Chapter 4- Fire dance

The echoed clanging of Chains on cobblestone coupled with the gruff voices of men conversing plagued the dreams of a girl with curly hair and dull eyes. Her hands itched as she saw the maggots clinging to her flesh and muscle while she dragged her feet.

Then the sound of unfriendly footsteps quickly approached. The voices of men talking became clear as they spoke a foreign tongue. Then as the footsteps slowly drew closer and closer, she felt the rough hands of a man she feared grip her chin, forcing her gaze upwards.

Her dead eyes were stung by the light of the sun before a tall man with blonde hair stood in front of her. His presence was daunting, and he was dressed in clothes that fit nobility. Almost instantly however, she was caught in the man's eyes that reminded her of the ocean, as calm as it was deep, rocking back and forth, up and down her body, before turning his gaze to the man who held her by the chin.

The calm and pleasant ocean that she was enamored by quickly turned into a raging sea plunged in a heavy storm as they dimmed. She was terrified by the sight yet she could not look away as he began to talk in his foreign tongue again. His tone never changing and composed as the man behind her let go of her chin, from which she persisted on looking upwards towards the noble.

Then, suddenly, he shifted his place, letting the sun blind her as she heard coins get passed from one hand to another.

Danica exits the door out to the dock. Everyone who she had shared drinks with only a few hours earlier, were already hard at work as they battled the waves while their voices filled the deck of the ship. Deep talks of commerce and travel entered and left her ears as she slipped through the moving men to the upper deck.

"Vanier! Do I have any orders?" Danica spoke clearly as she stood in attention in front of Vanier who was attending to the wheel with his Compass and a watch in his other hand.

"There is a door below deck which would be extremely hard to miss. Go through it and meet with Norris." Vanier spoke, his eyes never looking up as they moved back and forth from the compass and the clock

Danica walks away without another word, bumping into Jackson going opposite of where she was headed.

"Ah! The new recruit finally wakes. It's already 7 you know?" Jackson says jokingly with bags under his eyes as he cradled a crate in his hands

"Had I been able to wake sooner if a certain bard had not run his mouth all night long." Danica says with a smirk

"I am no bard; I am your senior in an organization that you are completely unfamiliar with! So treat me nicely lest you want to be scolded by those higher than even myself. Also, how peculiar of you to say that when the crowd that listened with you agreed that you were the one most enamored by all of it."

Jackson walks away cackling at himself with Danica following his path with her eyes before walking down to where she was instructed.

She saw an extravagant marble door with gold etched into its design. It glowed a light that could lead or stray even the most steadfast of men, yet only Danica had been caught by its allure.

She scoffs before holding the handle and turning it open. Instead of the sea in front of her, she saw an endless and vast plain. Pure white yet not blinding, she stepped forward to plant her feet to nothing, making her fall into what felt like an endless drop until she looked up.

She feels her back hit the ground, cushioned slightly by a great blaze of blue flame before she made contact with the floor. Yet rendered immobile for a moment, she heard footsteps encroach upon her.

The Ivory roof that felt endless ceased with the face of a tall man with dark hair, his hand in front of him as he crouched down to look at her. His eyes were plain like the way he dressed. No fancy clothes or armor, nothing but simple felt to cover his skin.

"Good morning, I will be training with you today." Norris said as he grabbed Danica's hand, pulling her up.

A room materializes out of the vast nothing. Something similar to the room she saw in the mansion in Aramus but larger and simpler. The tiles spanned for a few miles in all directions and the glass roof showed the blue sky even accompanied by songbirds that nested near the metal that intersected with each other like a grid.

"Let's begin, shall we? I will not be tolerating unrelated questions. Please, leave that for your free time."

Norris walks a few paces away from Danica before grabbing practice weapons out of what seemed like thin air. He took a spear with soft foam on its tip for himself and passed a sword made out of wood to Danica. His eyes were precise as he observed his weapon before looking towards Danica.

His gaze made her step back before they eased up just a moment later. Taking a deep breath, Norris began to talk.

"You've been given the power to wield a flame that burns brighter than the flames of Prometheus. Truly, it is an incredible ability that has let you face head-to-head with even gods themselves. However you are still incredibly inexperienced." Norris stops and goes into a stance. His presence slowly becomes hostile as he heaves another breath.

"It is my job to teach you how to control it properly as well as how to make sure you don't die by it." Norris continues as he places a foot forward

"I can die from using this?!" Danica says in disbelief as she wearily grips her sword tighter

"Not if you're quick to learn. Now, defend yourself!" Norris charges forward, breaking the ground behind him.

Danica holds her blade in front of her to intercept his attack. However Norris changes his course and breaks her guard, knocking her back.

"Use your magic! It invokes the same as regular magic, so defend with it!" Norris gives Danica a moment to fix her balance before charging in again

He unleashes a near endless flurry of attacks onto her. After each strike he would spew advice like a coach as he relentlessly knocks Danica to the ground, each time taking longer than the last.

Soon, the fight became decorated with flashy bursts of fire as Danica slowly finds her pace.

Norris was nothing like Osial. He was composed and intelligent with how he moved, and even with the same monstrous strength she had back then, she could barely keep herself up every time she was forced to block.

Whenever Danica tried to dodge a strike, another would come, not giving her a second of respite. She fell over and over as she tried to move through her frustration and listen to Norris' advice.

It felt like an hour had passed of her desperately trying to defend herself before Norris even suggested to take a break, wiping the single bead of sweat on his brow as he once again took something from thin air and passed it on to Danica.

A full meal inside what looked like a lunch box. The food glimmered like a ray of sunshine in Danica's eyes as she fell to the floor and heaved a heavy breath. Hearing the clangs of bottles in front of her, she looked to see Norris sitting down with her with a lunch box that was plainer than hers.

Danica fixed her posture and opened the box to start eating, clearing her throat before grabbing the cutlery and digging in. The food looked delicious as her spoon cut through the meat like it was jelly. The vegetables blended with the rice creating a savory flavor that tasted divine as Danica continued to chew, drawing a tear as she felt a spice cover her tongue from the potatoes and carrots.

"Someone seems to be enjoying themselves." Norris says before eating a spoonful of his meal

"I've learned that I need to cherish every moment I have the chance to indulge myself. I can atleast do that much, correct?" Danica retorts after drinking the fresh water that was cold and refreshing as it went down.

"I've not learned much from your training, by the way." Danica says as she takes another bite of the spicy vegetables

"On the contrary, you've been learning quite a lot. Your movements have improved quite well yet your tone is still arrogant rather than confident." Norris says before taking a sip of his water.

"How is that supposed to matter?" Danica asked, sniffling as she ate a spoon of rice and meat

"You're failing to properly invoke your magic. You know how to release elemental magic from your mana veins; however you still don't know how to use it. But the moment when you entered a near death state, your instincts took over and helped you control that magic properly." Norris says, scraping the sides of his lunch before eating his last spoonful.

"I'll be training you for the next week so you can atleast utilize your magic properly. Listen carefully, what you're doing is similar to a street performer spewing oil from their mouths without a flame. You're only making a dangerous mess. However, when you add something that can ignite that oil, you can create a fire that is brilliant." Norris continues, closing his lunch box and placing it to the side before leaning in a bit closer

"Mages, use spells to act as their ignition as they let mana flow out into their fingertips. However, there are people who have natural ignitions born from innate ability or psychological training. While spells are a simpler way to shape your magic and ignite it, its burdened to be simple, while natural ignition is not chained down to such things. It all depends on how good the user is in manipulating the shape of those ignitions that they can become stronger than a normal mage."

Danica watches as Norris performs magic both with spells and without. The magic casted with spells took a while to cast, the words had been spoken precisely and quickly only to be able to generate a colored flame.

Norris raised his other hand and Danica watched. A brief moment of silence encapsulated her and the moment she heard her heart beat, a flame brighter than the one in his other hand had appeared. It's color and ferocity were far more brilliant than what he had cast with a long and arduous spell.

Danica's eyes glisten as she looks observes the bright flame, her heart beating out her chest as she drops her spoon and stands up. Determination fills her eyes as she began to understand something, grabbing her wooden sword and raising it as the box of food on the ground disappears into thin air.

Danica heaved a deep breath, focusing on her heartbeat, and the flow of magic inside her body. Calmly, she manipulates the magic that flowed into her fingertips, gripping tighter on her sword, making it an extension of herself and letting magic flow through it.

Norris grabs his spear from the floor and steps back. His hairs stand up and his eyes shimmer as he puts his foot forward.

"Defend yourself!"

Norris dashes forward like a bullet leaving the barrel of a gun while Danica stands still, her eyes are precise as she shifts her weight to intercept Norris' blow.

For a brief moment, their eyes meet as Norris plants his feet into the ground while he thrusts his spear forward with a deadly amount of momentum. Danica's eyes glow as her blade is covered in a blue blaze along with her whole right arm, redirecting Norris' strike as if they were moving in slow motion and aiming for his neck.

Like an angel of death, an enormous flame covers her sword like a sheath as her eyes glow with a red more lustrous than rubies as her amateur yet precise form shifts, creating for a moment an aura that filled even the stones of the room with despair as they distort and sweat from the heat.

Yet Norris was not affected. He destroys the ground in front of him as his foot digs further inwards and strikes Danica's side, making her roll and tumble until she barely reached the end of the stage.

Danica stands back up, her eyes begin to fill with a dazzling yellow as brilliant as the sun while she ran forward, covering the floor in blue fire with each step she took.

Norris kept silent as he watched as Danica weaved left and right towards him. When their weapons had clashed once more, their strikes created fireworks as the ground around them shook and crumbled. One blow after another, like wildfire, blue fire spread around everything as they moved like ribbons, bending and twisting around each other with a royal blue sheen.

They went on for hours exchanging blows without exhaustion, moving around until the entire field that spanned for miles was covered in black soot from the flames that had burned atop them. Danica was knocked down over and over again as her magic slowly became more refined, casting larger spells to support herself while Norris relentlessly threw blows towards her like a well-oiled machine.

Danica could no longer count how many times she was sent flying or had the wind inside her lungs taken away by the back of Norris' spear, however she didn't care as the flames around her grew brighter, and her eyes slowly began to glow like molten metal inside a forge. Suddenly, she jumped back, melting the floor she had stood on with a pillar of flame before reeling her sword back behind her shoulder as she slowly turned her body. She heaved a breath that set ablaze as the air touched her lips before slashing forward while Norris dashed forward to pursue her.

A giant blue fire ate away at the entire field in front of Danica as she lands on the ground. Her legs shake as she watched the flames slowly dissipate, revealing an unharmed Norris walking out like it was nothing. Danica falls to her knees as her eyes tremble and return to their old color while she coughed and gasped for air over and over, Norris slowly walking closer as she did, handing her a bottle of water as she began to tear up.

"You did great today." Norris said as he waiting for her to finish her drink, looking around the field that was rendered to dirt and covered in black soot, like coal.

Danica could not respond, choking on embers every time she tried to speak, warranting Norris to check on her condition.

Her mouth was filled with burns and her tonsils were reduced to dust. Her throat, in a similar condition as it was covered in ash and burning embers. The pain she was feeling was numbed by adrenaline as her eyes shuddered uncontrollably and had lost their focus.

Norris, however, was spotless. Not even a speck of dirt was left on him as he took something out of his pocket. A powdered drug wrapped in a translucent film. It shined like gold dust and ran down her throat like slime as soon as it was mixed with the water she was drinking.

Not a moment after, Danica had fallen asleep and Norris carried her on his shoulder, grabbing everything she had brought inside from thin air. Norris closed his eyes for a few moments, opening them again to see the room turn back into an endless sea of white that was cleaner than the clouds before walking out the door.

A week had already passed and Danica's hellish training continued. Everyday him and Norris would spar until she passed out, using different weaponry with each bout they had. And only speaking when food was in front of them. Norris stayed solemn and quiet as he wrote down notes on his diary every whenever he had a moment of respite.

Vanier on the other hand, was hard at work day and night as he manned the wheel and steered clear of trouble from ships that laid in hiding behind the horizon. Sitting down only once a day to eat his fill.

But, at the start of the second week, they had switched rolls.

Danica woke up and stuck to routine, going up the wheel to see Norris instead of Vanier. She noticed how both of them had acted the same whenever they stood behind the wheel. Staring holes through their compass and watch, never even glancing upwards as she walked towards them.

"Norris? Do I have orders today? Where's Vanier?" Danica asks, standing comfortably as she talked to him

"Yes. Head below deck and find the door. It's impossible for you to miss, so go on. Vanier will be waiting for you." Norris says, finally looking up as he tucked away his watch and put aside the compass

"R-right. I'll be off then." Danica says confused before walking down the flight of stairs.

Danica bumps into Jackson as he walks out from below deck with a bucket and a cloth.

"Oh hey, if its none other than our newbie. How've you been? We've barely talked all week and I couldn't even see you during the night." Jackson says as he shuffles to the side, opening the way for the other crew members to go up.

"Norris has been training me the whole week, he's been quite harsh with me that by the time our training ends, I've passed out and woken up to a fresh morning." Danica says, holding her back as she stretches, making popping sounds as she pressed lightly.

"HAHAHA! That's our Norris for you. Right! Since it's been a week, I presume you'll be with Vanier this time around?" Jackson asks, looking upwards to see Norris on the wheel.

"How'd you know?" Danica asks as she finishes her stretch with a refreshed sigh

"We've all gone through the same before. They teach you the very basics to get you up to par with everything on your first mission. Norris and Vanier have always been entrusted with this job, and that's why most of the crew are on really good terms with them." Jackson replies with a bright smile on his face as he leans his back on the sail post.

"How long have you been apart of this crew anyway?" Danica asks as she sits down next to Jackson.

"The lot of us have been here when we were younger than even you. We were abandoned by families or sold off as high-grade slaves. Passing out one day and realizing we were in front of Horus. Then he sent us off after making us promises, then we met Norris and Vanier." Jackson answered looking up at the masts above them

"What did he promise you?" Danica asks, hesitating for a moment before the words left her mouth.

Jackson's eyes widen for a moment before stopping. He thought to himself for a second before he leaned forward and looked at Danica with a sweet smile.

"That's a secret." Jackson's eyes were sincere yet playful at the same time. Even as she looked into his eyes; she saw nothing. As if he was able to hide even his soul, making him impossible to read.

"Now go on. Vanier is patient, but he won't hesitate to chew you out if you miss the time." Jackson said as he stood straight and started to walk off with his bucket in his hands, walking off somewhere behind the poles.

Danica watches him for a moment before gathering herself and walking below deck.

Below the decks, her attention was once again caught instantly by a beautiful door, this time, its beauty came from its solemn nature.

It was out of place from the wood frames and planks that surrounded it. It was painted in a calming violet with simple etchings that you would see everywhere on the doors of villages, and the mushrooms that grew near the foot of the frame reminded her of the forest that she used to peer at when she was younger.

Its peaceful nature was captivating, and the gentle glow of the sun seeping through the edges of the closed door attracted Danica like a moth to a flame as she held the door's knob in her hands and opened it.