Paths of Aether: Flames of a Firelily

~Foreword~

The Paths of Aether

‘The Paths of Aether are quite simply the paths one should take on the journey that is life. No matter how many times we get lost, we shall be found; no matter how many times you take the longest route time is irrelevant you will always get to your final destination. Paths may cross and entwine we will not understand; we shall (at times) rebel, we do not control every decision in life. Fate has already chosen our final stop on the road, though it is the paths which we choose that get us there.’

Professor Una Singh

~Prologue~

~Her name was Lily~

Mid July

It was the summer holidays so naturally the George Samuel Larc Academy was especially quiet. Only one room was occupied that night- the Headmaster’s office. Inside a meeting of high importance and great secrecy was being held. Sat behind a large mahogany desk was Victor Blackhorne the Headmaster of the school. Victor was a serious man, large in stature and healthy as an ox. His face expressed little emotion which made him cold and fearful amongst his many students. The room was warm, too warm, but the windows stayed shut in fear of any eavesdroppers that could over hear their important and crucially private matters.

Beside Victor was his younger brother, Jack. Jack was the most important man in their entire world however that night he sat beside his brother seeking his advice. He had been thrown into unknown territories and he did not know what he should do for the best. Unlike Victor Jack was a happy man, a man of confidence and strength. He was the Keeper of Theoton the capital city of their world. He was chosen for the people by the people and had been in power for almost six years, the youngest Keeper to have ever been elected.

The room was silent and tense. Victor scanned the five faces in the room all of which expressed concern. The time had come.

‘It is time we brought her in.’ He said calmly hardly ever changing the tone in his voice.

‘No she will only hate us more.’ Caroline pleaded. Caroline was a middle-aged woman with long red hair and vivid green eyes. She was frail and sick with worry.

‘You don’t know what she could do.’ John said wrapping his arm around his wife. Caroline nestled into him in a child-like manner. ‘She’s been alone for almost a year, who knows what she’s capable of now.’

John wasn’t like the others in the room. He was a normal man, a simple man who went to work to help raise his family. That was his purpose he had no true reason for been in the meeting.

‘She is becoming reckless.’ Victor stressed momentarily distracted by the youngest of the group who sat at the back of the room. Xavier was seventeen and extremely talented. He was a pale young man of seventeen with white-blonde hair. He had visions of the past, visions of the present and visions of the future. He was Victor’s most valuable asset. Victor watched him intensely as his eyes gradually closed; Xavier had succumbed to a vision. The rest of the room turned toward him anxious and fearful of the visions unfolding behind his closed eyelids. Caroline looked over at Jack for an instant before looking away embarrassed. They had a history that became the beginning of this story. They’d had a daughter and her name was Lily.

~Chapter One~

It was all most midnight on a summers night in Hyde Park, London. Lily sat quietly on a bench, her favourite bench which she sat most evenings. She was a lonely girl, a young girl of seventeen years old. Lily was wiser than her years; she had grown up faster not through choice but events that had led her to be estranged from her parents. She was hungry and not in the greatest of moods, she hadn’t eaten all day and her stomach protested wildly. It was very dark but Lily saw perfectly. It was one of her many strange and mysterious talents. Far away in the distance Lily heard the hurried pattering of footsteps. Someone was running and heading her way.

Not wanting to be seen, she lifted the hood on her jacket over her mane of red hair and hid behind a nearby tree. She heard a woman crying and breathing hard; she was barefoot, her hair was damp with sweat. Lily watched as suddenly she clutched her side and stopped, she was crying hard. Lily peered further around the tree as the footsteps kept on coming, three men were chasing the woman.

Run you idiot, run.

Lily clenched her fists willing the woman to carry on running but she was too exhausted. She looked to be in her early twenties; she had fair and was tiny in height. She was helpless. The three men circled her and she begged and pleaded but that excited them more. Lily could feel her blood running around her veins she should help but she couldn’t. She couldn’t risk the trouble. Lily had been living on the streets since she ran away from home. She had tried to get a job but no one wanted to employ a sixteen year old run away. She had to steel to survive. The winter was the hardest and now almost one year later she wasn’t the same girl that left, she was angry she wanted answers. The men were now groping the woman pulling her side to side. She was screaming but only Lily could hear her. With the last bit of decency she had left she stepped out of the shadows.

‘Hey,’ she shouted. The men turned. The biggest was over six feet tall, he stunk of alcohol and stale cigarette smoke he had yellow chipped teeth; he bared a wicked smile as he noticed Lily step out from behind the tree. The young woman looked at Lily pleading uncontrollably. The smallest of the men had tried to hide his face by pulling his hood over his head. He wore black head to toe and was dumpy and spotty. He also reeked of alcohol. Then the last one who looked the most menacing had vivid blue eyes that zoned onto Lily. He was slender and held a shiny knife in his hand. He approached Lily.

‘You know what this is?’ He said waving the knife in her face. Lily didn’t budge. That threw the men off. The smallest smacked the woman across the face and she fell to the floor.

‘Let her go.’ Lily demanded. Pulling down her hood. They stepped back surprised then they laughed.

‘Our lucky night boys.’ He biggest of the three laughed excitedly. He rubbed his hands together suggestively. Lily moved toward them slowly avoiding stepping under the street lamp. She didn’t want them to see her face as they would remember it. Lily needed to stay aloof.

The poor woman offered the men her purse. ‘Please just take this, I don’t want to be hurt.’

The smallest of the thugs threw the woman to the ground. She began wailing uncontrollably. Not one of them focused on their captive they all had their eyes upon Lily.

‘Get her.’ Demanded the biggest. All three lunged for Lily.

Lily didn’t move. She held her hands splaying her fingers wide. The men froze. They began to slowly rise from the ground. Terror poured from their wide open eyes this excited Lily. She raised her hands higher towards the sky and the men rose higher and higher. Then quickly she shook her hands side to side knocking the men violently into the tree branches. She lifted them as high as she could feel the pressure mount on the tips of her fingers. She held them for as long as she could then she quickly curled her fingers into her palms and the men plummeted to the ground. The three of them lay motionless.

Lily hurried over to the woman who still lay on the ground, she looked terrified as Lily approached her. Hiding her face Lily helped her to her feet. The woman was pretty and an easy target for the men, Lily felt sorry for her.

‘Go home.’ Lily instructed. The woman too shocked from what she had just seen couldn’t muster any words from her throat. She ran and Lily turned back to the thugs. Two of them were slowly getting to their feet, moaning and grumbling in pain. The other lay too still.

Damn

Lily didn’t want this to happen. Lily didn’t want to get involved but she couldn’t allow those monsters to harm that poor woman.

The two of them hobbled towards her one clutching a knife the other a broken branch from a tree which Lily had crashed them into.

‘What you going to do now you weirdo?’ Hissed the one brandishing the knife, Lily laughed and this seemed to frighten them. He swung for her wildly; Lily dodged his swing she was so fast he didn’t see her fist as it crashed into his jaw. He fell unconsciously to the ground. She then turned to the other. He ran at her holding a hefty branch she jumped clean over him throwing him off guard. He turned terrified and began to wield the branch into thin air as she was so fast he couldn’t see her. She pulled the branch from his grasp with ease holding it like a baseball bat she swung with all her might knocking him at least six feet into the distance. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and now none of them would be getting back up.

Lily ran from the scene panicked praying that no one had seen the attack. She pulled her hood up over her face and stopped suddenly. In the distance a golden gateway emerged from the thin air. It called for her she could feel its presence luring her in. Each time she summoned her gifts the doorway would appear. She knew it would answer many of her burning unanswered questions. However, she knew if she accepted it if she was drawn to it she would be drawn in and she would be found. She knew that she couldn’t always keep running but tonight was not the night to give in.

‘Not tonight,’ she whispered.