Chapter 5: First Impressions

Our leaders did not take kindly to being threatened, but the Sages later declared that it was not them who would destroy humanity. They explained that they had come on behalf of one of the Three Great Dragons, and that he would lay waste to our civilization if we did not release his daughter, the White Dragon. As the Sages finished their explanation, they vanished along with their entire vessel. No one knew where they had gone, but I suspected that the Sages were never there to begin with.

Éclair woke up in a white room similar to a laboratory, or a prison cell. She lay on a metal table in the center of the room. Various devices and equipment surrounded her, glowing blue and orange. One floating monitor, which beeped to the rhythm of her heartbeat, showed the outline of a human body, which Éclair assumed was a schematic of her own body.

Éclair could almost believe that she was in a hospital, if not for the smell of decay and the signs of death. Stains of blood littered throughout the white room. Most of it seemed to be red human blood, but some of it was green or yellow, which could’ve belonged to any number of alien species. Then again, many alien races had red blood cells like humans, so even the red blood might not necessarily be human.

Bloodied equipment had been scattered all across the room on various surgical tables. Éclair knew these were definitely not medical equipment as the jagged pieces of metal glinted with an evil light. With horror, Éclair realized that she lay trapped in some kind of interrogation room, and worse, that she would most likely be the next victim.

Éclair instinctively tried to sit up, but found that she couldn’t move. At first, she thought she’d been paralyzed, but then she looked down to see a glowing, yellow ring floating around her body and the table. It was a paralysis field, specifically designed to contain Elemental powers and use the energy against their owners by creating a field with the Elemental’s own psions.

Éclair was unable to move anything from the neck down. Without thinking, Éclair attempted to summon her psions, but found that her connection to her inner energies had been severed. This kind of equipment was top of the line, reserved for only the highest levels of the Militia. Whoever held her either had ties to the Tarrus military or was extremely wealthy. Either way, it didn’t bode well for Éclair.

As Éclair waited helplessly, she couldn’t help but take note of all the lethal tools around the room and wonder what kind of horrors she would soon be subjected to. One machine looked something like a buzz-saw, the only difference was that its blades glowed with a yellow light like fire.

One machine looked like a helmet, but had an antenna on top that glowed with blue electricity like a miniature lightning storm. More weapons of torture sat in full display like trophies on various tables. A jagged knife covered in blood. Surgery blades all covered in blood. Some kind of black metal rod with razor-sharp spikes at the end of it, again, covered in blood. Everything in the room denoted one single common theme, and it made Éclair sick to her stomach.

The smell alone would’ve been enough to put Éclair on edge. The stink of decay seemed almost palpable. Éclair quickly realized that her captors had purposefully let her wake up in this particular room so that she could see the bloody torture devices. Another form of torture, but on the psychological level so that Éclair would tremble in fear at what lay ahead.

Even though she knew that, she couldn’t stop the trembling of her lips, the excessive rising of her chest, or the rapid beating of her heart. Éclair was far from becoming a Third level Elemental, or even a Second Level for that matter; she had yet to undergo the tests of pain. She had been through numerous challenges as an Elemental, but not the Torture Test. Éclair understood the inevitability of torture, but it made things worse considering the possibility that she wouldn’t have the strength to endure it. Éclair slowly willed herself to calm down.

Relax, Hamashe. Just calm down! Remember what your godfather taught you. We live in the now, we do not live in the future. To live in fear is to try to live in the future, a future that you can never know until you live through it.

Fear is irrational and irrelevant. It destroys your ability to think, keeps you from making the decisions that just may be the difference between life and death. Some of the worst tragedies in history could have been avoided if the people involved responded with reason instead of with fear. There is nothing to fear but fear itself. Fear is the enemy.

“Fear is the enemy,” said Éclair quietly to herself.

Éclair had heard those words spoken to her countless times by her mentor. When she was enslaved in the mines by the Morlocks, she heard herself saying those words over and over in the dark of her cell when they let their prisoners sleep. She remembered so many nights that she exhausted herself to sleep by saying those words out loud over and over again.

And now, here I am because of my own stupidity! Back in the same position that I found myself in five years ago! Only this time ... there won’t be anyone coming to rescue me.

Éclair quickly admonished herself for such pessimistic thinking.

What am I saying? Those guys are crazy about me! Surely they’ll come ... especially Leon.

Do you really think they care that much for you?

Éclair gasped. The voice had returned. She remembered it now. The voice that she heard in the Dark Water. The voice that had once been a comfort to her in the darkness of her enslavement.

And even if they do, how can you be sure that they can save you? In the end, we are all prisoners, my dear. We are all bound to one fate. And that fate is death.

It had been a long time since Éclair had heard that voice. After Leon rescued her from enslavement and took her to the Ministry of Fire, the voice that comforted her for so long, had been her only companion and protector in a sea of pain ... that voice had suddenly turned against her.

It whispered things, evil things that made her wake up in the dark of night screaming in terror. So Éclair decided to banish the voice. She told it to go away, and for a while, it did. And now, almost five years later, it decided to make a comeback.

Before Éclair could come up with a suitable response to silence the dark voice once and for all, she heard a noise outside. With a hiss and some gas vapor, the door at the opposite end of the room slid open. In stepped three people.

The one in the center came dressed in a dark blue dress suit, expensive leather boots shining brightly, and a golden sash strapped across his chest. The man had a flawless face, but with such plastic and artificial features that Éclair found him disturbing. He had a thin mustache and cruel brownish green eyes that locked on Éclair with disgust.

The other two humans flanking either side of the nobleman were a little more difficult to read. One was a black man of average height with a bald head and no distinguishable features. He had on a black business suit, but something about the man told Éclair he was no simple merchant. He wore sunglasses even though they were indoors, and his careful bearing implied the gait of a seasoned killer.

As for the last visitor, she was a young girl with curly blonde hair and deep blue eyes. She wore a simple blue dress that would’ve been fashionable a few eons ago, during the 1950s on Ancient Earth. She looked a little over fifteen or sixteen, around the same age as Éclair, and her face seemed innocent and sweet. However, innocent or not, something about the girl unnerved Éclair. She moved almost identically as the scary bald guy.

Éclair could tell just by watching the way she walked. This girl, as young and pretty as she looked, was also a professional predator. The fact that she could feign innocence made her an even greater threat than the large man at her side. The nobleman, though arrogant and pompous, certainly posed no threat physically. However, his companions made Éclair’s skin crawl, as if a sixth sense warned her of danger.

The nobleman sneered down at Éclair. She got the faint sense that she had seen him somewhere before, but for the life of her, she just couldn’t remember where. With her danger senses heightened to their maximum, Éclair instinctively felt around with her hands for her Ministry medallion that she kept in her pocket. It didn’t follow the normal code of technology, and so it might still be able to transmit a signal, even if the room was shielded.

“Lost something?” said the bald man in a quiet voice.

As the bald man spoke, he held up Éclair’s golden medallion on a chain with the Ministry of Fire’s symbol of the lion and the Dragon. Her animated creatures within the medallion looked agitated.

“You won’t be needing this anymore,” the guard said as he threw the medallion to the ground and smashed it to pieces beneath his boots. “And don’t bother struggling. This paralysis field is equipped with a Shandaran-class generator. It’s capable of holding any Elementals with Third Level of mastery. By your gear, you’re only a First Level.”

“Who are you, and why have you abducted me?” asked Éclair, trying to show no emotion.

The nobleman stepped forward. “La jeune fille, I’m afraid I’ll be the one asking the questions here.” The nobleman spoke with a slight French accent that positively drizzled with aristocratic arrogance. “First, you will give me your name, and then you’ll give me everything else.”

Don’t panic, Éclair. Just remember what Zand taught you. As hopeless as things may seem in the present, that doesn’t mean that they can’t change in the future.

With cold resolve, Éclair faced her aggressors. “I’ll give you my name, but that’s all you’ll get from me. My name is Éclair Kaves. Now tell me this. Why have you abducted me? What is the cause for this unbridled act of aggression against the Ministry of Fire?!”

The man sneered. “Your name is Éclair. You do realize that is not a proper French name?”

“Yeah, I know. My parents named me after some ancient pastry or something. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine,” replied Éclair irritably.

Well, he does have a French accent, so I guess he would know about these things.

“But that’s beside the point. Why have you abducted me?”

The nobleman shrugged arrogantly. “Leave it to uneducated Elemental barbarians to be uncultured. At any rate, why you are here is simple. You are a liability to my plans ... a liability that I intend to correct. My associates noticed on the scanners that you were snooping about in the secret Gateway room that our Mystic, Hamma Steel, built for us in the Ministry of Fire.

“You’ve caused quite a stir for us. We had planned to detonate that room after the battle had begun so that the explosion would’ve been blamed on the Water Elementals. Galzar, here, decided to bring you here to my headquarters in District 9, simultaneously detonating the room to get rid of your little friends. I want you to tell me everything you know about our plans and who you learned them from. You will also tell me who else may know ... and you are going to tell me right now.”

Éclair suddenly had a horrible realization. “Are my friends ... are they dead?”

No! No, it can’t be true! No matter what this snake says, I refuse to believe that my friends could have died so easily.

Instead of answering her question, the nobleman took a step forward and leaned over Éclair. “I remember you from the Ministry. That hair, that face, and those eyes. They are difficult to forget.”

The man leered down the length of Éclair’s body and turned back to her with a lecherous grin. Éclair already knew that she wouldn’t like this man before he even started talking, but now she was pretty sure she hated him. She decided she would stab a piece of ice in his throat the first chance she got.

“Given a year or two, you would have grown into quite the exceptional beauty, no doubt.” His voice was smothered in innuendo, but his eyes were full of loathing, as if just acknowledging her beauty was a sin.

“Glad you approve, Mr. Creepy Man,” said Éclair. “Unfortunately, you’re not my type. I’m not really into perverted old men, no matter how rich.”

The blonde girl stifled a giggle, which almost made Éclair reevaluate her opinion of the teenager. The nobleman turned to the young girl and slapped her hard across the face with the full force of his arm. The girl staggered slightly before standing up straight at attention, all previous mirth from her face gone.

“Purtain, I’ll deal with you later,” said the noblemen before turning his contemptuous sneer back to Éclair.

That blow looked strong enough to send a grown man tumbling, but she just stood there and took it, observed Éclair. She’s probably a lot stronger than she looks.

“You don’t remember me, do you?” asked the nobleman. “You were rushing off to the market with that disgusting half-breed boy in tow. Even if you are a tainted Elemental, I would think you would still have some shred of humanity left so as not to associate with such beasts.”

Éclair’s eyes narrowed in rage. As annoying as Ryan could be sometimes, Éclair still considered him a good friend, and she would rather suffer Rachel’s taunts before allowing someone to belittle Ryan simply because of his heritage.

“You would do well not to insult my friends, sir,” she said in a low voice.

The nobleman backhanded Éclair across the face. It stung, and it left a slight trail of blood from Éclair’s mouth, but she took the blow in silence.

“And ‘you would do well’ to show me the proper respect. I am a Pureskin after all, and therefore, I am your superior. An untainted human uncorrupted by alien trash! Unlike you revolting Elementals, I am a perfect specimen of humanity, as we were meant to be.”

“How can I respect you if I don’t even know who you are?”

The man raised his fist to strike Éclair again, but then smiled and lowered his hand. Éclair knew that he would hardly be able to resist the need to introduce himself, and no doubt brag a little ... she had seen his type many times before. More importantly, it would distract him long enough for Éclair to figure out an escape from her bindings.

Éclair had heard that some Elementals could break paralysis fields if they focused their psions enough. However, one had to be very powerful to do so, and it also depended on the strength of the field. The bald man said that the paralysis field imprisoning her possessed a Shandaran-class generator, capable of containing a Third at the very least. Éclair was only a First, but that didn’t mean breaking it would be impossible for her.