“W-wait for me!”
By the time Yamal arrived—and by the time anyone processed what was happening—the Silent One had already leaped onto the platform, cut Maiya from her bindings, and was in the process of jumping back down.
Yamal felt the heat of hope light within his chest.
We can do this! I can help!
He turned, intending to pave their escape route through the crowd, but was instead met with a column of armed guards rushing up to them.
In the span of a single moment, victory turned to defeat. They were surrounded, and with the Silent One carrying Maiya, he couldn’t fight like normal.
Yamal unsheathed his dagger.
When his life had fallen apart, he’d broken. He’d become indecisive, aimless. Wasting each day drinking and wondering what even the point of living was. On more than one occasion, he’d considered taking his own life. Who wouldn’t, after watching their own wife die with their unborn child? After losing his business, his home… his everything?
Now, Yamal felt none of that. If only for a moment, the man he once was surfaced again. Yamal was never a warrior. He barely knew how to carry a blade, but it didn’t matter.
With a roar, he plunged the dagger into the nearest guard.
His aim was true, but the cultist flinched away at the last moment, and his knife dug into their abdomen. Though it sunk deeply, the cultist grabbed the hilt, preventing him from retrieving the blade.
Yamal let go of the weapon and stumbled away in shock.
I just… stabbed someone!
“Kill them!” the man screamed. “Kill them all!”
The crowd erupted in shouts and cries for blood as they swarmed them. Talwars, daggers, and spears point inward, promising death.
Yamal backed away, sidling up to the Silent One. This was it. This was where they’d make their glorious stand. Fighting to the death to defend Maiya.
The blades closed in. Yamal couldn’t say which was more terrifying—the instruments of death, or the deranged grins of the ones who held them.
No, it was neither. It was the fire that licked their boots. Closing, creeping, with the inevitable promise of a horrible death.
The fire raged so thickly they could no longer even see the cultists.
The heat was unbearable.
Snap. Snap.
A strange sound came from behind them. Yamal turned, fearing more enemies from behind. Instead, he found Maiya. She was standing. On her own.
His eyes widened.
Maiya rubbed her head. “Somebody mind telling me what’s going on here?”
5
BLESSED PROPHET (PART TWO) (MAIYA)
Which Ash’va stomped on my head? Maiya thought as she groggily opened her eyes. And what’s with the smell? Is something cooking?
She looked around, unable to make any sense of her surroundings. People surrounded her. Lots of them. All jeering.
What did I ever do to you?
Her wrists and ankles ached.
I don’t remember getting hurt… Wait, injuries?
Her vision cleared, and she realized the smell wasn’t that of cooking at all. It was the smell of burning wood. And the heat signaled that said wood was close. Very close.
What in the realms is going on?
Her wrists and ankles had been bound to a branch, and she’d been propped up vertically.
She saw the smoke first. Then the flames erupted—which meant the logs had been doused in oil.
Nothing made sense. Who would do this to her? Why? And how long had she been out?
Maiya felt like she’d awoken from a thousand-year-long dream. She was groggy and spent, and merely keeping her eyes open took all of her effort. If it weren’t for the rising sense of panic at the back of her head, she would’ve dozed off again.
“You’re insane! All of you!” someone roared, and that was when Maiya realized she wasn’t alone. Two other men stood within the ring of fire. The smaller one was in front of her as if shielding her from the crowd. The other was working furiously to undo her bindings.
Yamal? The Silent One? What are they…
Maiya’s mind finally began to work. This is a pyre. They’re… burning me? Us? Grakking ash!
“Somebody mind telling me what’s going on here?” she said.
The Silent One’s only reaction was to redouble his efforts. With one final motion, he finished undoing the knots that held Maiya’s hands to the post and began working on her ankle bindings. Yamal froze, then turned slowly, as if disbelieving that Maiya had spoken.
“What?”
Yamal’s mouth flapped like a fish. “Y-y-you’re back—ow!”
He recoiled as flames licked his boots, threatening to set his clothes alight. He backed away hastily.
“Answers later,” he said, thrusting an orb into Maiya’s hands. “Here! You’re a mejai, right? Get us out of this!”
Maiya smirked, despite the gravity of their predicament. “Aren’t you the rescuers? You’re not usually supposed to ask the victim to bail you out, y’know?”
“Come on!” Yamal shrieked, panic staining his words.
“Alright, fine. You can back off now,” Maiya said, addressing the Silent One.
In seconds, she’d charged and fired the C Grade Wind Blast spell Yamal had handed her, slicing through her ankle restraints.
It was at times like these that Maiya truly appreciated the value of magic. Who knew how much longer it’d have taken to undo or cut her ankle bindings without it?
“Alright, let’s bail,” she said, moving away from the post, when she abruptly halted.
The crowd’s jeers and jibes had vanished, replaced by awed silence.
With her mind working better now, Maiya understood that her imprisonment had been the result of her harebrained idea to touch that bizarre tree.
It’d clearly been a sacred item to the Children, and she’d violated that sanctity. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what must’ve happened. She’d been incapacitated, and Yamal and the Silent One were captured alongside her.
Never thought they’d sentence us to death for it, though…
“Yamal. My orbs. Did you bring them all?”
Yama nodded. “Yes, they’re in my rucksack, but is now the time to—”
“Leave your bag and go.”
Yamal’s eyes bulged. “Have you gone mad? We didn’t risk our lives to—”
“Go!” Maiya shouted, then continued in a softer voice, “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay, Yamal. I’ll be okay.”
Maiya felt like she’d said those words before, but where, and to whom, she couldn’t quite recall.
Yamal pursed his lips, then turned and jumped off the pyre. Maiya was surprised to see such decisiveness in the man—jumping through flames was no simple feat. Something had changed within him. There was now a fire in his eyes that was missing before.
The Silent One regarded Maiya with obvious worry. She nodded back. “I got this. Trust me.”
He followed Yamal.
The onlookers made no move to stop them. In fact, they backed away, either out of fear… or something else.
Maiya dropped to her knees and rummaged frantically through the dozen orbs she’d brought along.
Come on… Come on… Where is it?
Though she’d put up a calm demeanor in front of her friends, it’d all been an act. The window for jumping out like they had was rapidly closing, and without the right orbs, she’d burn just as easily as anyone else.
That was true for most mejai. While physical defense orbs required only three to protect someone from all forms of physical damage—Slashing Protection, Blunt Force Protection, and Piercing Protection—elemental defense orbs corresponded to each pranic element.