“Uh, let’s head in that direction,” I told Aisha, pointing north.
I flew with River, while Aisha floated alongside us. Finally, I spotted the peak—I recognised it even from a distance due to the massive crater that was drilled though it. The crater the Elder had emerged from in his attempt to possess me.
To my shock, my body still lay there, exactly where I’d left it. As I descended, shivers ran through me. I’d forgotten how bizarre the feeling was, to be staring down at oneself… or at least one’s body. It was rigid, but didn’t show signs of deterioration.
“My God, this is so creepy,” River breathed. She gripped my arm hard, as if reassuring herself that I was still standing next to her.
We circled around the body and then I bent down. I placed my fingers against the corpse’s forehead. Stone cold. Not much different than when it had been alive.
“Well,” I said, realizing how parched my throat had gotten, “now we’ve got to burn it.”
I looked expectantly at Aisha. I might be able to conduct and spread fire, but I wasn’t able to create it—at least, it didn’t seem so. She bent down, and a blaze billowed from her fingertips. It was so unexpectedly large, it almost touched my and River’s ankles. Not wanting to turn into Burning Man again, I staggered back with River, watching as the fire engulfed my previous body. I had expected the jinni to be a little more… subtle about it. I don’t know, something a little more ceremonious. It was my funeral, after all. But this was Aisha, I reminded myself.
My eyes glazed over as I watched the fire consume my body. I experienced an odd twinge in my chest. A pain, almost. It was like something was being ripped from me, and it left me feeling unsteady. Uncertain of my very existence. That what I’d forever identified with was so… material. So destructible.
The bonfire rose higher and higher, choking the air with smoke and stinging our eyes, until all that remained was ashes. This vision I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life.
That’s it. My body’s gone.
After the fire had died down, we moved to another mountain peak further away just in case the blaze had drawn any attention. The last thing we needed was to encounter an Elder, although admittedly they should still be too weak to cause harm even to River.
Reaching into River’s back pocket, I slid out the note and unfolded it. When I spread it out, the note changed before my very eyes. I was surprised by what I read. I’d been expecting to see the next instruction she had for us, but instead, it simply said:
“So long as you burn to live, you shall, with or without breath.”
Ben
The message lingered on the page a while, as if she’d wanted me to read it many times, absorb it fully. And as the smoke cleared, revealing the ashes, I did.
I could only assume that this was part of her “training”, whatever she had meant by that.
Finally, the note changed:
“Now, as an extension of this first task, follow my directions, for they will lead you to where you need to be.”
An extension to this first task? What? She never said a single task might have several layers.
“Ugh,” River muttered.
The note changed again:
“Travel to the bottom of this mountain.”
We did as instructed.
“Turn right.”
We turned right.
“Turn left.”
We did.
On and on the instructions went until, finally, she told us to stop outside the entrance to a tunnel.
“Enter.”
Tentatively, we entered the mouth of the tunnel and proceeded along its dank, winding depths.