On the Dead Seas

Chapter 4: Awakening

The marketplace was far louder in the evening than it had been in the morning, but Felix enjoyed it more anyways; even if it hurt his ears a little. There was so many people and so much going on that barely anyone paid attention to Felix and Tom. But even then Felix was only half paying attention to what was going on around him, as he let Tom drag him through the crowd that parted around them like a wave. He was far too absorbed on how impressed Colton would be when he succeeded in his task.

It barely even registered to Felix when Tom left him in Felix's suite to go look for someone named Jezzabelle. He gave him a shouted thanks for taking him to see Colton as he ran to his room and pulled out just the toy he had in mind; A small serpent with a large and comically exaggerated head that bobbled as he dug it out of his box of toys. Excited, he put it on his desk and pointed at it imperiously.

"Shake!"

But nothing happened. Felix flushed slightly as he grew a little embarrassed.

"Shake."

Still, nothing.

What was Felix missing? Oh, Yes! Colton had said that he was supposed to Imagine it shaking before he told it to do so. Just to be sure, Felix jostled the the thing and watched its head bob and shake before he tried again. But once more nothing happened. So he pulled out his chair and hopped up to sit in it. Felix was still learning all of his letters, but he knew a few of them and remembered how his instructors would have him practice drawing it over and over to help him remember their shapes.

That didn't work very well. Felix just wasn't that good at drawing and no matter how hard he tried his drawings looked nothing like what they were supposed to. But Felix was stubborn if he was anything and he resorted to instead glaring at the toy as he tried to burn its image into his mind. He noted its large slanted eyes and the way that its lips curled back to reveal cartoonishly big fangs and the way that its tongue bounced back and forth with its head when he flicked it. He did his best to catalogue each and every scale. He imagined it moving, shaking back and forth as its briny scales danced under the light of the setting sun as it filtered into his window.

"Shake."

Felix startled as he heard a yelp behind him. He turned around and found one of his maids, Amanda, was fussing over her uniform that she had just spilled some tea on. She noticed him looking at her and stiffened, before almost visibly wilting.

"I'm so sorry, my lord. I got startled. I'll go get you some fresh tea right away." She bowed several times.

Felix smiled, "Its okay Amanda, I would love some tea. Thank you." Once she left, after several more apologies, Felix turned his eyes back to the bobblehead.

It wasn't shaking.

Felix sighed. Between the intense focus taking its mental toll and the interruption, he didn't really want to try again right now. He wasn't giving up... Just putting it off to tomorrow. He was getting tired as his bedtime was approaching quickly and having some food to go with his tea sounded nice. Felix slid down from his chair and put on his slippers before frowning. His throat felt a little hot, like he had drunk something hot already. Felix tried to cough to clear his throat, but nothing came up.

Maybe he should ask for a cool drink instead.

The suite was quiet as Felix exited his room. One of his maids was dusting the place, while Amanda was trying to decide what tea she should make.

"Can I have something cold?" He asked.

"No tea then tonight, my lord?"

"No thanks." She just nodded and opened their rune lined fridge and within minutes he had a strawberry shake in his hands as he reentered his room. His whole body was getting hotter and he was sweating, though nothing was as hot as his throat. It felt like it was on fire. He eagerly drank his shake, but even as he drank the fire burned hotter and hotter within himself. His tongue felt dry and almost too large for his mouth. He opened his mouth to call for help, but nothing came out.

He sank to his knees and hands, palms thudding softly against the thick carpets of the floor. Felix was scared as his body failed him, but he wasn't in pain. He felt as though he was on fire, but the fire did not burn him into kindling, nay it burned away at something else inside of him. These pieces were a part of him, but they were an obstacle to the fire. Blocking its flow and its flame, holding in and suppressing the fire. But the fire burned brighter and brighter and the blocks crumbled as the flame shifted, its color changing until it burned white hot and the obstacles crumbled into mounds of so much dust, leaving only the roots behind.

As the obstacles crumbled to dust within Felix he began to hack and cough. Dark blue slime, speckled with black bile and bright blood fell from his mouth and ears. Yet the slime evaporated almost as soon as it struck the ground, leaving Felix to wonder if he had imagined it at all. He heard whispering at the edge of his hearing, as though someone was having a conversation far away. But he was barely paying attention. The white hot fire flowed within him even now, like a second blood. Yet it was not slowing down, but coursing through him faster and faster, still growing hotter all the while.

Felix collapsed onto his side as fire enveloped his world. He felt the heat grow as his body burned like a pyre under the flames and never felt anything more than discomfort. Then the fire grew so hot that it turned blue as it began to burn away something that Felix did not understand, but that he could feel all too well. For the first time in this process he felt pain, as the fire burned its way through some invisible barrier and escaped the place it had been contained before. Felix's head and chest began to glow faintly blue under the rune light of the room. No more did it cycle in vessels that were both a part of his body and not. No, now it seared itself unto his very flesh as the inferno burned in his breast. Its flames tore at his ears, his mind, his tongue and his lungs.

It burned and burned until it burned out those Vestigial remnants that had once blocked its path. It burned away even the roots, until not even ash remained. Only then did the flame begin to slow, its rage spent as it left Felix in a pool of sweat, bile, and blood. His body stopped glowing as It calmed and dispersed slightly, the flame carried away upon his boiling blood through the entirety of his body. Yet the majority of the flame was rooted upon the places it had chosen and those places were changed forever.

With every breath Felix took the flame in his breast swelled and with every exhale it faded. It was ever warm and ready to answer his call.

The flame rested in his ears and mind. Felix could hear something. Something far away that called to him. Something that spoke of passion and longing. Of new beginnings. Its call was a steady beat, rhythmic and strong. Powerful and pure, Felix found himself consumed by the sound. He was too young, too inexperienced, too untested to withstand it.

He could see nothing. Taste nothing. Feel nothing. Hear nothing. There was only the call, a voice without sound that demanded his attention. It spoke of its longing, its passion over and over again. It spoke of new beginnings repeatedly and without cease. Felix tried to reach out to it, but in this place he had no arms, no mouth, no body with which to speak. No he had only his desire to speak, to understand.

But that was not enough to bridge the gap between them.

Felix awoke.

He was laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood and bile. But that didn't matter. He could still hear the call. His desperation to answer it was nearly all consuming.

Nearly.

Felix could hardly leave his his room all dirty and messy like he was. His mother had raised him better than that. He changed his clothes as quickly as he could and burst out of his room. Said mother looked up tiredly from the documents she was reading at the dining room table as Felix marched across the room.

"What's that on your face?" She said.

Felix froze and turned to look at her. She was frowning.

"Its nothing." His voice jumped a whole octave as blue fire leapt from his mouth at his mothers head.

But she didn't even seem to notice as the flames washed over her.

"Is that so?" She said, her voice conflicted and confused, "and where are you going at this hour?"

Felix panicked as he tried to think up an excuse to leave so he could find the voice.


[] "I heard someone cry out for help, I'm going to go find them."
[] "I'm going to go grab some snacks from the kitchen."
[] "Uncle Ferron need me to return something I borrowed from him."
[] "I need to tell Tom something."
[] "Don't worry about it."