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A brilliant glow rose from the abyss below. Vivid and fiery like a burning star ascending from the darkness.
“Stop,” Draven ordered. “Back to back. Weapons out.”
We halted in unison, standing pressed against one another. I held the grail in one hand, my scythe in the other.
The luminous fireball was drawing closer. I raised the back of my wrist to my forehead and wiped the sweat away.
What entity born from the abyss was drawing near? What foe would we now face?
I imagined my father riding on the back of an exmoor and braced myself.
The fireball exploded upwards on my side.
At first, I was blinded.
All I could make out were pure flames.
And then, something began to take shape.
A creature of fire. A creature made entirely of flame.
The contours became discernible within the bright brilliance.
An outline. A silhouette.
A woman.
Every inch of her form was flickering flames. She was the embodiment of fire itself.
She loomed over us, a towering, titan-like being. Flames trickled down past her waist, going far below the bridge into the darkness where they wound together. A flaming whip crackled and danced in her hand, casting sparks in all directions.
Draven moved to my side, his weapon already free. Defensively, he started to raise it.
I grabbed his arm. “No. Wait. Look.”
An anguished expression twisted the flaming creature’s features, as if she were under the weight of unbearable torment.
She looked down at us, and her beautiful, burning mouth opened in an agonized scream.
Abruptly, she lifted her whip streaming with flames, and I flinched, expecting the weight of the heavy, punishing lash to be flung down upon us at any moment.
But instead, the woman extended a single burning finger.
Its tip blazed like a beacon in the darkness towards where Draven and I stood on the rattling bridge.
She was pointing at me.
A guttural wail emanated from the flaming woman’s open mouth. The tortured sound echoed off the mountain stone.
My heart raced. No, not me. She was not pointing at me.
The grail.
I lifted my arm, holding the chalice high.
The flames surrounding the burning lady seemed to flicker with intensity. Another unearthly wail burst forth. A communication beyond words but the meaning of which was clear.
A plea. A yearning.
