The Fire Inside Page 3

  “Tell us agin about the fire, if yer so important!” The old guard in one movement leaned forward and pulled her hair, raising her face to his.

  “Without fire we would be nothing,” she choked the words out slowly, “by fire we can destroy all, through fire we will live forever.”

  Alexa was frightened for Vis and cursed herself for her foolishness. If she stepped into the courtyard and stopped this brutality, she would be outed as helping Vis and punished for her own betrayal. She could only imagine the fury of Master Zafir if she acted against his judgment. Likely neither of the girls would live to finish their training. Again she was forced to stand by without protecting her friend. Perhaps the beating would be over quickly, and these drunken imbeciles would move on, or they would linger without action and be discovered by an overeager midnight guardsman. She could only hope for such luck, but hope means nothing when confronted with evil.

  Half-beard was back in Visandra's face, talking slowly and purposefully, but Alexa couldn't make out his words. Seeing Visandra's weary head shaking left and right, she imagined that things were going to get worse long before they got better. No matter what she had done in questioning The Spire, this punishment was undeserved. Alexa was ashamed for her own feelings of fear and helplessness, knowing Visandra's were the result of being physically trapped and assaulted and emotionally battered at her weakest moment. But the affront continued as the stutterer’s hand came crashing down on her friend’s backside again and again. Alexa felt physical pain in her chest, as though her heart was breaking. She hoped against hope that someone would hear the sex and violence and come to Visandra's rescue.

  But no one did. She continued to speak her mantra until the two piggish men grew tired of toying with her. They left Visandra like a marionette, supported by the heavy wood but limbs hanging limp in the moonlight. When they were clearly gone, Alexa silently bolted to her friend, and Vis jerked away, feeling a hand on her face.

  “Without fire we would be nothing . . .” she sobbed. Quickly Alexa was cleaning her face with a soft cloth, wiping away her tears to restore her friend to some semblance of humanity. Vis blinked in the darkness as Alexa attempted to clear the salty tears from her eyes. “A-Alexa?” She gasped, and Alexa nodded her head, clearing her throat to avoid crying.

  “I'm here now,” the young girl said, “I'll take care of you.” With that she offered her friend a drink from the water skin, which she accepted without question. She brought forth a ripe fig, soft enough that Vis could chew it easily. The injured friend took it from Alexa's fingers, her tongue lightly brushing against them. Visandra sucked on the fruit, coating her mouth with its sweet and pungent flavor, her eyes reflexively shutting with the unexpected pleasure. While she chewed Alexa wasted no time using aloe to coat her friend's sunburnt lips and face. With midnight fast approaching and fear of discovery looming, she had to work quickly. Visandra's eyes fluttered open and she squared her jaw at her friend.

  “Did you see?” She asked, her eyes pleading. No, she doesn't know that I saw her at the Angular Wood . . . she couldn't? It occurred to Alexa that she was asking about the violent assault, and she just looked down to the cobblestones. Even after the violence, Alexa found herself growing angry about seeing Vis with the Druids, her horrible secret that must remain unspoken. It doesn't matter at all, Alexa told herself, all that matters is getting her out of here alive.

  Vis broke the silence. “Can you heal the other side?” She paused for a moment, then pleaded her friend. “Please?”

  “Of course. But I have to be fast. You understand?” Vis nodded and accepted another swig from the water skin, and Alexa kissed her friend's forehead, her stringy hair collected in sticky clumps around the dry red skin. Such a beautiful girl, Alexa reflected, and this is what she's become. She choked back another tear and moved silently around the stocks.

  Alexa raised Visandra’s robes and gasped when she saw her friend's bare backside. Her skin remained beet red from the violent beating. The stuttering brute has torn her skin with his monstrous actions, her backside swollen and lashed. Immediately Alexa dribbled some water onto her injuries, her friend gasping audibly at the pain. Alexa gritted her teeth and instinctively withdrew a few fern-like leaves from one of her pockets, patting at her wounds with the soft herbs. I'm touching her backside, she realized, I've never touched her there, and it's making me want her. Her movements were so automatic, so caregiving, that Alexa had failed to see her friend as a sexual being. But that was quickly changing. “Don’t worry, she called to her friend, I’ll get you out of here.”

  As she searched for wounds to heal, Alexa’s eyes dropped to her friend’s exposed womanhood, and she couldn’t help but eye the nakedness in front of her. She felt an intense urge to lean in, to place her mouth on Visandra's engorged lips, to kiss her deeply, her tongue lashing into her friend's exposed hole. She imagined her face pressed deep between her legs, tasting Visandra’s superheated sex. But before she gave in to her wanton urges, the sky exploded with light and heat. Her head jerked around to face the Spire, behind her. Eyes wide open towards the sky, she witnessed fire burning in a near-circle a hundred feet from the ground, orange and yellow and resting in the air without dissipation. The Inferno had begun, and with that Alexa knew that she was caught.

  Chapter 4. The Inferno

  Alexa's second trip to the top of the Spire came without the stealth of her first visit. She climbed the stairs dutifully, walking directly past dumbfounded Masters who stared through the windows at the fiery night sky. No person dared interrupt Master Zafir in the midst of the Inferno. It struck Alexa that perhaps the others were simply curious of what would happen when she reached his chambers. Did they think he would throw her from the balcony? Burn her alive as she stood? He may do just that, she thought, but I have to face my punishment just as Visandra faces hers. It's the only chance either of us have of getting out of here alive. Her thoughts began to grow morbid. I wonder if I would smell my hair burning before my nasal passages were completely scorched?

  She imagined her own face blistered and burnt, skin cracking and falling like charred logs in a fire. She had heard stories of Zafir's enemies in battle screaming until voiceless as the fire leapt from their throats, their organs exploding from the intensity of the flame. She had made herself his enemy and each step echoed in her ears now, whispering insults she imagined coming from his lips. Liar. Whore. Deceiver. Traitor. The walkway was lit with flashes of bright orange as the fires raged in the sky outside the Spire, and each window she passed wafted hot air against her face, already flush with embarrassment.

  She pressed through Zafir's chamber door and knew she would find the Master on his balcony. Along the way she noticed an overturned chair and serving platters tossed aside. A wine carafe lay on its side, with red wine staining the stone below. Why thank you, I'd love a glass, Alexa thought without thought, a detour from fear through nervousness into humor. The balcony doors were wide open, with the bright orange sky on display, the bishop at the center of the magical onslaught. He faced away from her in his Master's robe, his thin body contorting from one odd angle to another as the explosions of flame appeared in the air, fingers crooked, arms jutting through the air. He appeared to be conducting the firelight above, pushing and pulling the fire across the night. Alexa was frozen, no longer in fear but in awe of his awesome power. From her tiny apartment below she could not have appreciated the incredible carnage happening during the Inferno, but here, only feet away from its genesis, she could imagine these same powers obliterating towns and turning marching armies into ash.

  The bishop's arms went to his sides and he stood up straight. He spoke. “Why are you here?”

  “Why did you summon me?” Her response was automatic.

  Zafir spun on his heel to look at Alexa. His long hair was askew, covering half of his face, his tall, thin body mostly covered by his robes. He tilted his head at the young girl in partial recognition. “You think this is for you?” He gestured towards
the burning sky. “This is for my followers, for those who gave up everything for the Spire. What are you?”

  “My whole life is the Spire. Without the Spire, I have nothing.”

  Like a shot he was on her, his hand wrapped around her prominent leather chest strap, pulling. She didn't resist, and stumbled into his chest. Once near him, she smelled an overwhelming aroma of wine and spices. She knew the spices were the reagents boosting his spell-casting power, but clearly the wine was having its own encouraging effect. His eyes were halfway to bloodshot, his gaze unsteady compared to their last encounter. He dragged her to the balcony, but she didn't fear his forcefulness. As he towered over her, his voiced pounded into her ears. “There, below, you see?” She did. The stocks were in clear view of Zafir's balcony. He had seen . . . what had he seen?

  “She is my friend,” Alexa stated defiantly, turning to face the bishop, “and you would have her humiliated and beaten?”

  “I would have her practicing under my Masters, working as all the other Apprentices have for the honor of our Guild. She would have herself burned alive for practicing foul magic, or at the very least cast out into the wilderness. She would betray me for another, no matter what I’ve given her.” He took a breath and refocused on her eyes. “You would have her punished as she has been.” His eyes thinned to slits and he let go of her. “You want your friend as your lover, and have lied to the head of our order to that end.”

  “I wanted to help her. I did not lie to you.”

  “Do not humiliate yourself, I am no fool,” Zafir boomed, “though I have been. I have seen your acts, and I know who you truly are. Not the girl who came to me begging for her friend's life, but the girl who used another's sins to gain my favor, to replace her at my feet.”

  Alexa's face flushed and she shook her head. It's all wrong. He has it all wrong! “No, I didn't . . .”

  Zafir cursed and the air behind him exploded with fire. He glared at her through unfocused eyes. “I know you have used fire magic, although you hide it from the Spire, from me. If I asked you to be an Apprentice, to leave your Collector's Guild and learn from me, tonight, what would your answer be?”

  Alexa's voice caught in her throat, dumbfounded. “You would never . . . I only wanted Visandra's loyalty and devotion to the Spire.”

  “You wanted her loyalty and devotion to you, and you would use her power to better yourself.”

  “I - I did,” she admitted, remembering the countless hours under Visandra's tutelage that resulted in her minute knowledge of the fire arts, “but this is my home. I only know and love this place. When I remember my life before the Spire, it is always in nightmares.”

  He eyed her closely and absent-mindedly massaged the back of his neck while she spoke. “She betrayed me. You betrayed me, Alexa.”

  Time stopped as he used her name for the first time. How did he even know her name? It was too much that he was speaking to her during the Inferno, that he had mentioned her joining the Masters Guild, and now he knew her name. She was speechless.

  “I have watched you since you came to me. Your beauty and strength inspired me, and I waited for you to come to me, to ask for forgiveness for your friend. Every night I hoped you would walk into my bedchamber and challenge me to give you her life.” It must be the drink, Alexa thought, these are the words of a lonely man who's had too much wine. She wondered if there was any proper response, and if he would remember it if she crafted one. “Here you are, her blood still on your fingers, telling me that you love the Spire more than Visandra. This girl that you love – this girl you betrayed.”

  “I did not betray her!” Alexa shouted, surprising herself. “She betrayed me! And the Spire, and all of the Masters. She is my best, maybe my only, friend, and your anger and punishment will never take that away. But this is my home, you are my leader, and I will never forget that.”

  “Bow, then, and ask for my forgiveness for your sins. Or the fire that creates will destroy both of your lives.”

  It was not stubbornness or arrogance that gripped Alexa, but she stood her ground, staring at Master Zafir, the most powerful person she'd ever seen. The fire continued to tear through the night sky, audibly burning and popping in the wind. Her hand suddenly snaked out, grabbing his clenched fist and pulling it to her throat. His fingers loosed and wrapped around her neck and she spoke through gritted teeth. “Do it then. Use your power to take my life, or never say those words again.” Visions of fire bursting through her throat into her lungs, burning her from the inside, jumped through her head. Nonetheless, she stood tall and stared into his half-drunken eyes.

  A split second later his lips were against hers, his tongue wetly pushing through her teeth into her waiting mouth. His hand remained around her throat, pulling her close. He squeezed just enough to show her his mortal strength, if not his immortal power. His free hand wrapped around her back, seizing on her tight leather uniform and pulling her breasts against his chest. Still a virgin despite her adulthood, Alexa had never felt this sensation before, but she tried to match his kisses note for note, losing her balance onto his sinewy frame. She immediately wanted to know what was beneath his robe, touch the body she had seen meditating on her earlier trip to the Spire. It doesn't matter that he's drunk, she decided, I want him, and I'm going to have him.

  He spun around with her, pushing the two of them to the balcony, her back to the still-swirling trails of fire. His left hand began to seek out her uniform's buckles, and Alexa felt him fumbling with the wrong straps, his fingers showing none of their usual dexterity on the foreign leather garment. Within a few seconds she had undone her pants and boots, peeling the tight-fitting hide from her skin, while the bishop used the same time to pull back his robe, revealing his thin, muscled frame and a thatch of brown hair over a gorgeous long cock. She reached for it, wanting to stroke its hardness, and he stopped her, grabbing her hand and bending it behind her back. It hurt her, but on an emotional, not a physical level. Why won't he let me touch him? She thought, but he pushed her body backwards and kicked her naked legs open, and she realized it didn't matter. He was going to take her, this god of a man, give her the fucking she had dreamed of, and it was going to happen in front of the entire town below. He twisted her arm with one hand and continued squeezing her throat with the other as he pushed towards her slit.

  Despite her inexperience, Alexa's body was primed for sex, and wetness dripped onto the head of Master Zafir's penis. Once positioned to enter her, it was a slow and study push that felt gentle but still foreign to the young girl. It's like he's just pushing something inside me, it doesn't feel hot at all. I expected it to feel like fire. Her lips stretched around his manhood but she didn't face the pain she'd expected. Moments later he reached her maidenhead, and Alexa jumped as it tore. Her natural lubrication made the entry easy, but she wasn't prepared for his thickness. She closed her eyes and thought of what it must look like to see him pushing into her, trying to distract herself from focusing on the contrast between her now-bleeding gash and Visandra's vagina below. This isn't wrong, she thought, this is exactly right. I want him to fuck me. And the Master did, pushing as far as he could before pulling slowly out, and relaxing into a groove as he thrust back into her.

  He ground against her, leaving her throbbing clitoris pulsing with pleasure as their pubic hair brushed together, intertwined. This isn't the same as rubbing myself, she reflected, but damn if it isn't so much better. Many eavesdropped conversations had taught Alexa that women needed to fake their interest and their orgasms, but she needed no such trickery with Zafir. Her pain still floated under the surface and prevented her full immersion, but the pleasure was so great she put that out of her mind. In her mind the picture was vivid: his body pressing into her, hers against the balcony, the sky in bloom. The sensations intensified as she moved her hips, her instincts drawing the roadmap to her own pleasure. That's the spot, she realized, and let out a low grunt in pleasure. She found it again and ground in a tiny circle against the base of hi
s cock, before he pulled it out to thrust into her again. Alexa wished she could free her hand and pull him closer, but the feeling of helplessness added to her excitement. She would just have to take control with her hips.

  The pain was now a dull throbbing behind the pleasure she was bringing herself. Bucking her hips into the powerful Master gave her the contact she needed to feel sublime, and she easily found the spot he had been hitting a few moments earlier. Now he was there for her, squeezing and pulling and thrusting while she used him as her sexual plaything. She had made herself come countless times in the Angular Wood, and now she felt the orgasm building fast.

  “I'm going to come,” she told Zafir through half-breaths, and he mercifully kept the pace he had begun, bringing her closer. She felt the heat building inside herself, and wondered if it was her sex or his that burned inside her body. Sweat dripped from the Master onto her face, and her leather top felt constricting as her body searched for the cool night air. The furnace above, behind, and inside her was too much to bear, and she bucked hard into him, letting herself go. Alexa's legs jerked, her fingernails sought purchase where they could, and her head was only held still by the Master's powerful grasp. Through closed eyelids glowed lavender, and she heard Zafir gasp and curse.