I held Incaendium in my hands and carefully examined the heavy weapon. He had dimmed the flames slightly, so I could see the carvings and the notches cut form many years of battle that marked the steel. I still couldn't believe that I owned him. Ugh that sounded weird. Hey, I still had to learn all the terminology and by this point I had an entire book to work my way through. And by book, I mean the biggest book that had ever been put to print and I once found a bible that weighed more than I did (I was twelve at the time, but you get my point).

I sighed gruffly and kept studying the markings and sigils carved into the metal. Before we left York, Sheira had grabbed me a book of sigils from an elemental book store and I was using that to cross reference the foreign scribbles that decorated the hilt and blade of my sword.

So far, I had found loyalty (A cross with a circle in the middle of it), guidance (An eye), sure-strike (a sword piercing a star), bonding (three interconnected circles) and a thousand others that were either too old, to rare or had been long forgotten by all but Incaendium.

I ran my fingers up the hilt and examined the pommel of the hilt. I couldn't work out what shape it was supposed to be carved into, it was just a blob of misshapen metal with a strange sigil that I could not find for the life of me in the book that Sheira had given me. I sighed.

Flame was also peering over my shoulder at the sigils. I didn't know how a lion that had only had powers for a few weeks longer than I had but his sharp eyes picked up on a few things that I had missed and was now on consulting duty as he seemed to have a bit more knowledge than I did. And when I say a bit, I mean by the smallest, most minute amount you could conjure up.

Defeated and with my head spinning from trying to interpret the meaningless squiggles I flipped the book shut. May as well try to get answers straight from the horse's mouth.

"Hey Incaendium?"

Yes?

"What do these sigils mean?" I tapped on the markings carved into the side of the sword that I was ninety nine percent sure was called the fuller.

Ah, these ones?

He made the six markings glow a little brighter. I nodded, "yeah, I can't find them in the book."

Incaendium chuckled. They're not sigils

Flame cocked his head. "What are they then?"

They're my old masters.

I traced the top sigil with the tip of my finger. "How are these your old masters?" I asked.

"Ditto," growled Flame.

Each sigil represents my old master by showing their strongest trait. Observe. He made each sigil flare brightly as he explained each sigil. The top one in determination. That's me as I was the original owner. The second one is bravery, third is loyalty, fourth is resilience, fifth is resourcefulness and the sixth is whoever you decide to be.

I traced the lowest sigil. Uncarved and undetailed, waiting for me to leave my mark. "What will it be for me?" I asked.

Incaendium would have shrugged if he had arms. I have no idea. Only time will tell. The pommel will also take the form of your beast as I know that you were wondering that as well.

A lion headed sword? I could deal with that. I smirked as my life seemed to be turning into Game of Thrones, just minus a few more... explicit details. "I just hope I can learn to fight properly," I muttered. Images of losing a hand sprung to mind so I shuddered nervously.

Flame placed his heavy head on my knee and gave me a reassuring look. "Don't worry about that."

"That's easy for you to say," I scoffed, "you know how to use your weapons, I'm up the creek without a paddle."

"It's not that bad," said Flame.

Agreed. Anyway, I'll stop short of dismembering you.

I laughed nervously. "That's very reassuring."

"Hey! Get over here and help!" Shadow yelled from across the clearing that we were calling our camp ground for the night.

After I had gained ownership of Incaendium Shadow had picked up a few more bits and pieces from the vault but he made sure to keep me in his peripheral vision, so I couldn't "take" anything else. He also seemed to be ignoring the fact that Incaendium had chosen me, not the other way around, and that Shadow couldn't even use Incaendium as he was just rusting away in a dingy hole. But he was still in a bad mood nonetheless.

The elevator ride back up to the surface had been just as unpleasant as coming down had been and Ryder was still as creepy and weird as he would always be, and he could teleport which still made me jump after he vanished from sight with a loud crack. Shadow marched us out of York without another word and dragged us down the long winding roads and busy motorways until we were traversing ditches and fields and walking into thick woodlands without the foggiest idea of where we were going but it seemed that in Shadow's opinion we weren't getting there fast enough.

He was constantly barking at us to hurry up even though Sheira and I were both physically and mentally exhausted. The early wakeup call had now hit us both like a truck and we were now reduced to zombies. Shuffling, moaning and demanding food and a decent Wi-Fi connection. Ugh, the struggles of modern life. What I would give to be wrapped up in my warm bed knowing that I was safe at home with Mum and the kids, but it was that safety that I was fighting for.

Eventually Shadow saw that we were both as useful as a human made of rubber and had agreed to stop and, very reluctantly and complaining the entire time, set up camp for the night. Sheira and I had a quick training session which was why I was sitting on my own getting my breath back and the other two were busy carving alarm sigils into the surrounding trees and rocks, collecting firewood and generally setting up our sleeping arrangement for the night. Shadow cut his eyes at me from across the clearing which led to my glare returned straight at him. I sighed and slowly got to my feet.

Then I remembered that the weapon I was holding knew Shadow better than I did. "What's his problem?" I asked Incaendium.

The blades reaction was not what I expected. He now felt guarded and secretive from the open and talkative Incaendium I had felt a few seconds earlier. Shadow...has his own problems, he murmured.

I had the distinct suspicion that he wasn't going to reveal anything, so I tried another question. "Do you know why he doesn't like me then?"

No idea. I've been in that vault for the better part of four hundred years – He stopped abruptly, like he'd revealed too much.

Four hundred years? Shadow couldn't be that old...could he? Occam's razor, "so his family owned you?"

Incaendium seemed to be relieved that he didn't have to explain anything. His family agreed to watch over me after my last master died and Shadow took possession of me when he took over the vault, but he doesn't reveal his personal issues to me, so I highly advise you don't go snooping around either.

It wasn't like him to be snappy, so I decided to leave it alone. I sheathed my sword and walked over to the rest of the group. Shadow greeted me with a glare which I gladly returned. "Anything I can help with?"

"Yes actually," Shadow said. He produced a map and spread it across the floor. Sheira and I both peered at it. It was a map of the UK with several spots circled. "Those circles are the Army bases that I know of," he pointed to each one of them with a stick.

Sheira stared at the map her eyes wide, I could actually see her memorising each and every circle. Of course, she would. This knowledge would provide the biggest tactical advantage that the camps had ever received. "There are so many, how do you know which one Molly would choose to take Nick's family."

Shadow shrugged. "That's the thing, I don't know. I have a hunch but that all. I mean I can put out a pretty good guess that she's nowhere near London, it would be too easy for Camp to track her down, so these bases are out," he gestured to the four bases in the vicinity of the city.

"That just leaves the other fifteen or so," I carefully observed the other bases.

Shadow nodded, "and as I said these are just the ones I know of. She could have set up more since I left. In fact, I know that she probably has. Which is where you come in," he pointed his stick directly at me.

Flame stepped forwards, "what can he do?"

"You saw the portal that Molly and her goons dragged your family into, right?"

"Yeah...what does that have to do with anything?"

"Are you going to try and find them using the portal?" asked Sheira.

"Sort of," said Crash who had joined us after dumping a truckload of firewood at the edge of the clearing. Ice, who had been assisting, jumped down from his back, landed gracefully and strolled over to Sheira and studied the map herself. "Portals tend to show an image of the place that then are traveling to, they become a window to another place in space."

"So, you're planning to use the image to find where we need to go," said Ice. "Good plan."

Shadow scoffed. "Its only a good plan if he can remember what he saw in the portal. If he doesn't, then we're very much back to square one."

No pressure then. "How am I going to show you though? Just a heads up, I can't draw for toffee."

"We don't need you to," said Crash.

"We can use this," Shadow was holding out a bronze box to me which I vaguely remembered as the compass he had picked up in the vault. I took it from him and flipped it open. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It had the standard north, south, east, west components but it also had a brightly flashing jewel buried in the metal and the lid resembled a flat glassy mirror, but it didn't show my reflection. It just showed fog.

"How does it work? Is it supposed to show me the weather or something?"

"Let me look," said Sheira plucking the compass from my hand and gasped.

"What?"

"I didn't think this actually existed," Ice breathed in awe.

I shared look with Flame that said, 'what the heck is going on?'. "Care to share your thoughts with the rest of the group?" I said.

Sheira smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, having a nerd moment. This is the Gaia Compass."

"The what?" Flame asked.

"The Gaia Compass."

"Saying it more than once will not suddenly lead to a lightbulb moment."

Sheira rolled her eyes, "the Gaia Compass is a unique tool that allows an elemental to see anywhere in the world."

"Provided you know what you're looking for," added Crash.

Okay, that was pretty cool. "So, this'll help me locate them."

Shadow shook his head. "It doesn't work for people, trust me, but it will help you locate what you saw."

Sheira dropped the compass back into my hands, "there's only one of these in the world, how did you get hold of it." She asked Shadow suspiciously.

He shrugged, "it's not important right now. Now kid, all you have to do is picture the image you saw in the portal, focus on every detail you can, it'll make the whole process faster and we'll be able to find out what we're aiming for a lot easier."

Easier said then done. Trying to recover an image from your memory that you only just got a glimpse of was like trying to grab fog. It was damn near impossible. I tried to follow my memory of the day; wake up, shower, go to school, suffer in the field of punishment for six hours, set fire to a desk, detention, flip off a teacher, lion, strange girl who wants to punch me, six creeps and then the portal. It was the last part that stumped me. The image was just so vague, it wasn't focused, it was distorted, and it flickered in and out every other second. There had to be something I could focus on, one little detail that could show us exactly where we needed to go.

I sighed and tried again. I knew what I'd seen was a building, which really narrowed things down, but it didn't look new. It was old and didn't look very...house like? Well it didn't look normal, it had towers and seemed to be falling apart. Wait a second.

"It's a castle!" I said out loud. I looked up and there was an image trying to form itself in the fog that was being forcibly blasted out of the jewel.

Shadow was on his feet with a phone in his hands. "Keep going kid, really focus on the details."

I didn't have much to go on, but I kept trying. I tried to focus on the location around the castle. Green. Lots and lots of green. It was in the country, a really hilly part of the country. It had mountains, surely that had to narrow things down. It was high up and cold, there was snow, it was either up north or up a mountain.

"Anything yet?" I asked.

Sheira's disembodied voice floated over to my ears. "Not yet. Nearly though."

Hm...All I needed was one little detail, something that would tell us where it was. I tried to focus back on the castle, for any identifying features. High walls, fort in the middle, drawbridge, towers, flagpole – Flag! There was a scrap of fabric snapping in the breeze. It looked like the Union Jack but without the red...

Sheira shrieked loudly next to me, breaking my concertation and one of my eardrums. "What the hell Sheira?! Are you actively trying to deafen me?"

She was too excited to notice my protests. "Look, Nick, look!"

So, I did. It was exactly what I'd seen. A caste on a green hill, overlooking a valley, snow capped mountains in the distance with a blue flag waving in the breeze.

"Scotland?" I said in disbelief.

"Of course," Shadow muttered. He was busy taking photos on his phone of the image in the fog.

"What do you mean by 'Of course'" asked Flame.

"Of course, she'd take them so far away. Scotland's about as far away from London as you can get without leaving the British Isles."

"Do you know where this is then?" I said hopefully. Shadow shook his head, crushing that hope like Crash had just sat on it. "I thought you knew where all her bases were?" I yelled.

"No, I said that I knew where some of her bases were, some being the operative word here. She could have made brand new ones and she didn't take me to all of them."

"It's a castle in Scotland surely that has to narrow it down, right?"

Ice scoffed, "yeah, sure, there are only two thousand castles in Scotland, so it shouldn't take us too long."

"Drop the sarcasm," I snapped. I groaned in frustration and slumped down onto one of the boulders that dotted our campground. I ran my hands though my hair and stared down my shoes. "This is taking too long..." I whimpered. I didn't know how long we had, how long they had. Mum could last a bit longer but as for Maxie and Lilah? How long had it been since they were kidnapped? Four days. Four days had already passed, and we had only just got a lead on how to find my family.

I heard Sheira sigh and walk over to me. She took a seat on the rock next to me and placed a hand uncertainly on my shoulder. "We're step closer thanks to you Nick. Yeah it's taking longer than we first thought but now we have this new information and let's be honest, it's invaluable."

"She's right," said Shadow. "The minute we find a town with a decent Wi-Fi connection or a library we'll look and cross-reference these images to the castles in Scotland, then we'll have our destination."

"Then it'll be smooth sailing from there," said Crash.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "considering what we've been through so far I highly doubt that."

"Fair enough," said Ice.

"But until then we're not out of the woods yet," Shadow pocketed his phone.

I did a quick 360 glance around us. Yep, trees for days. "Did you intend that pun? It felt like you didn't."

Shadow's glare combined with the warning finger clearly told me that he wanted me to shut up. "If it was up to me we'd be in the nearest inhabited settlement by now but due to certain...holdups," he glared at Sheira and I, "We are still over twenty miles from our destination."

"Well I'm sorry to inform that we're not robots and need to rest. Unlike you of course."

Damn Sheira. I was not expecting that comeback. Clearly, she does have a minor dislike for this jackass. Ten points to whatever Hogwarts House she's in. Most likely its Ravenclaw, she's probably a Ravenclaw.

"Also, I thought its safer to be outside. Doesn't that make us more difficult to find?" I added.

Shadow laughed unkindly, "yeah right. You've been watching too many movies. Let me tell you a little know secret. Movies. Are. Not. Real."

"Well gee, who'd have thought it," I snapped back.

"Okay maybe you are more difficult to find. You're also exposed to the elements, the tiniest thing can give away your position, its easy to get lost and separated and you constantly have your back exposed. Now tell me which you would prefer. Would you rather be in an open space where you can't defend yourself, your back is exposed, and anyone could be watching you without your knowledge, or you're in a locked room, you know where the exits are, and you can defend yourself by ensuring that you only take on one enemy at a time. Tell me which you would prefer?"

I glared at him, but it gave him the answer he needed. "Just saying that we'd be there if it wasn't for you two."

"That's defeating the whole point of the 'we'."

"Whatever, decide who takes first watch."

After some serous deliberation between Sheira and myself, i.e. rock paper scissors (I tried rock paper scissors lizard Spock, which went down really well) We came to the conclusion that I'd go first, Sheira second and since Shadow woke up at three in the morning anyway he took last.

My three hours of sitting in a cold field surrounded by woods that felt that it was a necessity to make a creepy sound every thirty seconds was about as exciting as watching paint dry while also listing to One Direction, Justin Bieber and Britney Spears at the same time. Extreme fatigue did not help in the slightest, so I had to keep myself busy by walking loops round the campground, investigating noises and resisting waking up Sheira early. Finally, I woke Sheira up at midnight and promptly passed out cold from pure exhaustion. Lions are very good pillows.

Then I had something even weirder happen to me, I started dreaming. Just for the record I really don't dream a lot, like at all. I have nightmares of course, but nothing like this. It was like I was in a movie. I hadn't seen any of this but no one else was noticing I was there.

There was a girl walking by, a thick blue coat was wrapped tightly around her shoulders as she marched down a stony corridor. I jogged to keep up with her as she rounded corners and stormed into a huge chamber that had clearly been altered rather recently. Massive metal pipes hung down form the ceiling into a massive steel vat that had been drilled into the floor. The vat was empty, for now at least.

The girl shrugged of her coat and dusted the light coating of snow off her. Considering whether she was not dressed appropriately at all. Her jeans were rolled up to the knee, her shirt was a discoloured thing that you would wear for school and her feet were only covered by sandals. She had a piercing though her septum and her short black hair was dyed blue and purple along the fringe. A small black furry thing was clinging to her shoulder, her beast.

"You wanted to see me," she said loudly.

A cold monotone voice drifted over the howling wind. "Ah Sabrina, yes I did."

Sabrina shuffled anxiously, clearly even Army members felt uncomfortable around Molly. "What can I do for you?"

Molly stepped into view, still wearing her rags which were more bloodied than last time I saw her. I was ninety nine percent sure she didn't feel the cold. Well she was a reanimated corpse so what use could heat provide for her? She emerged from the shadows without sparing a glimpse at Sabrina and crossed over to the empty vat and looked down with an almost happy expression etched onto her face. "You are an Air."

Sabrina clearly wondered if that was a question or not. In the end she decided with, "I am."

"Can you read the whispers?"

Whispers?

"I can read the wind. Do you want me to check something?"

Molly nodded. "My spy has told me that Nick and Sheira are gone, they ran from their precious camp as soon as they received my little message," she chuckled, "like bees to a honeypot."

A spy? There was a spy at Camp? Who could it be, who would want to betray us like that. I had to tell Sheira.

"However," Molly continued greasily, "since they are no longer there I can't keep track of them. Which is where you come in." She turned with a smile spreading across her lips, "I want you and Sora to be my ears, to listen to the whispering voices and pick out anything that you can find about them."

Sabrina didn't say anything, she was choosing her next words very carefully. "I'm...honoured, but–"

"What?" Molly's tone was dangerous and with her that could result in her killing you.

"I was under the impression that Jack was being assigned to watch the airwaves, so to speak."

Molly nodded in agreement. "You are not mistaken, that was the initial plan. But after Shadow's little genocide run of our Ashwood Dale base I am employing more...safety measures. Jack and the rest of my generals are assigned to the castle to provide extra defence, which means you now have the honour of being my chief listener, while Jack and the others hunt down that meddling brat and bringing him straight to me, so I can make the remainder of his pathetic existence a torture filled misery!"

Molly slammed her hands down hard on the control panel in front of her. Her muscles must have been made of steel as her fists went through the metal like a hot knife though butter. The sudden sound made both Sabrina and I jump.

"So long as you let me get a few hits in myself I will be only too happy to partake," Sabrina said.

Molly grinned, "don't worry your pretty little head my dear. Everyone gets a turn with him to do with as they please."

That sounded unpleasant and with these guys your worst is their daydream. God help Shadow.

Molly shrugged and turned her back on Sabrina and stared back down into the vat. "The Airs are at your disposal, if anyone doesn't operate well enough just send them straight to me, I need more test subjects." She giggled. "The faster we perfect this next batch the faster we can get out of this dingy little dump."

Sabrina and her beast Sora, who seemed to be a squirrel of some description, shuddered in unison. Whether it was from the cold or Molly's demeanour, I honestly couldn't tell. "I agree wholeheartedly of course. But may I ask one more question?"

"Just the one," Molly shrugged.

"What happened to Juliet, wasn't this her job..." She trailed off when she saw the look Molly was giving her. It made my skin crawl and sent a chill running down my spine. I don't care what anyone said, Molly could make the Terminator weep.

"Juliet almost compromised our entire operation after she almost let our guests in the tower escape."

Mum, Lilah and Maxie. It had to be them.

"Her punishment will be just – Ah, speak of the devil, come in!"

I turned just in time to see the heavy wooden doors swing open and a small mob walk in. Six people all decked to the nine in their Army leathers were restraining a young woman and her beast. She would have been quite pretty, if she didn't look so terrified. Her blonde hair was wild and ragged like she had been tossing and turning all night, her make up was running, mascara dripped down her cheeks, her eyes were bright from tears. Her clothes were torn, and cuts and bruises curled their way up her arms and legs. It was taking six people to restrain her and a further eight to restrain her beast, a proud eagle that was screaming and clawing at her captors.

Molly smiled coldly, she had a look in her eye that set me on edge. I had no idea what was about to happen, and I was terrified to find out. "Ah Juliet," she tutted, "what have you done?"

Juliet was thrown to the floor where she promptly began weeping again. "I didn't mean to...I...I'm Sorry, it won't happen again."

"Oh, stop crying, you did this all to yourself."

Juliet howled and threw herself at Molly's feet. "I didn't mean to let them go, have mercy please?"

"Oh, I'm sorry this store doesn't carry mercy, you can try our other branch on the other side of town." Molly slapped Juliet so hard I practically felt it myself. She seized hold of her hair and ripped it back, so Juliet had to look her straight in her crazed eyes. "I warned you how persuasive Aleena could be and yet you fell for it, getting yourself locked up in the tower while they almost got away."

"She tricked me!" gasped Juliet.

Molly pulled tighter, so Juliet screamed in pain. "Do you know how long it would take for them to slip away from us? TELL ME!" She roared.

"I don't...I don't..." Juliet had now broken down to full scale sobbing.

"Fifteen minutes," Molly spat. "Fifteen measly little minutes and Aleena and her precious brats would slip away from us. Give them an hour and they've reached this country's pathetic little branch of goody two shoes."

Juliet sobbed.

Molly sighed and released her. "Its such a waste, but what can I do?"

"No..." whimpered Juliet.

"MARX!" screamed Molly.

"I'm here," the little kid with white hair and a beast made of two creatures sewn together stepped into view and made his way to Molly's side.

He was carrying a box with strange sigils glowing darkly over the surface. He flipped it open and pulled out a syringe. It was filled with black liquid. I took a few steps closer and examined the contents of the syringe. I honestly couldn't describe what was in there for the life of me. It seemed to be alive, it was thrashing, fighting to get out. I quickly retreated to the back of the room. I wanted to wake up. I wanted to get out of here.

Juliet screamed when she saw it. "Molly no. I am loyal you don't need to possess me."

"Ah...you think this is my regular magic medicine, don't you?" Molly picked up the syringe and held it close to Juliet's face. "This is well...new. You see with the old stuff and need to keep topping up my soldiers so its been deemed inefficient. This however will answer all those problems. A permanent solution." She sighed in admiration. "Of course, there is one problem. This little mixture – wait do we have a name for it? No? Ah, lets give it a name then. Something that latches on and never let's go. Virus? Nah, doesn't sound right. Tick? Ugh, definitely not. Parasite? Yeah, the Parasite Elixir. Hm...we'll work on it. Anyway, this medicine is still untested and highly volatile and has a nasty habit of leaving all of the subjects as major failures, if you get what I mean."

Juliet whimpered.

"We shall just have to see how you take to it." Molly nodded, and the six figures grabbed Juliet and pinned her to the ground. She screamed in terror and frantically fought to get loose. Blasts of wind jettisoned from her palms as she struggled to get free. Molly's demonic frog, Bionic, hopped onto her shoulder and watched with his cold dead eyes.

"Somebody help! Please!" Juliet screamed. "Sabrina!" She turned to her fellow Air who was standing on the side-lines, "please help me, we're friends. Please. Don't let her do this!"

Sabrina just turned away which caused Juliet's screams to get lounder and wilder. Molly tutted. "Now stop this screaming. You're making an unnecessary fuss here. I'm making you a deal. If you last ten minutes, I'll let you go. I'll just let you walk away with your life and you'll never have to worry about us again. Well..." Molly shrugged, "provided that you live that long." And with that she plunged the syringe into Juliet's stomach and emptied the entire contents into her.

She instantly stopped screaming, and for a brief moment nothing seemed to happen and then Juliet's body began to disintegrate. First her stomach began to melt, her skin dissolved and peeled away revealing layers of flesh and muscle. Elsewhere the muscle around her body began to contract crushing her bones with an audible cracking noise which was only drowned out by Juliet's blood curdling scream as her body torn itself apart from the inside out. Black blood poured from her mouth, stoppering her cries as her tongue swelled up and melted in her mouth, her once blue eyes were now dripping down her cheeks which were melting away to reveal her skull which was deformed and broken. She barely lasted ten seconds before her body was nothing but a pile of melted flesh and shattered bones.

I didn't know if it was possible to thrown up in a dream, but I was certainly going to give it a good try. I retched and turned away from what was left of Juliet's body, so I could gag and retch in the corner. The smell of burnt meat invaded my nostrils as I felt tears prick against my eyes. She was someone's daughter, maybe a sister or a girlfriend and now she was just a pile of body parts on a cold stone floor.

I heard Molly sigh as I couldn't bring myself to turn around. "Such a shame but it had to be done. Marx that new mix wasn't quite perfected yet was it?"

"That wasn't the new batch," said Marx. "It was what was left of the last one. I needed to get rid of it."

I heard Molly chuckle almost affectionately. "That's the reason that you're one of my generals. Now get back to work. All of you. And someone clean this up. Sabrina, you too, I need all the information I can get about Nick Hayden."

I saw Sabrina nod grimly and turned to leave when Molly spoke again. "He's more powerful than I first thought. According to my little friend he was able to create a fireball on his first day of training and was able to enter his beast form, I want a daily report on his actions and how he is developing. He could prove to be most useful to me."

Sabrina bowed slightly, "as you wish," she said before she turned and left the room as fast as she could, stepping over what was once a human being and her friend.

Which left me alone with Molly. Her signature psychotic grin spread across her face and a maniacal laugh escaped her lips. "Yes..." she said silkily, "most useful."