Preface

Pius screamed as the girl in front of her was consumed with fire.

Five days earlier, Pius had stowed herself onboard the brand new cruise ship Starveng. On its maiden voyage from Vah Galla to Quinoul Ta. Sneaking onto any ship was easy in the rush before departure. In the bustle, she snuck onto the ship acting as a loader thanks to the help of the Vah Galla official dock jumpsuit and hat she had stolen way back. Everyone who looked at her couldn’t see past the dark gray and red to see the nineteen-year-old girl. She walked with purpose and made quick direct eye contact.

Pius had been doing this for three months. She would show up, help load, unload and store. Eat the meal provided to the workers and go back to the lower levels. It was a lot of hard work for just one meal and she would show up sporadically to avoid suspicion. She had tried to apply for a job, but she was still two years too young.

Her father had died in a loading accident when she was ten. The company had sent flowers. It was a sweet gesture, but Pius and her mother couldn’t eat flowers, Pius had tried. It ended with terrible stomach cramps and vomiting. Her mother, who had always been… fragile, became abusive and paranoid. Whenever she saw Pius she would accuse her of trying to steal what little food the city gave them as reparation and would lock Pius in her room. Sometimes for days. It hurt Pius, like a rock lodged in her chest that made it impossible to be comfortable. Not just the hunger, the loss of her father, and the shattered relationship she now had with her mother. no-, there was something more. A heaviness.

She couldn’t blame her father. It had been an accident. And he had always worked so hard to support his family. They hadn’t been rich, but they had been happy. She couldn’t even blame her mother. Despite the abuse, Pius could see that her mother was hurting. Maybe even more than Pius. But she had no idea how she could help her mother. She could blame herself, but that simply didn’t make sense. What was a ten-year-old supposed to do? She had tried. She had. Searching for a job, scrounging for food. But none of it had helped. No one could hire her, legally.

So she fought the heaviness. The weight that threatened to crush her, not to death, but something worse. Despair, spite, and fear. She had started living on her own. Well, sleeping on her own. And scrounging her food. It was hard, and it sucked. But she felt… she felt accomplished. She hadn’t done anything. But she was fighting. She was resisting, and that made her feel alive.

And then, two weeks earlier she had heard about the Straveng from the other workers while loading a cargo ship. Immediately she knew she had to see it. So, after her shift, she snuck into its dock. Well, walking straight in holding an empty box was the correct way to describe how she had entered. There in front of her was the Straveng. By far the biggest cruise ship she had ever seen. Hell, it looked like a battleship, with its impressive self-defense armory. At that moment she had decided. She was getting on that ship. She didn’t know why. She just felt she had to. And so, when it came to loading her, Pius had shown up to help. And had then, at the very end of the shift the night before. She had snuck into the engine room and hidden. She had been worried it would be crawling with mechanics, but the system was so advanced it was entirely automatic, only requiring mechanics when something went wrong.

There, in the engine room, Pius had the best night of sleep she could remember. Curled up, with her jumpsuit as a pillow under a huge pipe that radiated heat. When she woke up she took to exploring the massive room. Finding a valve that released steam, she undressed and cleaned her clothes in the hot water vapor and then hung them to dry on a warm pipe. Exploring more while staying close to her clothes so she wouldn’t lose them in the maze of pipes she found a coil that kicked out a lot of heat and so sat a little ways from everything else. The heat hit her like a physical force, stealing her breath for a moment. It reminded her of something she had done with her parents a long time ago. Smiling in recollection she went and sat in front of the coil and focused on breathing. It didn’t take long for her to work up a sweat and have to leave for fear of becoming completely exhausted from the heat. Getting up, she quickly retraced her steps, leaving sweaty footprints on the floor, back to a large pipe she had passed earlier. It was dripping with condensation which she used to wash her entire body. It took a long time, but the cold water felt great. Finding a piece of scrap metal she scraped her skin, at least, all the skin she could reach.

Pius felt invigorated. She felt like she had shed her old skin and been reborn as a new human. She had nothing, she didn’t know where she was going. But she felt like a queen.

“Is this what having a bath is like?” It had been so long since she had a bath. It would be perfect if she had some water and a bite to eat, that could wait for clothes to dry. Leaning back on a pipe Pius drifted off to sleep.

She found water. There was a valve set on one of the walls that dispensed water. Pius quenched her thirst and then washed her hair. Before turning the water off. By now she had explored most of the engine room.

Pius was washing her hair with the water from the valve. She hadn’t found any cleaner or scented oils in the little searching she had done on the ship. To be fair she hadn't worried about cleaning and scenting her hair before and she was perfectly happy just to be able to wash it. Finding food hadn’t been as hard as she had assumed. She seemed to be in the storage part of the ship, the room with all the foodstuff wasn’t far away and no one ever seemed to be in the corridors. She had only taken what she needed, not wanting to raise suspicion of a stowaway. Finishing with her hair she stood and turned to go grab a protein bar to eat when the door to the engine room not twenty feet from her burst open. She was in the open. There was no cover for her. The people in mismatched body armor stormed in cursing.

“What the blazes are the SSF doing here?!” asked a man’s voice.

“They’re good. Two of them took out Major and his entire squad! Who even has that kind of firepower?” asked a second man.

“What, not who. I have an idea but we will need--” the woman who had been speaking broke off as she looked straight at Pius.

“Well, aren’t you just a godsend?” said the lady. Before Pius could open her mouth to explain or move, the lady with mismatched armor raised her oversized handgun and with a smile, shot Pius in her left thigh. Pius’s head went white with pain before she blacked out.

“Surrender or the girl gets it!” shouting filled Pius' ears as she regained consciousness. The pain in her leg almost forced her unconscious again, but she fought through. “Why did she shoot me?” it didn’t make any sense, the act had been so sudden, so brutal. Pius forced her eyes and blinked through the tears. A gasp escaped her throat as her weight was shifted and her injured leg was twisted. Fresh hot tears blurred her vision again and she blinked furiously.

“Let her go.” came a girl’s voice. It was hard as duraplate and did not waver, but was laced with fury.

“Lay down your weapons and we will let her go.” came the harsh voice from just above and behind Pius’ head. Finally, her vision began to clear. She was still in the engine room. In front of her stood a girl dressed in full SSF gear.

“She looks younger than me!” was Pius' first thought. “ What IS the SSF doing here?”

SSF, Strategic Strike Force. It was the Collective's best attack force. Renowned in anti-terror as well as full-on military operations. Pius began to make sense of her situation. The ship was under attack from- someone, SSF had been sent to stop them. She was a hostage. But this girl looked so young, despite the anger in her eyes. Pius looked down. She whimpered despite herself as she saw her left leg covered in blood, bent out to the side at an unnatural angle, and the truly horrible wound left by the slug. Despair, spite, and fear seized her.

She began to cry.

She hardly felt the pain from her leg, but she knew that was bad. Her brain wouldn’t let her process it.

She was going to die.

She had already lost too much blood. The man behind her held her arms in a vice grip and pressed the knife that he held to her throat harder into her neck. She felt a sting as the blade cut the skin and warm blood ran down her neck “I’m surprised I have any more left.” she thought morbidly.

“Lay down your weapons!” shouted the man holding her.

“Okay, okay! Just don’t hurt her!” Shouted the SSF girl kneeling, setting her handgun and chargeblade on the ground.

Pius tried to shout “Don’t!” tried to save the SSF girl from sacrificing herself for Pius. but all that came out was a sob. “No! Please, don’t do it. I’m already dead.”

“Slide them away!” said the man holding Pius. With a slow determined push, the SSF girl slid her weapons away. They disappeared into the blackness under the pipes. “No!”

Pius’ Captor laughed cruelly. Pius looked helplessly at the SSF girl who had sacrificed herself. Kneeling on the floor looking Pius straight in the eyes. Pius almost wished to see anger, or resentment in the young girl’s golden eyes, but they were soft. Pius realized this girl - for the first time in years - this girl was the first to look at Pius and only want her to be happy. Want her to be safe. The SSF girl with the too-kind golden eyes had sacrificed herself. On the word of a terrorist that Pius would be let go. She was willing to die for Pius. Her captor’s cruel laughter still filled her ear.

A torrent of thick, purple-tinted liquid drenched the SSF girl from above. She didn't flinch and didn't even seem surprised. A lit flare dropped next.

The SSF girl smiled.

Pius screamed as the girl in front of her burst into flames.

Her captor released her. Pain ignited her brain again as her injured leg had weight applied. Before she could cry out, a boot slammed into her back and Pius hurtled into the fire. In a blur of motion and flame, the arm of the SSF girl snapped up. A handgun instantly materialized in her hand. The same handgun she had just slid away from herself. A defining bang rang out from right next to Pius’s head. And she heard a body drop behind her. Pius was face to face with the SSF girl.

“The fire doesn't hurt.” Then it hit her. Pain and panic. She writhed, sending fresh pain up from her leg. Inexplicably her eyes focused back on the face of the SSF girl. A word formed on her lips.

“I’m sorry.” “I won’t let you die.” This one thought filled Pius' brain even as the pain of her body being consumed by flames tried to overwhelm her, something else took over. “I won’t let you die!”

“Do you wish to save her?” A deep voice that reverberated like it was coming from far away filled her head and a great roaring filled her ears, a defining noise, it sounded like she imagined being under a waterfall would feel like. It drowned out everything else. The world froze, the world almost froze. Only the tongues of flames move enough to show the slowed time. Again the voice asked.

“Do you wish to save her?” Not from very far away, but from all around her.

“Yes!”

“At the cost of your own life?”

“Yes! If that is what it costs. I am already dead.” the roaring continued filling her ears. And then, Pius became one with the flames.

Immediately she withdrew from the passed-out form of the SSF girl. Her leg didn’t hurt anymore. She didn’t seem able to feel pain for that matter. She turned to see the woman who had shot her in the leg staring dumbfounded at her as she stood above the man who had been holding Pius until a moment before. Only part of his head was left

“the gunshot when I was thrown in the fire. She shot him for that.” looking back to the bewildered woman, Pius smiled. For Pius, for the first time in her life, she felt very powerful. She didn't have to cower, she didn't have to deceive and hide.

Pius could conquer

Pius could protect.

The woman's face morphed from confused to terrified.

“Good. it seems I still have a face.”

In the blackened engine room Pius returned to the SSF girl. She went to check for a pulse but froze. “Can I touch her?” She still had a body. She still had her form.

“Yes,” said the voice in her head. “You will not harm her.”

“What am I?”

“You have been bound to her because you gave your life for her. Protect her well…for you are an Elemental.”

Pius, first-born of Void, knelt next to the SSF girl. She gently checked for a pulse. It was slow but strong. Pius brushed the hair off of her face.

“You are very kind and too trusting. But I will protect you. Mother.”