The Fire

   "May he burn in hell." The Duchess's words sifted through my mind as I watched smoke fill the room. I almost couldn't take my next breath. Oh Goddess, the Duchess was burning the house down. The room started to fill with smoke quicker than I could register what was going on. 

   I held on tight to my satchel and quickly propped up the barrel to get the window open. It felt like snakes were coiling tight in my stomach as I tried to push open the window to no avail. It wouldn't open. I banged on the glass until my hand bled, trying to break it. I stepped down and looked around at the smoke that was replacing the air around me. No matter how many deep breaths I took, I couldn't calm the panic filling me.

   I let out a frustrated scream and swung open the wooden door just to be met with an instant temperature rise. My eyes fluttered as they tried to adjust to the smoke. I coughed, my lungs not being able to take in enough air. I took a few steps forward into the foyer and held my hand in front of my eyes to protect myself from the bright light from flames that burned at the wooden beams supporting the house. I looked up and saw a flag with the royal family crest hanging on the wall. It fell while it burned. The manor that was once filled with beautiful white and nude colors now looked like a scene from art depictions of hell. How could so much already be set aflame? The way that the house was almost completely on fire didn't make sense.

   I stumbled down the foyer, trying my best not to get burned. Tears fell down my face the further I went down the hallways and no matter how much I tried to breath, strangled coughs escaped my throat instead. My steps became slower and slower as I became dizzier and dizzier. I heard a crack and was almost too slow to jump back as a wooden beam came crashing down in front of me. It was blocking the hallway and the only way I could go was back down the hallways into the foyer, but that'd lead me nowhere.

   "Help! Please! Someone please get me out of here!" I coughed and screamed for help. I heard the sound of groaning coming from the side of the hallway I was blocked from. It sounded like someone behind one of the doors was in pain. I squinted and looked over the flames. I stumbled back when I saw a shadow creature in the shape of a man appear out of thin air as though he were the smoke itself. The shadow creature moved unnaturally and squatted low to the ground. His hands traced the marble floors and flames followed where he touched on the inflammable material. I thought my eyes were deceiving me as I saw what looked like bright red eyes glow bright on where the creature's face should've been. I watched in horror as the thing melted into a puddle on the ground and quickly slipped underneath a door to its right.

   The pained groaning continued and then I heard a scream from the same door the shadow entered. It sounded like….Lindsey? "Lindsey!? Is that you!? Lindsey please, I need help! Are you okay!?" The door swung open and I saw Ethan step out with my limp sister in his arms. I wiped away my tears and attempted to fan smoke from my view. "Ethan! Ethan!" I waved my arms to try and get his attention. He turned towards me and I saw pity in his eyes before he looked down at my sister.

   "Ethan, please help me! Please? When you get out can you send someone-" My own choking sounds cut me off mid sentence. I took as much air in as I could before continuing, "Can you send help?" I cried.

   Ethan only halted for a second and spared me no more than a three second glance before whispering something in Lindsey's ear. My vision started to blur and it wasn't from the tears. I couldn't breathe. Great King of Khanaria, I couldn't breathe. I collapsed on my knees and reached out for Ethan. He looked away from me, guilt plaguing his expression. He let out a quick "I'm sorry" and ran away with my sister in his arms. It was the last thing I saw before blacking out. 

   I saw nothing. Felt nothing. Heard nothing. Even the smell of smoke wasn't there anymore. It was just simply nothing. Then coldness filled my lungs. It was something I was without for so long I almost forgot what it was. Air. My eyes slowly fluttered open and then all the heat came back. I felt hot, but my sweat was cool against my face. I heard flames cackling as they devoured everything they touched. The smell of smoke filled my nose again and what I saw was something I couldn't explain.

   The ram's skull from the glass encasing came to view, but behind the once empty eye sockets there were instead human eyes. Where the skull stopped, the face of a human man began. His nose, mouth, and Jawline were all I saw. The rest of his face was hidden by the mask. The image before me blurred in and out. The ram's skull was…alive? Impossible. Two funny shadows danced around behind the beautiful entity and I thought I heard them talking. Demon or God or whatever the people of different villages thought he was, this entity must be here to take me away. I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I was going to die. It was my time.

   I reached and brushed one of the horns with my fingertips as it blurred and came back into view again. "Are you a demon?" I whispered, my throat burning with each word that came out. My fingers slid down his face to his jawline, "Or are you a God?" Then I saw nothing again, but this time I didn't wake up. 

Iusta Alaric (pov)

   The girl's fingers slid off of my face as she passed out. Did she just ask me if I was a demon or a God? What a weird question to ask before you die. I lifted her up off of the ground and held her, studying her. The hood of her cloak fell back revealing her curly hair weaved into a long braid with flowers as decoration. Strange. I took in its frizzy state and how the light from the fire made her hair look auburn. Ubel and Sidero giggled amongst themselves behind me. Sidero slithered up closer to me and whispered, "Is she dead Iusta?" Her voice was like an unsynced chorus of women's voices put together. Ubel leaned into my other ear and whispered, "If not, can I kill her, Iusta?" His voice was just like Sidero's, but deeper. 

   "She is as good as dead." I determined without feeling her pulse. I could hear the rhythm of her heart slowing when I leaned a little closer to her. The girl must've been a maid who was unlucky enough to be caught in the flames. "I said kill the Duke and his family and spare the other individuals. Were my orders not clear?" The two incompetent demons behind me flinched for a second before attempting to seem unaffected. 

   Sidero snickered. "Oh Iusta, we cannot save the humans."

   "They can barely save themselves," Ubel added. Sidero disappeared and then reappeared beside the girl. Her long black fingers traced over the girl's face and Sidero's eyes glowed red as she leaned down and sniffed the girl's neck, making an eerie purring sound when she grabbed a flower from her hair. "Oh how interesting."

   I turned away with the girl in my arms, Sidero's sudden interest making me feel slightly uneasy. "You are dismissed," I told them coldly. There was no need for them to stay any longer. The damage is done.

   "Yes, Iusta." They both spoke in union and disappeared into thin air. 

   I observed the girl's lifeless face. The cold paintbrush of death already painted her lips blue and her skin pale. I could leave her here. Her family would probably identify her from whatever was left after she burned or maybe they wouldn't be able to tell her apart from the other bodies. It shouldn't matter to me, but for some reason I couldn't stop staring at her. It's been a while since I've seen someone alive up close, even if it was only her last breaths.

   I took one of the white flowers out of her hair. I've never seen someone use flowers as a decorative hair piece and for some weird reason they added to her soft features. She was pretty…for a dead maid of course. Long lashes brushed her cheeks and her full lips were parted, releasing her dying breaths. Even with her last tears slipping down her cheeks and sweat covering her face, she looked so graceful. It was a contrasting sight to the burning world around us and the smell of death in the air.

   I stared at her for a few more moments before I made a decision. It seemed so wrong for her to be here. I decided that the pretty almost dead maid with flowers in her hair deserved a proper burial. She had an unfortunate death because Ubel and Sidero couldn't follow simple orders. The Duke and everyone he loves? I'll happily watch them burn until no one can tell which bones from which, but something didn't sit right with me about leaving her. Even if she is as good as dead.

   I felt awkward as I stood with her in my arms. "She's so weightless", I thought to myself as I held her motionless limp body. It's been a while since I've had a woman in my arms. I looked at the burning manor around us and I took a deep breath. I savored the smell of the burnt wood before I swiftly started to find my way out of the manor, dodging the pieces of burning debris. The fire parted for me at my command and not a lick of a flame touched me or the girl.

   I made my way out of a door that must've been the servants entrance. As I stepped out into the cool night and away from the sound of my fire destroying the house, I heard screams from the opposite side of the burning manor. I smirked, enjoying the sound of whoever's pain. 

   I found a spot where the grass was soft and laid the girl there. I knew whoever was looking for her would find her there. Probably a family and a husband that will be devastated over their newly discovered loss. I looked her over one more time before turning away and closing my eyes. 

   A burning sensation filled my chest and I embraced it. I held my arms out as the feeling trailed from my chest down my arms and legs. My veins showed through my skin as they lit up with a raging light. The burning sensation reached my eyes and they opened on their own as light filled them. The view of the moon slowly disappeared as everything grew brighter and brighter. I prepared myself to make my departure with a spell. 

   A silent prayer passed my lips as I drew runes in the air. "Deus caeli, deus temporis, deus noctis, deus temporis. Suscipe me ad locum…" I trailed off before I finished the spell. A confusing feeling of uncertainty took over my mind. Then I did something that I've barely ever done in all of my twenty-five years of living…I changed my mind.

   I put one hand down and closed the fist of my other in the air, canceling the spell. The light in my veins faded. I looked over at the girl in the grass and groaned in frustration. You know what? I'm just going to do it. I'm not going to keep worrying over this dead flower girl. I crouched down near her. Her face looked even more lifeless under the pale light from the moon. I listened closely. Her heartbeat could barely even be considered a heartbeat. It slowed by the second. 

   This girl deserved to live. To breathe. Her family deserved to have their daughter or sister or wife come home alive. The unjustful death of this girl would make me feel…wrong. I summoned the familiar burning sensation, but this time only in my hands. The light replaced my hands until they were completely white with a controlled fire. I drew the rune of life in the air with both hands, its pattern so familiar that drawing the complicated lines was as easy as breathing for me. The fire then turned blue.

   I opened her cloak slowly to reveal a beautifully made gray dress. She must be a well paid maid. The material was too expensive for a normal maid. I spoke to her even though she couldn't hear me, "I apologize for this," I ripped the dress where it covered her chest only enough to reveal the space in between her breasts. I drew the rune of air on her chest and it glowed blue on her body. I then pressed my hand into it, letting my blue fire sink into her skin. It may leave a mark, but at least she'll live.

   "Deus caeli, pulmonem ei benedic. factum retexam. Da ei donum vitae." I whispered before leaning close enough for me to hear her heartbeat. Its rhythm picked up and her lungs took greedy breaths of air. She coughed as her body tried to take as much oxygen in as it could. She was alive. 

   "Well, little not-dead flower maid, you're alive. Now I can go about my life without that abnormal guilty feeling in my chest." I wrapped my finger around one of her curls that came loose from her braid and played with it, "Feel special, little flower woman. Feel important, because I would've let you burn." I smirked and let the curl fall from my fingers. She groaned, but was still knocked out. I stood and restarted my spell to take me home. To the Vetiti lands.