Rose’s clothing was now nonexistent, plumes of smoke rising up from all the slowly closing holes that riddled her torso and the large bruise that blemished her abdomen. Herah was only missing her shirt, her green sports bra and pants still on as no smoke came from her own undamaged body. Dust and blood covered all of Rose’s body, most of the plasma being her own. A lot less dust and blood covered Herah’s, most of the plasma not her own. Rose was visibly panting, her breath coming out quick and heavy as her pupils were now enlarged and orb-like. Herah’s breathing was even and light, her pupils still sharp.

Rose’s right hand went up to Herah’s head, a single claw weakly trailing down the student’s face. This caused Herah’s smirk to widen into a smile as a full-on laugh left the youngling and her eyes filled with delight.

“I have to thank you Elder Rose.” The student told her struggling teacher, the elder pausing in said struggle to glare at her student.

“For-” Rose let out a heavy grunt as her left hand failed to unclasp Herah’s iron grip around her neck, “What?”

“Showing me that I can still have hope.”

The student watched as her teacher completely stopped in her struggles and just stared at her in confusion. Another laugh left Herah as the youngling lightened her grip and allowed for more air to enter Rose’s lung.

“You declared attiser les flammes. You fanned my flame, just as I did yours.” Herah grinned victoriously at Rose, “You submitted to our old ways.”

“That was merely a fit of rage.” Rose said, denial in her words.

“Fit of rage or not, you still did it.” Herah took her free hand and pointed its thumb towards herself, “Which means I had two victories today.”

“If I had wanted to, I could’ve easily splattered you all across the walls.”

“And in doing so destroyed the entire school,” Herah gave Rose a knowing look, “I know just how powerful you are, but I always knew I would win.”

“And why is that?” Rose bit back with spite.

“Because you’re lacking.” Herah’s eyes narrowed, glaring into Rose’s skull, “Instead of healing efficiently, your flame waste much of itself in restoring your body. Instead of striking once with enough force to precisely cripply my body and tax my flame, you showered me with punches that while capable of turning mountains to dust could do little more than lightly drain my fire. Instead of focusing on my vulnerable points, you tried to beat your point into my head like an idiot! All of these flaws are a result of your complete and utter lacking.”

“Of training?” Rose shifted her neck in discomfort, her question coming out bitter and annoyed.

“No,” Herah shook her head with a frown “You lack humility. As I said earlier, your hubris stops you from training. Which means your body isn’t optimized or even use to combat like mine.”

Herah sighed to herself, looking away from Rose and through the destroyed gym wall. The younglings saw her home, Élysée, a city of stone and metal with rodes of black ash, sidewalks of crude pebbles, and an immense smokestack shooting into the sky. The city was active with a rainbow of Cendreux’s traveling: flying, running, and walking about. One grey-skinned Cendreux was passing a bleeding sack of meat to another in exchange for two palm-sized cubes of black. A group of Cendreux’s were building a large nude statue of one of their own, summoning rocks and minerals from the ground and then shaping them with either their hands or fist before putting them into place. Dozens upon dozens of Cendreux’s of various looks and colors streamed in and out of a large temple, that had a violet banner with the image of a pile of ash sewn into the center of it.

Élysée was thriving and ever-growing, evolving alongside the species that built it just as quickly as they did.

Herah hated it.

“Our people’s distinct lack of humility is what holds us back as we continue to move forward.” Herah began to shake her head, before turning back to Rose with her lips drawn in a thin line and a look of disappointment, “That’s one of the reasons the culture of our past is so important, because it places so much emphasis on us knowing our place and giving the proper tribute and respect to those who have earned it.”

A small smile came to Herah’s face as Rose’s own expression turned to one of surprise, then understanding, and finally, shame.

“But the mere fact that you understand and have surely been humbled by our fight shows me that the Manquant de chaleur aren’t lost causes. So once again I thank you Elder Rose.”

Herah then dropped her teacher, the elder rubbing at her throat as her student crouched down before her.

“You know,” Herah breathed out a small ball of red, blue, and purple flames, said ball of fire floating down to hover over her rising right hand, “In this school, I really only respect you.”

“Oh really?” Rose let out a snort, smoke jetting from her nose, “I find that hard to believe with how are entire relationship has progressed up to this point.”

Herah chuckled as her fireball began to change into the form of a flower.

The flower was no bigger than the youngling’s fist with four petals of blue that had a small hole between them. Emerging from each petal, a single stem of purple flames would extend and create a crescent shape before meeting with all the other stems. Above where all these stems met, a small orb of red fire floated.

“What’s up with the wisp lantern?”

“Unwavering faith, keen eyes, and an eternally strong will. Three things that any devote Cendreux should both know of and have.” Herah responded to Rose while studying the wisp lantern, “ This flower is the physical manifestation of all three of those things.”

“So why show it to me? I’m clearly not a Brûlé.”

“Because you possess one of those qualities I speak of. Within this school, you, and only you, do anything to stand by what you believe when confronted by me. Only you, have ever gone through the trouble of pushing back against my claims and actions when confronted instead of ignoring or half-assing a retort or critique. You, and only you, don’t bend.”

Herah crushed the wisp lantern, causing a shroud of blue fire to engulf her. The youngling then rose to her feet and looked down at her confused teacher with an earnest smile.

“Even with all your faults, I respect you.”

Herah watched as Rose went through a myriad of expressions, all some variation of confused or surprised, before the elder settled on simply exhausted and looked down towards the floor.

“I…. didn’t see that one coming at all.”

Herah chuckled.

“I figured as much.”

The youngling then reached down towards her teacher, holding her hand out.

Rose raised her head, saw Herahs’s hand, seemed to contemplate it for a second, and then took it. The youngling dragged her elder to her feet, both smiling at each other as Herah’s cloak of fire engulfed Rose. The teacher then took a deep breath and swallowed the flames that engulfed the two. Letting go of Rose’s hand, Herah backed away from the teacher and smirked at her.

“Just so you know, this doesn’t make us friends.”

“I would assume as much,” Rose said with her own smirk.

Before any other words could be exchanged between the pair, a partially buried loudspeaker from outside sounded.

“Would Herah War Hej and Rose Pand Prolific please report to the principal’s office?”

Herah looked to her teacher, finding the elder cringing as her eyes swept the wrecked gym, causing her to roll her own and let out a sigh.

“Oh great, now I have to deal with that poltron.”

Rose gave her a student a small glare.

“I would hardly call Noir a coward.”

Herah returned her teacher’s glare with a blank stare.

“If that were true, then our principal would’ve at least suspended me once for my usual cases of violence and destruction around the school. Especially since Noir doesn’t have your excuse.”

Rose just let out a disgruntled grunt as the pair began their walk. This allowed both youngling and elder to get a good look at the path of destruction they had carved into the school during their fight. Once they reached the destroyed stairwell, both student and teacher flew up to the fifth floor before immediately turning left and into the principal’s office.

Once both youngling and elder stepped inside, they found themselves confronted with the black scaled and white suit-wearing Noir relaxing in his white leather chair with his large black tail resting in his lap.

“You wanted us Elder Noir?” Rose asked assuming an upright and stiff position before bowing her head with an apologetic look on her face.

“The ash do you want Noir?” Herah asked, her stance completely relaxed and slightly hunched over as her eyes ran over her principal before a disappointed huff left her.

“Herah!” Rose shouted, turning to the youngling with a glare.

“Oh don’t start Rose,” Herah waved her teacher off, “I will speak my fucking mind if I feel like it.”

Before the elder could reply, Noir let out a sigh catching both of their attentions. With her eyes now on her principal, Herah watched the elder rub his temple before giving both Rose and her a glare.

“I’m disappointed in you Rose.” Noir’s voice was gruff and heavy as the elder leaned forward and gave his teacher a dissatisfied shake of the head.

“My apologies Elder Noir,” Rose raised her left hand and placed it over her heart..

SPLOOSH!

With a flex of her wrist, the teacher plucked out her own heart and presented it to Noir, kneeling in front of the elder with her head down towards the floor.

Herah rolled her eyes at this.

Noir took the heart and crushed it in his hands, the wet pop being followed by blood splashing over his desk and suit. A quick blast of his own fire left him clean once more, Rose returning to her spot next to her student as Noir now glared at said student.

“And I’m done with you.”

“My ash,” Herah’s mock surprise was punctured by a tilt of her head and taunting smile. A flaring nose and smoke jets followed, “It’s a fucking miracle, we finally feel the same way about each other.”

“I’d watch that mouth of yours brat,” Noir said with a growl, twin jets of indigo flames shooting from his nose.

“Or what?” Herah asked with a growl, glaring at Noir, “You haven’t done shit in the last hundred times you said something like that and I know you’re still not going to do shit even now.”

“Herah!”

The youngling turned to Rose and growled at her, the teacher now glaring down at her student.

“It’s fucking true! Noir lets me do as much as I want with nothing more than idle threats. And it’s disgusting!”

CRACK!

Both Herah and Rose turned to their principal, who was now leaning of his cracked desk with a fist planted dead in the center of it and a snarl on his face.

“Your mouth is almost as bad as your body.” Noir growled out, more indigo flames flaring from his nose.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Herah giggled to herself for a quick moment, a wide and mocking smile on her face “Instead of being intimidated or scared, I find that I can’t determine whether I should just laugh or cry at your pathetic nature.”

“Herah that’s enough!” Rose said as the youngling felt her teacher grab her by the shoulder and turn her to face a kunzite glare.

“No it isn’t Elder Rose! Because unlike you,” Herah jabbed a finger towards Noir, still facing Rose, “What holds that poltron back isn’t an adherence to his own beliefs but a fear of retribution from my parents!”

The youngling then turned to her principal and her lips curled into a disgusted scowl.

“Which would make sense if it weren’t for the fact that neither would do shit to you if you just suspended me or even popped my head. My mother would laugh and say something about how I finally got my comeuppance and my dad would be indifferent! Ash, they told you as much when I sent my entire gym class to the hospital.”

Herah began to shake her head, a heavy sigh leaving her as her eyes went to Rose and she flicked her teacher’s arm. The elder’s glare hardened though once her student seemed to have been done, Rose let go. Herah turned back to Noir and her lips thinned into a line as her fury was just barely held back.

“You have yet to say what you want Noir, so please stop wasting our time and get on with it.”

The principal returned to his seat, his own snarl leaving him as one of his arms reached beneath his desk and pulled out a thick folder. Placing said folder onto the black desk, Noir flipped it open before turning it around and presenting it to the student and teacher pair. Two sets of brows went up, as both Herah and Rose leaned down towards the paper filled folder and began reading.

Fifteen minutes later, both looked up from the papers and at Noir, one extremely pink in the face the other utterly uncaring.

“I don’t need a status report and figurative bill to tell me that the school got fucked up pretty badly in the fight between me and Rose.”

“That bill is over four million naidyls!” Rose shouted at her student, a hand to her own face. “My entire salary for this cycle is not even a hundredth of that!”

“You mean your salary of near-useless ash right?” Herah asked rhetorically with a roll of her eyes and crossing of arms, “You’re acting like you can’t make some trades with a Réchauffer or Chaud for anything you don’t feel like getting yourself. Especially since neither groups rarely accepts naidyl anyway.”

“While neither of those factions within our people accepts naidyl, the currency is used primarily by the government which directly sponsors and constructs our schools,” Noir told Herah with a stern glare.

“The government that is just as willing to do the same barter process as the rest of us, since even to them a trade of services or goods is better than some useless cubes of ash.” Herah’s words were followed up with a disgusted scoff before the youngling turned away, “You don’t even have to go out of this school to get everything fixed either. Turning it into a project for the geology class or a simple demonstration to them from Marron would cost you nothing.”

“That’s not the point Herah!” Noir growled out, wisp of indigo leaking from his mouth and nose.

“Then what the fuck do you want from me?” Herah asked, turning to her principal with a mocking smile back on her face.

“I want you to stop.”

“Stop what? Fighting?” Herah asked with zero sense of actual confusion.

“Don’t act smart with me child!” Noir replied sharply, “Your adherence to old traditions and practices has been the cause of many headaches for me and disruption of this school environment!”

“Well someone has to preserve our traditions and teachings of the past!” Herah shouted back, slamming her hands into Noir’s desk, cracking it even more, “Since most of you seem intent on just being rid of them!”

“We are abandoning that part of our people, our society for a reason!” Noir screamed before slamming his own hands onto his desk, the entire thing finally giving out and collapsing to the floor. “We are in an age of change, and whether you like it or not the time for actions like yours is nearing its end.”

“It only ends if we all abandon it, and I don’t plan on doing that any time soon!” Herah leaned in towards her principal, green fire now spilling from her nose, mouth, and ears.

“The age of the Gardien de feu ended long ago” Noir said, leaning in towards Herah till there was practically no space between their faces, “We moved on from La Flamme and towards a new and better life.”

Herah chuckled shaking her head and turning away from Noir, her eyes going to Rose who had been silently watching the pair as they argued, confusion all over her face.

“A life of weakness and wasted potential. That’s what this,” Herah pointed towards Noir, “Poltron wants for all of us. This poltron who shows themselves as a textbook example as to why we shouldn’t live this way.” Herah turned to Noir, disgust and disappointment written all over her face, “You know, I used to idolize you. After all, you used to fight and conquer in the name of our great mistress right alongside my father. But now, you sit on your ass afraid of a single youngling who has just a little too much spunk.”

“So what?” Noir asked, balling his fist and growling down at Herah with his tail held high and taunt, “People change, sometimes into what you hate.”

Herah scoffed.

“I only hate two of our kind and you’re not one of them. I’m merely disappointed in you.”

The youngling then turned away from Noir and began walking towards the door.

“Where are you going? We’re not done here!” The principal shouted, causing Herah to pause at the door, her hand over the handle.

“I’m going home because I’m done with you and this school.”

“Do you think I’m just going to allow you to leave and come back whenever you want?”

“Yes,” Herah’s words were quiet and repulsed, “Yes you would. But don’t worry-”

Herah turned the door handle and pulled it open, stepping out and into the hall while leaving both her ex-principal and teacher with one final set of words.

“I won’t be coming back.”