Brannal huffed a breath, but he looked amused.
They resumed their walking that was sort of patrolling. As it got later, the dancing and frolicking got a little, uh, more playful, and the Mage Warriorsdidneed to put out a handful of small fires that sprang up, because people were not always very smart judges of how much fire spread when they were drunk and having a good time. Molun was not atallshy about dumping the water over the fireandwhoever had set it or let it get out of control, which Perian thought was fair, under the circumstances.
“This must be a carnalion’s worst nightmare,” Perian realized.
Unlike nightmares, wraiths, and lesser demons, carnalions could blend in with humans, as their form was entirely human-looking. A festival like this would be like a prime buffet for them, populated as it was with so many aroused people. Carnalions scared everyone because they could consume so much sex energy that they killed people. Brannal had told Perian that they could also make their victim feel so much unnatural lust that they didn’t fight back or realize anything was wrong. In this case, Perian couldn’t imagine them needing to kill anyone when there was so much arousal in evidence. But carnalions weren’t human, and they didn’t seem to think like that. Even if they were tempted, though, carnalions were particularly susceptible to fire, just like nightmares were to earth and wraiths to water.
Perian imagined the idea of fire springing up at any moment would be terrifying for a carnalion.
Brannal hesitated for a moment, and it was Molun who said, laughing, “Yes, we don’t worry about carnalions at the Fire Festival. They’re crafty, not stupid.”
Perian nodded. This was probably a good way to keep them away from what otherwise must be a tempting target. Though, really, any carnalion would be stupid to venture into Royal City at all, given its abundance of Mage Warriors protecting the royal family and the city, Brannal and Cormal in particular.
There weren’t a lot of Fire Mages in the country, as it seemed to be the rarest elemental magic—but then, it wasn’t like regular humans couldn’t produce fire too, as they were witnessing tonight.
Fortunately, the inadvertent fires were few and far between, and with the patrolling Mage Warriors, Warriors, and more sober citizens, everything was quickly contained. Perian saw a Warrior dump one of the barrels of water onto a blaze and realized that they worked for that as well as wraiths.
Brannal checked to see if Perian wanted to head back to the castle, but Perian shook his head, squeezing the man’s hand.
“No, I’ll stay until you’re done. It’s fun to watch everyone.”
Brannal squeezed his hand back, smiling.
They didn’t head back to the castle until the wee hours of the morning when the festival had finally drawn to a close and the crowd dispersed. A ceremonial burning brand was taken from the bonfire to burn in the castle, and then the bonfire was extinguished by Brannal, Cormal, Molun, and Simiala.
(If it wasn’t Perian’s imagination, Cormal looked a little… rumpled. Perian scanned the area and saw that the cute dark-haired man with the really wandering hands was sticking around. He smirked to himself.)
Perian hadn’t really thought about how handling fire meant that you could put it out as well as start it, and he brought this up as they walked back to the castle with Molun and Arvus. The others had gone their own way.
“It’s not as easy when it’s not your fire,” Brannal explained. He looked tired but happy, like this had been a day well spent. “Our ability seems most to want to create, or that has always been my experience, especially with fire. When you create a small fireball, you can dissipate it again with relative ease. It’s easier still if you can do what Cormal and I did tonight and simply release it into the bonfire, not gone but no longer under our control. We can start and stop our own flames. It’s also a matter of scope, of course, as with so many things. Extinguishing a candle flame that someone else has lit is easy. The larger the fire, the harder it is. It wants to exist, and it doesn’t like to be willed out ofexistence.”
“But you can do it.”
Brannal nodded. “Both Cormal and I, yes. Extinguishing a fire the size of the bonfire on our own would be a major effort, though. We could more easily prevent it from spreading until it could be extinguished. For me, I’m both trying to extinguish the fireanduse water to put it out, which is easier, because the water also wants to exist.”
“Easier to do if it’s the natural flow of things,” Perian interpreted.
“Very much so,” Brannal agreed, then yawned.
“Long night,” Perian said.
Brannal laughed, though it sounded tired. “You look like you could keep going until tomorrow.”
Perian shrugged. He supposed he did feel energized.
“I’ve never been to a festival like it before. It feels a little like I absorbed all of the energy from everyone around me, and it’s filled me right up. I’m sure I’ll crash at some point, though.”
Molun said, “I think you’re going to crash right into bed with this one as soon as the opportunity arises.”
They all laughed, because that wasn’t wrong.
They gave short goodbyes and headed to their rooms. They were permitted to sleep in late (thank goodness, because otherwise, it was practically time to get up), but there were still tasks to be performed. Apparently, lunch was the first meal of the day served after the festival, and duties resumed in the afternoon except for those Warriors who were actually on shift.
He and Brannal stripped and fell into bed. Brannal smelled more like fire than normal, and Perian leaned in and sniffed, enjoying the way the scent tickled his nose.
Brannal yawned again.
Perian pulled him closer and wrapped an arm around him.
