A generic fantasy short story
The first ray of sunlight struck a rock in the village of Lerem, revealing engravings that had remained unseen in the night.
Seran knelt by the rock, chanting in Resonance, the Language of the Ancients. Sensing the approach of dawn, he finally stood up.
“Esæ Lerem levei,” he said—‘Lerem will never fall.’ The symbols on the rock glowed briefly, as if to agree with him.
More sunlight illuminated his surroundings, revealing what remained of the village—nothing but ashes. Although the horrible events that occurred the night before happened while Seran was watching, their impact didn’t hit him until now, when he could finally see just how bad the damage was. Suddenly, his memories of the previous night came rushing back.
Lith, walking though the village with a smirk on his face.
Flames, emanating from Lith’s hands.
Screams.
All of Lerem, ablaze.
Silence.
On the ground next to him, Seran saw what was left of his best friend, Mera, identifiable only by the silver ring around the remains of her finger. He could spend hours just talking about how she got that ring, to say nothing of her other accomplishments, her hopes, her dreams…
He looked around. How many more people, with stories just as profound, no longer existed? He picked up the ring and put it on his hand. It would remind him of the loss of everything he cared about.
Someone was approaching. Refusing to take chances, Seran instinctively moved his hands in the patterns he had so often practiced. He felt his energy well up inside him, ready to direct flames upon the figure the instant it could be identified.
He heard Lith's voice. “Hello, Seran,”
That was all the prompting Seran needed. A burst of energy in his right hand materialized as a fiery ball aimed directly at Lith. The ball flew through the air… and suddenly disappeared.
A few wisps of smoke emanated from Lith’s hands. He smirked. “Magical fire is useless against someone who can weave a proper Counterspell.”
Seran scowled. He had heard plenty of rumors about Lith’s powers. They called him Lithran. ‘Wanderer.’ No one knew his real name. All that was known about him was that he acted as if all magic were trivial.
Seran’s fingers began to tremble. It was a trick he had learned from Mera. This way, he could slowly build up his magical energy without Lith noticing.
The key word was ‘slowly.’ He had to stall.
“Why did you do this?” he asked, gesturing to the ruins of Lerem.
“They were in my way.”
Seran controlled his anger. “What about all those people you killed? All the lives lost?”
“Meaningless.” Lith said. He was tense.
“People are not meaningless!” Seran shouted. “You killed people’s loved ones—you killed my best friend!”
“All meaningless,” Lith repeated. His voice was shaky. His confidence was waning.
“You don’t really mean that,” Seran said. The magical energy he was building up was starting to become unwieldy, but he couldn’t pay attention to that now.
“I really don’t,” Lith said in a voice that was barely a whisper. “Ten years ago, my parents were killed by someone I thought was my friend. I killed him with little effort. It didn’t seem like enough vengeance for the death of the only people who ever cared about me…”
Seran couldn’t keep up calling magical energy, but he no longer wished to kill Lith. The energy reserves he called swirled around him, visible only to himself. He knew that if his hands made a single error, the resulting implosion would kill him. He cursed his luck.
He suddenly noticed Lith standing right in front of him, smiling again. “I lied. I just like killing people.” He gave Seran a tiny nudge.
Seran lost concentration, and his hands faltered. Suddenly, all the energy that he had precariously balanced around him collapsed inward. For the last few seconds of his life, he felt nothing but pain.
Mera’s ring fell near Lith’s feet. He picked it up and examined it. It was unornamented, save the engraving on its inside, which read “Mera, I will be with you forever. Seran.”
He laughed, and threw it aside. “Meaningless.”
The ring landed on Mera’s cremated remains, less than a foot away from Seran’s corpse.