Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira

After Akuma and I had sat through de-briefings on what we missed, made explanations to the people for our absence, apologized to Maktu for taking so long to return, discussed strategies with Tao and trained with the rest of the heroes for battle, we finally had a chance to relax in the early afternoon. “So I can take a guess at what your elements are, but should we go over what kinds of powers we have, just so we know?” I asked the group as we sat quietly around the fire I had built.

“Why not?” Zanshi asked from the right of me. “Alright, as you may have guessed, my element is earth and stuff.” She explained to the group. “Um, I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m supposed to be able to build mountains. Otherwise, I’ve just done small-scale stuff, moving rocks and boulders, I like art, so I’ve made cool statues. Um, I can grow plants, and apparently, I should be able to summon an earth-dragon, I guess,” she said, concentrating and then moving large boulders around us. I chuckled, remembering the conversation Akuma and I had after discovering that I too should be able to summon a dragon.

Onde spoke up from the opposite side of the fire, “That’s cool. I too should be able to summon a dragon, I haven’t done that yet, but otherwise, I move water, and I can freeze it, too,” he said. There was a pause, “oh, wait, Afira, you did not share with us the things you can do.”

“Afi,” I reminded him for the fourth time since we had met earlier that day, “my name is Afi,” I said, growing annoyed, but chose to ignore this and answer the question. “Um, I can make fire or just warm my hands. I’ve melted through iron. Um, oh, I had to fight a small army and ended up catching my entire body on fire,” I said, looking at Akuma, who smiled. “Oh! And I haven’t seen it, myself, but apparently, sometimes my eyes become flames. Akuma says it’s terrifying, but I’m pretty sure he’s making it up,” I said, there was a pause of shock before I continued. “Oh, and when I was first learning how to use my powers, I couldn’t control them, so I laughed and my arm became completely covered in flames,” I said. No one said anything at this. I realized they may have thought that I still may hurt them. “Oh, but I can control them now,” I rushed, looking worriedly at Akuma. His eyes returned my anxious emotion.

“It’s not that,” Hatya said quietly, “it’s just- you’ve been in battle?”

“Um… yeah. Lots of times. You haven’t?”

“It’s only been little small battles with one or two of those shadow creature-things.”

“Oh,” I said, pausing. I looked over at Akuma, he nodded as if to say, “they’ll find out sooner or later.” I sighed. “It might be because the Leader of the Shadow Creatures, Sombra, is my Grandmother, Lilly’s older sister,” I said, “or because I took one of the most important jewels on the planet from her. Either one,” I answered casually removing the necklace from its hiding place under my shirt. They stared at its radiant beauty before I tucked it away once more.

There was a pause for quite a while before anyone spoke again. This time it was Vaayu, who demonstrated what he could do with his powers, sending small gusts of wind around the beach which picked up sand and moved it to form a design like a tornado in the soft white sand. When he was finished, another long pause. I nudged Akuma, trying to tell him subtly to explain to them what he could do. He shook his head and was about to say something to me when Ditio interrupted him, saying, “do any of the other royal guards have powers? Because I do and we don’t know why,” he said worriedly.

Akuma looked at me, I looked back, unable to contain the small smirk which hid slightly on my face. “What would those be?” I asked, mostly just to spite Akuma.

Ditio looked down for a moment, almost embarrassed. “I...” he began, flinching as if his own ability hurt him to think of. “I can hear the deceased,” he said, his eyes becoming black through the small slit in his helmet.

I was shocked. “Really?” I asked, “what do they sound like? Why can you hear them? Does it take a physical toll on your body? Is it creepy? Are they nice?” I asked, unable to control all of the questions which flowed out of my mouth.

He chuckled. “Some of them are nice. I can hear your Grandma,” he said, wrapping his slender fingers around his helmet. The thought of Grandma Lilly hurt slightly to think of being able to speak with her once more, knowing it was possible but I would never ask someone to do that for me. “And yeah,” he said tearing me from my painful thoughts. Zanshi watched quietly as her friend continued, putting her hand on his shoulder to show her support. “It does take a physical toll on my body,” he answered, removing the piece of armor. I gasped quietly at what was underneath. His face was scarred horribly and even disfigured in some places, the shadows cast by the fire adding to the shock, highlighting his deformities, looking much like Akuma’s hand which now held the secret of his blood.