Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – The Middle Child

 

Gei walked into the herbalist's shop with a small sack.  It was worth a quarter piece of silver, but the child kept it in good condition.  Sala suppressed the groan in her throat.

Gei's fingers were obviously stained by the rich soil of the forest, and the sack was full.  It wasn't the silver Sala would have to spend to buy the herbs she desperately needed.  The girl in front of her could barely be considered skin and bones.

"Let me see what you brought, Gei." Sala said, and looked through the sack. She pursed her lips. All the herbs were good quality, and properly dug out.

"Four silver." Sala said. Gei lifted an eyebrow. She looked to her left and to her right. She folded her small arms over her chest.

Gei held up a single finger, but Sala knew what she meant. Sala smirked, as that look to the sides showed Gei was not foolish. The inference was obvious. She didn't have a hidden stash of herbs she could use as a bargaining chip. This time, it was a seller's market.

"You've learned properly. One silver each. I can still make a profit at that price, but I don't have as much wiggle room as I used to." Sala said.

Gei nodded, and took each herb out of the bag to allow Sala to properly examine them. There was no damage, each was dug out earlier that day, and quite fresh. Gei smelled each herb and put it forward, which made Sala chuckle.

"Smart girl. The fresher the better for this business. That is four on this bundle, and five on this." She handed Gei the silver. "Remember, don't hide it in the clan. You know what they would do to you."

Gei nodded, with a slightly twisted expression.

"Don't think about it, Gei. That isn't a real family. Do you know how many mothers or fathers would do that? Only them." Sala said.

Gei sighed quietly. When she walked away, Sala could only shake her head softly.

"Poor child. Ever since she turned five. Who treats a child like this just because they birth another brat?" Sala shook her head. Her partner came up behind her.

"Don't get too involved, love." She said quietly. "That Griel clan are not good folks. Did you see the salt we have to buy from them?"

"I know, Bini. If we could get sea water, we could bypass that damned clan." Sala said, but Bini paled.

"Don't even think it! You know what happened to my da because of the sea!" Bini said fearfully. Her partner turned towards her and hugged her gently.

"I know, love. I would never do it myself. I'm no fool. I said it because I hate their treatment of us, and little Gei." Sala said quietly.

"Promise? You know they only found his bones, and a barra gnawing on them!" Bini said, her lower lip trembling.

"I promise, love. I'll never go to the sea to try and get salt. Your family had no choice while growing up. He wasn't an elementalist, and couldn't hunt. He had no land so he couldn't farm. No one was hiring that year. What choice did your pa have?" Sala hugged her gently, and soothed her mate's fear.

"Don't say it again."

"I won't, love. I promise." Sala sighed softly. Her partner was still a tender young woman, and still had a lot of shadows on her heart.

That was also the reason she despised the Griel clan. They made it necessary for other families to sell their children, including Bini's family. If not for the young teenage girl trying to earn a few coins sweeping here and there, and letting out that her mother planned to sell her to the slave dealer, she would have lost her beloved Bini.

As a result, she hated the Griels to her bones.

 

* * *

 

Servants treated her like she wasn't even deserving of life. Her brothers and sisters hated her for even existing. Her parents ignored her at best, and beat her whenever they felt like it.

She watched as her youngest sister was given a storm wolf core in order to begin her elementalist training.

Gei couldn't stand it any longer. When there were no eyes on her that evening, Gei left the compound, and went into the forest for her backpack.

Not long after, she pegged her tent to the ground in the wasteland. Gei couldn't cry. She didn't know how to do that now. She hadn't spoken in five years either.

Even when she was whipped in the clan, she no longer cried tears, and only whimpered in pain until she passed out.

When she grew tired, Gei laid on top of her thin blanket.  Sweat began to bead on her skin as an influx of heat invaded her body.

"Hot." She said a word as she was sure there was no one nearby to hear her. She had learned that her voice made her clan angry. She stripped off her shirt. On the insides of her wrists, bright red lines appeared.

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This was not an infection. Beneath her bottom, under her blanket and her tent, she sat on one of many flame elemental fountains that existed in the wastelands. This fountain was a collection point for flame essence that saturated the wasteland during the day from the overhead sun.

The lines were elementary channels, and they were now forged with elemental essence. Much like the training inside the clan, an elemental beast core could help an elementalist forge their elementary channels. Gei had access to such an abundant amount at the time of forging that she felt like she was being roasted alive.

The channels glowed from the inside of her body, and radiated the energy outward. Along the inside of her thighs and arms, her channels were forged until she felt like she would be burned alive.

She grunted and cried out in pain and agony as her channels were forged. They met in the middle of her chest, deep beneath the surface.

Gei cried out in agony. The flame essence gathered in waves, focused on her tent, and poured into her young body.

'Ogyn.' The word was not spoken out loud, but it was felt all around her. It was a truth of the world, and it shook the area around her, including the town. Gei felt the energy pour into those newly formed channels at an insane speed, and crash against each other within her chest.

"AAAHHHHHH!" She cried out. Her eyes glowed bright red.

'Xillen.' Another word shook the entire wasteland, and sent waves of fear throughout Stormwall.

 

* * *

 

"Balls of a stone bear." Drom said as he felt the ground shake a second time, and the word that followed.

"It sounds like Imera herself." Venn said quietly, and got down on his knees. Drom soon followed.

'Caern.' The voice spoke again, and the ground shook with even more power. Guards all over the walls immediately got down on their knees and prayed constantly.

"Venn, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Drom asked as he watched a bright light appear in the wasteland. It cut through the perpetual gloom of the night, and rose into the sky like a pillar of flames.

'Emanu.' Drom immediately bowed with his head to the ground. The largest tremor yet had washed through the town, while the flame pillar exploded and sent elemental pressure in all directions.

Drom looked at his friend and neither dared to lift their heads from the stone catwalk at the top of the walls of Stormwall until the light died down.

Ena, the goddess of all, had spoken.

 

* * *

 

"You felt it." The governor said quietly. The guard at his back grunted.

"Yeah, I did. Every elementalist within hundreds of miles felt that." His hand shook as he ran it through his graying hair.

"Opinions?"

"Let no one go out onto the wasteland."  The guard said with no further thought.  "If it is a beast, we don't have a chance. If it is a person, we still don't have a chance, especially if one of our citizens decides to irritate them." The guard leaned back against the wall.

"Four or five?" The governor asked.

"Not a clue, but if it is a beast, at a minimum, it's a rank four." The guard didn't need to say anything else.

If it was a human, than they were as strong as a rank four beast, and Ena took notice.

"We need to respond, sir." The guard said quietly. The governor nodded slowly.

"Send word to all the families. No one is to go out onto the wasteland unless they come from the wasteland."  He said firmly.  "Send word to the king, and ask for instructions."  The governor took another moment.

"Ena has spoken.  We would be fools if we didn't listen."

 

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