The Tree of Hope: Chapter Seventeen

The seventeenth chapter of the first installment of The Legacies Saga

 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

CONTINUE THE MISSION

Tuler was more frightened than she had ever been in her life.

When Alaric looked at the brick wall, he was so severely angered that flames shot up around him, making Tuler -? and probably others - sweat.

"We are going back to the Upperworld," Alaric announced.

The Upperworld. The place where Tuler had been abducted, incarcerated, and taken by a pyrokinetic psycho.

No, Tuler thought. I'm not going back there.

And with that thought, she punched the still-flaming Alaric Burne.

~+~

The voice beneath the tree could still feel the presence of the disturbance from earlier.

Why doesn't it go away?

Then there was fire... oh, if there was a legacy of Hephaestus who still had fire power, he could burn the tree to a crisp. The voice had to stop him.

And so, for the first time in years, the voice from the tree left in search of the one group who the voice knew stood a chance against the legacy of fire.

To James and Natasha, the voice said.

~+~

Gyan Kirrno had to remind herself of the mission.

Jinto Hyyshin had given her a direct order to find the terrorists who had abducted forty adolescents. Just because there was a bigger threat in the form of Alaric Burne and the actual captives had been found does not mean she could disobey a direct order from the head of the auronel.

So as the Upperworlders, anomalies, and the other boy talked, Gyan stepped back into the elevator.

Next stop, to Julia Rodriguez, oracle of the Hidden City.

~+~

James was the only one who noticed Gyan Kirrno walking away, but before he could tell anyone, someone walked into the room that took his voice away.

Natasha voiced his thoughts.

"Fiona," she whispered.

Marrell, Filan, Ermot, and Team Explosion all looked toward the girl stepping inside. She looked exactly as James remembered her - shoulder-length wavy hair that he could never decide whether it was light brown or dark blonde, deep brown eyes with flecks of green, and the familiar yet strange blend of excitement and fear.

Fiona was back.

"James, Natasha..." she said before seeing others she recognized. "Adam, Tori, Carrie. There's not much time. There's a child with power of fire trying to perform the combination. All he needs are legacies of earth, air, water, and aether and he can get to the tree. I have to go back- I'm sorry!"

Fiona could barely finish the word when she vanished back to wherever she came from.

Marrell looked shaken. "What... what happened with Fiona in the first place?"

James sighed. "It's... a long story..."

~+~

Frodo Hyyshin looked at the woman who had stepped beside him in the elevator.

Though he knew Gyan Kirrno could not see him as long as he had the ring on, her very presence unnerved him. He had a strong urge to stop the elevator on, say, the thirty-fifth floor and run before Kirrno realized what had happened.

But then... then he wouldn't get to see the Upperworld that Uncle Jinto tried so hard to keep him in the dark about...

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