ELEMENTALS

THE WANING FLAME

The fire-world stretched without horizon, a realm carved of molten rivers and skies that burned red like iron in a forge. Here, heat was not a presence but a law, a pulse in every grain of air.

And in the center of it stood Flair, her body heaving, sweat streaming though flames licked at her skin harmlessly. Her arms ached, her chest heaved, yet she refused to stop.

“Answer me,” she roared at the restless inferno. Her voice echoed against the molten mountains. “I am your kin—I am your fire! Answer to me!”

Her hands surged, and a tidal waves of flames rose from the ground. It was a curtain of blazing lava, a fiery ocean of fire that reared high, then crashed forward, incinerating the shadows that circled above her.

They shrieked and scattered, smoke tearing like cloth. But more returned, slipping back into the sky, weaving wings that darkened the crimson light.

Flair’s teeth bared. “Then I’ll burn you all.”

She slammed her fists into the ground. The molten crust cracked, magma bursting forth in violent fountains. Geysers of lava split the landscape, raining fire upon the winged shadows. Each eruption answered her fury, the world reshaping itself under her command.

For a heartbeat, she felt powerful—untouchable.

Then the fire turned against her.

Her tidal blaze sputtered, collapsing mid-air, flames hissing into ash before reaching their mark. The geysers slowed, spurting weakly before retreating into the fractures. The wings above did not retreat—they tightened, folding in, blocking more of the light.

Flair gasped, her body trembling. She wiped sweat from her brow, but it only smeared with soot.

“Why… why won’t you obey?”

Her fire once limitless, flickered erratically. She forced another surge, dragging from the marrow of her being. Sparks burst—but they stung her palms like biting embers.

The shadows whispered in the dimming light: “The flame abandons you. Burn out as all things do.”

“No!” She staggered forward, summoning a spiral of flame that twisted into a tornado. It raged upward, tearing apart the sky itself, engulfing the winged shadows in its whirl. Her hair whipped wild, her body silhouetted in the blazing storm.

But even the inferno faltered. The spiral tore itself apart, unraveling into smoke that the wings swallowed greedily.

The wings folded closer, shadows overlapping until the red sky dimmed black.

Flair’s heart pounded with fury. “I carried the Circle with my fire! I’ll burn the void itself before I fall!”

She thrust her arms wide, and the ground ruptured. A volcano erupted beneath her feet, a tower of molten fury spewing skyward. Firestorms howled, raining embers like meteors. For a moment, the world itself seemed ready to break.

The shadows reeled back under the explosion, their formation scattering.

Flair stood atop the volcanic spire, arms raised, her eyes twin suns. “Do you see?! I am fire—I do not bow!”

But her triumph lasted only a breath.

The volcano stuttered. The molten tower cracked and collapsed. Lava cascaded down its sides but cooled too fast, hardening into dead rock. Her firestorm fizzled, meteors reduced to sparks that died before they touched the ground.

Flair fell to her knees on the brittle crust. She pressed her hands to the ground, summoning, commanding, begging for flame. Noting answered but embers that singed her skin.

Her chest burned—not with fire, but with the weight of every breath.

The shadows closed in, their wings vast, blotting out all remnants of sky.

“No light remains.”

Her head swam, her arms trembled. Every muscle screamed from strain.

Still, she forced herself upright. Fire licked weakly at her fingertips, but each flicker cost her more strength than the last eruption.

She screamed into the darkness, a sound more rugged than fierce. “I am not done! I will never—“

Her knees buckled. The fire vanished from her hands. Her body struck the hardest ground.

The wings folded shut.

Flair lay in suffocating blackness, her breath ragged, her vision swimming. The shadows pressed like a blanket over her, smothering every spark she tried to muster.

Her eyes closed, heavy with the weight she could not fight anymore. Her last thought was a flicker, not a fire, but a despair:

“Perhaps… this is the end.”

And the flame went out.