Prologue
A child sat in the middle of the floor of his house, staring, enraptured by his hands. His hair fluttered as intense heat scoured his surroundings and pulled air around the boy upwards through the cracks of the wooded roof above him. His breathing quickened as his lungs struggled to find suitable air in the middle of a burning room but his eyes lay fixated on his palms. His scattered mind stared into the flames consuming his hands.
The boy couldn’t look at his home being torched to ash, no glimpse of what remained to reinforce any memory, no sentimental thoughts stayed long in his head. The child could only stare at his hands as they burned brighter and more red than any fire he had seen before. Dried spots of tears remained on his face before they evaporated. He expected excruciating pain but instead was granted wonder and unnatural warmth. His heart was beating madly, even despite his lack of oxygen, filling his veins with a vigor he had never experienced before. His consciousness seemed to grow and extend itself into the crimson flame engulfing his hands, and acted as kindling to keep them lit around his hands.
The flames around the room grew hotter and adapted the same crimson hue, each ember yearning to destroy its surroundings. The boy could do nothing but feel his consciousness wane as he watched the crimson flame travel down his arms, reaching to engulf his entire being. His vision swayed left and right as he attempted to hang onto lucidity, for even just a moment longer, in the fear that this feeling would disappear. But as he heard the sound of charred wood creak and crack before snapping, his mind could no longer cope without air and his vision faded as his consciousness was sent deep into the void.
***
Livek could barely keep himself from cursing as his squad sped through the streets of Eken. house fires rarely occurred in his district, a fact of which he bragged about to the other Douse mages that he encountered at any bar in Eken, despite him being in charge of one of the larger districts. Most of the time there were one or two first tower water warlocks in the area that took care of it themselves, but the fire had started nearer to the outskirts, where any such personnel were absent, as mages can often afford to stay nearer to the markets. Livek wiped an eyelash out of his eye before pulling a pair of brass goggles down as he saw the bustling crowd of the Sivert district acknowledge their presence and make way for them.
Copying him, his troop of six other similarly blue robed mages also adorned goggles as Livek leaped forward out of his run while conjuring water to form at his toes and extend to his heels. As they were about to make contact with the ground, the water formed into a vortex around his feet, accelerating the mage past the speed of his sprint. After assuring his own balance and giving a small glance backwards to ensure his men did the same, he leaned his torso forwards and poured more energy into the rotation of his magic.
He spied the thickness of the smoke plume and Cursed, his reputation would come second, even third to the litany of problems that size of a fire could cause, .Livek’s mood turned even more sour as he caught his first real whiff of the fire after skirting through the last corner towards the source. Burnt flesh permeated his senses as he grew closer to the fire and he couldn’t keep his heart from dropping.
The following mages lowered their speed accordingly as they approached the house and they spread out in formation, already in motion like they had done this hundreds of times. The two mages in the back each spread out to the other houses slowly being engulfed and started to stop the spread with lines of steam erupting across any spreading flame found. The rest of the mages except for the one with the medical backpack immediately formed small glowing beads of water around their mouths before bursting through the first floor in an attempt to find survivors, the source of the flame, and if the origin was magical. Livek himself raised himself towards the second story by extending a pillar of water underneath himself.
Livek spread his arms out forwards, and crystal clear water seemingly crashed out from his fingertips, as it formed into a squared flat surface in front of him. Steam overpowered the smoke as he pushed the plate of water directly into the burning wood underneath the roof, only losing as much water as he supplied to the plate with his fingertips. He moved his hands from directly in front of him to his sides as he split the roof in half and quickly moved the pieces away in a rush to get inside, when he laid his eyes on a child collapsed in the middle of the still burning second floor.
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‘Alive!’
Was the only thought that Livek had time to register when he saw the boy’s unscathed skin, despite the boy being engulfed by a crimson fire. The debris Livek had dropped had barely hit the ground as he strained to spin fluorescent water around the child to put him out. Livek then scrambled to grab the child before immediately leaping off the second story and cushioning his fall with the same pillar he rode up on. Livek passed the child to the mage waiting on standby before turning to go back inside but stopped when the three who entered the building exited, with one of them shaking his head at Livek.
“Thank the lords you got him before he burned.”
The medic praised as Livek turned back to the boy
“No? He was perfe-”
Livek words got caught by his thoughts. He had sworn that the child was almost completely engulfed in fire. But in front of his eyes layed a boy no older than six years old seeming to sleep soundly, and unscarred. Livek kneeled down while the rest of his squad was dispersing the crowd to get a good look at him. The boy was trembling, but breathing soundly, and his longer Crimson hair seemed to wave like a flickering candle in the heated wind of the wreckage.
Livek doubled back on his thoughts the moment he laid eyes on the boy’s hair properly. The dark red color of the fire he saw surrounding the boy, and his untouched skin made Livek doubt his own thoughts for a moment. Liveks lips barely eked out an “You’ve Gotta be-” before an armored hand clasped his shoulder violently.
“We shall take it from here, captain.”
Livek jumped and turned to see ten knights, all draped in red cloaks, standing before him. One of the knights moved in to take the child while Livek stood still, his mind finally connecting the dots between the fire and child.
“He’s phoenix blood.”
Livek knew he shouldn't have opened his mouth. But the head knight threw Livek and the medic a pouch as his mind started to spin. Livek’s hand squeezed the pouch and felt the hefty weight of the coin.
“For your discretion.”
The knight put his hand on Liveks shoulder and squeezed tightly enough to hurt.
“I don’t need to visit you again captain do I?”
Livek only moved his eyes to stare at the ground
“No sir… Thank you sir.”
The knights Left in a rush with the boy in their arms towards the junction. The medic stood up and swayed unsteadily before finally finding the courage to even speak.
“Those were the knights of Aano… captain what in the hells is a phoenix blood? For them to even step foot out of the Magnate district.”
Livek only stared in the distance while the medic clutched the pouch tightly to his chest.
“All you need to know is that you are going to forget what you saw today.”
“But captain, they just paid us for a child-”
“Meren.”
Livek waited until his subordinate’s eyes met his.
“I’d like to keep you around.”
***
Authors note: I released this in a drunken stupor, in an effort to get my ass in high gear. I have absolutely no idea what any release schedule would look like, or if anyone would be interesting enough to wait for another chapter. I've been thinking about this story for years, piecing together magic system over and over again. plotting and replotting maps, races, countries, whatever comes to mind during the monotonous ours of grocery work. I needed to fossilizes it. So I did. Enjoy.
