Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira
An Answer and a Long Hidden Secret

I concentrated on the movement of our small boat, trying to distract from the throbbing pain in my exhausted body. Each long drag of my oar causing excruciating pain on every inch of my flesh. Akuma continued to drone on about everything which could possibly go wrong from now until the time we reached home once more. I had eventually tuned his voice out quite a while ago and was left with my own thoughts, as the pain continued to fight its way through my veins. “Alright,” I said, unable to listen to his worried voice any longer. “You’ve gone over basically everything that could ever possibly go wrong. That’s enough. Something else now,” I said, looking up at Akuma from my stranded gaze on the ocean.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked, shifting his own gaze.

I thought for a moment. “Ah,” I said, snapping my fingers. “Why in the world did they mean by ‘the others’?” I asked.

“What do you mean by ‘they’?” he asked, confused.

“I don’t know. Sombra, the ancient text, it all kept talking about multiple heroes, not just-” I paused for a moment, the words caught in my mouth. “Well, not just us,” I said, remembering the text catching fire.

“Oh yeah. I don’t know. I thought that was kind’a weird, too. And then when there was each element before entering. That part wasn’t particularly strange, it was just- I don’t know. Anything can be a clue,” he said anxiously.

I nodded, thinking quietly for a moment. “Wait a minute, ‘each of the four heroes,’ that’s a line from the text! And there are four elements, fire, water, wind and earth. So maybe I represent the element of fire, meaning there are three other elements out there. Probably the other heroes each have their own element.”

“So one for water, one for air and so on?” he asked.

I nodded. “That would mean I’m truly not alone and that there are other people out there who have gone through similar things,” I said, excitement spreading through my bones. “But wait, what about you then?” I asked. “I mean, there are only four elements and none of them are turning invisible.”

“Maybe I’m a bonus. Or I don’t know. Maybe every one of the elements has their own royal guard to protect them,” he answered with a goofy smile.

“Oh yeah. They have guards who just sit there and let them fight entire armies,” I teased, punching his shoulder gently.

“I was unconscious!” he yelled defensively.

I laughed, snorting. “I know, I know,” I said, shoving my hand into the pocket of my cloak. Feeling around for a moment, I realized that I still kept the necklace. I pulled the it from inside my blood-red cloak. Akuma and I stared at the glowing pendant in awe at its magnificent beauty, it was obviously something fit only to be worn by someone with extreme importance. I held it up and looked closely at the large fiery crystal in the middle of the gold chain. “What do I do with it? I mean, I guess it’s safe in my pocket, but that’s kind’a weird. Then again, it could be like-cursed or something.” I said, studying the slightly transparent stone which held the dying breath of Udea, Goddess of Fire.

“Wear it, I guess, I mean if it were cursed it probably would’ve cursed us by now. And I don’t know about you, but I feel quite uncursed,” he said, pausing for a moment and looking up at the sky. He seemed to be deciding whether or not to trust the wind for a moment. Seeming pleased with the direction of the wind, he put down his oar and scooted closer.

“Yeah, but I don’t know if I deserve to wear it. I’m no queen, I mean just look at me. My hair is messy and caked with blood, I haven’t bathed or changed my clothes in- a really long time, and I have to fight my evil aunt and apparently I might even have other family issues like being partially god or whatever. And I just learned that I wasn’t the only one with powers similar to mine. I’m tired and just barely moving hurts horribly, and I-” I paused, trying to swallow my tears. “I don’t even know what my own people are doing because I became queen and left the next day. And I keep using the title of queen as a fear factor, but really it’s just to convince myself that I’m not dreaming and I won’t wake up tomorrow to replace Grandma Lilly had made me breakfast and Maktu is waiting with you at the dock for a pop quiz,” I said quietly, my voice wavering and mountainous tears building in my eyes.

I stared out at the sea, fiddling with the necklace. Akuma placed his hand on my shoulder, saying, “I can’t think of anyone more deserving of that necklace than you. You fought off an entire army division of both shadow creatures and trolls. And who cares what you look like? On the one hand, a queen is selfless and attends to her people’s needs before her own, so that just means you did just that, you protect your people. Next, blood caked in your hair is actually kind of awesome, it sounds super tough and makes you look awesome, but if it bothers you, when we get to the island, or even now you can wash it out. And then also, the whole you haven’t changed your clothes thing, neither have I, for one and also what did you expect? We don’t exactly have abundant clothes right now, as it typically happens when you live on the sea for a month,” he said calmly and looking deeply into my eyes with his own like endless oceans of midnight water. I sniffled but kept a tear from breaking loose. “It isn’t really your fault you had to leave your people, I mean it was kind of the fact that the world was going to end in a little while if we didn’t get where we needed to go and fast. And, I don’t even see how being partially god is a problem. It means you get sweet powers and it sounds awesome when you introduce yourself and everyone knows who you are, it’s like your famous and a hero automatically.”

“That’s exactly the problem. I can’t handle the pressure, people expect me to be queen-like and god-like just because it flows through my veins. As for the powers, they’re not that great. I’m still figuring them out and they feel weird and I have to live with a constant fear of hurting someone and new ones just keep showing up and I can’t even keep track of all of them. Like I can make a shield, I guess, but I probably can’t do that on command. And apparently, I should be able to summon a dragon or something. Don’t know how to do that. I just figured out how to throw balls of fire, but that one time it just kept growing and then it was all over my arm and then another time I was covered completely in flames and I don’t know how that happened. I can melt through iron, but that was one- sort’a time. And not only are they hard to control, but when they do work and I do hurt someone or something on purpose, it leaves this horrible pain in my heart that I try to ignore but sometimes can’t,” I practically yelled, realizing that sometime during my rant I had begun to cry, tears streaming down my face.

Akuma was silent for a moment, then asked, “you know the scars I have on my hand?” I nodded. “They’re part of the price of having my power. Every time I use it, my hand gets a little more scarred depending on how long I use them,” he said, holding his palm up above his head to show another large scar across the middle. “So being able to control fire without any kind of sacrifice is far better than having to pay an awful fine for a few moments where the world can’t see you.”

“How have I never them appear before now then?” I asked, shocked.

“Because,” he said, “I’m the guy who disappears. Hiding is my thing,” he said, taking the necklace from my hand and unclasping it. I held my thick black hair up as he clasped the flaming jewel around my neck. “Just as fire is yours.”