Raea curled her fingers, forming her hand into a fist, before relaxing them again. She exhaled and closed her eyes, standing perfectly still atop her table. Around her, a sea of black flames engulfed the room. Everything was painted in a blood-red light, not that it made much of a difference from the original color of the room. Surprisingly, the cookies on the table were intact, completely unharmed with little flecks of ash where the bag had disintegrated.

Raea opened her eyes and stared at the cookies before squatting. She lifted one up and frowned at it. This was clearly Pyre’s contract destruction machine—she just hadn’t expected it to be a cookie in the shape of a pink heart. Was it Palan’s idea? He had been against the contract from the start, but she had almost forgotten because he hadn’t voiced his displeasure recently. Maybe he wasn’t annoyed because he knew he could remove it. Raea sighed as she crushed the cookie and dropped the crumbs onto the tabletop. What should she do?

The flames thickened around Raea’s legs as she walked through them, creating a robe of flames around her body. A few hours had passed since Andrea activated the closing mechanism on the door. Someone could’ve easily pressed it again, but she hadn’t heard anyone arrive. Maybe her flames were too loud. She pressed the button, causing the door to screech open and her flames to rush out. They were letting her out, just like that?

Raea raised one hand towards the ceiling, and a ball of black flames appeared on her palm. It twisted and elongated until it took the shape of a halberd. Her wings flared open as she stepped forward and slashed, breaking apart the wall across from her. She kicked open a hole in the wall and flew into the air, leaving a trail of fire behind. A frown appeared on her lips as she scoured the land from above. Her expression continued to darken when she realized the majority of it was empty. A few goblins, lizardmen, and trolls had been left behind. The centaurs and harpies were nowhere to be seen. Not only did Palan break apart their contract, but he was going to disappear without saying a word as well? If it wasn’t his idea, then why didn’t he come over to explain what was happening?

Raea cracked her neck and sighed. The halberd in her hand dissolved as she flew towards a nearby building, Pyre’s laboratory. Chances were he’d be gone too, but his place was still worth checking out. The buildings around her were intact, yet she hadn’t felt the urge to destroy them even though she was just as angry as the time she had been separated from Palan by her parents. Was she only violent because of Palan’s influence on her through their contract? Or was it because Palan had chosen to leave her, rather than him being taken away by an outside force?

Pyre’s lab was devoid of screams, which was unusual. Maybe the captives were screaming in the new location Pyre had fled to. The sounds of humming drew Raea’s attention towards a room in the back. She stifled her flames, but the halls still caught fire anyway, so she gave up and let them flow out freely. She kicked open the door to the room and glared at the inhabitant inside. A pale dwarf dropped the tray of cookies he was holding before screaming. His skin blistered as a wave of heat washed over him.

Raea’s brow furrowed as she tried to think happy thoughts to calm her wrath, but that brought about the opposite effect. Her only happy memories involved Sely, who was dead, and Palan, who abandoned her. She narrowed her eyes, choosing to redirect the flames towards the ceiling instead. If she couldn’t get rid of them, the least she could do was take better control. “Where’s Pyre?”

“D-dead,” the dwarf said as he trembled on the ground, lying on his side. The skin on his face and hands was peeling. “Palan killed him.”

Raea froze. “Huh? Why?”

“Palan came to see the cookies,” the dwarf said, crawling under a nearby table to seek respite from Raea’s flames. “But then he became angry and killed Pyre. I don’t know why.”

Raea chewed on her lip. “Hmm. I see.” She turned around and left the room. Had she been mistaken? Maybe it was Pyre’s plan to break apart her contract with Palan, and Palan became angered by Pyre’s action. She snorted. If that was the case, then what was that cookie Andrea fed her? Raea’s eyes narrowed. Of course. It was Andrea’s idea, but that didn’t explain why Palan hadn’t come to see her. If he knew and decided to have everyone flee, then wasn’t that him approving of Andrea?

Raea sighed as she made her way to the exit. The building had gone up in flames, but she wasn’t in a hurry to leave. A strange feeling tugged on her chest, and she paused, wrinkling her brow. She turned her head. Beside her, there was a room with a golden statue lying on its side inside. The door had been burnt away when she first entered the lab. She hesitated before approaching the statue, tilting her head at the wires on its body. They were connected to a strange contraption that collected golden droplets of liquid. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought the statue was bleeding. Why had she felt compelled to enter?

“Hello?” Raea asked the featureless statue. Then she felt silly for talking to an inanimate object. She shook her head and turned to leave. It wasn’t any of her business if Pyre had decided he wanted to make statues bleed.

“You’ve come.”

Raea froze and whipped her head towards the statue. A pair of eyes and a mouth formed on its face, and Raea questioned whether or not she had gotten enough sleep last night. Maybe the months of solitude had turned her slightly insane. “Are you … talking to me?”

“Yes.”

“Nope. Nope, nope, nope,” Raea said as she dashed out of the room. She smashed the walls with her a newly summoned flaming halberd until the room collapsed, burying the statue underneath. “Remember what Sely said. Ghosts don’t exist. There’s a logical reason for everything, and that reason is not ghosts.” Raea bit her lower lip, staring at the rubble before fleeing from the building. It was probably one of Pyre’s pranks. He’d get a kick out of making a talking statue. It was a shame he was already dead, or she’d kick his ass for scaring her like that.

Talking statue aside, Raea wasn’t quite sure where to go now. Palan had fled somewhere. Cory disappeared as well. Cleo had dropped by earlier and said she was going on a trip with Linda and wouldn’t be back for a while. If Palan didn’t want to see her anymore, then wasn’t that for the better? She wouldn’t have to be jealous of Andrea. It’s true that she liked Palan a lot, but if she hurt his sister, he’d definitely hate her. Maybe he’d even try to kill her. And if she had to stay by Palan’s side, her rage would continue to build until she couldn’t hold it anymore and attacked Andrea. Perhaps the answer to her problems was letting go of Palan? It had been so long since her head had been so clear. Was it really her contract with Palan that messed with her thoughts? Maybe she could become a hermit living on a mountain somewhere like in the stories. But first, she’d have to do something about the flames, and the only person she could talk to about them was Raphael. She’d go see him first.