Sineater

***FLASHBACK 11 years ago***

The smell of smoke was thick.

“What’s going on?” My eight-year-old mind was having trouble processing the smoke, screams, and panic that seemed to be coming from everywhere all at once.

“Looks like some of the residential houses are on fire.” Garm glanced over the roofs of the market towards where the smoke was beginning to rise.

“Why are they worried about fire?” Eight-year-old Vin looked up at our father, then around at the mass of civilians who were trying to hurry away from that direction.

“Not everyone is as fire resistant as we are.” Garm put one of his hands on each of our shoulders.

“You’re going to make us go help, aren’t you?” The disappointment in Vin’s voice was too unmistakable to miss.

Our day was supposed to entail getting us real swords for our birthdays. Being the proud Dwarf that he was, our father didn’t want to settle for getting us just some common swords from the market, but to have them specially made by actual Dwarf craftsmen. There weren’t many places along the coast that had Dwarf forges outside of the capital cities, but we were still too young to go into cities that large, having to stay with the ship instead.

“Are there going to be hurt people?” I looked up at the burly Dwarf that was guiding us towards the chaos.

“I would bet on it.” Garm let go of Vin so he could put a hand on each of my shoulders as he knelt in front of me. “Remember what I said. You only heal someone if I tell you to. Don’t…”

“Ask you for permission, because we don’t want people to ask what I can do.” I nodded and held up my thumb. “I know.”

The Dwarf eyed me and I had a feeling that he didn’t fully trust me, but he left it at that. I made a mental note that I was going to prove that I was grown up enough to use my power responsibly. My hand was still sore from where Phlek had spilled hot oil on himself and I’d taken the burn without thinking about it. We’d been on the ship, so the lecture hadn’t been too long, but it had come with a biology lesson on how fast an Ogre could recover from a burn versus myself. Despite wanting to help the grumpy cook, he had more layers of skin, which meant that the wound wasn’t as bad on him as it was on me. Despite my accelerated healing when I took a wound, the Ogre still would have healed before now.

As soon as we turned the corner to get into the residential area, I could see just how bad the smoke was and the feelings of pain were overwhelming my young brain.

“Vin!” Garm let go of my shoulder. “Help me move that rubble!”

I looked over at where our father was running. The collapsed houses were smoking, but it didn’t look like they were still on fire.

My little brother was strong despite being smaller than me. While I tried to catch my breath as it felt like I was being strangled, they were digging people out.

“TEAR!” A winged Elf ran past me and started digging at the rubble. “AH!!!” The Fae fell away from the rubble. “IRON?!”

“You built your house with iron?” Garm looked at the man.

“Never!” The thin man was holding his swelling hand next to his chest. “There’s not a splinter of iron on the block!”

My father started sniffing the air. “There’s iron all over! Who did your survey?”

“The Hammers!” The Fae tried to grab something else.

“Vin! Get him out of here!” My father grabbed the Fae and shoved him towards my brother. “And keep him away from your brother!”

The Camadt grabbed the older man and wrapped all four of his arms around the crying man.

“Let me go! I have to find TEAR!”

My father lifted a slab, then looked over at us. “VIN! HOLD HIM! SEC! DON’T YOU DARE!”

I was already moving towards my father. It was like I could feel the pain that was in front of him.

Garm threw the slab of stone to the side so he could grab me. He wasn’t fast enough to keep me from seeing the Fae child with an iron rod through their chest.

I reached the kid who was younger than me.

“AHHH!!!” I felt the burning in my chest the moment I touched her as my powers tried to take the wound, except there was still an iron rod that was poisoning her.

I was violently yanked away from her.

“What did I say?!” My father pulled me away from the dying child.

“I CAN SA..!”

A rough hand clamped over my mouth.

“There are people watching!” Garm whispered in my ear and turned me so that I could see that guards had shown up.

The golden armored Elves began to pick away the rubble so everyone could see the dying child.

My arms weren’t strong enough to fight back as my father backed up to where my brother was and tapped him on the shoulder. My younger brother let the crying Fae go.

“TEAR!” The crying man crawled towards the guards. “Someone get a healer!”

The guards held him back as my father shook his head. “There’s not a healer that good in the city.”

A dark-skinned man with a tattered jacket, torn pants, and a scar over his right eye walked out of the crowd and grabbed the iron rod and pulled it out of the child.

“Stop!” One of the guards moved to stop him.

The stranger pulled off his jacket, revealing scars covering his upper body. A burn was forming on his chest and the appearance of the mark froze the guards in place.

I watched in awe as the burn and hole slowly closed on the child’s chest and the same mark began to grow on the scarred man’s chest.

He collapsed next to the child, who was scooped up by his father.

“He saved him!” I pointed at the other Sineater. “Did you see that dad? He saved him!”

“He did.” Garm started backing us away from the celebrating father. The guards were putting shackles on the incapacitated stranger. “But how many would he have saved in the future that are going to die now?”

“But you could save him!” I looked down at Vin. Even at eight, he was still strong enough to take down an adult guard. My father could do more than that and there was the crew too.

My father picked me up, which didn’t get me far off the ground. “We save who we can, but sometimes that means having to stand by and do nothing so you can help the next person.” The Dwarf sighed. “We can’t save him today. If we tried, at best we’d be thrown in a hole, then who would save people the next time they needed our help?”

I felt tears streaming out of my eyes as I felt so helpless. It was wrong that the stranger was being arrested for saving the child’s life. It was wrong that we weren’t strong enough to rescue him. It was all so wrong.

I promised myself that I’d get stronger so I could help next time. That I’d be strong enough to stop the wrong.