I Am Lightning

I stalked from the room after receiving instructions on where to find this ‘Maximus’. Through corridor after corridor I went, noticing as I did that the centre of the college seemed to be some sort of massive greenhouse where they grew their food. I also passed one of the entrances and spied at least a dozen knights with armour and swords milling about there. They really took this place seriously.

But I wasn’t worried about how I myself would escape. My determination to find this fire child overrode all else, and would surpass anything the knights could throw at me. I reached a room labelled ‘Max’ and knocked on the door. What kind of a weird name was Maximus anyway?
“Ah, you must be Fulgora. Come in, come in.”
Another question- what was this dude wearing? I stepped inside a large office-like room and turned to stare at the person who’d opened the door for me. He had on a strange pair of navy leggings made of a material I had never seen before, his belt was adorned with a silver buckle in a strange shape, and he had a very tight t-shirt on with some sort of symbol on it, and a coat that only just covered his torso. On his head were two black orbs that hooked around his ears.
“Oh, are you looking at my sunglasses? Neat, aren’t they? They protect my eyes from the sunlight.”
I frowned at this eccentric person.
“Is Maximus your birth name?”
The man’s magenta eyes widened and a grin spread across his face. “Why, no! No it most certainly isn’t. How astute you are.”
I eyed him shrewdly. I had noticed that here in the college, people didn’t seem so afraid of me. They must have been ignoring my scars, and I suppose they were as perturbed by my eyes as they themselves had differently coloured eyes.
“So what is it that you can tell me about the boy’s future?”
“Please, sit down first,” he replied, “and here, have a biscuit.” He thrust a tin at me which I ignored. I simply raised an eyebrow at him and crossed my arms, making no movement towards the seat. The man sighed. He had a strange accent.
“Very well, then. As you seem to have already heard, I am a far-seer. I know many things from all sorts of ages, no less that of the future. I have seen your future, Fulgora, and that of... the red-eyed child.”
He paused here as though waiting for me to say something, but I kept my mouth shut and merely gave him a bored look. I wanted to yawn at him, but couldn’t make myself do so.
“Don’t believe me, eh? I can tell you things that will make you believe me. How about... Nova?”
Static pulsed through my veins as I stared at Maximus. I wanted to tear his face from his head, and rip off those ridiculous sunglasses and stab him with them. Repeatedly. I did my utmost best to forget that Nova had been killed by the shadows. So to make my point, I let out a low growl in the back of my throat.
“Oh dear me, I seem to have hit a nerve. Believe me now, though?”
I snorted. “No. It’s never been difficult for mages to delve into the past. But they have never predicted the future correctly.”
Now Maximus started laughing. He took the sunglasses from his head, ran a hand through his short copper hair, then replaced the glasses. I noticed he had really weird shoes on, white with white string laced through them, and padding at the bottom.
“Dear Fulgora, I do not scry the future like some sort of oracle. I visit the future. And on a regular basis, too.”
I just stared at him. I suppose his weird outfit might make sense if it were true.
“You can... go to the future?”
“Yes, it is called time travelling. I can go to the future whenever I like. The past is much more difficult though, I am merely a phantasm in the past and am unable to do anything there. But the future- what fun it is! You wouldn’t believe what it is like! So now I will tell you what you really would like to know. You know those stones that were taken from you in Alter City? Well it is true that the shadow creature took them from you and ran off back to wherever it comes from. But some time in the future, the shadows are parted with them, and they fall back into the hands of normal people. The elements are reborn!”

I couldn’t believe this, or maybe I didn’t want to believe it for how amazing it sounded. Was this guy telling the truth?
“How far in the future?”
“Oh, maybe... 700 years or so?”

Well... at least I’d have to wait another lifetime before having to worry about it.
“Do you know what causes this to happen?”
“No, I’m afraid I don’t,” he replied, “I merely appeared in a future where it has already come to be. But isn’t it likely that you defeat these shadows and get the stones back? That’s the only possible explanation I see.”
I hoped that was the case. Perhaps, when I meet the fire-child and help I can train him to become powerful, together we could take on the shadows and reclaim at least one stone. If I had to train each to-be-Master separately until I got all the stones back, so be it.
“Well... thank you for this,” I replied.
“You’re not going yet, are you? My, you are impatient. Don’t you want to know more about your time spent here, in that room? Have you seen yourself recently? Here, there is a mirror on that wall over there. Go and take a look at yourself.”
I didn’t know where he was going with this, but I did what he told me to anyway, curiosity getting the better of me. I looked into the mirror, and gasped. My dark, bluish black hair framed a smooth, scarless face. My golden eyes looked shocked.
“What... what did you do to me!” I yelled, whirling on him. The grin on his face vanished.
“We... we fixed your appearance. Aren’t you... glad?”
“Glad! Glad! I’ll rip your limbs off one by one and strangle you with your own intestines unless you change me back!” I screamed at him. These scars were my protection, and a sign of what I had been through. They were as much a part of me as the current coursing through me. I advanced towards the man who looked very perplexed, and a little worried.
“Alright, I’ll get you changed back. All we placed on you was a small charm to hide the scars, but they’re still there. It’s merely an illusion any mage can remove. One second... there. Look now.”
I looked back at the mirror, and an ugly face looked back at me. I noted also that my nose appeared broken in two places. Just how it should be.
“Your condition here was... severe when you arrived. It continued to be for a few years, actually.”
I looked back at him. “What was wrong with me?”
“I can’t quite tell you. There was a darkness around you, we believe it was the remnants from the shadow’s hold on you from the fight you had. We had an enormous amount of difficulty in restraining you. You were... frightening.”
Well, that didn’t surprise me. I frightened everyone.
“Anything else?”
Maximus shrugged. He had a weird grin on his face which I ignored. I was impatient to leave, keen to find my way back to Alter City. Before he could say anything else, I slipped to the door and left.

I sped through the college and straight on through to the main entrance. As I arrived, all the knights became suddenly serious and still, standing in two rows on either side of the corridor that led to the massive main gates, locked with a huge wooden bolt. I approached them, noticing that they held spears, and the closest two brought these down and crossed them with the other’s to block my path.
“No-one goes past here,” they said in unison, not even looking at me. I had no sword and no bow, but psssh. I am lightning.

I put a hand to one of the spears, and smiled at the fact that these pompous guards had steel spears of intricate design. As my fingers touched the steel, I could feel the potential energy of the spears, and the current within me was screaming for release. But I was in control of it. The two guards blinked and looked at me, and I breathed in deeply, moving into slow-time. It was quite amusing waiting for their expressions to go from confused to angry. It took forever.

I released, and the current surged through the spears, through their steel gauntlets, up through their arms and through their torso. I avoided the main organs, and any other important stuff, and finally the current surged through their legs and into the ground it so desperately wanted to reach. I ducked under their spears and zapped each and every other knight as I passed until I made it to the end. The first guards were still only then jumping into the air, the others registering their shock as I lifted the huge wooden bar of the doors, kicked one door open, slipped through and away.

I ran a fair distance out into the cool night air, grass bending beneath my boots before slipping back to normal-time. I jumped behind one of the only trees rooted to the Earth on the grassy plain and looked back at the giant stone college. The main doors opened, and the knights spilled out, clutching their spears. Already they were the size of flies to me. My mind flicked instantly to the red-eyed boy, waiting for me in Alter City. A fair mood came over me, and I put two fingers to my lips and let out a loud whistle, attracting the attention of the knights.
“Over here!” I yelled, and started laughing at them. They jumped into formation and rushed towards me, and I stuck my tongue out at them before twirling around, pointing myself north-west, and starting out, running faster than the eagle flies. My blood pounded through me, and my heart leapt with a fierce joy. Fire boy, here I come!