A Throne From the Ashes

Faythe's thoughts doubled back to another key point in Aurialis's words. “What do you mean by 'return'?"

"The only way to send you back in the form you need is by the Spell of Transition. Yet it demands a life for a life… and my plan all along has been to give up my own."

Something in her chest pained at the thought. Despite all Aurialis had put her through, she wouldn't accept the price she offered.

Faythe was about to shake her head, but Aurialis continued.

"It is not wholly a sacrifice... as instead, you and I will become one, Faythe Ashfyre."

She blanched completely. “I won't become your vessel."

“You misunderstand. How you see me now is only a form for your mind to be able to conceive what I truly am. A source of energy; power. I have no true form, no face or body. In transitioning, my sisters have manifested their visual mundane forms, and in creating such forms of bone and flesh they forfeited great power. In those bodies, they cannot hold nor wield any of the Spiritual ruins as it is what they are made of. What will give us the advantage is that I will not sacrifice by fusing with you instead. I will live within you as a power to call upon, dormant unless brought forth by your command. It will take learning control and discipline. You need a teacher who can tame the storm, as without, you could destroy the world in your wake with what I will grant you. And it is in mastering that control that you will be able to wield the Tripartite Ruin to open the spirit portal and send my sisters back. You will become something the world has never seen before. But with great power comes great responsibility, my child. You must never lose sight of your golden heart, as power can inspire the allurement to darkness even in the purest of souls."

"I don't understand."

The Spirit smiled. With warmth and sadness. "We don't have much longer. It was I who caught your soul before it could cast on to the next realm, but it is not without your mate's tether that you are both here... and there. Though be aware, even the strongest of bindings can be broken."

Faythe took a breath that felt suspended in time. A weight dropped in her stomach. A dawning. An awakening. A brilliant flare of realization and enlight- enment. Her eyes were wide. Still. Fixed on Aurialis as though she might repeat it.

"What did you say?"

A single word. She needed to hear it again to be sure she didn't imagine it. Aurialis straightened, knowing exactly what she had caught.

“The Great General of Rhyenelle, the one they call the White Lion of the South, and the one who will be remembered in history within stories of battles and reign for millennia... is your soul-bonded mate, Faythe Ashfyre."

The word was a pulse of energy. Striking. Faythe turned from Aurialis, and her eyes met with clarity, awareness, when they fell on a memory, staring straight into the pull of Reylan's eyes. Mate. Her vision unfocused with an overwhelming dose of disbelief. It shouldn't be possible.

Yet now, it was undeniable.

"Power answers power. You are a child of the Spirits, Faythe. The general may believe he has met others like himself before, with the gift he harbors, but he is misled. He is not simply a Mindseer, as such an ability is only used to diminish another's power. No other can take. Reylan Arrowood has strong bloodline blessings from all three Spirits. He is a powerful rarity none of us could have predicted."

The pieces were there, but in her bewilderment and sense of dread, Faythe's mind was too scattered to form the full conclusion.

"You are two parts of the same sword. A blade without a hilt cannot be wielded. A hilt without a blade is forgotten potential. With the weapon you could become, together, you could change the world."

"Every person to cross your path and forge and bond with you has hada role in shaping who you are. Know ledge, courage, wisdom, strength, resilience, darkness, and light — you are made of them all. And it is with each and every one of them that we still stand a chance in this war. The war against my sisters."

…

She targeted the Spirit of Life with that furious gaze. You knew the ruin wasn't there."

Aurialis said nothing, but the faint rise of her chin was confirmation. Faythe had no power or weapons in here, but her rage had never been so palpable that she feared what she could do without either.

"You lured me right here like a sheep to slaughter." She seethed. "Right to exactly where Marvellas wanted me all along!" Faythe didn't care about herself, only for the pain she had left behind. Aurialis's silence made her cry out, "Why!"

Something like remorse flickered in the Spirit's eyes as she continued to assess Faythe. "Dakodas broke laws of our kind when she transitioned," she began to explain. "They needed your blood to be sacrificed, but in consequence, do you remember what I told you? With every evil born —“

"A way to destroy it is conceived in turn."

Aurialis nodded. "Marvellas may believe she has stopped her own prophesy, but in sacrificing you, my sisters have only created what will have the strength to bring about the demise of them both. We stand a chance at turning the tide of this war."

Faythe stayed silent. She had nothing to say. Not as she tried to sort through her dizzying disbelief.

They began a slow walk through the passage of Faythe's life again. "Dakodas and Marvellas are powerful, but in transitioning they are limited. Bound in fae form, they forfeit great heights of power, but they are still no match for any other in your realm, and together, they will be unstoppable," Aurialis's cool blue eyes felt like daggers of ice that chilled her to her core. "Until you."

"I failed." The whisper of utter disbelief was a tightening pain in her chest. But it was a small consolation — she could still feel. What it meant she couldn't be sure.

Yet Aurialis shook her head. "No, Faythe, you are exactly where you should be."

It was so twisted Faythe found her statement amusing. "It's over."

"It has only just begun —“

"I’m dead!"

“You are transitioning.”

Faythe blinked and recoiled. "I’m — what?"

The Spirit was so calm, so collected-a stark contrast to every fluctuating emotion that frenzied in Faythe's mind. “Come, Faythe." Aurialis motioned her to follow as she turned and walked away toward nothing as the space seemed vast and endless.

She had no energy to protest. Nothing to lose and nothing to gain. Faythe's feet pressed after the Spirit, figuring if she was taking her past the veil to the Afterlife, it would be better than this eerie space of light.

"You are so much more than what you have lived your life believing you are" Aurialis began, but she didn't look to her as they walked side by side.

"If you're not going to kill her, I suppose I am."

Zaiana's head snapped to the entrance of the temple, but she barely caught a glimpse of Maverick before he moved so fast, passing Reylan, who didn't even have the time to release a breath with his wide-eyed look. Maverick was behind Faythe, blade drawn, and there was no pause of hesitation, no thought or mercy, before he plunged it through the human's chest.

Time was suspended while Zaiana tried to process the maneuver. She blinked once. Twice. Maverick removed the blade. Faythe didn't utter a single sound of pain before her body fell. Zaiana didn't hear the thump of her lifeless form hitting the ground as she stared at her in shock. Crimson blood pooled out from beneath her, the tangy-sweet scent filling the room. Zaiana didn't give a reaction to it as she tuned her hearing back in to the thick, ringing silence.

The only heartbeat that raced and stilled to such an uneven rhythm... was Reylan's.

Faythe was...

The cry of soul-splitting agony from the silver-haired warrior was enough to stiffen her spine but weaken her knees. He fell forward, palms splayed, as though death tore through him too. The air fell icy cold, and a faint sting creeped behind her eyes while every hair on her body stood on edge watching him.

Love. It was an absurd concept. To attach one's feelings to another opened them up to endless forms of torture and manipulation. From each other; from outsiders. Love was damning. But it was also absolution.

She sawit right in front of her eyes: Faythe held onto her love for the warrior to find peace in her final moments. Reylan held onto his love for her as though it shattered his soul.

Zaiana felt something she never thought she could.

Heartache.

She might have even believed there was a movement in her chest, if that were possible, with how strongly she felt the current of their connection. A distant memory slipped cruelly past the steel barrier of her mind, a time she might have looked just as hopeless and pleading as the fierce warrior on his knees.

Then Zaiana did something she never thought she would.

She let go.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't," Reylan begged. "Don't say that like goodbye."

"I’m not saying goodbye..." Gods, she was hurting, her heart close to erupting. "Because in this life or the next, I will always find you."

"Please," Reylan spoke aloud. Not to Faythe, as his tense grip on the bow slackened, fury dissolving into pure desperation. "Take my life instead."

…

I was guided here. Aurialis. It was all a trick. Faythe thought she was shaking her head with utter disbelief, but she couldn't be sure since she was barely present. "Just do what you have to, Zaiana."

She had lost.

"No!"

"Reylan," Faythe whimpered. "Please..." She begged him with her eyes; with everything she was through that unexplainable bond that strained and cried painfully between them, sending her toward breaking point. She begged him to leave. To look away. To accept that this was her fate, and it was not his fault.

…

Overhead, the glow that once encompassed her was eclipsed completely. Her time was up. She had failed.

Faythe kept her eyes on the sapphire pools that took her away. Reylan — the steel warrior, Survivor, her strength — fell to his knees, mirroring her position in front of her. His lips moved, but she couldn't hear his words. She could no longer hear him within either. Oh Gods, she couldn't feel him anymore. Faythe held his desperate eyes without a blink, not registering the other movements around him that blurred to nothing but faint color. She saw nothing but the night sky, em- bracing the absolution it delivered.

A searing pain erupted in her chest, but it was second to the agony of witnessing Reylan's final, haunted look of devastation. Faythe chanted her apologies to him. Over and over. Right until the last breath exhaled from her body and darkness opened its arms to catch her as she fell... she held those sapphires with a promise.

Faythe would always, in every realm and every time, find her way home to them.

"Zaiana!"

The dark fae's name was a call to stop wrapped in the promise of death.

A shiver shot up Faythe's spine at the voice, snapping her wide awake. The malice and lethal threat that coated the word set every hair on end. She had never heard such a tone from him. With all her dregs of strength, she forced her limp head to straighten, and when met with those eyes she expected to find… Faythe was struck with a cold-set horror.

She should have felt relief — joy even — but staring at Reylan, all that drowned her was dread and heartache. Faythe blinked. Long and hard. She wondered if he was real, or if this were another illusion. A trick and torment in her final moments.

Then she felt the gentle cool breeze within — his attempt to help her, grapple her, while she rapidly fell. But it was a short breath of air against a raging inferno.

He's real. He's here.

Reylan held a fury so raw. In his firm, rigid stance, he aimed an arrow at Zaiana. His breaths were calculated but hard. His eyes held no mercy as they pinned the dark fae with a mark of death.

"You shouldn't be here." Faythe couldn't be sure if the words left her parted lips aloud, but Reylan heard.

His eyes flashed to her for a second, but it was enough for her to glimpse his distress under the lethal mask he wore. It was why she wished with everything she was that he wasn't here, if only to spare him from watching her die. He didn't deserve to carry that burdern in his days without her.

"I’m sorry it has to be this way." Zaiana's voice was quiet, a faint sadness woven into the words that made Faythe flick her gaze up to catch the amethyst cores looking down on her from behind. Her expression was not reflective of the sadness but held a crease of disturbance. Underneath the coldness and ruthlessness... Faythe believed the dark fae wasn't entirely devoid of remorse or regret.

Faythe's lips cracked open, her gaze switching to the eclipse as it began. "I forgive you."

“I didn't ask for your forgiveness."

“I know.”

Faythe was on fire. Her blood was boiling, her skin slicked with sweat. Her eyes fell closed, and she was so close to begging for it to end. For Zaiana to use the blade poised to take her life. Her mind entered a state of calm. When bracing for a final breath, panic set her free. Blissful, painless oblivion opened welcoming arms. She was ready.

Falling onto her back, the explosion of energy through her entire body took her from that room completely. She was suspended in a void of light. Her fire was cooled. Then she was falling. And falling. And falling.

That long inhale she held whooshed from her all at once as she plummeted back to the present. Her arched back fell to the cool stone once more. Light dispersed to bring the dark cave back into clarity.

Her next few breaths were painless bliss — but it was short-lived when the inferno began to creep over her once more.

“We don't have much time." Zaiana voiced her thoughts. "Get up."

Faythe didn't move, still processing the quick surge of unearthly energy that dispersed from her. She lay there at the complete mercy of darkness and death.

She was hauled up to a sitting position by a harsh grip on her jacket. Faythe's head fell back limply with the wave of dizziness. She didn't fight or protest. Zaiana gave a groan of irritation as though Faythe's lack of ability to withstand any of her weight was the worst of inconveniences. Faythe was prepared to be dragged to wherever Zaiana thought to move her to.

To her surprise, the dark fae hooked an arm behind her and strained as she pulled Faythe to her feet, taking her whole weight. Faythe tried to set one foot in front of the other when they moved — or rather, shuffled. Zaiana could have far easier dragged her disgracefully in her weak, delirious state.

They didn't go far, and Faythe was lowered to where she managed to stay upright on her knees, but her head bowed low. It was then she caught the black markings under her: a shimmering, dark iridescence against the moonlight as she bowed over Dalkodas's symbol. Against the desire to fall forward, Faythe used every ounce of her shredded strength to tip her head back.

All she had to do was reach it, remove the ruin, and she would have succeeded. What became of her after that didn't matter.

She clutched her burning wound as she shuffled over, each step feeling like a ton weight, as though the talons off the Netherworld's claim gripped her ankles, determined to take her along with the failure that would torment her for eternity if she didn't reach that podium. Her skin was slick all over, her breaths like a battle of fire and ice.

Just a few more steps.

It seemed so far away. Too far away.

Just... a few... more.

Her limp hand reached out to grab the podiumn for stability. She paused to breathe and focus while her head fell forward. It took all her strength to straighten. When she did, Faythe's eyes were wide, her heart still, as she floated around it to stand in front.

Floated — because she couldn't be sure she was awake anymore. That this wasn't all some twisted vision or distorted reality. Faythe blinked, then again, unable to comprehend what she was seeing was real. The world crumbled from underneath her as she stared and stared...

At the hollow carving where the ruin should be.

It wasn't there.

"Missing something?"

Faythe's eyes snapped up to the voice that joined her. The figure fell sideways. No — it was Faythe who was falling. Her palms slapped the stone as her knees gave out completely. She didn't feel the pain. Faythe didn't feel anything in her state of shock.

"I do admire you." The voice grew closer as she fixed her blurry sight on the cold slate stone of the ground. Breathing was difficult. "Your fight to survive is truly remarkable. It is a tragedy to have your blood spill for this cause. Unkind is perhaps too soft a word to describe destiny's twisted humor."

A pair of black boots entered her vision, and then the dark fae crouched to her level. Faythe couldn't lift her eyes to Zaiana in her utter defeat and exhaustion. She caught a flicker of movement right before an item was brought into her line of sight. When Faythe's eyes focused enough to see clearly what she already anticipated it to be, she let out a short sob.

"What ruin did you think I had, Faythe?"

She had been tricked. All this time... Aurialis had guided her, pushed her, here for one purpose. Faythe wracked her brain, but she knew her recollection of Aurialis's instructions was right. Remove the temple ruin to stop the ascension.

Faythe would be a fool to believe for one moment that the Spirit of Life didn't know the ruin was already missing from Dakodas's temple. It didn't make sense. In that moment, nothing made sense, and Faythe was so far gone, so close to falling into darkness, that defeat was all she had.

She couldn't care anymore.

About the Spirits, about the realms. About kingdoms and kings. War and destiny. All Faythe cared about now... was him.

I love you," she whispered, then she cried out as she plunged her dagger into his back.

"Faythe," Reylan choked her name.

She was trembling violently, and when he pulled away from her, they exchanged a wide-eyed look of hor- ror. It looked like him in every perfect detail. It felt like him in every contour. It smelled like him. Like home.

For a second, Faythe's heart stopped dead. She looked down at the blade she held, now coated in a thick red crimson. Reylan's blood.

What had she done?

Reylan's face was torn with bewilderment and and agony, but slowly, he raised his hand and curled his fist around her own, stifling her trembling hold on the dagger. He guided her hand, never breaking eye contact, and she let him, right until she felt the lethal tip press to her chest. Faythe's mouth parted with a silent cry when Reylan applied pressure through their hands. The blade broke past her leathers, pinching her skin. His eyes turned cold. So cold. No love or joy sparkled in the sapphire pools.

He wanted to kill her, and she was ready to accept it.

Faythe breathed hard at the piercing pain when the blade submerged a little deeper. Reylan's eyes were lifeless and unforgiving. Instead of plunging the dagger through her chest, he guided her hand down, cutting a deep wound as if to carve out her heart instead. Warmth pooled across her chest, over her leathers, and over her hand. Fay the glanced down, agony drowning out her need to cry out as she watched herself bleed. Watched droplets fall to the floor as her vision began to sway. Her hand fell; her body doubled over. The blade clanged to the ground while she pressed a hand to her Wound.

"You are brave, Faythe."

At his words, she found the will to cast her eyes back up. But Reylan was gone.

Darkness fell around her once more, and in her utter exhaustion, there was a large part of her that didn't yearn for the light anymore.

She was tired, So tired, And in so much pain.

Cautiously, Faythe raised a hand, tensing with a wince when the giant beast flinched. The shallow flames that coated its wings and blazing mane flared slightly. Faythe didn't move at first. Then, as the flames dwindled once more and its head seemed to dip in curi- osity, Faythe dared to take a step. Then another. And another. She halted, heart pounding wildly while she watched every flicker of the Firebird's reaction. So cautious Faythe couldn't believe her eyes when Atherius began to dip her head, inching forward as if to meet her touch.

Faythe stood still, utterly rigid in her anticipation, watching the distance close between them. A faint heat emitted from her palm when its head was mere inches away. And when they touched, Faythe gasped as a bright flare pulsed from between them. Images flashed in her mind — so many colors. Of battle and reign. Triumph and freedom. Memories of Atherius and Matheus. Faythe wasn't sure she was still breathing as decades' worth of tales filtered through her. But it was not overwhelming. It was exhilarating.

In her chest, that tiny kindle blazed to life, this one a flame of strength and courage. Magick and wonder. A line ran straight to the very core of what she was, and she could feel Atherius there. Faythe knew what the Firebird felt, what it thought, but not in any way she had ever experienced before. Not in a way that could be explained or understood by man, fae, or anyone.

She took the moment of internal reprieve from the inferno to gauge where she was. The sun was rising, the sight over the horizon truly breathtaking. Pinks nd oranges filtered through the dark night, putting the stars to sleep and awakening the dawn of a new day. She wanted to sit there and bask in its beauty. If this were to be her last day, she couldn't think of a more beautiful setting to witness before her end.

But she couldn't. She had one final task. She still had breath in her body and the will in her heart to see her duty fulflled. Glancing behind her, Faythe spied the etrance toa cave — hauntingly black and darkly beckoning the longer she stared into its depthless void. A dark and silent pull emerged from it. A shudder rattled her aching body, and she winced.

The answer to her question filtered through her, not of any known language. Faythe twisted her tired gaze back to Atherius. She had taken Faythe right to where she needed to be, for behind her...

Faythe kneeled in front of the caves that would lead her to Dakodas's temple.

…

Faythe found the strength to sit upright, and in turning her head to the Firebird, she realized what the coolness was. Somehow, incredulously, it was projecting whatever healing power it could to her, directly from within. The tiny kindle of flame in her chest flickered, and realization clicked into place as they held each other's eye. One word — one name — echoed through that impossible bond, and Fay- the gasped when she heard it.

"Atherius," Faythe whispered in disbelief. It was made all the more dizzying when the Firebird reacted to the name. Its flames flickered and head dipped faintly. Wary, but... confirming. Faythe was almost ready to believe she was dreaming. Or perhaps she had truly fallen to her death over that cliff, and this was some twisted welcome to the Netherworld.

It was inconceivable. Yet it could not stand to be denied when it was right in front of her, blazing and glorious. She couldn't explain how she knew. It didn't speak — not with words or in her mind — but somehow, Faythe knew.

Her horrors were confirmed when its large beak straightened along with its neck, and Faythe had to cast her eyes up to behold the magnificent Firebird beside her.

She held utterly still. Not that she could muster much else, but she figured if it thought she was dead it would lose interest. Yet the Phoenix canted its head — a head the length of her whole body — and Faythe watched her feeble form reflected in the glass of its redhued eyes as it stared at her. Studied her.

It was odd to place human emotions in a beast, but as it silently watched her, head intermittently twitching, she could only decipher its stillness as curiosity. Faythe should feel fear, reservation at least, but she tentatively propped herself up on her elbows, teeth clenching tightly to suppress her cry of pain. Without taking her eyes off the bird, she was filled with wonder as her memories returned along with the presence of a new spark of life within her. Like a tiny kindling flame. The strength of it was a pulse of energy that was perhaps the only thing keeping her from tunneling into oblivion.

Faythe was too far from the ruin — severed from its power — and she felt the failure of her body that was now on a rapid countdown. In a flash of memory from the ordeal she had narrowly escaped with the ghastly Skailies, Faythe reached a hand back to her shoulder. While it was tender, the wounds she expected to find there, along with the brutal wounds and beatings she had sustained from the dark fae…

Faythe once again locked eyes with the Phoenix. It had healed her. At least her flesh. The exertion of her ability within — it seemed that was outside its healing capabilities. Magick was not so easily challenged without fatal consequence.

"What is she?" Tynan said, equally disbelieving as everyone stared after the duo of smoke and fire.

The bird soared away from them, heading south, raining fire stars in its wake. Before they flew too far out of sight, Zaiana could make out Faythe wasn't sitting upright. It dawned on her that without the ruin's power, the human would be descending into that plummet of darkness. It would kill her. She couldn't be sure if Faythe had any influence on the bird's direction, but it was safe to assume nothing was out of the impossible with her. It took her farther from her companions, farther from the only healer who could possibly give her a chance of survival.

Faythe was heading... to the Niltain Isles.

The lunar eclipse was in a matter of hours, and if she grappled for her life long enough... it would be used at the exact moment Zaiana intended.

Kyleer rose from his knees and spoke quietly through their stupor. "She is Faythe Ashfyre of Rhyenelle. And she is the Phoenix Queen."

The all too familiar shriek that rattled the stars made everyone flinch and turn toward it in horrid dread. Shit. Zaiana swore inwardly and repeatedly. They had wasted their advantage of time. They had wasted Faythe's...

"Gods above."

The distorted mutter of disbelief came from one of the fae — the one who looked kin to Kyleer, but far more elegant and poised. Zaiana followed his awed line of sight, and she saw it.

Saw her.

Saw the Phoenix soaring high.

Saw the small form it carried on its back.

Zaiana didn't get the chance to question her words as she was answered by Faythe twisting on her heel and abruptly taking off. Without hesitation, the Phoenix splayed its wings and shot to the sky in a single powerful heave that blasted a hard gust of wind, nearly knocking her off-balance. Zaiana shifted her stance and shielded her eyes. When the air stilled again, she watched the bird glide overhead, then her eyes fell on the human sprinting away from them, toward the ledge that only led to one place: down. A long, deadly way down for anyone without wings.

Zaiana might have tried to go after her, but she gauged it was allready too late. Faythe had sealed her fate. Perhaps to be the pitiful, tragic hero and distract the bird so they could all flee.

They should, but no one moved. The silver-haired fae cried her name. Repeatedly. Zaiana couldn't even look at him. The tone of his voice alone cleaved something inside her. It was odd to react to someone else's pain, but even on her worst enemy, she wouldn't wish any physical torture alike to what the fae seemed to be enduring in that moment. It was foolish to care for one life so much. Zaiana pitied him for his weak heart.

"Such a waste."

Maverick's voice beside her startled her while she was focused on Faythe's last moments. He wasn't Wrong. It was such a tragic way for someone so gifted to leave the world. Zaiana couldn't even think of the selfish side to it all. They had failed their quest without Faythe where they needed her. Yet it was almost impossible to have predicted how difficult it was to keep the reckless human alive.

"Save her!" Nerida cried desperately. "You have wings!"

"It's too late," Zaiana snapped.

Faythe reached the end of the mountain fringe, no more than a small silhouette illuminated by the fire of the bird that caught up to her.

Nerida whimpered, and glancing at Amaya, she saw her face was also written with sorrow. Ridiculous. Zaiana should reprimand her for showing emotion for someone she didn't even know. The enemy. Zaiana's ticket to freedom.

Faythe leaped off the mountainside. The Phoenix spun and fell into a dive after her.

Then all was dark and silent.

The tension of enemies returned. Disbelief swirled between both sides. The heartbreak of Faythe's com- panions was palpable.

Seconds passed, and she felt the heat, but not in the flesh-incinerating way she expected. It was even less blaring than when she lay shriveled behind the boulder. And yet she felt nothing. No force battering the feeble shield she still harnessed.

Zaiana opened her eyes and was stunned by what she saw. She dropped her arms, her lightning winking out in the process.

It shouldn't be possible, yet there she was.

Faythe, by some damn inconceivable, unexplainable miracle, stood as if she harnessed the power of a God in the way she deflected the fire that flared around them. As though summoning an invisible curved wall before them, she cast outa hand, and Zaiana's eye caught sight of the flaring red stone that adorned her wrist.

Impossible. It should have been impossible that they stood there alive.

Seconds crawled like minutes as she watched the fire blaze around them. Faythe's hands trembled, and for a moment she feared the human wouldn't be able to hold it. It shocked her still that she had the strength at all.

Then, all at once, the fire ceased.

Faythe gasped, panting hard as she doubled over to brace on her knees. Zaiana subconsciously took a few steps toward her, still tracking the Firebird.

"It worked," Faythe rasped through a labored breath.

Zaiana snapped her head to the human, incredulous. "Good to know there was method to your madness."

Faythe let out a single breathy laugh. "There was luck to my insanity."

She watched the dancing glow of the Eye of the Phoenix on her wrist, and an image came to mind. One she had seen depicted within a book in the great library of Rhyenelle's castle. It made her heart pound, just as it did when she stared at it as a still image, believing then that it was simply a fantasy; a painting from a wondrous imagination.

But what if it were history?

If only you dare — another memory flashed to mind, from her encounter with the Dresair in High Farrow — to take the leap...

What if it was a foretelling?

Faythe's eyes widened. She didn't have time to second-guess the completely insane, desperate, and deadly plan that challenged her to act. There was no other way, and the reaction of the fire to the amulet on her wrist — the same one she now believed she saw in that painting — was a small slither of hope she had to grapple onto to find her bravery.

And trust you will fly with the Phoenix.

"Faythe, whatever you're thinking..." Reylan warned, perhaps sensing her rising adrenaline.

She locked eyes with him, and they were wide with fear. It was for him — for all of them — that she had to try. She was the only one who could.

His face fell, desolate. He shook his head. No —"

"Reylan," Faythe choked, the pain on the warrior's face striking far deeper than the battle of power within her. "Always remember... you are my heart." Her eyes burned. "Please forgive me."

She despised what she had to do to him, knowing he would follow her if she didn't. He would always follow her. A strained cry left her as she fought against the pain of betraying him. His trust. But she had to do it.

With the heightened power of the ruin, Faythe shattered clean through Reylan's firm mental barrier. He fought her. Gods, he did. His eyes widened in shock, horror, and realization the moment she entered to halt his movements. The sheer terror in his eyes cleaved so deep.

"I’m so sorry," she whispered.

His painful silent protest stole her breath.

"I love you. Please forgive me."

It took all her will and physical resistance to tear her eyes from his wildly pleading look. To straighten from her position behind cover. To take that first step away from him.

Faythe twisted around the large rock in one fluid movemnent...

And came face-to-face with the creature of myth and legend.

Glancing to her side, she saw Zaiana could barely fit behind her cover, which had crumbled even smaller against the first blast. The luminance grew, and Faythe fixed her eyes on the bird once more. It straightened and puffed its huge black-and-red-feathered chest, the flames along its wings growing as it splayed them wide. Gods, it was brilliant.

With a gasp, Faythe tumbled back around to take full cover behind the rock. She felt heat, but it was the fire in her veins from the ruin that slicked her skin. Faythe felt nothing emitting from the flames that turned the Skailies to dust in seconds. She lifted her hand and gasped at the stone that shone like a bright ruby on her wrist.

The Eye of the Phoenix.

It was reacting...and as her hand neared the fire, Faythe swore it moved. The flames inched away from her touch while the stone pulsed brighter. A hand lashed out to her forearm, pulling her arm back before she could recklessly attempt to touch the lethal fire. Reylan looked at her as if she'd lost her sanity. She wasn't entirely certain she hadn't. Between the ruin's influence and the new surge of something... else, Faythe felt deliriously unstoppable.

"It doesn't burn," she thought out loud.

When she was standing, Faythe spared a dreaded glance around, and the sight almost made her buckle once more. Everyone fought the dark creatures, and it was then she realized Zaiana alone had kept the Skailies back from them while Reylan helped her.

All was dark, desolate, and grim. Then a brilliant flare of red and amber torched the sky, illuminating everything across the mountain fringe. It was followed by another sharp cry as something was cast overhead. The Skailies, they balked. One by one they stopped attacking and began to back away. She didn't think a faceless monster could feel fear, yet it was there in the way their savage flailing turned to a curl of submission.

Another shrill cry. Faythe cast her eyes skyward, flinching at the harsh, piercing sound. Reylan's arm pulled her closer as ifhe was prepared to shield her with his entire body if necessary against whatever claimed the skies.

It took a few chilling, tense seconds as nothing but the darkness and rainwater blurred her vision no matter how fast she blinked. It wasn't until the creature wanted to reveal itself that they would see. And that moment came when a vibrant flash of red and amber tendrils scorched the night...

The air left Faythe completely at what she saw.

She blinked hard to release the water gathering in her eyes, uncertain if her obscured vision was mistaken. She tracked the red inferno as best she could, fire that rippled beautifully like a wave over them. Faythe forgot everything, struck utter still in her stupor. Her eyes followed it until it flew past them, right to the end of the mountain range. Then, when she thought it would keep going and she would never catch sight of its beauty again, it turned in an elegant glide, coming back toward them.

The closer it got, right in front of Faythe, the lower it seemed to fall. Closer and closer. Its wings caught fire, magnificent vines of flame licking along its dark feathers. Faythe didn't fear as it advanced fast and to a deadly proximity. she couldn't believe what she was seeing was real, and perhaps that was what held her still. It was gigantic and utterly mesmerizing.

…

Fire shot past their cover. Enchanting. Unlike any flame that could be made by man, and not like the fire conjured by magick. This was far more alluring. With a faint shimmer, it was pure blood-red with white and glowing amber hues. Faythe was spellbound, having to physically restrain herself from reaching out a hand to touch it against all natural instincts.

…

The fire ceased, and she dared a glance around the stone. Ash and smoke clogged the air, but the fire still blazed, parting the clouds enough that she saw it completely. Not her imagination, as all the hideous creatures that had been there moments before were turned to cinders by its power.

A great Phoenix stood blazing and triumphant. There was no mistaking it. Its wings, while still coated in flame, were lowered as ifit were assessing the threat to its domain before striking again.

…

Reylan was before her. But she couldn't look up as she watched harsh droplets ripple the water around them. She felt his hand on her neck as her head bowed, but with his touch, he didn't soothe the storm that raged within like she hoped.

“I’m here." His smooth voice, his words, made a whimper escape her mouth. A faint flicker of happiness in the midst of hopelessness where she kneeled in the puddles of rain, ready to submit and admit defeat. Her blood roared; her wounds tore like flame; her head was so close to erupting. Reylan fell to his knees with her. "I see you, Faythe. I see you, and I hear you."

The words struck her like the peaceful verse of a song, a promise she would always hold so close to her heart. She wanted to echo that promise back to him, but her agony was quick to douse any short moment of hope.

"It hurts," was all she could say. Or at least she thought she said. Her throat was so tight, her mind a cloudy haze of rage and pain. “It hurts so much."

"I know." His voice lapped soothingly through her mind, a cooling breeze against the raging inferno. But not even he could tame the blaze this time. His hand cupped her nape, and he leaned his forehead to hers. His palm slid into her loose hand while her other remained clamped around her sword. "You are far stronger than you know, Faythe. You need to get up."

She was a coward. A weak, helpless coward. Faythe shook her head. Another of those loud, shrill cries rattled the stars — louder now. Faythe winced with a sob.

"Please," she barely whispered. “Please makeit stop."

All of it. Whatever it took. She wanted more than anything for the pain and power to stop.

"I can't." Reylan's voice was utterly devastated. He pulled back, and his fingers curled under her chin, forcing her lifeless head up to stare into the familiar sapphires that were her anchor to this world.

…

"If I help you release that power, your body wil fail. You need to keep fightingjust a little longer. Fight through this night. Fight for everything I haven't had the chance to give you yet. For the life I promise to always stand by your side throughout." His eyes connected to something within her. Not his ability, but a striking will to survive. For him, for herself... for the time they deserved to have together. “Until the end of days."

Faythe felt her strength returning. Sheer desperation and will alone coursed through her to subside her desire to submit. She breathed slow and steady. She focused and found the strength to straighten her spine once more as she said, "Maybe even longer."

With her answer, a breath of relief rushed through Reylan's chest.