Brazen Wind, Raging Flame

It had been a good idea to lay low after he had taken the orb.

Gantz knew something had changed, something profound. He hadn't met any of his contacts in the last few weeks, or gone to any of his hideouts that anyone but he alone knew of in the docks. Not being seen in the usual places would put some off, especially his fences and the people he did the odd job for every now and then, but Gantz knew that was how it had to be.

He could sense danger on the horizon. Since taking the orb, this feeling had become acute. Everywhere around him, the thief could now sense a wrongness flowing through the city, and this sense had grown with each passing day. Gantz had always been cautious, but that incongruent sense had made him downright paranoid over the intervening time.

It was a good thing, however, because now everyone was after him.

City guards had done the unexpected the last few weeks and come into the crime-ridden docks district, a place they usually avoided, to place wanted posters with a reasonably realistic sketch of his face on them.

Someone powerful wanted him now, and Gantz could only believe it was because he held the orb.

The thief shook his head. He had always wondered where his supernatural speed had come from, and now he knew. Some grumpy magic crystal that lived in a floating castle on the other side the world had been responsible. Sure, everybody knew vaguely about the Crystals. They were supposedly magical artifacts left by some gods or other, and they kept the world in balance... whatever that meant. He hadn't the foggiest idea what it was to be the Chosen of Wind, except that the Wind Crystal wanted him to help it somehow.

Anyway, Gantz was well known in the docks district, though his reputation in the area was now working against him. Groups of street toughs often patrolled, rough bastards from every gang he knew of, studiously searching their territories in the docks with an interest they had never showed before. A reward of ten thousand gil was not to be balked at, and these cutthroats would slit their own mothers' throats for much less.

All this had him thinking furiously. He did so now while crouched in the recess of a back alley amongst warehouses, behind a large pile of crates. Whenever he had done a heist, he had done it masked, but there were still a good number of people that knew his face. His 'friends' including Peg-leg and Lenny were dead now. Only that dark elf assassin remained from that encounter, and she could still be hunting him.

The Guard was the reason though. City guards had always left the docks district alone as long as the seedy activities were kept to the limits of the docks themselves and did not spill out into other districts. Guards actually coming into the docks and posting wanted posters was a very rare event and it usually was because some docks denizen had wondered out and done something dastardly to severely annoy a blue blood in another district. What Gantz gathered from this is that his not delivering the orb had upset someone enough to want him badly for his failure to deliver. This someone was powerful enough to exert pressure on various officials, some with command of the Guard, allowing a very rare event to take place. The reward itself also spoke volumes. Ten thousand gil was am awful lot of money. Only dukes or duchesses had that kind of coin... or the king himself.

Whoever was responsible, Gantz had effectively been pinned down. Anyone at all would turn him in now - his fences, his contacts – anyone. Hellfire, he'd do it in a heartbeat for that much coin... if it were somebody else. Unfortunately it was not, and the only way he could go back to a normal life now was by leaving Cornelia altogether. It was too bad; the White City had been good hunting grounds for him. However, self-preservation was always top priority, and his stores of foodstuffs were getting low in the last of his hideaways. Sure, he could steal more, but with everybody and their dog looking for him, he figured he should just cut his loses and run before the entire docks fell upon him.

From where he crouched, the boy wrapped the black coif of cloth around his face. Quickly, he got the black cloth in place and it covered everything of his head except for his tilted brown eyes to peer out. He wore the dark leather jerkin as well as his dark vest with his thieves' tools inside. Dark leather pants and black boots with soft soles completed his outfit with his pack strapped closely to his back. It mainly harbored food, though its smallest most secure pocket contained the wooden box in which lay the crystalline orb.

Of course, the boy's hands slid to his most prized possessions, the plain hide-wrapped hilts of his long knives, one sheathed over each hip. Slowly, he brought them from their sheathes, reversing his grip on the hilts so he held them at his side, blades pointing back. He also shrugged, feeling the throwing daggers he had hidden all about his person in hidden sheaths.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he said and leapt up silently onto the top of the crates. He crouched there for a second, peering down the alley. A group of shoulder-thumpers passed by the alley's mouth, but did not bother to look down it. They wouldn't have seen Gantz in the shadows all the way at the end of the alley even if they had looked, but the thief kept himself perfectly still until they passed. He leapt down to his feet silently and crept forward, ready for something to simply pop out at him. His dark tilted eyes scanned ceaselessly, even as he crept up to the edge of the alley wall and pressed himself against it, glancing out this way and that.

The big apes were moving up the narrow service way, grunting at each other. Dockworkers up further kept at their burdens, carrying barrels or sacks or what-have-you into and out of warehouse doors. For ten thousand gil, Gantz was sure even those trying to make a semi-honest living in the docks would drop what they were doing to chase him down – not that they had a bloody chance of catching him – but still, he needed to be careful of anyone seeing him.

The rooftops were not safe either. He had noticed dangerous looking black-garbed figures given to guarding the rooftops days after he had taken the orb, even before the wanted posters went up.

That meant that someone wanted him badly indeed. An army of black-clad figures were stationed everywhere up above and often searched the streets and back alleys in the dead of night. Gantz had even watched several nights in a row where street toughs had blundered into a group of assassins and were quickly dispatched – though Gantz had ambushed the assassins immediately afterward and slaughtered them.

The thief shook his head as he lurked. He should have left the city sooner than this... but he hadn't been able to. It was as if some siren's song were keeping him here and he could not make himself leave the White City. Now, however, as shadows grew long in the twilight this day, he was able to. Maybe it had something to do with the grumpy crystal, he wasn't certain. At any rate, he damn sure was leaving now.

He peered out into the alley again. No one was in the service way except the dockworkers two buildings up. He waited to a count of five, and then rushed across the cobbles into the mouth of another alley. Counting to five again, he let out a relieved breath – no alarm raised.

He moved again. His progress was slow due to his utmost caution, but he managed his way nearly to the south quarter of the docks before he started thinking about the orb and crystal again. The Crystal of Wind, he thought. What is it exactly and why did it choose me for help?

"Because you are of the Dawn..." came a resonate whisper.

Gantz immediately suppressed a yelp and pressed his back against the wall. He looked wildly about him, his knives poised to strike, but nothing was in the alley with him. Then, between one blink and the next, a large white tiger lay across the alley from him in the middle of licking one of its large paws. Afterward, it lowered its paw and faced him with piercing green eyes.

A memory twitched in the back of the boy's mind. "I've seen you before, Sir Tiger. Who in the realm are you?"

"I am the Herald," came the whisper again, though not from the tiger, but seemingly all around.

Gantz shrugged uncomfortably under the creature's unflinching stare. "What exactly are you heralding?"

There was no answer, and the tiger started grooming its other paw. Gantz blinked again and the tiger was gone from the alleyway as if it had never been.

The thief shook his head. "Maybe I'm going crazy. Damn it all, I should of left the city sooner!" There was no use for it now, however, so Gantz shut his mouth and went back into stealth mode.

The boy cautiously turned down another alley and his dark eyes quickly narrowed. The alley appeared empty, but something wasn't right. It took him only a second to realize what it was and he continued forward again, slightly less cautiously than before. He darted across another service way, dockworkers down the cobbles getting ready for the bell to call an end to another day's work. None of them noticed him seventy feet away as he entered a large warehouse empty of people and commodities except for a few large crates in the rear. He stopped when he got to the center of the warehouse and turned about to glare at the entrance. As he did so, he raised up on the balls of his feet, his knives poised for violence. "You can show yourself now."

He wasn't surprised when the dark elf assassin came around the side of the opened doors, leaning against them to fold her arms. "Well, well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since its you."

Gantz growled. "So, you're the one responsible for all this; the wanted posters, the assassins, everything!"

The woman stood from leaning, her icy eyes sharpening with contempt. "Oh no, worm, not me. My mistress is responsible. I just happened to give her your description." She laughed darkly then rose her fingers to snap. Immediately, four masked black-garbed men rushed in through the doors to stand at her flanks. "Take off your masks," she ordered and the men obeyed...

They were pale thin dark elves all, each unsheathing twin scimitars.

For once in his life, Gantz started to worry – just a bit – before he suppressed it. Slowly, a grin spread on his face beneath his masking coif, even as the lead dark elf unsheathed her own scimitars. "Since your death is imminent, you should know that the Lady Falea will see you to the void. This I swear."

"A snotty noble, I should have guessed," Gantz quipped before he went into his lowest stance, bringing one of his knives up before his face, the back of the blade tight against his arm. "I've not had a real, honest-to-gods challenge since I came to this city. Maybe now I've found one."

A smile almost like a snarl peeled back Falea's lips. "Arrogant to the end, human, now die – " but her words were suddenly cut off as the far wall of the warehouse exploded, sending dust and debris nearly halfway across the room. Yelling sounded without in that direction, men shouting and fleeing in terror.

Gantz looked over his shoulder in shock as the dust cleared. When it did so, he saw the strangest shrouded individual he had ever seen standing within the charred hole...

Luminous orange lights seemed to wreathe whoever it was.

IIIIIIIIII

Robin Magus had quickly decided that she hated cities more than anything else.

It started this very day when she had approached the massive white gates of Cornelia. It had been early morning, just after dawn, and the gates were newly opened for the day. Along the broad road that went through the gates were literally four lanes of traffic: wagons and carts and sedan chairs, and people... so damned many people. It was more people than Robin had ever seen in her life; useless, feeble-minded city dwellers as far as the eye could see.

Instantly, her fury had started to build.

She skirted the line of traffic to one side. People noticed and began pointing at her, since she was dressed far differently than any of them in their myriad provincial styles. Her glowing eyes, of course, made her quite a sight for any ignorant fool, but when one wagon driver realized she was going to cut in front of him near the gates he opened his mouth to shout a curse at her to wait her turn.

She ignored the idiot, though sigils of fire blazed to life about her, many people close by gasping in shock at their sudden presence.

The black mage jabbed a finger at the guards. "Take me to your King, I must see him immediately!"

The armored men raised their spears, intent on blocking her way when their captain strode out: "White mages have spoken to me of creatures in your likeness! You will not be allowed anywhere near the King."

Robin roared at such insolence, and her sigils turned frosty blue. A blast of freezing air froze all seven men where they stood, their legs sheathed in ice. She passed them by with a contemptuous sneer as they struggled in vain to break free. However, more guards came to intercede when the captain turned as best as he could toward them. "You men stand down and let her pass!"

Perplexed by the order of their immobilized captain, the men did so and Robin sprinted past them into the city proper.

When she was out of earshot, the captain glared at his unfrozen men. "Send up the signal flags, we have a fugitive loose in the city!"

Upon entering the city proper, Robin's teeth clenched at the sheer amount of noise. She came onto a vast white-stone boulevard flanked by wood-framed buildings of many sizes, as well as booths and shops. People packed the vast avenue to each side of the lanes of ox-pulled wagons and carts. Hawkers cried their wares; shop owners conversed with patrons, all of it like ants in a kicked hill.

Growling, the black mage put her hands over her ears as best she could and still grip her charred black rod. With this lag in concentration, Robin's runes winked out as she started forward just as a brightly clothed man approached her, perhaps trying to interest her in one of the baubles he was selling in a booth near the entrance.

She pushed past him brusquely, knocking him back into his stall with a crash, her runes of fire suddenly blazing like miniature suns about her.

People who witnessed the event gasped, but she glared at them all, daring them to do something.

No one did, of course, and Robin stalked on, gripping her rod tightly in both hands before her.

She weathered the din and kept her fiery sigils around her at all times, and that combined with her odd clothes and angry glowing eyes kept anyone else from approaching her. Indeed, she soon found herself in a corridor of people that parted at her advance. Many murmured to each other as she went by, but as long as they did not impede her, the black mage could have cared less.

She continued on, her teeth clenching harder and harder until it seemed her jaw might break. Everything in this blasted city gnawed at her until it was all she could do to suppress a white-hot rage roiling inside her. As she stalked forward, people saw her and backed away with alacrity.

A massive white castle came more sharply into view as she moved, and Robin's jaw unclenched as she looked. Still far in the distance, upon a rising hill, white spires arose at the corners of a pale stone keep. An inner wall surrounded the keep, flowing down to connect to a ring of curtain walls that guarded the outer bailey of the castle. Inside those walls was another city within the city. Slender blue-and-white pennants flew from the tops of all the towers, seeming to writhe serpentine in a strong wind that was not apparent down here.

The black mage had never seen such a sight; tombs and ruined fortresses yes, but never such a work as this.

Instantly she shook her head, cursing herself for a fool. She was wasting time gawking and continued on. Robin knew some leader called a King ruled these city-dwelling fops, and she meant to have words with him. If anybody would know where the Chosen of Earth was, it had to be this King. She hoped so anyway. If their leader didn't know, then all city-dwellers were less than useless, and she just might start using fire until somebody damn well told her what she wanted to know!

Striding forward again, Robin managed to enter a great plaza with a mighty white stone fountain of three tiers in its center. Booths of many sizes circled the foot of the fountain, all of them sporting awnings of many different and garish colors. Of course, people filled the plaza, many having the look of haggling. The din of so many voices had Robin growling audibly, and people still parted for her to go by as the fiery runes surrounded her.

Suddenly, however, a voice shouted from somewhere beyond the milling throng. It was a great shout indeed, managing to be audible over the hubbub. "Everyone part for the Guard, the Guard is coming through!"

People gave way slowly at first, until ranks of armored men resplendent in their gold breastplates and white-plumed helms marched through with spears held ready as if for combat – then people couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

Everyone pushed to the edge of the plaza and only Robin Magus was left in the open. The curse she uttered was clear and loud enough for everyone to hear.

Another officer stepped forward, leading these men.

Ranks of guardsmen faced her now, far too many to simply freeze in place. She gripped her black rod tightly, her glowing eyes twitching around the plaza, trying to find a way to escape. Astonished bystanders created a tight ring about her on every side of the cobbles, seemingly impenetrable.

She roared at the guards before her. "Out of my way, you blasted fools, I must see your King!"

The captain came forward a few steps from the ranks of his men, pointing his longsword at her. "I think not, intruder! Now drop your staff and kneel for the fetters. The dungeon walls are the only things you're going to see." He gestured to a particular row of heavily armored guards to his side, all of them sporting large square shields that, at the captain's signal, thudded down into place like a single wall of steel.

As much as it angered Robin, this path was blocked and she would have to take another. Thinking furiously, frosty blue runes replaced her blazing orange and, incanting under her breath, Robin quickly summoned her freezing power. With a sweeping gesture of her rod, she made the very air crystallize before her into a small wall of ice, which solidified in seconds. "You fools aren't the only ones that can make a barrier!"

The black mage knew this was a meager stall at best, since more guards were coming and her ice wall was only large enough to cover a small portion of the massive plaza. At the captain's command, more lightly armored guards went around the ice barrier to give chase, but Robin was already moving, away from them and off the main avenue. That she had to run was galling, but this was wasting too much of her time.

As she ran, the hue and cry was lifted, but none of the people before her tried to stop her as freezing runes glowed balefully about her and she sent blasts of icy winds ahead to frighten people from her path quickly. They staggered back, opening a path for her that led down a side street perpendicular to the plaza. She took it running, one hand on her peaked hat to keep it in place, her tattered robes flapping behind her.

She ran for some time, bile growing in her throat as weariness began to take her. Her legs started to burn fiercely, but she forced herself on. The White City was enormous and she quickly became lost. However, she could still see the great castle rising on its hill far in the distance, but no clear path to it. She tried to move towards it, but streets and back alleys took her in such a meandering trail, she thought she would never get there. Her rage grew by leaps and bounds, especially when she stopped for a minute, leaning on her rod to catch her breath, and heard guards shouting some ways behind her. Of course, people she had past during her flight were pointing her route out for her pursuers. She would never escape. This blasted city was a labyrinth!

Refusing to give up, Robin gritted her teeth and ran on.

Minutes past and she emerged onto a smaller avenue that looked to be another direct line to the still distant castle, but immediately noticed another barricade up ahead made of more guards forming another steel wall. Some archers even came up, pointing their odd cross-shaped bows in her direction. Robin was forced to dive down another alleyway as a steel quarrel shot by her head.

Her back against a wattle-and-daub wall, Robin gasped in air, her lungs aching from exertion. She forced herself to admit that she had grossly underestimated what the city-dwellers were capable of. Enraged by their audacity to keep her from her goal, however, Robin was quickly up and moving once again through the convoluted warrens of the old city. She let outrage fuel her wary limbs, before she turned down a side street to see a knot of guards behind a makeshift barricade of wagons pushed together.

Robin's eyes blazed wickedly. Whatever system the guards were using to single others to provide these obstructions obviously couldn't convey much about their foe's capabilities.

Though it taxed her greatly, Robin kept up her pace, summoning a blazing ball of fire as she ran, barely slowing as she flung it forward. The fireball shot off on a trail of burning smoke before striking a point where two wagons were pushed together. It blew them apart, men falling back with horrified shouts. Robin ran through the burning debris, immune to the writhing flames, while some guards still struggled with flash blindness. Some even writhed on the ground with burns, their pained screams almost cathartic enough to make Robin grin as she swept by.

Still, once a ways past them Robin had to stop again, her breath coming in a ragged pant. Casting when you were tired was difficult since casting took energy to do in the first place. Robin was even more exhausted than she would have been otherwise, and looked about. She had no idea where she was, lost in the this bloody urban nightmare, and seemed no closer to the castle now than when she'd started out. She could also still hear those armored buffoons in the distance, marching from somewhere. It was the thunder of a still distant storm, but one that was moving closer all the time.

Instead of despair, however, Robin was livid, her rage broiling within her when there was a sudden... pulling. Hard to describe at first, Robin suddenly felt a heat against her side, the place in her robes where her Orb of Fire was tucked into a secret pocket. Still shaking with rage, Robin clenched her jaw, forcing herself to override the impulse to blast everything around her and focus on this new sensation.

Something... tugged... at her and the Fire Orb became hotter against her side until it was actually painful. Robin focused on that pain and forced it fuel the fire within her. Suddenly growling, she moved forward, the power of wrath pushing aside her fatigue.

Robin continued to push for some time until she crossed a small stone bridge that arched over a narrow canal and came into a part of the city dominated by multitudes of broad flat-roofed warehouses. Rough-garbed workers carried crates, barrels, and other burdens to and fro and in the distance a little farther east she could see the masts of ships at dock before the broad stretch of a river.

The girl stopped for a breather and set her back against a warehouse wall a few yards from a dozen workers. Some of them gave her odd looks, but none said anything to her. She returned their looks with a suspicious glare, but did not hold it long as she half slumped to the ground, using her rod as a prop to hold herself up.

The tugging sensation had led her to this vast warehouse on the docks, and Robin had no doubt that she was to proceed through this ramshackle structure to get to her goal. Looking down this long wooden side of the building, however, Robin noticed no entrance.

She would have to make her own.

Channeling her ire, the black mage focused on the section of wall before her and it suddenly exploded, blown inward by a blazing blast of power. Charred debris rained down and smoke filled the area. The dockworkers nearby bellowed in terror, falling over themselves to get away.

Robin turned to look into the charred hole her rage had wrought, and she came through the dissipating smoke into a long low warehouse that was nearly empty... except for a group of black-garbed individuals across the way all staring in stunned silence at her explosive entrance.

Her orange sigils a nimbus about her, Robin went a dozen steps further in, noticing now that it seemed five of the people were standing before the sixth as if a fight were about to take place. She must have just interrupted it.

Caring not, she raised her hand and summoned a ball of writhing flame. It hovered just above her open palm and she pulled her arm back, before flinging it into their midst.

The group scattered with amazing speed as the ball of fire struck and exploded. One was just a hair too slow, however, and was consumed in fire, shrieking as he ran to rebound hard off a wall and fall, rolling feebly about before he stopped making any noise altogether.

A woman's dark voice shrieked with her own anger. "Blasted humans! I will take him, the rest of you kill the intruder – Now!"

The remaining men scattered. The woman blurred toward the other black-garbed figure while the three men ran low, trying to close with Robin herself. They moved like the wind near enough, but Robin only chuckled darkly. "Let us see how fast you fools really are..." And her blazing orange runes turned electric blue.

It took her only several seconds to chant the spell, but the first man was nearly upon her anyway, his strange gaunt countenance accentuated by long pointed ears. He leapt toward her, one wicked scimitar reaching out to skewer when she released the crackling bolt of energy from her fingertips. It sizzled out, too fast to track. It struck the leaping figure through the chest, so hot that he burst apart as the moisture in his body exploded. His leap lost all its momentum as half his body turned to ash, the charred remains thumping to the ground.

Lightning still arced from Robin's hand, a crisp smell filling the air. The last two assassins were charging toward her when she let a second bolt fly. This one forked in mid-air, stabbing through the two remaining men, and burning half their bodies to ash, swords flying from their hands to skitter along the ground.

There was a piercing shriek across the way, and the black-garb woman faltered. The other figure let her fumble backward, and she moved awkwardly, apparently deeply injured in one leg.

Robin came up further, her orange runes burning about her again. Closer now, she could see a deep hatred etched in the woman's icy blue eyes. She noticed Robin and spat at her. "Who are you; why are you helping this fool? I was to be elevated today if I killed him – damn you, damn you to the Abyss for your treachery!"

The black mage simply shrugged. "It was not your lucky day, dark elf. My tribe has a history with your kind." She raised her hand and a ball of flame coalesced there.

The other black-garbed figure looked warily between them, but decided to back out of the way before Robin launched her fire into the dark elf. The woman's screams of agony as she was consumed were quite cathartic. Afterward, the black mage rounded on the final figure.

He was black-garbed as well, his head shrouded in a coif of black cloth that covered all but his dark tilted eyes. His stance was guarded, his long knives streaked with blood that he held poised to attack. There was wary gratitude in his voice. "Well, I don't know what to say except... thanks... I guess, for saving me."

Robin snarled. "I didn't save you, idiot, I saved you for last!" She flung a ball of fire at him, but he tucked himself into a roll, dodging it cleanly and was up, running faster than anything she had ever seen. He circled her at a distance and she launched ball after ball of flame at him. He jumped and dodged and flipped, each fiery ball missing him, sometimes by mere inches, to blast into the ground or the walls. Fire started to writhe all about as the edges of the warehouse burned. Roaring in frustration, Robin switched sigils and electric blue glyphs wreathed her. She laughed in triumph knowing nothing could match the speed of her lightning.

She flung the bolt and it arced around the boy and struck the wall behind him, setting it alight.

Robin actually gaped, before flinging another bolt. This one forked three times, but all three arcs sizzled around the boy to the side, striking the wall behind him. "Impossible, I control the arcs, you should be dead!"

The figure waved an admonishing knife at her. "Sorry to disappoint you." He went into a low stance, his voice taking an edge. "Now it's my turn."

He flashed forward, and Robin threw another lightning bolt at him. It went wide, scoring the floor, and then he was on her, his knife poised just under her throat. At the same time, her hand, crackling with energy, was poised over his neck.

Neither strike came.

Instantly, as their eyes met, their faces only a foot from each other, two lights flared.

The black mage suddenly felt as if she were trapped in a dream, as the Orb of Fire suddenly hovered before her instead of being tucked into her robes. Instantly, she witnessed herself flying across the world – and back in time – coming into the depths of a mighty volcano to see a massive shard of floating crystal that blazed with writhing red-orange power.

At the same time, Gantz saw the Orb of Wind glow before his eyes, instead of being tucked into his backpack. He flew into the past as well, seeing the floating castle in a better state of repair than he had in his previous vision. In a mighty hall seemingly made of many great arches, a mass of people who spoke a strange musical language gazed upon an enormous shard of misty green crystal.

Some strength we have found in your meeting.

Some hope we have gained...

To become again as we once were, the guardians of all things...

The preservers of all life…

In bright flashes of light, the orbs disappeared into their respective containers and the Chosen of Wind and the Chosen of Fire were both encompassed in a sphere of bright spectral light.

It lasted only a handful of seconds, and when it dissipated, the two within it were gone.

A dozen guards entered only a tick afterward, finding nothing but charred corpses scattered about an otherwise empty building.