"So," Lexie asked Naem before they left the dream realm. "Who are we seeing today?"

"A new type of creature. We're skipping a few to get to them because we have to fast-forward your progress. The sooner we find your place in the soul line, the better."

"But I don't understand. I thought I had to meet every creature in the soul line first to be included."

"That would be ideal, as it would gradually build your base of understanding. However, I think considering what you did last time and what you're capable of, you can afford to try it this way. If it doesn't work, then we'll go back and build slowly once more."

"But won't slotting me in invite other Eldritch to find me and take advantage of me, like you said?"

He gave her a slow look. "No. I think you're past that point." He didn't say it like it was a good thing.

"Okay."

"I will warn you. The one we're meeting today is…interesting."

"Why? Who are they?"

"A former Orcan Warlord whose soul came to me upon death as a result of a Final Oath."

"Oh," Lexie said. "A Final Oath like the one you and dad had?"

"Similar, yes."

"Huh. I did wonder what you did with the souls you reap."

"It depends on the soul. Some are utilized and absorbed to make me stronger. Others are there for me to study. Some are powerful enough and aware enough to become my minions, and those, like the one we're about to meet today, have created and absorbed enough Chaos to become a full-blown Eldritch."

"Is it as rare for other creatures to become Eldritch as it is for humans?"

"Not if they live centuries as Orcs do," he said. "This one is three centuries old as an Orc and almost a century old as an Eldritch. They have amassed even more power by gaining more minions and cultivating their Eldritch essence."

Lexie nodded, then paused. "Wait, is he one of the ones that fought in the first Orcan war?"

Naem didn't smile, but he seemed amused. "You'll have to ask that yourself."

They appeared deep inside a cave covered with mist. It oozed with black around their feet, so thick it appeared solid. Lexie walked through it, taking note of the carvings on the walls.

"This feels like the inside of a dungeon."

Naem made a sound like a hum. "It's funny you should say that."

"Why?"

Lexie turned to him, but Naem shook his head. "I can't tell you."

She gave him a sour look. "You know I hate it when you do that."

"Yes. I know."

Lexie had heard a lot about Orcs, about them being savage beasts devoid of any morals. The only thing the Orcs understood was power, so they killed off their weakest children and adults so that only the strongest would survive. They lived for war, and they often travelled to other planets to slake their thirst for it, eliminating everything in sight and spreading their influence everywhere.

Lexie thought she knew what to expect going into the Orc's abode. She was assailed by the smell of blood and the thick air of violence.

A large creature, nearly twenty feet tall, was spread across a throne of jagged rock. He had tusks on his bottom lip, green mottled skin, and a loincloth over a muscular body. His eyes were closed, but opened as Naem got close.

Beady eyeballs travelled to Lexie.

The first thing he said was. "She's tinier than my usual opponents, but I suppose I'm desperate enough to indulge you."

Lexie squeaked and held onto Naem's hand. He squeezed it in comfort.

"She's not an opponent," he said.

"You have not brought me a being to be slaughtered?"

"Not this time."

Lexie turned aghast at Naem. She wondered just how many creatures he'd brought here to be killed.

Naem stared down at her with his empty eye sockets, and she shivered. Sometimes, she forgot he was technically supposed to be a malevolent creature. It had stopped feeling like that for a while.

"She's a member of your soul line," Naem said to the Orc.

The Orc twisted its head. "But it's human."

"Yes. It's a long story."

The Orc grunted. He peered at Lexie like she was something at the bottom of his shoe, and Lexie lost all nerve to ask him anything.

"Does it speak?" The Orc asked.

"Typically, it never stops speaking." Naem looked down at Lexie as if to say, 'show him'.

She clutched all her nerves and mustered up enough courage to clear her throat. "Hello. Nice to meet you, sir."

The Orc rumbled in displeasure, his eyes flashing red.

"Ganor is female," Naem said, and Lexie blushed.

"Oh gosh. I'm so sorry, ma'am."

Ganor didn't look like she accepted Lexie's apology, but she didn't kill her, so that was something.

"She is significantly more advanced than the other creatures you've met so far," Naem said to Lexie. "And more intelligent. It might take you more than one try to connect with her soul, so we may have to visit repeatedly."

Amazing, Lexie thought. Just amazing.

"Ganor, try to make this as painless as possible for my soul spawn."

Ganor flashed white, sharp teeth, but didn't make any promises.

A few seconds later, Lexie was screaming.

***

Lexie woke up, and it took her a few seconds to recall everything that had happened during the night. It had been eventful to say the least, starting with her experimentation and ending with the meeting with Naem's friend.

That was…awful.

It wasn't just the pain, violence, and bloodlust that invaded her mind and made her feel like a ravenous beast. It was also the sense of all the other things she didn't understand, but felt important in forming a full connection. Lexie had dived deep, as deep as she could stand, but still couldn't grasp it. It was frustrating.

According to Naem, they would have to do it all over again.

Ganor said she was looking forward to it, whatever that meant.

That was the first Orc Lexie had ever met, and the only Orcan-Eldritch she knew of. Lexie wondered if there was a reason this soul line held so many hybrids or if that was just a coincidence. She sat up in bed as a knock sounded on her door.

"Come in." She yawned and stretched, and the door opened, revealing Pollock.

"Good morning, Miss Lexie. I hope you had a restful night."

"Yeah, very restful." Except for the part where she'd almost burned herself and this entire room down. "Just fine. Oh, and you don't have to call me Miss Lexie. Just Lexie is fine."

"I shall note that Just Lexie," Pollock said with so much seriousness that Lexie almost cracked up. "For breakfast, we are offering a full spread menu from the East Isles. The components are as follows: a fresh beet salad, a bean dip, tapioca pudding, Helpanga, a variety of eggs and sausage mixtures, and toast. How would you like your eggs and meat?"

"Well done for both," she said and put her feet on the floor.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Of course. Your drink options are as follows: freshly squeezed orange juice, black tea, red tea, Muan tea, Lemon tea, hot chocolate, apricot juice, Lamola juice, Dangi juice…"

"Anything is fine," Lexie said, before he could continue. "I'm really not that picky about breakfast."

"Of course. It will be served in the next thirty minutes."

"Thanks." That worked out great. It gave her just enough time to shower, brush her teeth, and use the bathroom.

Lexie felt a little uncomfortable making use of the bathroom, given how spotless everything was. She tried her best not to make a mess, because she knew someone else would be in to clean it for her during breakfast.

Whether it was a robot or not, it made Lexie self-conscious enough to wipe it down herself once she was done showering.

She even took the time to pick out her hair strands from the shower drain and not leave toothpaste tracks on the porcelain bowl. Once she was sure it was clean, she walked out and got dressed for the day.

She went down the stairs and to the kitchen to find Theo in there with the twins.

Tamsin was the first to see Lexie coming, and she squeaked again, putting her hand over her face. Thor, on the other hand, gave Lexie a toothy grin and targeted her with a slingshot with a boiled purple egg in it.

"Freeze, punk," he announced.

Lexie stopped and eyed the egg-missile.

"What's the password?" he asked.

"For what?"

"Eh." He made a buzzer sound. "Wrong answer."

He shot the egg at her, but before it could reach her, Theo targeted it with his pinkie finger, while drinking his coffee, and the egg burst into flames and was scorched into nothing, right before Lexie's eyes.

How cool.

A bit of egg hit her face, but Lexie didn't care as she wiped it off.

Though yesterday had put a damper on her excitement about creating fire, she still wanted to learn fire magic. Not only did it look insanely cool, but it was also extremely useful as both defense and offense.

"Aw, Theo," Thor pouted.

"We don't shoot our guests with eggs." Theo gave him a look. "Remember?"

"Yeah." Thor sagged back into his seat. "I remember."

As Lexie approached the table, she said, "Hey Tamsin, Hey Thor."

"Hey," Tamsin said in the tiniest voice possible and peeked out between her fingers.

When Lexie gave her a friendly smile, the fingers closed right up again.

Still, Lexie wanted to make conversation with the girl, so she asked, "Are you going to the AFC match tomorrow?"

Tamsin shook her head, and Theo explained, "We had tickets, but she didn't have anyone to go with. Mom and Dad are working, and I'll be patrolling."

"I'm going," Lexie announced. "With Xena and Dewie. She can come with us."

Theo visibly thought about it. "Are you sure?"

"Yup. The bodyguards will be going with us, right? So we'll be safe."

"Hm…" Theo rubbed his chin. "Alright, if you say so. I'll ask my mom. Tamsin, would you like that?"

Tamsin nodded rapidly and then looked at Lexie like she hung the moon.

Lexie smiled back, and this time Tamsn didn't hide. She made a concerted effort to put her fingers down, and she smiled shyly back at Lexie.

After Lexie sat down, her meal was instantly brought out, a large plate full of a variety of eggs, sausages, and other things that Lexie couldn't name. Oh, and a glass of orange juice.

The good news was that everything tasted delicious.

As she ate, she noticed Theo watching her, and she glanced back at him.

Her stomach tightened when she recalled yesterday. She hoped he hadn't spoken to his mom and dad about what happened. That would lead to more questions and may trigger more problems for her dad. But maybe it also wouldn't be the end of the world. Maybe she could talk Stella out of doing anything drastic.

Theo smirked when he noticed the unease in her features. "I haven't told them yet if that's what you're wondering."

"Told us what?" Thor asked, but no one answered.

Lexie refused to breathe a sigh of relief. She wasn't out of the woods yet. "Why not?"

"I'm still thinking about the best thing to do." He leaned back and cracked his neck. "I'm gonna accompany the kids to school and do my patrols for the morning. By the time I come back, I'll have an answer for you."

Lexie nodded and tried to be optimistic. The fact that he was thinking so deeply about this was a good thing. It meant he didn't want her to get in trouble, but he was also concerned about her safety overall. So Lexie just had to convince him that she could safely experiment with fire.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quite sure how to do that yet.

When Theo left to drop off the kids, Lexie stayed in her room reading about making and controlling fire. A lot of it had to do with what sounded like meditation and shifting her body into different stances, and also some cryotherapy?

How?

That led her down a rabbit hole, which eventually culminated in her going back to the library to pick up a few more books about the history of Firebringers.

She learned that they began as a coastal clan that stretched all the way from Capital City to the far North, the coldest part of District 9, where the land was covered in snow for six months out of the year.

The coldness had been worse in the past, and in those times, the North dwellers, also known as Miu-Tua, lived most of their lives in the snow.

Even south of that, somewhere between the North and Capital city, they suffered famines due to the spreading cold, losing plants and livestock as a result. As that area was the main supplier of food for the entire clan, it affected them deeply. It was to the point where they would pray fervently to the Guardian of the Hearth for warmth each winter, and would pray for her to fortify their bodies and their hearts against the cold, and provide warmth for their livestock.

The Guardian listened to their prayers and would grant key members of the clan the power to create warmth for themselves and the land. They were called the Givers of Warmth. Each year, in return, the clan would have to sacrifice some of their strongest men and women to make the journey into the unknown and challenge the Guardian of the Sea on behalf of the Hearth.

Most of those men and women would never return.

One year, under a Chief called Aulfe, the clan decided they would put an end to this tradition. They were tired of losing their strongest men and women to the sea and decided not to send any more. There were also growing threats from the East to be concerned with.

They broke their covenant with the Guardian of the Hearth, and to teach them a lesson, she doled out a divine punishment.

Those who were meant to provide warmth were stricken with fevers that burned their bodies from the inside out. They were too sickly to work, and the rest of the citizens were left to the mercy of the cold.

But, driven by patriotic honor and desire to care for their people, the Givers of Warmth resisted death. Instead of dying, the Givers of Warmth learned to control the fevers and adapted to their curse, using it to create even more warmth. Even as the Guardian of the Hearth increased the severity of her punishment, so they would apologize and come under her servitude once more, they stood firm. Though some Givers of Warmth eventually died as a result, a handful refused to fall.

Their resistance was fabled, and it was one of the few stories where a human fought back against a Guardian and won.

Perhaps because the Guardian of the Hearth hadn't given them the harshest punishment possible, as she was essentially playing a game of chicken with them. They may have eventually submitted or died, but then the Fae's timely arrival led to the eradication of the Guardians.

By that point, though, the Givers of Warmth had learned to control and create heat using nothing but meditation and movement. The Fae and the Great Developers began to study their bodies to figure out exactly how they managed to do that, and realized that the souls had turned their bodies into something not quite human.

They were not only resistant to cold and heat, but they could potentially control fires too.

It was a risky experiment, but a few of the Givers of Warmth volunteered to be infused with Fae essence that would make them and their descendants born of fire.

They became the Firebringers.

It was speculated that the Fae infused them were the Fire Fairies from fables, but that was a story for another day.

A knock on the door interrupted Lexie's study. She glanced up as the door opened and Theo came in.

"Doing some light reading?" he asked in amusement as he glanced at the pile of books beside her bed.

"Yeah," she said. She cleared her throat also, out of anxiety. "So? What did you decide?"

He sighed. "First off, explain to me exactly why you created that fire. You said something about someone trying to kill you, but I was honestly out of it, so I don't completely remember."

"Yeah," she said and quickly analyzed how much to tell him. "Over the years, my dad has caught a lot of Villains. Some of them likely seek revenge."

"How do you know?"

"Well, Mouse was one of them, and you saw what almost happened. If you hadn't shown up at that time, we would be dead. But before that, there was a ghoul that attacked me, and then an Eldrith Eye, and then the dungeon thing. We just seem to be in a lot of danger lately." She sighed. "Even if they're not coming after us now, they will later with this Villain uprising. I don't like being a sitting duck, and unfortunately, with my regular card powers, I won't be able to even lift a finger to protect myself. That's why I had to get creative."

"And how exactly are you doing this? Getting creative?"

"It's like I said. The system doesn't allow anyone to have high-powered cards. It'll simply reject integration. But what I can do instead is create two low-powered cards and then combine them upon activation so they make an effect. So in this case, I made a card that separated air into its component gases and then made another one that would combine them to create fire. The third card controls the intensity of the flame and has...well, was supposed to have a kill-switch."

"Huh." He still looked stunned, like he had last night. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. "And this…card combination thing…is it something people commonly do with card magic?"

"No," she admitted. "So far, I've heard of maybe one or two other people who can combine cards, but I'm the only one I know who does it regularly."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. That's why I'm a Level 8 Card genius. I also have an unnaturally high mana affinity given my low capacity, which is why it works."

He smiled at that and looked impressed. Then he ran his hands through his hair, his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. Lexie pressed her hands together and waited for him to make his ultimate decision.

He sighed. "Alright."

"Alright?"

He nodded.

"But we have to have ground rules. First of all, you're not going to practice with fire until after I'm done teaching you how to control it. That means you will not do any fire-related activities or use fire-related tools without me being there, and this will continue until I think you've reached an adequate point in your training. If I even get a whiff that you're doing it without my supervision, then I'm going to stop and tell my parents what you're up to."

Lexie nodded. That seemed like a reasonable deal to her.

"I'm serious, Lexie," he said. "You have to understand that if my parents know what I'm doing here, my mother is going to skin me alive, and my father is going to roast whatever's left of me on his fancy new grill. And God only knows what your dad is going to do."

Lexie could have mentioned that her father already knew about her research and all, but she didn't. She didn't want to interrupt him or give him any more questions at this stage.

"Good. Now we're going to start with the basics. Breathing fire."

Lexie's eyebrows raised. That didn't sound basic at all, but she was down if he was.

"One last thing." He seemed reluctant to say, but he pushed it out anyway. "You said you had cards that could help me find Lucy?"

"Uhh…sure?" Lexie had said it in the heat of the moment, even though she was quite sure that Lucy Frank was dead.

"Good. Show me."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.