’s death. She didn’t break the woman’s neck, Kaiden did. Mira was trying to figure out how her power works and what she was supposed to be but it didn’t exactly have a manual to it.

And this Dewin, this great sorcerer, who was supposed to help her, was nowhere to be found. How was she supposed to learn from someone who wasn’t even here?

The wind began to stir around her, the leaves on the ground lifted spinning into a funnel little by little picking up more and more pieces of wood and leaves, dirt and bits, spinning and circling in a cone shaped windstorm.

The crowd gathered for the service hurried inside seeing the tempest whirling closer to them. It picked up speed and lifted one of the trucks off the ground. Mira didn’t move. She watched in awe as the storm made the others run in fear.

“Mira get inside!” Liem begged her to join them.

“It’s my storm! It won’t hurt me!” She replied and walked closer to the storm.

Her hair was thrown this way and that, in her face and covered her eyes as she stood in the eye of the storm. Everything the wind touched and picked up was flying around her. From the leaves off the trees to the picnic table she was sitting on only moments ago. Mira looked at Liem from inside the cyclone and saw his fear.

“Mira you have to stop this, please. You’re going to hurt someone or yourself.” He begged her but got no response.

“She’s out of control, Liem. Are you sure she’s on our side or is she on Kaiden’s?” Raine asked, furious with Mira’s little outburst.

Neither of them saw the girl walk outside. They weren’t paying attention to her. They didn’t see until it was too late when she approached the whirlwind and started to walk into it. That’s when they saw Mira’s power.

The cyclone opened widened like a mouth and carefully set the truck, the table and everything else right back where it belonged. Naomi, unharmed and happy to see her friend, hugged Mira and sat down on the picnic table with her.

Liem, Raine and others come back out to see the outside as if nothing happened at all. One by one they inspected the truck, the trees but kept their distance from Mira. All of them now know just how powerful she is.

“They’re scared of you,” Naomi stated, watching the adults talk behind their hands.

“They should be,” Mira muttered then looked at the little girl by her side, “why aren’t you?”

“You’re the Emberwing. You’re the protector. You won’t hurt me.” Naomi smiled innocently and took Mira’s hand into hers.

“You have more faith in me than I do,” Mira murmured, still unsure of herself.

“That’s okay, I’ll just have to have enough faith for both of us,” The young girl sounds more confident than Mira feels.

Looking up from her spot on the table she looks toward the door and the group of people huddled together. They are watching her and Naomi talking amongst themselves as if she doesn’t know that they are talking about her. Mira knows exactly what they are saying. She doesn’t even need her power to know what they are saying.

Liem looks over his shoulder and sees Mira sitting on the picnic table watching the group finish saying their piece. He knows it’s hurting her and there’s nothing he can do to protect her. Mira doesn’t acknowledge him. She knows this was her fault.

They blame her because she doesn’t know how to control her power. They aren’t wrong in that. She can’t control it anymore than she understands what her power actually is.

Kaiden said she has to be open to her power. What does that mean? Open? Accept? She accepts she has some kind of magicks. What that magick is she doesn’t know yet. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t accept it.

She can communicate without speaking to Liem, to Naomi, maybe others. She can cast spells. So she is possibly a witch? That would be convenient but it’s not everything. She gets visions, dreams - violent and emotional, previews of past and current events. And absolutely no control over any of it. Emberwing? She’s been called that several times now. What is an Emberwing? It’s time to find out.

Going into the building, Mira went into Raine’s office. She has collected quite a collection of books on magic and history, geography and war. Looking through the books, Mira finds one that might have what she’s looking for.

Sitting on the floor, she is hidden from anyone passing by, and begins reading the information about the legend of a mythical creature. A phoenix called an Emberwing.

A powerful Phoenix that cannot die, each time the creature is thought to “die” it erupts in flames and comes back stronger. The Emberwing is made of bright orange flames and has a large wingspan. “Well, that’s not me!”

The Phoenix rises from the ashes and becomes the bird of power and light. It has the ability to be good and evil. “Great!” That explains why Pyremius wants her.

“What are you doing in here?” Raine’s tone is more accusatory than anything else. “This is my office!”

“I was trying to figure out what I am! I’m trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do!” Mira shot back just as angry as Raine.

“You should have asked permission first. Weren’t you taught manners growing up?” Raine saw the irritation on her brother’s face but ignored it. She is tired of the gloved handed treatment he gives the girl.

“I have manners and I use them with those who show me respect. You don’t. So I don’t see the point of offering you any.” Mira clenched her hands in frustration.

She didn’t like fighting but she isn’t wrong about digging around in Raine’s things. She needs to know the truth about her power. It makes her stomach churn a bit knowing that she might be in the wrong but she isn’t going to admit to it. Not when Raine is determined to treat her with such contempt.

“Mira, you need to calm down,” Liem speaks softly as if he is trying to be on her side after all this.

“Don’t do that! I know where you stand!” Mira snapped, angry at everyone.

Holding his hands up in surrender, Liem tries again to get her to settle down. “Mira, calm down, please. Let’s just talk about this calmly.”

“Because I’m the bad guy! Right?” Sparks shot from her fingertips. “I’m the one who killed that woman right? It was my fault Kaiden killed her! I didn’t do anything to stop him! I heard what everyone was thinking! They were all thinking the same things!”

The flames were small but did the job. The book on the table caught on fire, page after page flamed up between them. All Mira could do was watch. She was cornered in by the fire, stuck by her own making and knew she couldn’t get out.

Liem called for help and grabbed a fire extinguisher. Between him and two others they put the fire out but it wasn’t easy. The fire kept coming back. As if it had a mind of its own. When it was finally out Liem looked at Mira and her eyes now looked like the flames.

“I can ignite it, with my mind,” she whispered as if surprised by this realization.

“Don’t do it again, Mira. We need this building for shelter.” Liem reminded her.

Her eyes lifted to meet his. Still she wasn’t seeing him but the flames. There was something else in her eyes that worried him. Something that seemed darker and dangerous.

“I can control the flames. I’m the Emberwing. The Phoenix who rises from the ashes to live for all eternity. I am life and I am death. I am light and I am dark. I am the catapult of the war to end the war.”

Liem wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. But he, with Raine by his side, watched Mira open to her power. She lifted off the floor, her arms wide, as she rose her arms wide at her sides they changed first to wings then to fire. Inch by inch Mira’s body flamed.

“She’s a Phoenix,” Raine whispered reverently.

Taking his sister’s hand, Liem corrected her. “No, she’s the Emberwing.”