The Atonement of a Writer

32. Fault and Guilt

Arielle was ready to pounce on her, bare-handed or not. Colette, however, was the one who made a move first--she threw the fireball at her, almost bored, the fireball growing in size as it got closer to her.

She was ready to jump out of the way, when suddenly, an even bigger wave of water smashed down on the fire, putting it out. Arielle blinked, and found Clovis standing in front of her. "This fight is between us, sister. Leave her out of it."

Then, he turned his head slightly to Arielle. "You were right. It's not over yet--I have yet to avenge their deaths."

Colette only laughed, as though they were at a family reunion and he just told a humorous joke. Arielle would feel slightly better if she laughed like the maniac she was, instead of a normal person. "As expected from the power couple."

Orange and gray flashed before her eyes as the siblings clashed. It felt like she was witnessing history--despite their opposing powers, water and fire elementalists rarely clashed. It was less magical than expected, though, because all she could tell was that a lot of fire was being started and put out again. Arielle coughed, accidentally breathing in the smoke.

"Arielle!" Killian was making his way towards her. She tried to make her way towards him too--with his powers, Killian could at least clear her lungs. That was when she saw her chance.

Clovis had told Colette to leave her out of it, but he never told her to stay out of it. Already, she could already tell Clovis was getting tired. In terms of stamina, he was no match for Colette. A wave of fire, delicately shaped like water in contrast to its wild nature, was making its way to the chandelier hanging above them.

Arielle looked at Killian, and back to the fighting siblings. She made a choice, right then and there.

It was time to fight fire with fire.

~*~

The first thing Lili felt was relief. So Julien escaped.

Just as she was being relieved, she came to face another problem. If he wasn't in the dungeons, how was she supposed to find him now?

As Lili pondered, beside her, Clovis groaned and buried his head in his hands. Instinctively, she patted him on the back. "There, there."

He glanced up to her, something akin to annoyance flashing in his eyes. "You're enjoying this, aren't you."

"Enjoying this? Me? Of course not. A criminal is on the loose, after all. I'm all for justice and stuff." She stood up with a cheery grin. "Well, I'll leave you strong, capable men to it. See ya."

As she made her exit hastily, she heard Clovis mutter, "That didn't sound like a compliment."

Where could Julien be? Wherever he was, he definitely wasn't in the palace, so she inconspicuously sneaked out to town to begin her search.

A Julien with memories of his previous life...he could be anywhere. He could be back in his cabin in the woods, but that was at least a few hours' journey from here. No one but her knew about it, so it was likely he was heading there, but for some reason, she didn't think he would be that faraway. Something was telling her that he would stay in the capital, close by just in case the Inferno happened again.

Maybe he was where he did the ritual last time. Or maybe he was where he first met Heimarmene. She had no idea where those two events happened, but if she had to guess, it would be the temple.

The temple she was looking for would be a general one. There were four main temples in the capital--worshipping the four gods believed to have bestowed the powers upon the elementalists. Chaos, who gave the power of wind; Thalassa, the power of water; Helios, the power of fire; and Gaea, the power of earth. The four main temples thrived and were always busy--but if one were to try to contact a lesser known goddess like Heimarmene, they would try a smaller, less busy one not dedicated to one of the gods.