The surface of the sea rose and fell, inching closer and closer to shore.  Synnefa watched this effect with wonder. She lived in a mixed world. When the elements of fire, water, earth and air were created, so too spawned beings capable of harnessing said elements. These beings could harness the elements because they were living forms of the elements. They were called elementals.

Over the course of the last 21 years, the elementals had battled each other. Each had the intention of showing that their element was the dominant and most powerful.

Synnefa was a Windling, from the fourth element, air. Life was difficult. She hadn’t fully learned how to use her power and ever since the earth elementals, also called Earthlings, had sabotaged and destroyed all the Windling schools, no Windling youths had learned anything about their powers. All she knew was how to fly, nothing else.

Despite being a Windling, Synnefa had always been comforted by the sea. But, venturing near the shores was the most dangerous thing she did in her day-to-day life. She could be killed if seen by the Aquarians, the water elementals. To make it even more deadly, there was a human settlement not too far away. Synnefa had to be more than careful.

That was what went through the girl’s mind as she decided to leave her perch watching the sea. She flew high into the clouds that made up her village. She landed on the white street just as the sun touched the horizon. Elementals took the form of humans, but Windlings always had white-blonde hair that was almost impossible to see against the milky cloud color.

“Synnefa!” She was greeted by her friend, Stratus.

“Oh, hi. I thought you were helping to rebuild the town hall,” Synnefa said as Stratus approached.

“I was, but they stopped reconstruction at sundown,” Stratus said. Synnefa nodded.

“Hey, where have you been going? You know you’re not supposed to leave town.”

“Oh, I was just… flying below the clouds. I enjoy flying.”

Stratus looked down her nose at Synnefa, “Where have you actually been going? You haven’t been going down to the land have you?!” Stratus said with sudden concern.

“No! I’ve just been watching the humans. They’re very interesting,” Synnefa responded quickly. “I should go, I think it’s time for me to eat.” She walked down the street as Stratus shook her head and turned in another direction.

Synnefa arrived at her family’s cabin. She walked inside and sat down. One of the reasons she liked to go down to land was because there, not everything was made of clouds and the occasional harnessed starlight.

“Synnefa, is that you?” her father yelled from the other room.

“Yes” She called back, “And you don’t have to yell. These walls aren’t insulated well.”

“Go outside, it’s nice out, and supper isn’t ready yet.” Synnefa got up and went back out. Their cabin was positioned just on the rim of town and you could look over the edge of the cloud. She watched the sea. The blue water was astonishing. For several minutes, she watched the waves but soon something else caught her attention. The grass that was about ten meters from the beach was moving, moving in an unsettling way. It fell into the ground, forming a rectangle of exposed soil.

“Father!” Synnefa yelled to the house. He came out and once he saw the grass falling into the ground, his eyes widened. He started yelling for people to run. Too late. The rectangular formation fell away into a cave. Soldiers dressed in green armor started charging out of the ground. An arrow flew right through the cloud street.

People took this as a sign and started running. Men were blowing strong winds towards the surface to prevent any other arrows from coming. But the aggressors were not trying to shoot at the clouds; they were firing at the sea.

“They’re trying to get the Aquarians to the surface!” Someone shouted. The Windlings’ best battle strategy was to force electric pulses in the clouds and strike the enemy soldiers with lightning.  However, this could be unpredictable and very dangerous. Unfortunately, it was their only choice at the moment. Fortunately, Windlings were immune to electricity.

As the authorized Windlings did this, the waves in the water below stilled. Aquarians emerged from the sea, carrying tridents.

“Synnefa, get to the stronghold!” Her father was now flying and helping to charge the cloud. Synnefa had no choice but to run. She had to get to the stronghold just like she was told. But before she could, she was hit by a barrage of water and the world around her went black.

When Synnefa woke up, she was lying on land. Birds and the sea were the only sounds. She looked up to see that the cloud village was halfway demolished. There didn’t seem to be any sign of life. Synnefa sat up, horrified. When she looked around she realized that she was in the human village. Wooden houses and assorted buildings surrounded her. It looked abandoned. The humans must have fled due to the battle… and whatever happened. She got up and walked into one of the houses and sat on the bed to process what had just happened. Was her family alive? Was Stratus alive? Where had everybody gone?

She realized that she was alone. Whether she liked it or not, she was alone. It was taking all of her willpower to hold back tears. She stood up and walked outside. She checked every building and salvaged whatever was useful. Synnefa even found a backpack to carry it in. After that she went to the water and filled up a bottle. That way, she would have the sea with her wherever she went.

All Synnefa had to do was find another Windling settlement. How hard could that be? Surprisingly difficult, it turned out. To one side there was the sea and to the other the volcanic region. The forest was somewhere in the middle. Air was always the odd one out. She decided to try her luck going south, toward the volcanoes… No doubt the most vicious element was fire. King Flare was the one to start the war in the first place.

Synnefa remembered a compass she had found, and removed it. Making sure that her backpack was secure, Synnefa started to float upward and southward. The blue of the sea she had always known slid off of the horizon. After about an hour the sun also started to vanish. Now Synnefa had to figure things out. If she slept on the ground she would most likely be captured. The wind was moving north, in the direction she wasn’t going, so if she camped on a cloud she might end up many kilometers away. She decided to try to hide herself in the branches of a nearby tree.

Although it was comfortable for a tree, Synnefa was too traumatized to sleep. And just to make it creepier, the branches looked as though they were closing in on her. Wait, what? They were closing in on her! Weaving together, the branches made a cage around Synnefa. And then, she dropped. The whole spheric cage fell through the middle of the trunk, through the roots, into the ground.

“Looks like another Windling” said a voice in the darkness.

“It is, look at its hair,” said another. “Get a light.” The dim orange glow of fire filled the room. Synnefa could see there were other cages that appeared to be hanging from the ceiling. Around her was a crowd of people dressed in greens and browns, and most seemed to have rams horns. What did I tell you, Synnefa? You knew you were going to get caught, a voice in her head said.

“Get it up there,” one voice said, and her cage was lifted. Once she was up to the level of the others, a gap formed in her cage. Branches made a closed bridge into another cage. Behind her an Earthling soldier materialized and walked from the branches, as though he had melted out of them.

“Go,” he spat. Slowly Synnefa walked across the bridge and fell into the next cage. There were two others in there. One of them was sitting and had iridescent, scaly skin and a long white beard. The other was another female Windling.

“Stratus?” Synnefa asked.

“Synnefa, is that you?” Stratus said with terror in her eyes.

“Yes, how did you get here?”

“You, give me that bag.” Another Earthling had morphed out of the wall and took all of Synnefa’s things before melting back into the branches.

When he left, Stratus started whispering frantically, “What do you mean? The Earthlings won the battle and started taking us as prisoners as a bargaining token to get our government to give up-”

“You think that we’re bargaining tokens? It goes farther than just that. I have been in this ball for years. They want you to suffer!” The old man on the ground said as his head perked up.

“Well, maybe there’s a way out of here,” Synnefa said.

“What about ‘they want you to suffer’says there is a way out of here?!” the man said.

“Sir, you’re an Aquarian, right?” Stratus asked.

“No, I have scales and am from fire. OF COURSE I’M A WATER ELEMENTAL!” he yelled.

“Do you think you could put as much water into these branches as you can?” Stratus asked.

“It’s not a moist cave,” he said.

“Try. Synnefa, you and I will push the bottom of the cage while flying upside-down.”

The man stood up, “That’s a very smart idea, but I think the guards are going to notice when a cage drops to the ground.”

“It’s worth a shot” Synnefa said, “What’s your name anyway?”

“First you expect me to take orders from two blasted Windlings, and now you want to know my name?!”

“Okay, sorry” Synnefa said as she flipped upside-down.

“Alright, go” Stratus said. Slowly the vine holding them up started to stretch. One by one, the fibers broke and then, SNAP! the cage fell, hit the ground and broke into pieces. Immediately, the guards turned around and rushed at them.

“How do we get out?!” Stratus shrieked.

“Fly, fools!” the Aquarian man said. Without much time to react to a wooden spear flying at her, Synnefa flew upward. Stratus soon followed.

“What about you?” Synnefa called down.

“I’ll figure something out!” he shouted back.

“We can’t just leave him,” Synnefa said.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice. If we stay here, we’re going to be elemental soup.” Stratus pointed where many sharp roots spun towards them from the stone wall. The friends flew out through the nearest opening that hadn’t already closed.

As soon as they were out, Synnefa began, “Do you know what happened to my father?”

Stratus looked at her, “All of the survivors were captured, we were sent off to several prisoner camps. Your father…”

“Yes?”

“He wasn’t a… he’s…” Synnefa already knew what Stratus was saying.

“No.” Synnefa moaned. Stratus nodded sympathetically. It took all of her willpower, but she shook off tears.

“Allright, allright we… we have to find other Windlings and… figure something out.” Synnefa found herself gripping the bottle of sea water, the only thing the earth elementals hadn’t taken.

“Are you sure you don’t need a minute to ponder this?” Stratus asked.

“Stratus, we’re living in a war. Survival comes before personal misfortune.” Synnefa said, half trying to convince herself. Stratus was not fully on board with this herself, but she decided it was best not to argue.

“I think… I think we should try to find another Windling city. South, we should go south.” Synnefa mumbled. With difficulty, she floated off the ground and the two tired Windlings started to fly south. As they flew, the volcanoes grew more and more visible.

Prince Magnus had grown up being told that he was one of the most powerful beings on the planet and should one day rule the universe. He was not, however, one to believe that he was a god. His father was Flare, the king of the Incendians, the fire elementals. The Lord of Ash, he was called by the people. Magnus had figured out at an unfortunately young age that if it weren’t for his father, this war would never have started in the first place.

The prince despised his fathers, and thought of him as an example of what not to be. He wasn’t just a terrible father but an awful, unfit king. He didn’t treat his people well and the kingdom’s systems and cities had fallen into complete chaos and ruin under Flare’s reign. To make matters worse, the king was convinced that Fire was the superior element, and this obviously caused some problems. The other elementals had never thought like this before, and once it was brought to light, each group of elementals began to strive to prove that they were superior. They started to get angry at each other. Earth was the worst, but all four had begun to attack one another.

Prince Magnus was not anything like his father (or his late mother for that matter). He spent most of his time helping to rebuild the towns, assist the weak, or make peace with the other elementals. Making peace with the other elementals was more his dream than what he actually accomplished, as it was almost impossible to see the other elemental kings or even get into the other kingdoms.

At the moment he was filling in weak points in the volcano. He always found it strange that seven different volcanoes had naturally formed in the same spot. No, he had to stay focused. Focus. He grabbed another blob of molten stone from his bucket and smeared it onto the cracked wall of the volcano.

Prince Magnus’ hair was black and his eyes were amber and he wore a sword at his side. The iron shoulder pads he wore were embedded with garnet and signified him as a royal.

Suddenly in that moment, he sensed something. A sort of tension in the air. Something wasn’t right. Then it dawned on him what had just happened.

Kilometer after kilometer had passed and still not even a sign of a Windling settlement. The two friends were now drawing dangerously close to the fiery mountains.

“Synnefa,” Stratus said.

“What?”

“I don’t think we should go any farther,” Stratus said. “Let’s face it, there is nothing left, not this way at least.” Stratus was right.  There wasn’t a single air elemental to be found. Before Synnefa could respond, a pain ran through her arms, almost as though inside her bones. She looked to her friend and realized Stratus felt it too.

Suddenly it spread through her whole body, turning into a wicked burning.

“What’s happening?” Synnefa mumbled. The sky seemed to ripple. Synnefa was gripping her bottle of ocean again. Finally, the feeling stopped, though the sky still seemed to be bending.

Stratus tried to yell something, but the sound was blocked out by some kind of horn. Fiery soldiers could be seen, marching in troops from openings in one of the volcanoes. That’s not good, Synnefa thought. Before they knew it, ropes flew through the air, tangling and binding the two.

They were being pulled down to the ground by the Flarian soldiers. The points of blazing spears were pointed at them as Synnefa and Stratus were lowered to the ground. They were forced to move into the volcanoes down a trail. Synnefa was praying that Stratus didn’t ask where the Incendians were taking them. With luck, she didn’t. As they entered the volcano, they could feel the heat, but it did not burn them, which was odd.

They entered a long hallway and found a young man leaning against the wall.

“Who do we have here?” the man said as he walked towards them.

“I thought you said you would be in the town, Your Highness,” one of the soldiers said.

“Well, I thought I would stop by.” The man drew his sword and sliced at the first row of men. He spun around to attack the left side and stabbed his way through the back. One of the soldiers reacted quickly enough to run, but the remaining two weren’t so fortunate. The man threw a dagger at the one running and caught him square in the back.

“Now, before anyone notices what just happened, I suggest you girls come with me,” the man said. Mostly out of terror, the two girls followed him down another corridor.

“W-who are you?” Stratus asked.

The man didn’t stop to respond, “Prince Magnus of Fire. I have been trying to end this war for as long as I have existed.”

“Oh,” said Stratus numbly. They came across a door. Magnus knocked.

“Sir,” he whispered, “It’s Magnus.” The door opened to reveal an  elderly man in crimson robes. He motioned for them to enter. The room beyond was filled with bookshelves and desks topped with odd trinkets and stones.

“Who are these two?” the elderly man asked when he closed the door.

“What are your names?” Magnus asked.

“Um, I’m Stratus and she’s Synnefa” Stratus said nervously.

“Don’t worry, no harm will come to you here. Magnus, you should see this.” Synnefa and Magnus followed the elderly man outside onto a patio.

“You see that?” The man pointed to the rippling sky, “Your father finally did what he always said he was going to do.”

“So it’s true, the thing I felt was…”

The elderly man nodded and then turned to the girls.  “My name is Colton, I am King Flares’ wizard.”

“Are you human?” Synnefa asked. He nodded.

“Why are we here?” Stratus asked from inside.

“Because if you weren’t, the king would have thrown you off a cliff” Magnus said.

“Here is what you should know, all of you,” Colton said. “Without any keepers of a particular element, it will start to break down. Royals are keepers. Since King Fulgur of Air had no children or siblings, he was the last keeper of air. King Flare sent a group of his best soldiers to Fulgur’s  castle and when Fulgur was assassinated, that happened.” Colton pointed to the rippling sky again.

“I felt something, too,” Synnefa said.

“If we don’t stop this war, every aspect of this universe could collapse,” Prince Magnus told Synnefa and Stratus.

“Well, do you have some kind of plan? I have no clue how to stop a war,” Stratus said.

“Destroy the source, and no more comes,” Magnus said.

“He means that wherever the violence is coming from must be eliminated,” Colton explained.

“But what represents the violence in this case?” Synnefa asked. They had to think about this; it was a good question.

“I think I know. The king,” Magnus said. None of them wanted to admit it, but he was right. His own father was the thing that could stop the war, and at the same time, the cause.

“He has launched attack after attack and won’t stop provoking the other elementals.” The prince said, “Ever since I was 10, he has been training me to be some kind of warlord. And now he has gone to a level where a fourth of our world is fracturing.”

“Magnus, whether we like it or not we can’t convince the king to stop all of this madness,” Colton said.

Magnus considered this, and then said, “True, but we can kill him.”

“No. You wouldn’t, he’s… he’s your father!” This time it was Synnefa that spoke.

“When it’s a father like him, I could. Anyone could.” Magnus said to her.

The sorcerer sighed, “Well I know you well enough to know that as soon as you have an idea, I can’t stop it. I do know that I would like to help you. Come.” They followed him into another room where he took down a long object wrapped in cloth. He removed the cloth to reveal a sword, still sheathed.

“This sword was named the Gladius Speculorum. Its blade was made from metal from the Mirror Realm.” Colton gestured for Magnus to take it. Magnus reached for it deferentially. Once it was unsheathed, the atmosphere in the room changed. Vision around it warped and curved to the shape of the metal. You could see through it, but as though it were a reflection. It even gave off a faint but eerie humming noise.

“Why is it clear, but at the same time it’s not?” Stratus asked.

“Not much is known about the Mirror Realm.  The materials found there are no exception,” Colton explained. “You can see it bends light to the shape of the blade and we don’t know why it does that either.”

“It’s incredibly light,” Magnus said as he tested the balance.

“Sorry to interrupt, but is anyone going to properly acknowledge the fact that Prince Magnus wants to murder his own father?” Synnefa said from the other room.

“Just Magnus is fine,” Magnus said. “If I don’t, lives will be lost. Billions of them. This man is going to make the war ten times bigger if we don’t stop him.”

“I know, but do you have to kill him?” Synnefa asked. Magnus didn’t hesitate to nod.

“We’re going to need a plan,” Colton told him.

He hesitated before he said, “I have a few ideas.”

Synnefa and Stratus had been dressed to look like personal guards of the prince. The bits of iron armor they wore over thick black cloth was heavy. They also had helmets on to disguise their white hair. Magnus wore Gladius Speculorum sheathed at his side.

“Do we all know the plan?” Colton asked, and in response everyone nodded.

“Then let’s end a war,” he said. Magnus entered the throne room with the girls behind him. Synnefa was not prepared for what she saw when she entered the room. The Lord of Ash was not a pretty sight. He had black hair and amber eyes like his son, but his face was covered in scars and wounds. His crown was made of a blazing, scarlet fire that burned on his head.

“So you’re hanging them in here now?” Magnus asked as he gestured upwards. Synnefa suddenly realized that there were dismembered limbs hanging from chains on the ceiling.

“It shows my power- Who the Hades are these two?” His voice was one that sent shivers down Synnefa’ spine.

“They’re my guards,” Magnus said simply.

“What guards? You don’t have guards,” he spat.

“Maybe if you tried paying attention to anything other than your battle plans, you would know a little more about what I do and do not have.”

Colton walked in at that moment and bowed to the king.

“What do you want?” King Flare sneered.

“My King, there has been a disturbance,” Colton said.

“Disturbance?”

“The attack you launched on the temple of the Western Wind was successful but it seems it had some unexpected consequences.” Colton used his powers to display the shifting sky.

“So their pathetic king is dead?” Colton nodded. Flares’ cracked lips formed into a wicked smile. Tiny flames shot from his eyes.

“When can we begin attacks on the other royal elementals?” He said menacingly.

“Father, I am afraid we can’t.” Magnus suddenly drew Gladius Speculorum and the room filled with the dim hum. Colton blew the many guards to the ground with a wave of his arm. Stratus ran to the door and barricaded it with her sword . Before Synnefa could do her part, King Flare shot a long flame from his arm, and singed her leg. But this gave Magnus the opportunity to lunge.

The blade was just a few centimeters from the king- but, no. Flare had caught Magnus by the neck in midair.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Flare spat. Stratus ran to help Synnefa. Magnus couldn’t breathe. His thoughts completely dissolved. And then a replica of the mirror sword appeared in the air. And another one folded out of it.

“Magnus, they’re reflection selves of the sword!” Colton yelled from across the room.

“That makes sense,” Magnus mumbled. He flicked the original in the direction of his father. Now there were five others and they all followed the movement of Magnus. Synnefa somehow managed to get up and grab one of the reflections. She pushed the sword right through the king’s stomach.

“Am I supposed to feel something?” King Flare said sarcastically as he pulled out the reflection. There was no wound. He threw the sword at the wall and it shattered like glass.

“You can not harm me with your weak weapons!” Flare dropped Magnus to the floor. But it wasn’t on purpose. Flare’s hand had shattered and vanished, just like the sword, and the shards of the hand flew into Gladius Speculorum. His arm slowly broke off into shards, the infection creeping towards the rest of his body.

“What did you do?!” the shattering king shouted at Colton.

“You broke the sword, so it’s breaking you. Unfortunately, not much is known about the mirror realm, so if I were you, I wouldn’t want to be stuck there. Goodbye, Flare.” Colton said. Now all that was left of the wicked king were his shoulders and head.

Magnus got up to face the slowly disappearing body, “This is what you deserve.” He brought forth his fist and with one motion completely shattered the Lord of Ash.

Flare’s final words before he vanished to the Mirror Realm were, “I will return.”

For a long moment there was silence. “Is he dead?” Stratus asked nervously.

“No” Colton said, “But we won’t be seeing any more of him.

Two Weeks Later

My fellow royals,

For 21 years a war has raged in an attempt to determine which among the elements is the most powerful, and therefore dominant. But now that my father, King Flare, has died and I am king, I have canceled all plans for any future attacks. Looking above us, we can see the destruction we can cause. I do not wish for this war to continue any longer. I propose a truce among each of us. We must learn to accept the fact that each one of us has our strengths and weaknesses, but we all have the same level of power and our world depends on balance among us. There are very few Windlings left, and this could happen to any other element at any time if we continue down the path of violence. Let us live amongst each other in peace from this day on.

Sincerely,

King Magnus of Fire

Synnefa, Stratus, and Magnus all sat at the edge of the sea, reading a draft version of the letter Magnus was going to send to the other elemental royals.

“I think it will work. Are you sure you should say King Flare died?” Stratus said.

“They’ll never know and besides, as soon as we get the responses, I’ll be able to start rebuilding Windling villages.” Magnus said as he took the parchment back.

“I always liked to watch the waves, but I always had to do it secretly. Maybe I won’t have to hide anymore.” Synnefa told them as she looked over to the beautiful blue water.

“You know, the air elementals kind of need a new leader…” Magnus said as he gestured to the rippling sky.

Synnefa turned to him, “I’m going to have to sleep on that.”

The final blow sent Flare’s senses shattering into another world. His hands and legs were in shackles chained to the icy floor. He was kneeling. Everything was a black-blue color. When he looked up he found he was surrounded by seven silvery figures whose forms appeared to be made of flat triangular shapes. They sat around him in a circle.

“Hello, Your Highness,” the one directly in front of him said, “We hope you enjoyed your trip. Welcome to eternity.”