Lokapele slid down the side of the volcano on a river of lava that emptied into the ocean. She locked her knees, sending the slab of rock she surfed on into the air.

As she propelled towards the beach, she melted her slab into lava and fired it into a Nikan rank as she landed in the midst of the battle. She cleared the area around her with the impact alone.

The battlefield was chaotic and put her people on the backfoot, as Aotearoans rarely used battle formations like the Nikan did. Their lightly armored warriors were also a bad match for the supposedly light, but still heavily armored Nikan infantry.

Lokapele smacked her heel against the sand, sending an impulse through the earth that caused a hunk of magma to explode from the volcano’s top. She’d already bonded with this island’s volcano, so she could draw on it for magma.

She leapt into the air as a ball of magma came flying towards her. She took more precise control over it and split it into a thousand molten missiles that pelted the encroaching soldiers.

After her attack had been given time to be received by the enemy, she gathered all the lava up and cast it into the sea. The lava solidified as it touched water, but destroyed the hulls of the Nikan boats. She would ensure none of them left alive. That much would be a message to the Empire.

Or at least, she intended to until Lokapele unleashed another volley of magma towards the rest of the enemy boats.

Rain poured down from the sky only for an instant, just long enough to solidify Lokapele’s ball of magma.

A figure leapt into the sky and with a single kick, shattered the boulder into a million pieces that flew away from the enemy. Lokapele prevented any of them from striking her people, able to melt smaller pieces fast enough to collect them in a floating store of magma.

The figure landed across the battlefield from her. He was a tall, handsome man who almost looked Aotearoan, but certain features made Lokapele question that. Especially the fact that he was wearing Nikan armor. He had the look of a prince.

“You must be the famous Lady of Fire," he smirked. He spoke her language almost too well. "I am Gongsun Lan, Twelfth prince of the Nikan Empire. Let us dance to fertility, the fires of your volcanic passion cooled and tamed by the touch of my waters.”

Lokapele spat, then sent another smaller sphere of magma down at him from the volcano. He caused three or four clouds to simply vanish as they turned into rain, but she willed the magma to split apart and go around the rain, smashing into the Nikan prince.

But his form morphed into a boar that was too short for her lava to hit. He ran out from under it before the magma fell to the ground. His form seamlessly returned to that of a human’s as he leapt into the air next to her, attacking her with a spinning kick.

Lokapele put distance between herself and the prince, evading the attack. Much to her surprise, he didn’t follow it up.

“You know, a warrior normally introduces herself before engaging another esteemed opponent," Lan said. "Even if he knows your name.”

“What do you know about being a warrior, prince?” she sneered.

“I know all that my mother, Princess Keana Aolani, told me.”

Aolani. The Rarotongan dynasty who’d subjected themselves to Nikan rule. Who gave away their daughters to the emperor so they could be forced to birth insults to the Aotearoan people like this prince.

“So you were born to the daughter of the traitor chief?” Lokapele growled. "Good. Now I have an even greater reason to kill you.”

One of the Nikan foolishly tried to attack her, thinking he had the element of surprise with him. Lokapele grabbed the hand holding a mace and twisted it back towards him with so much force, the weapon cracked his ribs.

“Ah, but you won’t. Or rather, you can’t. My Shedim, the Shapeshifting Boar of Clouded Skies is the consort of yours. It was his cooling rains that tamed the fires of the Lady of the Boiling Earth, solidifying it into fertile soil," Lan said, twirling the sharktooth club he wielded in his hand. The weapon whined and whispered in her ears, pleading for help. It was an Elder Shedim being Banebended against its will. “You and I are bound to each other. It is your destiny to submit to me.”

Pangs of sympathy and worry echoed through Lokapele from her Shedim. The Lady of the Boiling Earth desperately wanted to free her lover. It was odd how human the Shedim could be sometimes.

“True enough my powers are a bad match against yours. But our Shedim are separate from us. Yours especially. I’ll just beat you to death and free the Boar," Lokapele growled.

“To what end?” Lan gestured to their surroundings.

The Nikan had pushed the warriors all the way back to their village. Where their women and children were hiding away.

Lokapele had to turn this battle around somehow. The prince seemed to only be able to manipulate rain and not water in general. Otherwise, the sea would’ve been a far more effective option to cool her lava. If she could summon something large enough…

The Lady of the Boiling Earth writhed with fury. She was eager to unleash her fury on the man who had captured her love.

Lokapele smacked her foot against the sand again, calling to the volcano.

As the ground started to rumble, Lan looked over at the volcano and sighed. "Perhaps I need to show you why all your effort is futile.”

The whine from the Shedim trapped in Lan’s club became a screech of agony as mist began to spill from the weapon. Lokapele melted a bit of sand into magma and reformed it as an obsidian taiaha fighting staff.

The fog started to drift towards her ankles and Lokapele jumped at its touch. It was cold. Deathly cold. Cold enough to solidify whatever she summoned from the volcano. A hail of rocks would still be better than nothing, but if the molten rock couldn’t flow, she couldn’t manipulate it.

“Understand now?” Lan smirked.

Lokapele kicked the sand, melting it just long enough to launch it at the prince. He dodged the quickly cooling projectile just before she slammed her taiaha into his chest so hard the stone shattered. She discarded the remnants, as Lan took the impact, and sprinted towards the Aotearoan warriors and the village.

“Flee!” Lokapele shouted at the men still trying to defend the village. The Qahtanad man, Jambudvipi woman and Vai were among them. "Get away! Go to your canoes! Go to Waipatea!”

“You would have us abandon our village?” one of the warriors asked.

“I’m asking you to save your people. You can rebuild a village! You can’t bring back the dead!” Lokapele said. "I’ll buy you time.”

“No," Vai said. "You shouldn’t expect us to act with caution if you’re going to turn around and do something stupid. Come with us. Your spirit and your power are needed.”

Lokapele didn’t like the idea, but people would need her. Either to fight or to help them through the despair. She could see that much.

Her stomach went heavy as she thought about her decision, the aspect of time causing her chest to tighten even further.

“Fine,” she sighed, pushing the impulses of guilt away. “I’ll go. But first, I’m going to take out as many as I can.”

Lokapele looked to the volcano and outstretched her hand. Her Shedim manifested as she drew on an immense amount of power. The earth began to tremble again. She channeled it all into the volcano, keeping it pressed inside until the pressure was too much.

She closed her fist, releasing the pressure. Volcano exploded into a violent eruption, ash and fire raining from the sky. Rivers of lava would soon stream through the island.

“Let’s go!” she shouted.

Racked with vertigo from her exertion of power, Lokapele struggled to run with the denizens of the village, Vai, the Jambudvipi woman and the Qahtanads down to the beach on the other side of the island.

Canoes were dragged from a large cave on the beach and into the water with a collective effort from all the villagers and visitors. Vai pushed his canoe into the sea. "Come on!”

Lokapele jumped onto the deck after the foreigners. Vai made a series of practiced motions and knots to get the boat moving. But there wasn’t any wind to catch the sail.

Vai opened a small compartment in the deck and handed each passenger a small paddle. "Start rowing!”

Lokapele took a paddle and started to do her part in rowing. She spared a glance back at the villagers. They'd gotten onto their canoes before the Nikan could catch up. She let herself sigh with a little relief. 

At the very least, most of them lived. She could be satisfied with that much. After all, for an Aotearoan, home was where the wind and waves took you.

But this transgression would not be forgotten. This attack was an act of war.