In his mind, Aias was wondering:"So I have shown you the edge of my lands. Are you trying to do the same? Is that why we're not already swimming? Aah, I wonder how it is like." Still, the silence was prevailing between them and Aias became restless. He couldn't hold on to himself anymore, so he asked Freyja:"Hey, Freyja, where are we going? I cannot keep guessing much longer!"
Freya continued her walking and merely turned her head towards Aias. He could not help but notice a vibrant smile on her lips, as she responded:"You held your calm for so long I almost thought you are one of us, water mages, in disguise!" Of course that was completely untrue, since the two factions were clearly distinguishable by the color of their skin. It was intended to provoke Aias even more.
And that's exactly what it did. The words started pouring out of him, with no intention to stop:"I learned how to be calm. I've learned that observing before striking can make an abyssal difference. I'm not afraid to be hit first by my enemy and therefore I'm in no hurry to be the first one to cause pain. But do you have any idea what you did to me by proposing to go for a swim? I've been dreaming for years how it must be like to move freely inside the sea. For me, the sea has always been incredibly close, and yet unreachable. I could only create a fiery bubble that would protect me for some time and even then I'd feel weak and attacked. In my dreams it would be nothing like that. No pain or suffering, only freedom and peace." He paused for a second, before asking in a genuinely worried tone:"Freya, is it painful to swim?"
Freyja almost stopped in her tracks. She didn't know if Aias was just messing with her, or if he posed her a real question. Looking at him, she was surprised to find a curious look in his eyes. "So he's not acting" she thought briefly. She chuckled and answered:"No, of course not! Unless a sea creature attacks you or if you completely strain yourself."
Happy with the answer he got, Aias blurted out:"You know, this is so unfair! Why are our lives predefined by our ancestors?"
Freyja curiously joined in:"What do you mean by that? To me it seems you do pretty much what you want to."
Aias laughed wholeheartedly before continuing:"Yes and so do you. That's why we are both still alive. But I was talking about the fact that I cannot tolerate water and that I live in a scorched land nobody really likes. That's something that our ancestors forced on us, and instructed us to fight for the lands in the middle, so that we could finally live in a habitable place."
"You do have a point." Freyja said. She started walking again and spoke over her shoulder, being sure that Aias would follow: "You know, it's not that our frozen lands are that much better." There was a hint of sadness in her voice, but Aias either didn't notice, or didn't care. She cast a glance back to see him intently looking at her and still smiling. She quickly turned her head, so that the fire mage wouldn't be able to see her blush. Suddenly she hated herself for the inexplicable change of mood, and a second after shrugged it all away.
They were advancing along the coast and bypassed a forest. Freyja occasionally looked back, and always caught Aias just smiling and checking her. She wondered if Aias even saw the surroundings. Yet somehow, she was not bothered by it, not in the least. In fact, the whole way she felt his look on her body and she raveled in the feeling.
The temperature decreased and as the forest cleared from their view, they could see frozen lands up ahead. Freyja turned - to find Aias with the exact same expression - and showed her left hand to the North:"Aias, this is my home."
Aias answered with a hint of discontent, and yet somehow still managed to keep his smile: "I know, I've seen it from here already. Will you drag me to an icy cave or what?"
Freyja laughed:"No. I forgot that you have been to the middle lands a few times before. Caves are boring, let's go for a swim that I promised you instead, shall we?"
Saying that she extended a hand towards Aias. He took it gladly, and a sense of coldness wrapped his whole body. He quickly pulled his hand away from her and all of his muscles started contracting from the feeling of the unusual lower temperature.
"Sorry about that, I'm used to the cold."
To his surprise, Aias heard Freya's voice in his head. Resisting the freezing feeling that was gradually subsiding he realized that Freyja was now glowing in blue - as he was himself. He asked her:"How can I speak telepathically to you? That's just awesome!"
Again, he heard Freyja's voice in his head telling him:"Just think about it. It's really similar to talking to yourself, you just have to focus and address the thoughts to me."
"Freyja, you .are really hot." and almost instantaneously, Freyja was visibly discomforted. "So it's working." Aias commented, smiling devilishly.
"Of course it's working! Did you doubt me? And I think I'm quite the opposite of what you said." the tone of the voice that Aias heard in his head was not menacing. In fact, Freyja seemed more than willing to play his little games.
Aias thought and directed the words to Freyja:"So. Swimming. How do I do it?"
Freyja smiled, and without answering simply run to the sea, which extended endlessly to the horizon and jumped in.
"Well then. Should be easy, huh?" this time Aias thought only to himself, finding the courage. "What if this was all a trap? What if she was leading him to his death?" He then shrugged all of his doubts as a laughing voice appeared in his head:"What now, you courageous warrior? Too afraid to keep up with a girl?"
Aias ran to the sea and saw Freyja inside the water, with only her head emerging from the blue color that surrounded her. And in a moment later, Aias was already up in the air and with a big splashing sound he disappeared in the waters below.
Freyja was already all around him, swimming gracefully and quite fast, compared to how Aias could move. "Oh, I forgot to tell you something Aias." And for a moment he was distrusting of her once again. They were natural sworn enemies after all. "You can breathe normally." And indeed, he opened his mouth and inhaled, without any problems whatsoever. He felt like the most stupid person in the world for having continuous doubts.
Aias tried imitating Freyja swimming like she did, but at first he was just falling and making a fool out of himself. He knew that Freyja was secretly enjoying herself while seeing him like this, but he was too happy with the new experience to care.
After some time Aias learned how to swim properly, and he would have been screaming with joy if it wasn't for all the water that prevented him from doing so. "Freyja, this is amazing!! I can feel the water on my skin! Your powers are truly something."
"Oh, but we're only just getting started."
"What do you mean by that?" Aias had his curiosity peaked once again.
"Follow me and you'll see." A glimpse of mischief was to be heard in her voice as she swam downwards, to the bottom. Aias didn't think twice and followed in suit.
As they neared the bottom of the sea, Aias stopped motionless, with his eyes wide open, while Freyja still continued swimming. After they were several bodies distant from each other Freyja discovered that he was not following her anymore, and turned around. She saw Aias floating like a dead body, quickly swam to him and with a hint of worry Aias heard in his head:"What's wrong? Why have you stopped? I'm not done with showing you around!"
"Freyja." he responded, thinking how to approach this:" Do you have any idea what's under the bottom of the sea here?"
Freyja was startled and impatiently asked:"Well, it's the sea bottom. There's a lot of sea animals living there, and underneath there's earth. But since you asked me I'm assuming there's something more. Something dangerous?" But before Aias could answer, she did so herself and her voice changed from being concerned, to one of genuine freight:"Since you sense it and I don't." A pause followed. "It's lava down there, isn't it?"
Aias nodded:"And there's plenty. I cannot even start to explain how much." His mind started racing and he was excited to tell it all to Freyja: "Do you know what this means? I could make it erupt in the form of an undersea volcano. I could lead the lava to melt the ice cap, even further North. Perhaps then your kin could have a habitable environment." But just as fast as the idea came to him, problems came just as fast, and the shift in Aias's voice was huge: "No. I spoke too soon. What would I do with all the water that would be risen with the volcano, as well as the melting ice? It would make for a catastrophe for the rest of the land. Damn it!"
And yet, amidst his anger, he heard Freyja laughing. He turned to look at her, awaiting an explanation. She calmed and assumed a more serious expression, with barely a hint of a smile:"And who said the water will cause any problems? Not if I have a say in it." Aias was bewildered, and asked the most overused question there is:"Are you serious?"
To this, Freyja started swiftly swimming around, to show off while she explained it to him. She was quite enjoying it:"Of course! I want to help you! But why stop there? Why stop with my lands? I can easily redirect the water that will already be flowing all around, and make it pass a detour to the South of the island. Perhaps then your kin would live in harmony as well?" While asking the last question she winked at Aias, clearly making fun of him.
Not even a moment later, Aias swam towards her and in a fluid motion grabbed her by the wrist and moved her closer to his own body. She was still smiling, yet curious as what Aias's plans were. Her thoughts:"I can defend myself here, it's my natural habitat and a great advantage. But wha-" Freyja's thoughts were interrupted with Aias's hand finding a way onto her back and pressing her firmly together in an embrace. Blood surged through Freyja's body as she realized what was about to happen. She moved her head towards Aias and their lips met.
They didn't know each other for much time, and they were supposed to be natural enemies. And yet, they both enjoyed the moment, kissing passionately and slowly spinning due to underwater currents and their own movement. Their feelings prevailed over rational thinking and they were lost in each other.
To them, no further words were necessary. They both realized perfectly well what was about to happen. They were about to bring the destruction of the current world order, and start a new one. And the shared thoughts somehow excited them even more.
Aias will raise a volcano, burning lava escaping its earthly prison, flowing upwards towards the frozen surface. The ice will explode, releasing jets of unconstrained lava, vapor and water. Freyja will then divert all the water, like ripples in a still pond, creating a massive wave that will overrun the Southern lands. Blocks of ice will be dragged by the current and into the volcano in the south, transforming the lava into solid magma, effectively extinguishing the active volcano.
Meanwhile the lava would continue to surge from the underwater volcano and out from the sea, and continue along the Northen lands, commanded by Aias's powers, passing through the lands and melting the ice that was covering those parts.
Soon a new era would begin, and the only question that remained unanswered was how will the people react. Would they listen in to Freyja and Aias, or will they put up a fight, unhappy that a choice has been made without their consent?
Still tightly together in a watery embrace that seemed to last forever for the two mages, they smiled and kissed and didn't even start discussing the consequences. What if someone would put up a fight? There are still grudges between the two kinds of mages after all. Aias and Freyja both knew, from what they learned from each other that their powers combined would withstand even the joined efforts of all the water and fire mages. Nothing and no-one would tear them apart.
And in due time, when all the land would become habitable, perhaps similar to the middle lands, the survivors would understand that the end was just a new beginning, unconstrained by the laws of old.
THE END
Word count: 2288
Behind the keyboard
Woah, this brings the total word count to 8713. I definitely didn't plan for this story to be so big and it could now actually be considered as a second Novellette (7500 - 17500 words).
Perhaps I'll take some of my time in the future to polish it, but I'm not promising, because I'm eager to get started writing a proper novel, where I'll have all the time and plenty of words to properly develop the story and characters. Stay tuned and thank you all for reading!!
p.s. the only reason this took so long to get done is because I wrote the ending in my notebook, and amidst the vacations, it took me quite some energy to copy it on the computer. I won't make the same mistake again - notebooks are great for snippets and ideas, while stories should be definitely written on a computer. I'm not an old-fashioned writer, I'm a computer geek after all.
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