11 Luke

t was past midnight. I finally had that damn sparring armor off of me and the bruises were more than worth being able to breathe again. In that entire day, I had only been able to shoot off another 3 blasts. Yes, I counted. And only when he got me pissed off enough or threw something my way requiring me to hit it out of the sky before it struck me. It was more instinctual than it was on demand, but you know what? Right now, it didn't matter. Yesterday, at this time, I was in a cell for what I had done less than two days ago, when I hadn't even known what I was. For all intents and purposes, I was happy.

I still didn't have his name, but what he told me was still going through my head. Fire is alive. It is wild, untamed. That is your job, to tame it. To control it. Nothing more. Your control of this life will be the determinant between life and death. Without control, you endanger yourself and those around you, but with this power, wielded properly, you become all that stands between life and death. The words had given me chills then, and they still did now.

"All that stands between life and death, huh?" I chuckled to myself, as I lay there in bed, unable to move from the bruises that lined my body.

I tried closing my eyes to let sleep take me, but sleep wouldn't take me. I thought being bruised up and exhausted was supposed to help with sleep. Guess not.

I turned my head over on its side, looking straight at the steel wall, then the other way.

The door that led to the dorm next to mine was open. I hadn't opened it. It hadn't been clean as from here, I could still see the cobwebs that lined the room as well as some of the larger bugs that scurried the floor. It had just opened.

The bruises weren't a concern anymore. I shifted my weight and moved my feet off the bed and onto the steel floor. Barefoot, I stood up. The light in my room was off, but my eyes were adjusted. The only lighting was from the moon coming through my window and the window of the mirrored room in front of me.

I stepped through the shared bathroom that connected the rooms. At this point, I didn't even feel as though I were the one walking. I felt as though I were being carried. To what? I felt the thick layer of dust against the soles of my feet and could hear the vermin scurrying away beneath the furniture of the decrepit room.

Why am I here? It's abandoned. I'm alone here. So why am I standing here? What of importance is here?

"You are."

I felt the hairs on my skin rise but didn't even feel my own body turn around and send that pitiful blast of fire that burst against the wall. First one of the day."Who said that?!" I asked.

"I did." It was a deep voice. Calm. Slow.

"Where are you?"

"All around you. I always am. You can just hear me now."

"What are you? Where am I?"

"So many questions. So little answers. Who I am is unimportant. Where you are is unimportant. You are standing in a dark moonlit room that has been abandoned for almost a year, left a ruin."

What the hell is happening "Is this a dream? Or is this real?"

"Who is to say they cannot be both?"

I looked around. Searching for where the voice came from. It was all around this room, whatever it was. I tried stepping out into the bathroom, but his voice only softened. It didn't leave like it was confined to the room, it just weakened.

"It doesn't work like that."

"Who are you to say it doesn't? Just yesterday you learned you could control an element with your mind. Is this so much of a stretch?"

"Maybe. What do you want?"

"'What do I want'? Is that the question you really want to be asking? If there is anything I want, it is for you to listen to me. I can feel something about you even if you don't. There is more to you than you believe if only you will listen."

"I'm listening, but why should I believe anything you say?"

"You require proof."

"Damn right, I do."

"Then hear me now. An old ally has been frozen in time. His return will mark the day the world around you begins to metamorphose in front of your eyes."

"Ah. Riddles. Lovely."

"I do not speak riddles. I speak the future."

Yeah. I've had enough of this. "Sorry, but no. Excuse me for having doubts, but I've had a stressful day yesterday and I hear those kinds of dreams can get rather insane, so I'm sorry that I'm wasting energy coming up with all of this in my head."

"I see. Disappointing. Though you will be back."

"I wouldn't count on it." I said as I left the room.

I woke to the sound of the shutting of a steel door. I immediately sprang up from my bed in time to see the lock on the door turning. I kicked the covers off of me, my body soaked in a cold sweat and rushed to the door, turning the handle. It wouldn't budge. I kicked it, I banged on it, but it was closed.

Going about the rest of my day was no easy task. Going back to sleep in the first place was an impossible mission. I was no longer in the military strategy course which was somewhat disappointing, but I was out of Zandar's dojo which was a relief at least.

I sat with Danev during lunch between my firebending sessions. He taught me military strategy and history now. Along with firebending and nonbending combat. Things, were indeed, changing rather quickly. Too quickly for my taste. "You look like hell." He commented across the table from me.

"Thanks."

"Rough night?"

"I guess."

That was when Nurse Zaydi would break protocol by rushing into a student barracks in the middle of the day, coming straight for our table. I wasn't sure how to take the news then and never thought I would know. "Aden's awake."