As Hot As Fire
779 Words
The woman descended from the second sun like a falling god—barefoot, unblinking, her eyes made of fire and centuries.
The First Name.
Nayvir.
Selene’s forgotten self… or what had been carved from her soul long ago and left to fester beyond time.
Cassian stepped in front of Selene and Eira, blade raised, trembling.
“She’s not alive,” Tavrin whispered hoarsely. “She’s remembered.”
The air warped around Nayvir’s form. Her presence bent the world, peeling skin from stone, memories from minds.
“Why now?” Selene rasped. “Why come for us now?”
Nayvir floated just above the earth. Her voice was a storm.
“Because fire returned to where it began. Because the lock woke the key. Because you said my name.”
Behind Selene, Eira clutched her arms, breath coming fast.
“She’s in me,” the girl gasped. “She’s burning me from the inside.”
Selene turned, placing her hands over Eira’s heart. She whispered the flame-ward in a tongue no longer spoken—her tongue. First Flame. Old tongue. True tongue.
But Nayvir only smiled.
“She’s mine,” the goddess said. “You were the spark, Selene. She is the pyre.”
Selene stood slowly.
“No. You want a vessel. You always have.”
Nayvir tilted her head. “Not want. Need. Without flesh, I fade. Without blood, I break.”
She reached a hand toward Selene.
“Give me what was taken. Let me burn in your name.”
Selene lit into golden flame. “Come take it.”
---
The battle was immediate.
Nayvir struck with memory—visions so sharp they shredded the mind. Cassian screamed as a thousand false lives flashed through his eyes. Tavrin fell to his knees, coughing spells and blood.
Selene stood tall.
She remembered everything now.
She remembered the moment the gods tore Nayvir from her soul—because her power had grown too vast.
She remembered the lie they told her: that the flame must be buried.
That she would destroy the world.
She remembered burning her name.
Splitting her power.
Running.
And now—here was the price.
“You’re a wound,” Selene spat. “Not a goddess. You’re what they feared, what they couldn’t kill.”
Nayvir’s flames turned black.
“And you’re the coward who let them win.”
Their fire collided midair.
Sky to earth. God to god.
---
Eira stood in the shockwave, weeping flames from her eyes.
She didn’t know who to run to—Selene or the fire inside her.
Then Velira crawled to her side, blood leaking from every orifice.
“You were never meant to be her daughter,” Velira whispered. “You’re her undoing.”
“Liar,” Eira spat.
“No, child. You’re the answer to a curse.”
And Velira, smiling, died with fire in her mouth.
---
Above, the skies melted.
Selene and Nayvir spiraled, each scream forging new stars.
Cassian shouted up, “Selene! End it!”
But she couldn’t.
Nayvir was her.
She couldn’t kill what was once part of her soul.
Unless—
She turned to Eira.
“Take it,” she whispered through the fire. “Take all of it.”
Eira’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You’re the only one born with enough of me to contain her.”
Cassian lunged. “You’ll die—”
“No. I’ll live in her. As memory. As flame. As truth.”
Selene poured every spark, every burn, every buried name into her daughter.
Nayvir screamed.
“No! She’s a child!”
But it was too late.
Eira’s body exploded with light.
Her skin cracked gold.
Her voice split the heavens:
“I am the daughter of fire. The heir of the First Name. You do not own me.”
And with a single word—Ashkar—she bound Nayvir in chains made of her own forgotten stories.
Nayvir collapsed.
Burned.
Gone.
---
Silence.
The sky calmed.
The sun returned.
And Selene… faded.
Not into death.
But into Eira.
The girl stood, older now. Glowing. Crying.
“I remember everything,” she whispered.
Cassian ran to her.
“She loved you,” he said.
“I know,” Eira replied. “She’s inside me now.”
She looked down at her hands—no longer a child’s.
“I am what comes after godfire.”
---
Far beyond the Vale, the Hollow Court stirred again.
They had seen the end of Nayvir.
And now, they turned their eyes to Eira.
To the last flame.
To the true danger.
The world would not end in war.
It would end in her.
- Writer
