Page 33 of Shadows of Air and Earth (Remnant Archives)

M y birth bitch mother laughed coldly, her beauty and finery matching the empty cynical sound.

“After all those years you have held us in contempt for enslaving you…” she said sardonically, “it seems you could not go without a master after all. Poor child, did I not tell you that your mother knew what was best for you? You could have stayed with us my little earthling, instead of serving under a man that will never understand your element.”

My father sneered at her side. “Instead you bind yourself to that…polluted and foul cloud air sniffing rake ! You are a disgrace to the Chin name, Xi Lanora.”

I snorted. I rather liked Riley the Rake, it had a nice ring to it, and my air elemental would enjoy such slander upon his name.

Feeling the earth tremble, I began the simple dance I knew was as old as time, weaving fluidly through the whistling stoney arrows sent to impale me from the ground below.

Adding a flourish, a move I had picked up from the shadow fae general, I seized the remaining arrows quivering to finish their task and eased them back into the normal solidity of the earth.

“Happy to see your training at least still holds, daughter,” my mother commented dryly, her lip curling slightly with disgust. “Except for that obnoxious display at the end. We may need to double your time on the rack for such lewd behavior.”

I inhaled calmly, refusing to rise to her bait.

Lowering my hands to ease the continued rumbling storm at my feet and letting the energy of the earth guide me, I drew upon more of Riley’s power, a euphoric burst of vitality that sharpened my senses.

I could feel everything—everything that graced this world’s surface, from the gentle touch of the sky kissing the ground, to the depths below, where firestone gathered under my parents’ feet.

The fragments wouldn’t have been of any consequence before, barely enough for me to induce any particular damage, but with Riley’s connection, it would be my parents’ undoing.

My eyes snapped open, the sun splitting through the retreating storm clouds, bathing me with its warmth and encouragement. I grinned, knowing Riley and Remnant had been successful and now—now it was my turn for vengeance.

“My dear, I do believe our poor daughter is deranged,” my mother said, watching me with disgust. Her brown eyes, so unlike mine, rolled while she plucked at her long, billowing silk sleeves, her features pulled taught by her frown and the severe bun perched atop her white head.

It was her signature look because it revealed her elegant bone structure, or so she always told me while she implored that I do the same.

At least then, she stated, I might be half as beautiful as her.

Unlike my composed mother, Fuchai, my dickface of a father, spat disdainfully, his dark brown eyes flashing villainously.

“A damned waste of all those years we spent training her, Xizi.” Pointing a long, tapered finger threateningly at me, he sneered, “The moment we break your little ties to the air sniffer, you will regret the day you were born child! You have brought great shame upon your mother and me.”

“Indeed, this foolishness will end today.” Xizi raised her arms as discs of stone rose from the deep earth to hover, spinning in her hand. Discs I knew she loved to carve with serrated edges just for her sick enjoyment. As if being severed by a stone disc wasn’t already bad enough.

I rolled my eyes. “Please Mother, you could at least come up with something new. Something a bit more creative.”

The cunt grinned before snapping her fingers, and the discs burst into flame.

Firestone. She was wielding firestone.

“Ah Xizi you really are a fool,” I laughed, feeling the softest caress of Riley’s air, and the cool brush of Remnant’s shadows as both of them swiftly flanked me, a sentinel on each side.

But the shadows were not so rigid, breaking formation in greeting, licking up my legs, shimmering with happiness to see me.

Laughing softly, I cradled them up into my arms like a sweet little kitten.

Perhaps having a cat one day would be nice.

My father's face contorted with uncontrollable abhorrence. “You are a disgrace, nothing but a blight on the Chin name!” he raged.

And I laughed, nuzzling the shadows just to see if it were possible for him to choke on his own revulsion. The thought had merit.

“Terrella,” Riley’s air caressed my cheek, brushing playfully over the strands of my hair, “You are playing with them. Light them up, earth baby. I’m hungry .”

“I can’t say that I am that kind of hungry for you Xi,” Remnant added dryly, “but if my stomach growls any louder I might be mistaken for a shifter.” Remnant patted her stomach before she tilted her head at my mother, fake concern drawing her brows together.

“You don’t look so good Xizi. Are you ill? ”

Screaming, the discs flew from my mother’s hands, stepping forward with each one, she hurled them not only towards me but also at my friends.

I knew her games and I had played by her rules long enough.

If Remnant Dark had taught me anything, it was that games were won by stepping off the chess board and making your own goddess damn playbook.

Summoning the energy of the firestone discs, I burned their energy brighter, exploding the stone into nothing but clouds of dust that rained down on us like fiery ash.

Riley snickered, “Well done, terrella,” and with a flick of his hand, the dust concentrated around Xizi Chin, covering her finery from head to toe in nothing but thick, smoking sand.

“How dare you, you ungrateful brat!” sputtered my unfortunate sperm donor who created me. “You shall rue this day. You think your life was insufferable before, I will make it so—”

The sound of my mother screaming frantically cut him off when I re-solidified the firestone around her, encasing her in the very earth she sought to destroy me with. Fuchai roared, always daft without my mother to guide him, he dashed towards her.

“No get back you fool—” she screamed at him, her eyes wide with alarm likely more for her own self-preservation and not his life, either way, it did not matter.

I raised up my fingers. “You should have been more wary of the unsuspecting, of the fragmented, of the impure. For when they join together…they are an unstoppable force, like the rarest of stones, stones that burn.” Taking one last look at my mother’s frantic brown eyes, I snapped my fingers, “Goodbye birth bitch.”

A sudden rush of air encircled us just moments before the firestone lit up in a massive fiery blaze, the bright flash forcing us all to shield our eyes, and the shadows to curl deeper into my arms. My mother screamed but the sound was quickly engulfed by massive explosions that rattled my bones.

Looking back, I watched as the earth sprayed upwards from the deep, the firestone below igniting into a mushroom cloud of flames and stone, incinerating my parents into nothing but floating embers.

I should have felt sad, disheartened, maybe even remorseful knowing that they were gone, killed by my own hand, but all I felt was relief and safety.

The feelings spread warmly throughout my body and I sighed at the exquisite feel of it—-not sure if I had ever felt such peace in my entire existence.

When fingertips grazed against mine timidly, I looked down to see the tattooed arm of the shadow fae general reaching out, her leather bracelet brushing my own.

Without hesitancy, I threaded my fingers through hers, squeezing gently with gratitude for the powerful bond growing between us.

We had been alone, but now we all had each other—three of us lonely together.

Sensing our moment and never one to be left out, Riley slung his heavy arm over my shoulder, dragging both Remnant and me inward to watch the continued destruction inside our shelter. The fiery ash cascading over our bubble of air, sizzling out before it even met the mangled earth.

After a moment of silence, Riley snickered. “Hey Rem, what do you call earth elementals exploding?”

I groaned under Riley’s arm, tugging my hair back across my face. He always did this, when the emotional discomfort got too great. “Don’t do it, Rem. Just don’t.”

Remnant chuckled, “I don’t know Ri? What do you call exploding earth elementals?”

“A Faerie large earthquake.”

Remnant giggled and then hummed, nodding with mock solemnity, “A Faerie misfortune indeed.”

I blew out a long sigh. My hair fluttered outwards from my face as I dipped away from their warm embrace, and horrendous humor.

“Oh yes, one might even say they were Faerie functional dynamite.” Riley burst out laughing and Remnant joined him, her laughter echoing across the canyon both beautiful and haunting.

Turning I regarded them both, clutching their sides, snorting and howling way too hard for such terrible jokes before wiping tears from their own eyes and then starting anew the moment they caught each other's gazes.

My lips pulled into a small smile, seeing the love and loyalty of true friendship between them. After all, Ri did see in her early on what I could not, refused to see—she was one of us.

“Ri, I got it, I got it!” the general gasped between laughs, elbowing him in her excitement. “It was a fae-eruption of epic proportions!”

My brows rose in disbelief, their roaring amusement almost as loud as the explosion only moments ago. High fiving each other multiple times and stomping their feet in fits of hilarity, their snorts and giggles continued.

I crossed my arms with mock sternness while my lips trembled, attempting to hold back my own chortling, they were ridiculous, “You two jesters just about done? I thought you all were on the brink of starvation?”

Their laughter cut short.

“Food yes, we need food,” Riley whined, dramatically, clutching his stomach, his eyes wide as if he were suffering a great pain.

Remnant’s stomach growled loudly on cue, adding to Riley’s hungered agony—a fierce, low growling sound…just like a shifter.

This time, it was my turn to laugh.