The Home Stretch

After a herculean effort on my part (ie. less farting around, more writing) I managed to finally catch up on my NaNo and I’m even a little ahead of the game. But even if I wasn’t, I still have the rest of today, most of tomorrow, and all day Saturday to cross that finish line.

It’s been a fun ride, but I’ll be glad when the pressure’s off. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up the good habits I’ve developed – writing every day and spending more time in my office. Working on the Neo helped a lot too.

And now, the final excerpt from An Elemental Spirit. This one is actually in two parts, but they’re both giving a little more insight into the Illezie. And while you read them, remember that they’re unedited. :-)

Many important records had been lost when the dissenters set off the explosion in the records hall in their attempt to contravene the prophecy. The most important loss was that of the clan birth records, which is why the age of any Illezie born before that time could not be confirmed.

The Illezie hierarchy was age based, the older the Illezie the more weight their words carried. A syllable was added to their name with each century that passed, but many, after the explosion, had eschewed this tradition, citing that after even half a millennia the names became too unwieldy, and that more time was spent reciting lineages at a Gathering than discussion on the topic at hand.

E.Z. had stopped adding to his name at ten centuries, but even so he preferred to go by the initials the young wind elemental with so much potential had given him. Watching her grow had been a bittersweet experience for him. He knew the boosting of her mother’s gene sequence at just the right stage, infusing the embryo she carried with his own DNA, would result in the most powerful wind elemental born, just as he had known what fate she was to be groomed for. What he had not known was how much he would come to care for the girl.

It was too late to put a stop to events now, far too late. What had been put in motion had taken on a life of its own. If he had not been instrumental in bringing Nakeisha and Chaney together they would not have been in the right place to help Rayne and Pyre, which in turn set off the events leading to the creation of the elemental comet which spelled his world’s doom. But who was to say the volcano would not have erupted in any case, sending the elemental energy released by the death of all those elementals and potential elementals into space instead?

He sighed, a most uncharacteristic thing for an Illezie to do.

“It is a heavy burden we carry, the Illezie who learn to care,” Gra’anna’s voice came softly to him.

“Did you ever attach yourself to one of the Ardraci?” he asked, curious.

“Oh, yes.” She came to stand next to him where he was gazing out at the stars streaming past. “It was many centuries ago. Her name was Anna, she was an Earth Elemental.”

“They are so short-lived,” E.Z. said quietly. “Their lives burn out so quickly.”

“That they do,” she agreed. “But oh, how bright the flame while it lasts.”

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

There had been no new offspring of the Illezie for centuries. Da’nat was, to the best of anyone’s knowledge, the last Illezie hatched in the incubation chamber. Housed in a large cavern deep in the bowels of Zarathul, it held row upon row of pods waiting to be filled.

It was a place Da’nat visited when he wanted to be alone with his thoughts, as he did now. He had never made use of the sequencing pods and so never contributed to the gene pool from which new life was drawn. Now he would never have the chance.

As far as he knew, no one but him ever visited this place – there was no need. Or perhaps they found it too depressing, that it would never be needed again. It was a sad and lonely place, but somehow he felt at peace here.

Da’nat had never given any thought to offspring, until he had become acquainted with the young elemental Zephryn. Of course he was only young by Illezie standards, by human standards he was a grown man. But he was a man full of life and exuberance. He lived life fully while the Illezie had become nothing more than observers of life.

Though young by Illezie standards, Da’nat was old enough to realize that the Illezie race was stagnant. Save for the few who still made their presence known on Ardraci, the Illezie had not left their world in centuries. While he had no more wish to die than any other creature, he was ready for whatever lay beyond this plane of existence. He would play his part in the ascension with a willing heart.

So wrapped up in his thoughts was he that he did not sense the presence sneaking up behind him. By the time he sensed the danger it was too late. The blade of obsidian cut like butter through his back and into his double-chambered heart. Da’nat would never know the joy of ascension.