Chapter 3 In a Heartbeat

That made Sollel eyes widened in

surprise, but when Cira added, "Your

parentS must have liked the Mistress

of Flame for them to named you after

her."

Sollel calmed down. You know the

Mistress ofFlame? Sollel wrote and

asked Cira.

Cira shook her head. "Only from

stories. My parents have seen the

Mistress of Flame after visiting Yther.

They said that when she's enveloped

with her flame, she shines brighter

than the sun and more dazzling that

any being in Azitera."

Hearing that, Sollel felt her heart

tightened and ached. The humans took

everything from her, even the flame that she was so proud of.

"You must be a Ytherian halfling,"

Cira continued. "Only a Ytherian

could have such hair and eye color. So

when you leave here, I suggest you use

the hood of your cloak to cover your

hair and hide your eyes. That way,

slave traders won't chase you.

"

Slave traders? Sollel's hold on the knife

tightened. Her blood was boiling with

rage. Ytherians were peace-loving,

always offering their help. But now,

they had been reduced to nothing but

slaves!

I have to regain my strength, Sollel

thought. She knew she could only

take her revenge after her strength

recovers. To burn them all and raze

hell, I need my full strength.

Are there any pure-blood Ytherian

left? Sollel wrote and asked Cira. She

wanted to know if a small number of her people escaped.

Cira sighed and pushed the bowl with

food away; she lost her appetite after

reading Sollel question. "Some escaped,

but they had been hunted down

and executed by humans, while the

not-so-powerful halflings are sold as

slaves. Maybe there are still pure-blood

Ytherians out there, but they're well

hidden. So if you are planning to look

for them, I don't think you can find

them."

Sollel felt a little happiness after what

she heard. Some escaped the siege. Her

people were still alive!

The more reason that she had to get

stronger.

The only reason they lost before was because of the moonrite-their weakness. It sucked their strength

and power. Not only that-they were

betrayed by the humans they nurtured

and protected.

Can you start healing me now? Sollel

was so eager to get stronger and look

for her people.

Instead of answering, Cira went to

sit on the dried straw bed, in front of

Sollel. "Give me your hands."

With hesitation, Sollel slipped out her

hands from the cloak. She flinched

when Cira held her hands with her

Own.

It was Sollel's first skin contact, No,

it was not. Sollel corrected herself

when she remembered the person who

brought her out of prison. That person

held her waist and even embraced her body.

"I can only do this for two hours a

day," Cira spoke, taking Sollel out of

her reverie. "I can concoct medicine

for you, but It'll take too much time,

so I can only heal you by passing my

essence to your body. After that, I'll be

weakened for more than half a day, but

that's irrelevant."

Sollel wanted to ask Cira why she was

helping her, why she was doing this.

Elves always hid their healing essence,

but Cira spoke with sternness, not

giving her time to ask.

"Let us begin."

Hearing that, Sollel cleared her mind

and closed her eyes to accept Cira's

essence flowing through her body.

The moment Cira's essence entered

Sollel's body, Cira felt as if she were hit

with ferocious and blistering flame,

almost knocking her out. But Sollel

grabbed Cira's hand as Sollel controlled

the raging flame inside her.

Her flame was very protective of

her, so when it felt a foreign essence

entering her body, it immediately

tried to destroy it. But Sollel already

calmed it down, and now all Cira could

feel was warmth. Gone the ferocious

blistering flame. Cira felt like the flame

had been tamed.

blistering flame. Cira felt like the flame

had been tamed.

Unbeknownst to Cira, only Sollel could

tame the flame. Sollel was its mistress

after all.

As Cira's essence was passed, Sollel

could feel the blood she lost slowly

being replenished by Cira's essence.

Just a little more, and I will be able to

fight back, Sollel thought as she felt her

blood boiling with rage...and more.

CIRA'S RECOVERY EXPECTATION was

nothing but a mistake. She calculated

that she would recover in half a day,

but that did not happen.

She only gave her essence to Sollel for two hours, and

The consequences were severe. She was

spent, like her whole essence had been

drained from her. Cira felt weak; she

couldn't even move a muscle, and she

stayed on the bed for days.

Cira was grateful that even though

Sollel already looked better, she stayed

and cared for her. Though she couldn't

comment about her cooking -it was

awful. But she had to stomach it, even

though it made her stomach hurl.

As Cira lay on the bed, she couldn't help

thinking back to when she was healing

Sollel. She felt as if she were filling an

enormous empty cauldron, and that

cauldron felt like an abyss. It couldn't

be satiated by her essence alone, and if

she tried, she'd die without a doubt.

Cira turned her head on her house's

door when it opened and saw Sollel

carrying a bowl in her hand. She

flinched. Cira was sure that it was

another one of Sollel's horrible dishes.

And Cira was right. It was, indeed.

But Cira did not complain, since Sollel

was feeding her diligently. She was

actually delighted, but she didn't show

it. At that moment, Cira was still having

doubts about Sollel's identity.

The days passed by with Sollel's

horrible dishes as Cira's nourishment.

Finally, after a few couple off days, Cira

was now able to stand, and the first

thing she did was cook.

"Just go get some water," Cira said

when Sollel offered to help. Cira wanted Sollel to be away so she could

think clearly.

Sollel listened and silently went out,

holding a wooden basin. When she

arrived at the riverbank, she filled the

basin with water, but instead of lifting

it back to Cira's house, Sollel stared at

her hands.

She didn't mean to drain Cira's

essence. It was her flame that wanted

to devour everything to recover its

former strength, but she still felt

guilty. If she didn't stop her flame, it

would've devoured all of Cira's essence,

including her life. dry, starting with Cira. But such way

of recovery was brutal and dark.

She would never be like the humans

she loathed, sacrificing other lives to

alleviate their Own.

Sollel heaved a deep sigh and clenched

her hands when she remembered what

she gained after Cira's essence entered

her body. Cira's essence was drained,

but her strength was only raised a little

a bit. Not enough to gain back one-eighth

of her strength, but close enough.

At least with her strength now, she

could deal with her pursuers-only if

their numbers were low since she was

still weak to fight a dozen of soldiers.

She could damage them at most, but

killing them? It would take a lot of

time.

Sighing, Sollel picked up the basin and

started walking back to Cira's house,

but before she reached Cira's home, she

felt her strength being drained.

Moonrite!

Sollel clenched her teeth and was

about to run as fast as she could and

hide when she remembered Cira. She

was weak at the moment because of

the essence she had given her. What if

the empire did something to her?

Sollel couldn't stand the thought of

her healer suffering because of her.

Therefore, with everything she got, she

fixed her dark red cloak and put on her

hood before walking to Cira's house,

leaving the basin in the middle of the

forest.

Slowly inching closer to Cira's house

and hiding behind trees, Sollel saw

more than a dozen soldiers outside.

Cira was forced to kneel, her face

pressed on the ground while being

interrogated.

"I am Captain Hutch Hamlin of

the Infernal Empire. Some of the

Beastrela's residences said you saved a

woman. Where is she?" the head of the

soldiers asked.

Cira didn't answer. Captain Hutch

Hamlin put his left foot on Cira's head

to press Cira's face to the ground.

"Answer me or we will execute you for

assisting a wanted criminal!"

Cira grunted in pain as the captain of

the soldiers pressed her head harder.

She could feel that it wouldn't take long

for her skull to be crushed, but she

couldn't open her mouth to tell them

where Sollel was. She didn't want to.

"Where is the woman?!" Captain

Hamlin asked angrily. "Speak or I will cut your tongue, you impudent elf!"

"I..don't...know..." Cira answered

difficulty. "S-she already left j-just this

morning."

"Where?"

"N-north." Cira was squeezing her eyes

tightly while feeling the weight of the

captain's feet on her head.

Satisfied with the information he

gathered, Captain Hamlin took off his

left foot from the elf's head and kicked

her away from him. Then he ordered

his men, "Tie her up. We're going north.

If we didn't see the Mistress of Flame

on the way to the north, we will kill her.

For now, feel free to have your way

with her."

The soldiers who heard that snickered

and licked their dry lips while eyeing

Cira hungrily, especially her long,

slender legs that were banned because of

her torn clothing.

Cira was scared. She wanted to scream,

but she knew no one would help her

but herself. These were the Infernal

Empire soldiers. Whoever dared to

go against them would be considered

traitors.

While feeling hopeless, she was

thankful that she lied. Cira had a

feeling that even if she told them the

truth, what was about to happen to

her now would still happen to her.

She couldn't escape, but at least, Sollel

could.

But before the thought of Sollel escaping eased Cira's mind, a ball of

flame, two times larger than Cira's fist,

was thrown from the forest. The ball

of flame looked weak that the soldiers

even started laughing when they saw

it. But when it reached the center of

the soldiers' formation, it exploded so

massively that Cira felt a ringing in her

ear.

In the midst of the fire and confusion,

someone grabbed Cira and pulled

her to run. But before they could run

toward the forest and escape, Captain

Hamlin saw through the fire and

confusion and blocked their path while

taking out the moonrite stone.

Sollel, who was holding Cira's arm,

immediately felt her strength being

sucked away. She dropped on her

knees, weakened by the moonrite. From Sollel helping Cira, now it was

Cira helping Sollel.

Seeing the Mistress of Flame on

her knees, Captain Hamlin laughed

maniacally, already imagining the

honor and reward he would receive

for recapturing the Mistress of Flame.

Captain Hamlin already forgot about

Cira; his sole attention was focused

on how to maximize the power of the

moonrite that he began advancing

toward Sollel, his hand holding the

stone stretched to its limit, He was too

focused on weakening the Mistress

of Flame that the captain didn't see how Cira's elven eyes glint with

understanding while looking at the

stone that he held.

Sollel's body was about to fall to the

ground completely when she suddenly

felt her strength slowly coming back.

She looked around and saw Cira

running away with the moonrite stone

she grabbed from the captain's hand.

When Cira realized earlier that the

stone was weakening Sollel, she

immediately made a plan to grab it

and ran away, hoping that it would

give Sollel her strength back.

Cira didn't even know if what she did made sense; she didn't even know if running

away with the moonrite was the right

thing to do in their situation. She just

went with her gut feeling. Using one of

elven strengths, speed, Cira stole the

moonrite stone and ran away.

"Don't bother with that elf," Captain

Hamlin clicked his tongue, his

voice was confident seeing that the

Mistress of Flame was still kneeling

on the ground near him, like she was

groveling before him. He felt elated.

"We already have what we came here

for. Tie her up while she's still weak.

Then, we will regroup with the others and celebrate our catch of the day."

Captain Hamlin was beaming with

happiness, his lips twitching in delight.

He couldn't stop thinking about all

the honor and the reward he would

receive.

The captain's greedy eyes

glinted in delight after seeing all the

soldiers under his command readied

the chain made of iron to tie Sollel,

who they thought was still weak. But

unbeknownst to everyone, Sollel had

regained one-eighth of her strength

now that there were no moonrite

stones to weaken her.

In a heartbeat, before the soldiers

could lay their hands on Sollel and

before the holy iron chain seized her,

Sollel's hand swiftly grabbed the

captain's sword, pulled it out of its

sheath, and made two turns on her

heel to put a distance between her and

the captain.