The Gemini Age: Book One

[18-1] Gemini Soul - Part One

    The hallways tunnelled through the Chambers building with the steep turns and low ceilings better suited to deep-spelunking mines than vital city structures. With the windows cracked by heat and blackened with smoke, Jade stumbled her way through such cramped conditions that she could have believed she was underground, were it not for the flap of curtains in the wind by her side and the smaller fires loosing trails of smoke into the sky as they chewed through centuries-old furniture with ease.

    Smoke and flame bled beneath the walls and through the vents over her head, and it took most of her concentration to protect the small pocket of clean air she cast around herself against the unwavering assault of pollution. Whether from the rising heat of the fire or the heavy effort of maintaining her magic, Jade began to sweat and tire within moments of entering the Chambers. "Why do I do this to myself?" she asked aloud, slapping her hand over her mouth when the slightest taste of smoke tainted her lips.

    As she reached a fork in the corridor, the wall by her side groaned and crumbled. The small cracks exploded into a gaping hole and showered her with sharp bits of rock and wood. Rumbling metal thumped and filled her ears, and a pipe on the outside wall snapped and flooded the corridor with a haze of boiling steam. Jade tried to push the steam away, but her arms were too stiff with the strain of fighting the smoke to move in time. Her skin quivered when the heat struck it, and every nerve in her neck and shoulders screamed as the burn rampaged over her body. Swiping away the layer of moisture that clung to her did nothing to salve her complaints. Though she spent little more than a second in the steam, by the time she crawled her way past the burst pipe she could not think of anything but the pain.

    She rose to her feet in a large foyer area, the far edges of the walls waning under the fire's oppression. Plush lounge chairs shed soot-black veils as the outside breeze breached the chamber walls and rushed over the furniture, and each step Jade took into the open room kicked up a lungful of dust and debris to leave little space for her to breathe. The curtains whipped in the wind, their skirts shrivelling in the flames.

    The floor beneath Jade's feet gurgled, and she skipped aside just in time to dodge the geyser of water that fired through the carpet. Emerging from the cloud of steam that she had crawled under, Laz stalked through the mess to face her. He stared her down, then flicked his arm forward.

    A string of metal pellets pinged straight towards Jade's eyes, and they lodged themselves in the failing woodwork as she swept them away with a wing of air. She kinked the neck of the geyser beside her to surge at Laz, who staggered back to the steam. Smiling, Jade charged forward, punching and kicking blades of fire at her opponent, yet the joy fell from her face as Laz threw a column of steam at her. The vapour was hot and dense enough to sweep her aside, landing her in a pile of broken brick.

    Shifting the rubble from her lap, Jade cradled her sore head in her hands. Then the sound of water rushing plummeted towards her, and she rolled forwards to let it crash through the floor behind her. With the exposed material beneath her feet, Jade searched deep and withdrew a spire of stone to project towards Laz, struggling with the smoke plaguing her throat as she did so. She hacked up breath in an effort to clear her airways, but it only invited newer, filthier smoke in to take its place. Fighting both Laz and the fire at once prevented her from focusing enough on either threat to take it out, yet neither gave her a moment to rest. It was all or nothing.

    The spike slowed as it reached Laz's arm, Jade's failing body unable to provide the impetus the stone needed for a powerful strike. Laz caught the stalagmite and snapped it free from its fixture, wielding it in his hands with terrifying familiarity. Jade readied herself to shatter the touch-hot projectile, yet when Laz swept forward her feet stuck to the spot.