The RisingThe Rising Book One The Darkness Series

Chapter 16

They couldn't move. In awe of her power, in fear of her abilities, they stood, frozen, watching Mira levitate off the floor, and lighting up the room. Her eyes were white with heat, her body nothing but fire and Liem could do nothing but stand by in fear of her.

Someone had the good sense to grab the fire extinguishers, others grabbed pails of water and threw them into the room at the flames as Mira slowly lit the room on fire as she spun. Bit by bit they managed to contain the fire. Then slowly Mira stopped spinning, her flames turned to embers, her eyes went black as if the fire inside her turned to ash.

Mira collapsed on the floor as if a pile of ash from a hot fire that had finished burning bright. The rest of the fire was extinguished by the pails of water that were quickly passed in and out through the door.

Books of magic were scattered around the floor, over the desk pages burned out ashes of those pages were scattered throughout the room, history now and no longer of use to them.

Raine looked at the destruction of her office and cursed under her breath at the woman who caused it.

"She destroyed everything!" Raine cried, furiously as she tried to find anything she could salvage from the mess.

"She didn't have any control, Raine," Liem touched her shoulder in sympathy, knowing she was upset over the fire. "She had no control at all."

Liem cautiously moved past his sister and through the room to Mira and tried to touch Mira's arm, burning his hand for the effort. Her body was burning up.

"Good God, she's burning up!" Liem shook his hand, looking down seeing the blisters already appearing from where his skin met hers.

"Liem, don't touch her again," Raine warned him, before calling for a healer to come help him.

The danger just edged up significantly. It was no longer a threat from Kaiden they needed to worry about. It was Mira. She had no control over her power and less over the fire when it was released.

"Liem, don't!" Raine grabbed his arm pulling him back as he tried to touch her again.

"She needs help," Liem argued with her.

"We can't risk touching her like this," Raine stated, not willing to let anyone else go into the office.

Putting on gloves, Liem turned her over to her back. From here he could check her vitals, monitor her temperature, and make sure she was breathing. Cool her down even. He couldn't do nothing. That isn't the way he was made.

Liem understood Raine's fear, but Mira was just as frightened and she was the one who needed their help at the moment. "She's unconscious, we don't know what damage that fire did to her on the inside. She needs us, Raine. Where's your compassion?"

"Uh, I guess she burned it with the rest of my office! Liem, she's out of control!" Raine isn't wrong, but she isn't completely right either.

"She's scared, and she needs help, we're helping her," without another word Liem went back to Mira to find a way to do just that.

Mira is unconscious but until they can cool her down they are unable to move her. She is barely breathing. The power it took for her to turn into the Emberwing exhausted her. If she had been in a battle, she would be dead right now.

"If we had been attacked, she would have killed all of us," Raine whispered right behind Liem.

"Keep that to yourself!" Liem growled. He knew how bad it could have been if Kaiden had shown up during Mira's little blow up. "We don't need everyone else freaking out anymore than they already are."

"You don't think that they aren't thinking the same thing? Listen to them, Liem? Even I can hear them saying it," Raine knows her brother is only denying the truth.

"I know! But right now I can't deal with that! Mira is the Emberwing!" Liem grabs his hair and tugs hard. "If you weren't convinced before, you better be convinced now! That means if we don't get her on our side now then she's on Kaiden's, I don't think you want that. So stop arguing with me and help me get her stabilized so we can move her to her room."

Raine had to admit when she was wrong. If Kaiden were to get a hold of Mira now with this power, and as out of control as she is, she wouldn't just kill them, she would kill everyone. There would be no one left to fight but her. She knew they couldn't allow that to happen. If need be she would kill Mira herself before she would let that happen.

"Raine! Raine!" Liem yelled, getting her attention.

"What?" Raine snapped looking down at Mira, knowing what she would have to do if necessary.

"Get towels, ice water, ice packs. We have to cool her down," Liem stopped seeing the look in her eyes. "We aren't killing her. She's the Chosen One, you know it, I know it."

"If it comes down to her or us, I won't hesitate to kill her, you better know that, Liem." Raine makes her point clear, "You, Jonah, Naomi, the rest of the men women and children in this group of people who are following us, I've sworn to protect. So know if it comes down to her or us, I choose us."

Raine gathered the others and the healers to help do what they could to help them. They had no choice but to wait until she cooled down. Cold towels were brought in, ice packs, everything that could be used to lower her temperature was used. Nothing worked.

It took hours before Mira's finally came down to a temperature where Liem could touch her and not get burned. His hands were blistered and burned, they were bandaged and bleeding from blister upon blister as he tried to help Mira but he wouldn't give up. He wouldn't let anyone else touch her.

Raine stood at the door and watched over her brother. Just to be sure that Mira didn't fire up again and take Liem with her this time, Raine refused to move. She wasn't losing him too.

As guards changed, the new went out to watch for Kaiden, for Reavers, the old came in for a meal, for a nap. She stopped Cass, the shifter who joined the group in the last move. He poked his head into the room and saw Liem tending to Mira.

"Need help?" He asked, assuming Liem was ready to take her upstairs.

"Not yet. But I need information. I'm hoping you might know something," Raine took his arm and walked away from the room so Liem couldn't hear the conversation. "What do you know about the Emberwing and how she is supposed to be able to end this war?"

"Not much more than you," Cass scratches his little triangle beard and waits until the couple of kids walk by. "From what I've heard the ancient one is supposed to come to train her. When he does we are given a cycle of the earth to prepare. The Emberwing will become and face Pyremius. If she comes back to us, we will succeed in this round."

"If she doesn't?" Raine wonders out loud.

"We lose."

"What do we lose?" Raine doesn't like the sound of that.

"No one knows, but it can't be good," Cass is right about that.

Looking up, Raine sees her brother moving to the doorway. They better make sure they don't lose.

"She's cooled down. We can move her," Liem announces as he scoops up Mira into his arms.

Hurrying back to the office, Cass and Raine help Liem get Mira out of the room. Raine and Cass went back to the office to deal with the mess that was left behind.

"What a mess," Cass grumbles as he starts picking up the fragments of paper and ash that once held spells and curses, healing spells and potions, and numerous other things that could have saved them but now were lost.

"Anything we can salvage, we save. Anything," Raine orders, reading a partial spell that makes no sense to her now. "We don't know what might be important."

"And all of it might be trash. Look Raine, I understand what you're trying to do but this isn't going to help us. Bits and pieces of this and that can't be taped together, you know that, right?" Cass holds out a handful of pieces of paper that don't make sense together anymore.

"We have to try," Raine takes the pieces out of his hand and tries to put them together again.

Shaking his head, Cass goes back to filtering through the ashes in hopes of finding something that could make a difference. He doesn't have much hope but does it for Raine. She seems to need it.

Liem carries Mira up to her room and as gently as he could lays her on the bed. Before he could close the door Naomi and Jonah along with Torak were in the room.

"Is she going to be okay?" Jonah asked, crawling up on the bed next to Mira. "Those flames were really big."

"Yeah, they were," Liem grabbed his son and pulled him off the bed. "I thought I told you to stay in your room?"

"We got bored. And Naomi said that you were moving Mira so we figured you could use some help," Jonah grinned as he snuggled his wolf as if the wild animal was a tame dog.

"She's had a rough morning, kids. I don't think..."

"I won't hurt them, Liem." Mira's groggy, rough voice got our attention. "That's what you're afraid of. That I'll set fire to the room and hurt the kids. I won't hurt them, but I understand why you would worry. Jonah I'm sorry I can't play you guys anymore. I have to earn your dad's trust again. Do as he says," Mira tells the kids to go which seems to have a better response than his own.

"I'm sorry, Mira. It's just that... you were on fire. You set the entire room on fire," Liem acts like this is crazy. He’s seen crazier things recently than this.

"I'm the Emberwing. What did you expect?" It's a stupid question but she ask it anyway. "You can read people's minds, I can break, then mend a windshield, there was a sorcerer here you couldn't see. Why is fire such a hard skill to have?"

"I'm not saying that. It was a shock," Liem is still in shock.

"Okay, well you recover from your shock, I'm tired. I need rest. Please don't poke at me. Let me sleep. I'll let you know when I'm ready to talk." Rolling over, Mira pulled the covers over her body and settled into her bed. Without another word she was back to sleep just that fast.

Liem, confused and a bit annoyed, closed the door behind him. He had been slapped at and dismissed with a snap of her finger. He didn't like it and hoped he was in a better mood by the time she woke up. She just might burn down another room before he's done with her.

Mira remained in her room for days. Liem's frustration with her only grew as time passed. As time passed he became increasingly concerned about her too. Because of that he had Naomi and Torak keep watch over her. As Liem was needed to help keep the camp safe now that Kaiden knew where to find them.

The full moon is days away now and there's no telling when Kaiden will be back. Mira seems to be on her own timetable in her room. She isn't talking to anyone but Naomi who brings her food and drinks when she asks. Other than that, Mira isn't communicating.

It isn't safe to stay much longer. It isn't safe to leave. And with their only weapon unable to fight, Raine is forced to keep every single man she has on watch. When the old man stepped out of the woods and into their camp a week after Mira had transformed into the Emberwing, everyone was on high alert.

"I come in peace I assure you," the old man waved for a young child to come along with him. "We mean no harm. My name is Dewin, I'm a sorcerer, and the ancient one. This is Willow, she's a fairy and a healer. I'm here for Mira Hagen, the Emberwing."

Liem rose to his feet as Raine came out of the building to meet the strangers. Liem reached into his son's mind and told Jonah and Naomi to stay inside with Torak as others came out at word of the sorcerer's arrival.

"I'm Liem and this is my sister..."

"Raine," Dewin finished his sentence for him. "I've heard of both of you. You have taken great care of the Chosen One until she became. We are grateful."

Dewin bows his head and gives them a small smile. Motioning to Willow, the fairy came forward with baskets of fruits and breads. Passing the gifts to the others, the fairy stepped back and waited for the sorcerer to give her his next order.

"This is wonderful, thank you," Liem looked at the baskets knowing that provisions were getting low and this just gave them a few more days.

"You don't have much time left, Kaiden will be back on the next full moon. He will want to collect the Emberwing. She must not be here when he comes. Neither must you. He will destroy any and all in his path," Dewin warned them.

He was not there for pleasantries or to be neighborly. This is war. Whether they are aware of the danger of the world they are living in or not, it is time they learn the truth of the world they are in.

"Kaiden is Pyremius' right hand. If he has been here, you can be sure that Pyremius will be here soon. You must leave and leave the Emberwing to me." Dewin gave his order.

"No offense, but we don't know you," Liem reached for his warriors and warned them. "You won't be taking anyone until we know we can trust you."

As the security gathered around Dewin, guns aimed at the sorcerer readied to fire. The old man looked at the weapons as mere toys and swatted them away with a wave of his hand. Guns melted or were thrown into the bushes, startling the men holding them and scaring others.

"Please tell me you have better than that for protection, dear sir?" The Sorcerer waited as the security got to their feet confused with what just happened.

"You have magicks, why do you not use them?" He asked, looking around at each face. "You are a witch, and you a sear, you a shifter, and you fairy, a healer, another witch, yet you don't learn your gifts! Is this how you plan to fight your war!"

"We don't know how to use our powers," Liem spoke, uncertain which side the old man was actually on.

"Then it's time you do, because Pyremius is coming and will have a trained army with him!"