Firestarter

One of Aura's three spells, Efreet Summoning was her most powerful magic—and also the most dangerous to use because she barely had control of it.

Even after she'd destroyed the building they kept her in, she went Dark Phoenix on it and didn't stop burning the stone foundations until all that was left of her surroundings were ash.

It was only after this total destruction that I decided to cautiously approach her. Everyone else stayed back. Only Edo walked behind me.

I glanced back at him. "Shouldn't you be in front of me, protecting your commander?"

He shook his head. "You're replaceable... but I promise to mourn you if she kills you."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, Edo," I said dryly.

The walk to Aura was like stepping into a sauna that kept getting hotter the closer you got to the source. Once I was near enough, I saw how Aura herself swayed like someone half-asleep. The efreet beside her stood immobile yet its eyes glared in my direction.

On the rubble in front of her, I saw two charred humanoid forms, their skin so blackened that they were beyond recognition. I had no doubt that they were pixies though as I noticed that both had protrusions on their backs that were probably the stems for their burnt gossamer wings.

"Any advice?" I asked Edo who was further behind me than I thought.

"Don't anger her like you do most people you meet," he answered back.

Back on Mudgard, the middle finger would have been an appropriate response to Edo, but as our cultures were slightly different, I showed him the back of my middle finger and my forefinger in a v-shape formation. Basically, I sent him the peace sign but in reverse. This had a similar meaning to its Mudgardian equivalent.

I made cautious steps to Aura until I was within touching distance while the heat blew on me like a hot furnace ready to melt my skin off.

The efreet looked down at me, its molten eyes, slit like a cat's, gazed at me with unmistakable anger. It did not like that I approached its summoner.

"Aura," I said while glancing between her and the efreet, "You've done enough. You can release your summon now... Aura..."

Sweat trickled down my face as I watched the efreet slowly raise a shadowy fist wrapped in flames.

"Aura... time to wake up now..." My voice turned urgent. "Aura~a..."

She wasn't responding.

Aura's eyelids were half-closed. Her brows were furrowed. Her face had gone even whiter than her usual milky white complexion. She swayed like a leaf in the wind.

"Aura! Wake up already!" I hissed.

Still no response. And now the efreet's boulder-sized fist was as high as it could go. There was no doubt what it was about to do.

"Aura... if I die because of your stupid spell I swear I will haunt you for as long as elves' lifespans last," I said in one breath.

I placed my hands on her but she was too hot to touch. She was burning up from the inside.

"Dammit!" I cursed.

I felt it more than I saw as my eyes refused to look up. But the heat coming down on me left very little to my imagination.

It was no time to stand still. If there ever was a time for action, it was right now.

I jumped forward and tackled Aura to the ground despite my hands feeling like I was touching heated coals.

I screamed and then gritted my teeth before yelling in her ears, "Aurana wake up! We're about to die!"

This wasn't an exaggeration. The efreet's fist certainly continued to fall down on me despite its summoner laying right beneath me. Whether that was a fluke or it just didn't care, I didn't know. One thing was certain. If Aura didn't wake up now, we were both toast.

Aura's eyes fluttered awake. Consciousness returned to her almost instantly, and seeing the fiery fist behind me, immediately shouted, "Stop!"

It felt like there was a hot furnace just a few feet above me, but I was thankfully spared death by burning.

"Hi," I said to Aura. "Mind getting rid of it now?"

Aura raised a hand to the flames. "Oh mighty servant of the pillar of flames, I release you from this fairy plane..."

And the fire winked out just like that and all was dark again. Yet even in darkness, I could see the fierce blush on Aura's cheeks. This made me think of our current position which in turn made my cheeks turn red.

I pulled away from her as quickly as I could and got up feeling way more embarrassed than I should have. It's not like I was trying to take advantage of her.

"Sorry," I said as I helped her up to her feet.

"It's alright..." she replied.

Her blush hadn't disappeared one bit, but at least they brought color back to her face.

Aura's eyes surveyed the destruction around us. "Did I do all this?"

"Yup," I answered, half-impressed and half-terrified by her destructive power.

Edo walked over to stand in front of her and knelt before her. "Forgive me, princess. I should have been there for you..."

"Nothing to forgive, my old friend," she held his arm and helped him stand.

The smile she gave Edo was the smile she also turned on me next. "Thanks for coming to my rescue, Dean."

"Didn't do anything... this is all you," I shrugged. "We were a little late to the party."

She raised her hand to me palms up. "You came looking for me all the same."

As she's seen me and Luca do it plenty of times, I guessed she wanted to try out her very first high-five.

I slapped her palm with my own before saying, "Let's go home."

Then I thought about something strange I needed to confirm with her.

"Aura... I only saw two bodies... I don't suppose?" I started but Aura finished my thought with, "After he discovered who I really was, Roselle and one of his cronies left earlier in the day... they promised to come back with someone who would be interested in meeting me... But he never did."

"Ah... too bad," I answered. "But... how were you able to cast your spell if they kept you guarded?"

Aura glanced back at the rubble. "I... don't remember..."

And on that ominous note, our little adventure in Broken Sellsword's Canyon was finally over.

Kallista was gracious enough to handle the cleanup of the conflict's aftermath. It was the least she could do after we solved her drow problem.

I thanked her and promised that we would definitely be doing business with them again. Her response was to promise me a discount next time we passed by.

With our new equipment, Aura and Luca safely back with the team, our new recruits, and the drow refugees in tow, we made our way back north and back to the region west of the Calmlands to the Bastion of Fort Darah.

It was an uneventful three-night trip which took longer only because everyone had to wait for nightfall for me to return to the Fayne. We really had to get me an anchor so they could just carry it along whenever the unit traveled by day.

Darah magnanimously accepted the refugees after she learned how helpful they were in finding her niece. The great general really doted on Aura.

Thom, luckily for him, was very courteous to the great general. I supposed he figured out even he wouldn't survive taunting her. Plus, he was very grateful that his one-hundred-ten clan members would be given a new home within Darah's territory.

Darah ignored her advisors' opinions that accepting drow into the Trickster Pavilion would cause a scandal among the clan, but as she was one of the most powerful elders, she didn't think it would be a problem.

"Anyone who has a problem with me can face me themselves," she boasted.

No one refuted her. Not even Commander Vardoom who grumbled that the general's whim was going to cause another headache for her subordinates. Darah smacked him good for that.

The patriarch sent word that he accepted Darah's decision to allow Thom's people to come under the protection of the Trickster's Pavilion. This might have been because Aura also sent a message to her brother pleading their case. Despite her past with the drow, she didn't judge them based on the color of their skin. This earned her quite a bit of fame among the remnants of the Hazy Moon.

After he learned who Aura really was, Thom just chuckled. "She's special after all..."

Darah left the task of finding them a home to Commander Thors who was nice enough to commend me on accomplishing my mission despite the setbacks.

"You're working hard," he said as he patted me on the shoulder. "Keep it up."

As for me, Darah was true to her word. For the next month, after we returned to Fort Darah, she personally trained me and my reformed hundred-man unit to the point where my soldiers puked blood. Even Luca and I were having a hard time.

The Foolhardies' new composition included the original twenty-three members plus the thirty-five new mercenary recruits and thirty drow members which included ten healers. We now had seven officers, too. With myself as Commander, Luca and Aura as my Lieutenants, Varda as Quartermaster, Edo as Master Sergeant, Qwipps and Thom as squad leaders, and finally, Ashley, who was in charge of our unit's defense tactics.

Yeah, she joined us in Fort Darah half a month after we parted ways in Broken Sellsword's Canyon. It took a lot of cajoling and several sprite messages but I finally enticed her to join us after mentioning we would be entering Magesong territory soon. Apparently, she had been assigned a mission there by their Mother Superior and hooking up with the Foolhardies was the best way to get her in.

During one of these grueling training exercises Darah supervised, a fresh-faced Aura who didn't seem like she was affected by training—elven physiques were cheats in themselves—walked over to me and suggested something I couldn't believe.

"Hey... your two friends, the ones who helped you figure out how to fight drows," she looked doe-eyed at me. "I'd like to meet them."