Stormy end

The wind blowing around his head - pushing at him from every direction - roared in Jacob's ears, deafeningly loud, yet somehow he could still hear his brother's voice perfectly clear. "Can't you see, Jacob?" his brother called. "This world is old, and broken. We are some of the only living things left on this desolate planet. I'm doing it a favor. A chance to start over. A chance to be born anew, to redo its history, to make something out of itself, rather than be fated to becoming a dead rock afloat in an endless sky. I am helping, Jacob, why can't you see that?"

They were standing atop a massive stone coliseum, a towering testament to the might of the people that had once been the moving force of the entire planet, visible for miles around. It had been said that to awake in the tower's shadow was good fortune, and that you would be invigorated by its presence in your life. Now the cyclone that Ishneal had summoned in the clouds above it was shaking the tower to its core, ripping giant shards of rock from its walls and spinning them upwards into the red eye of the sun that was the center of the storm, where they burned to ash in an instant, engulfed by the intense heat of Ishneal's rebirth.

"And what of the life that still remains on this planet, brother?" Jacob called back. He felt as though the air was being ripped from his lungs as he spoke, but he fought with all the might he had to keep control of his voice. A bolt of red lightning shot out from the eye of the storm, striking just next to Jacob's foot, but he remained stalwart. He had to stop his brother, by any means necessary. "Do they not deserve to live out their lives? There is little left, yes, but finally our people have known peace for that very reason. And now you wish to take that away from them."

"Peace for how long, Jacob?" Ishneal shot back. If it were not for the violent fluttering of his clothing, he would have appeared completely unaffected by the storms he had called down upon the planet. "There are only so many resources remaining here. How long until they are run dry, and the wars begin again? I highly doubt your son will die before those times return."

Jacob clenched his fist tightly, but did not respond. He knew his brother was coaxing him on. He was the only one who could stop the storm, and Ishneal knew that. But only at full power, and only if he could stop Ishneal's own power. Anything he could draw out of his brother was the key to Ishneal's victory. And so keeping himself under control was the key to Jacob's.

"And what of your daughter?" Jacob called back. "Will you shed a tear to watch her fragile body ripped apart by your rebirth?"

Ishneal smiled a toothy grin. "The storm will slow her quickly, brother, as it will you. There will be no pain. Only an instant of recollection being ripped asunder from your body before the new world is brought forth."

Even the ground at the base of the tower was being swallowed. Enormous fangs of earth were being pulled from the tower's base, flying upward like arrows launched from longbows, attempting to stop the burning eye, but only being dissolved by its power.

"And how do you know that this will truly bring about a new beginning, brother? If not?"

"Then the last records of this world be of a time of peace. We will not die at each other's throats. Our legacy will be a good one."

"There will be no legacy left of us."

"Just as well!"

Ishneal raised his hand, and another bolt struck down from the storm, this time aimed directly at Jacob's heart. Ishneal had taken complete control. It was Jacob's only chance.

Jacob had less than a heartbeat of time to move. So he gave himself more.

With a raise of the hand, time itself stopped. Ishneal had counted on his lightning bolt to be faster than Jacob could account for, but Jacob had been waiting for that moment. Ishneal had almost succeeded, however. The tip of the deathly red bolt was mere inches from Jacob's chest.

He had only a matter of seconds. Freed from the billowing winds, the struggle of keeping his footing, and the unbearable heat, Jacob could move freely. But the longer he stayed in frozen time, the less likely he was to make it back to the regular flow in one piece. He had already lost one eye that way.

He made a mad rush forward. His brother was nearly a hundred paces away, and Jacob had to cover that distance as quickly as possible. He ran parallel to the lightning bolt, following its path back to Ishneal's hand, where it had been redirected from the clouds overhead toward Jacob. He could feel his control over time slipping away, but he didn't stop moving. He flung himself into the air just as time returned to flow.

He was caught in the air by the massive winds, and flung like a rag in a headwind. He slammed headfirst into Ishneal's chest, tossing him out of his stronghold of space, and carrying them both into the winds billowing upwards toward the eye.

"Jacob!" Ishneal screamed. "You will kill us both!"

"If that's what it takes!"

From the ground, far away, the village saw two small dots raising up from the top of the coliseum,   into the mysterious red glow at the center of the cyclone.