Fire. Fire billowing up in thick plumes, washing over the ground in waves, roiling and boiling upwards in gusts. The very air was on fire, as far as he could see, in every direction.

Daveth had seen fire like this before, in the horrific breeding pits of Ankar-Set, and he struggled to get away. The air was searing, burning, he was choking as the fire greedily consumed the air and strangled him, suffocating him. He was in an ocean of fire, while a roaring inferno stormed around him. Searing gusts whipped themselves into tight tornadoes of flame off in the distance.

He took several lurching steps as he tried to escape, but couldn’t move any further as the flames roared around him, greedily washing up his legs and torso. He opened his mouth to scream and the fire seemed to breathe itself into his lungs. He toppled, then, and fell.

*****

When he opened his eyes, the fire was gone. He was laying in some field of a rich, loamy black earth. Tiny green unidentifiable plants pushed themselves out of the soil in rows, little seedlings a few days old at best.

He pushed himself to his feet, fingers digging into the soil and as he did, he glanced around himself.

The tumbled remains of some long-abandoned farmhouse lay twenty or so feet away, a few collapsed timbers and a raised stone foundation the only clues to its form and function.

The sky itself was a warm mix of reds and golds, orange and smoky browns that seemed to be a roaring inferno above the land. Burning embers sifted down from the sky; ash drifted on the wind like snow.

A bird’s piercing scream split the air somewhere overhead.

Daveth glanced about himself. He seemed to be standing at land’s end, some great ocean gently lapped the shore with inky black waves, calm and placid. Off to the side, a lighthouse tower with a gaping hole in its side stood, an empty sentinel watching over endless seas.

Where was he? A moment before, he’d been trapped in an endless fiery inferno, and before that, he-

His thoughts broke off. Where had he been before?

Ah. He’d been laying in bed, in his cell beneath the keep of Elenora, the White Duchess in Nauders. He glanced about himself again. How did he get here?

“Hello.” A melodious voice announced itself. Daveth turned, his hand reflexively going to his belt.

Sitting on a low stone wall near the edge of the tilled field, a young girl with hair the color of yellow flame sat cross-legged, balancing one heel on top of the toes of her other foot. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and as he watched, she shifted and propped the heel of her other foot atop the first.

She wore what seemed to be a dress of fire that did not seem to bother her, shifting through the spectrums of yellow and orange, red, with flecks of green. Aside from her greeting, she seemed wholly engrossed in studying her feet. As he watched, she wiggled her toes.

“Hi. Where is this place?” Daveth replied cautiously, confirming with his eyes what his fingers had told him a moment before; the pouch he used to store his weapons on his belt had disappeared.

“Come here.” She commanded in response. “Don’t step on the plants, please.”

Daveth’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he did as he was told, taking a moment to brush himself off while he glanced about himself. The ground he’d been laying in was almost feathery, freshly-turned earth. As he stood in front of her, she stopped studiously observing her feet and looked up at him.

She smiled up at him, red-gold eyes warm in her ruddy face. “Here?” She asked. “This is-” and then she pronounced something so fluidlike it didn’t seem to be a word at all, more like a greasy liquid.

“I didn’t catch that.” he replied.

She smiled guilelessly, then. “That’s fine. The name would mean nothing to you, dreamer. Just know that this is the realm of the phoenix.”

Daveth took a step back, alarmed. “How did I get here?” He asked, wary. “I was-” He broke off. Where had he been, again? It was hard to think here.

The girlish woman smiled again and straightened a little with pride, lacing her fingers together, reversing her hands and cracking her knuckles.

“I brought you here.” She declared proudly. “I do not know how you managed to dream yourself into the Realm of Fire, but you would not have survived there long.” She replied, and paused to examine her fingers. She wiggled them experimentally. “You may thank me at your leisure.” She remarked casually, placing a slim hand on her narrow chest.

“What’s the... Realm of Fire?” He asked, and she laughed.

“Such an unknowing Dreamer you are!”

She hoisted herself up to a standing position on the low stone wall. “Catch me, mortal.” She commanded, and leapt off the wall at him. He caught her, arms going around her tiny waist. She was smaller than even Audra, who was a full two feet shorter than he was.

“Mhhmmm.” She laughed agreeably, pushing his face into her chest. Strangely, the flames sliding all over her body didn’t seem to hurt him at all.

“I can see why she desires these things now.” She said, and pulled his face back from her chest. “Set me down, please.” She commanded again, and Daveth lowered her to the ground.

She took a few hesitant steps away from him, her flame-colored hair shifting through all sorts of tones, burnt reds and blazing yellows and glowing ochres.

“Ugh. Things are so much different in this form.” she remarked, holding her hands out in front of her and taking a few wobbling steps.

“What form? And who likes what?” Daveth demanded. The girl laughed again, gaily and cheerfully.

“My Master. She’s... something like you. A mortal. Though not nearly as tall as you.” She added, and giggled. “She’s got ears like this.” She gestured with her hands, drawing them out and up from her head. She pranced around a little, a pirouette here, a curtsey there, a twirl.

“An Elf?” Daveth asked, and she shrugged.

“Perhaps. I don’t know or care.”

He frowned and shook his head, puzzled. “You don’t care who or what your Master is?” He asked, and she stopped moving around and stared at him.

“Shut up. You’re stupid. I don’t like answering complicated questions asked of me by idiots.” She barked, holding out her hand in front of her and wiggling her fingers experimentally again. “I don’t have to answer you if I don’t want to. You can’t make me.”

“This is very confusing.” He replied.

She nodded. “Of course it is.”

“Then let’s start back at the beginning: your master brought me here?” Daveth asked, and the girl laughed again.

“No, silly. I did. I brought you here.” She stopped examining her fingers and suddenly frowned up at him askance. “I told you that already.”

Daveth sighed with frustration, wary of her mercurial emotions.

“Okay. Why did you bring me here to...” He cast his mind back. “Re-ye she-shen-shi?” He tried, and she made a horrible face as if she’d bitten into something sour.

“It’s Renyi Zhixin-li, Dreamer.” She corrected. “And I told you that, too. You were in the Realm of Fire. I know not how you managed to dream yourself there, but I brought you here, to the realm of the Phoenix.”

“Why?” He asked again, and her head drew back, birdlike.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She said, and gestured around them. “You would not have survived there. You were dying. You will not die here.” She said, and he let out a breath.

“So I’m dreaming?” He asked, and she nodded.

“Sort of. Yes. Maybe?” She answered, ending with a question, and scratched her head with a fingertip. “I don’t reeeeally understand the ways of Mortals, but I couldn’t just do nothing at all.”

“Why not?” He asked curiously. The woman made a vexed noise and stomped away from him, tiny hands balled into fists. She stopped, spun quickly, and marched back.

“Because you would have died, idiot!” She snapped at him.

Daveth settled himself to the ground cautiously, crossing his legs. Her eyebrows rose at this, and she smiled. “Good, now I don’t have to look up at you. Stay like that.” She commanded with an imperious gesture.

“You saved me?” He repeated, and she glared down at him imperiously, folding her arms across her chest angrily. Her eyes were dark coals, burning furiously with anger.

He smiled up at her. “I just don’t understand why you saved me.” She continued to glare at him, and if anything, it seemed like her fury doubled. The heat from her anger seemed to blaze out from her thin frame.

“I don’t know why you spared me, but thank you.” He finally said, slowly. Her anger seemed to fade and she smiled at him.

“The Phoenix protects, Mortal.” She remarked cryptically, and then held out her hand to him. “Long were we tasked to watch over the realm of mortals. You are safe here until you wake.”

He took her hand, and she pulled him to stand with surprising strength.

“You helped me because I’m mortal?” He asked, and she nodded. “Yes. Though the others have strayed from the Original Compact, we have held to our Agreement.”

“Agreement? With who? and why?” He asked, and she shook her head.

“You don’t need to worry about any of that. It’s not important, and you won’t remember it anyway. Come. Let me show you my home.” She urged.

“Why?” He asked, and she frowned up at him irritably.

“Are you being an idiot again?” She growled warningly.

He shook his head and she brightened. “Because sooner or later you will wake up. Until that happens I want to show you around.”

She led him by the hand to the beach. What he at first thought was sand was a very coarse ash.

“Please don’t go into the water.” She warned, and he blinked.

“Why not?” He asked, and she smiled a little sadly.

“Because it’s toxic to mortals. The ash and cinders, you see.” Daveth nodded. He’d heard of something like that.

“But don’t worry. In a few hundred millennia or so the water will be safe again.”

“That long?” He asked, and she nodded.

“Oh yes, I forgot.” She announced, as if remembering something. “Your kind doesn’t live long, correct?” She shrugged. “It’s no matter.” She skipped in front of him and captured his hands in her own.

“Quickly, tell me your name!” She urged. He blinked, and frowned. Somewhere he remembered hearing or reading something about not giving demons your name because it gave them power over you.

“Why do you want to know my name?” He asked, his suspicion returning.

“Because I am immortal, dreamer.” She reminded him. “I will remember your name long after your great great great grandchildren are dust.”

He smiled a little. “I’m going to have children?” He asked.

“What, you’re not?” She replied, honestly confused. “I thought that’s what you mortals did, you rut and you rut and have children who in turn do the same, on and on, endlessly.”

“I suppose from your perspective that’s what we do.” he managed, and she nodded.

“You don’t?” He asked, and she touched a finger to the corner of her lips.

“I might. My Master has need of me, after all.” She replied, and then suddenly broke away from him and whirled around with dancing, mincing steps, the flames that clung to her roaring about with the agitation .

“Your world is so strange! There’s so little fire there, and everything grows and grows!” She exclaimed. “She keeps calling and calling and calling me and every time I come to your world I am surprised!” She exclaimed.

“Why would something immortal call a mortal ‘master’?” Daveth asked warily.

The girl laughed gaily. “It’s because she is mortal that I call her ‘Master’ and obey her summons.” She replied. “What is a handful of your years compared to eternity?”

“What does that even mean?” He asked, and she laughed.

“Certainly she can have authority over me for a scant few years, but then she dies and crumbles to dust.” She explained with a shrug. “My flame is not diminished. I can subjugate myself that long.” She laughed a little. “I allow her bring me into your world and I can experience it.”

He pointed at some ruins. “What’re those?” He asked, and she spun, following his finger.

“You can’t go there, mortal.” She suddenly stated in a low, angry voice.

“Why not?” He asked, and she smiled up at him, clear and open and guileless.

“It’s a city of ice and death.”

He blinked, confused. “I don’t understand. This place is...” He trailed off.

She nodded. “Renyi Zhixin-li is part of the Realm of Fire, yes.” She took his hand. “Come with me.”

She let him up a short path to a terraced cliffside that had a series of pillars on one side, covered in creeping green vines.

“In the mortal realm, fire is an agent of destruction.” She remarked. “Sit down.” She commanded and pointed. He dutifully sat, and she settled herself into his lap and leaned her back into his chest.

“If you woke to find your things on fire, you would be unhappy, no?” She asked, and he nodded.

“Here in our realm, the phoenix’s flame is the force of renewal. Flame is a powerful thing. Crops grow in the basking flame of rebirth. Trees grow and sink their roots deep. They cast their leaves before us so that the cleansing flame may bring new life.” She drew his arms around her.

“This land was taken from us, long ago.” She glanced up at him, her eyes glowing embers. “Do you know of the Interlopers? Your kind called them Gods once.”

He nodded, and she shivered against him. “This land was taken by one of them; one they called Eisa.”

Daveth shifted at that name, and she glanced up at him. Eirawen claimed to be the Champion of Eisa.

“Eisa took this land from us and turned it into a land of eternal ice and bitter cold.” She sat on his lap for a while, quiet, while he held her. They sat in their respective silences for a while.

“You’re retaking it?” He asked, and she nodded. “It will take some time.”

He nodded.

“Tell me your name, mortal.” She murmured quietly.

“Tell me yours.” He replied and she entwined her hands with his. “My Master calls me ‘Zaniyah’.” She said by way of introduction.

“Daveth.” He replied, and she nodded.

“I will remember your name for eternity, Daveth.” She replied. “Now you will never truly die.”

Things were getting hazy for him.

“What does that mean?” He asked, and she responded, but it was hard to hear her.

“Because if you are remembered after you are gone, then you are not truly gone, not completely.” She explained.

“Are you going to sleep, mortal?” She asked, and he nodded.

“Strange that a dreamer would fall asleep in his own dream.” She remarked sardonically, her voice seemingly coming from far away. “Do not worry, Daveth. The Phoenix protects.”

*****

Daveth opened his eyes, and stared up at the low stone ceiling of his cell. He blinked a few times, and glanced down, where a worried looking Elenora stared down at him.

“What is it, Duchess?” He asked, and her silvery eyebrows rose.

“You were having a frightful dream, it seems, Lord Comma-” She caught herself. “Daveth.”

He blinked a few more times. “Was I?” He asked, and she nodded.

“You were groaning and thrashing about.” she brushed some of his hair away from his brow. “What was it?” She inquired.

He took a breath and let it out, and cast his mind back. “I don’t really remember.” he said thoughtfully.

He looked at her, and gently touched her face. She captured his hand with hers, and kissed his palm lightly.

“You shouldn’t be here, you know.” He reminded her, and she nodded.

She wanted to talk to him about many things; about her peoples’ legends, and how he strongly reminded them of Torbjorn, the Bear-Warrior, dauntless and peerless among warriors of her people, about the mead horn he’d been given, about the victory his captain had won for her and her people, but instead, she placed her slim, pale hand on his chest.

“You cannot tell others of what we have done together Daveth.” she warned gently.

“I know, Duchess. I just said so, didn’t I?” He replied crossly. A splinter of headache seemed to plant itself between his eyebrows.

He let out a breath and turned over, away from her.

“Listen to me. You must not speak of what we did here, tonight.” She said, shoving him. With her slight strength, she could only barely budge him.

“lemme lone.” He mumbled, and her brows drew down angrily.

“Listen to me, Daveth.” She demanded imperiously. He turned back to her angrily, and struggled to a sitting position.

“If Falki finds you here, he’ll flip out and I’ll lose my head, and if Aldric finds you here he’ll flip out and I’ll lose my head.” He replied crossly. “I think I know the risks.” He made a dismissive gesture. “If nothing else, you’ll be fine, so I guess that’s a great comfort to you.”

She sulked a little at that. It was as if Fate itself has conspired against the two of them, preventing them from coming together. Her mother refused the throne, effectively trapping Elenora into the role of Duchess, and Daveth- well, he didn’t seem to be willing to leave his army.

“Do you always visit the prisoners like this, mi’lady?” Daveth asked curiously.

“Of course not.” She snapped, and then softened her voice. “You’re the only one I’d visit like this.”

He let out a sigh. “You sneak out of the royal quarters at night, come down here to spend time with me, and then you sneak back... it’s very risky, Elenora.”

She nodded. “I know. Do you want me to stop?” She asked in a suddenly quiet voice.

Daveth let out a sigh and eyed her carefully. “Yes... and no.” He finally replied. “The mature thing, the sensible thing would be for us to call this off and go our separate ways.” He shrugged a little and caressed her face. “On the other hand, though...” He said, and he drew her towards him for a kiss.

*****

When spring came, Daveth was released from his cell, bound in chains and stocks, and brought into the palace before the Duchess as Aldric made his goodbyes.

“When the Herbstwind blows, will you think back to this time, Duchess?” Daveth asked her, and her ruby eyes shifted to his face, and a smile touched her lips.

“I... may. A lot has happened, after all.” She tilted her head to the side slightly. “And you, Lord Commander? Will you think back on your time here with fondness?”

Davewth laughed unembarrassedly and shook his wrists so that the chains rattled against the stocks that bound his arms. “It was a delight, Lady Duchess. Honor to serve.”

He bowed, causing Aldric to raise his eyebrows. She colored faintly, and seemed to be on the verge of saying something else, but subsided at a glance from her brother. Instead, she turned her attention to her cousin Dorothea.

“Cousin, you’ve served alongside the Seventh Seal for the entirety of their time here. Is it your wish to accompany them?” she asked curiously. Dorothea glanced at the two men, and wrinkled her nose distastefully, but smiled wryly.

“No Duchess, I believe my place is here.” She replied, and Daveth nodded.

“Come on, you.” Aldric said, tugging on Daveth’s chains.

They stepped out of the palace, and Daveth blinked a few times in the sun as his eyes adjusted to the light, and stretched his neck to the side, feeling the bones pop comfortably.

“Come on, you.” Aldric repeated in a low growl, and Daveth nodded and allowed himself to be led down the broad stairs to the square below.

“Hold!” A voice called from above, and several winged forms spiraled down, heavy wings beating slowly. There were three of them, two men and a woman. Daveth placed the elf immediately; Eirina.

“This one has business with the Eyrie.” She said to Aldric, who stood, gaping with shock.

The woman stepped forward and withdrew a small, attractive box from a sack tied at her waist. “Your request is complete, Lord Commander.” She announced, and presented the box. The whole of her body language was that of someone giving a toy to a deranged child.

Daveth took the box from her, mindful of his chains, and flipped back the lid. His tableware lay inside on a bed of deep blue velvet, polished to a mirror shine. Daveth’s obdurate face softened, and he smiled at the woman. “This is truly the work of a master craftsman.” He said respectfully.

“You are pleased?” She asked, and he nodded, and then closed the box with a snap when Aldric leaned in for a look.

“I am sincerely honored, Lady.” He said quietly, and she nodded.

“All is well, then.” She glanced at the two men and nodded, and then launched herself up into the air, the other two a second behind her.

Adlric tugged the box out of Daveth’s hand with an irritated glance. “What on earth did you request of them-” He started as he opened the box. He closed the box and ran his fingers through the straggles of his beard. Finally, he twisted and stared up at Daveth.

“You’re a fucking lunatic, Daveth.”

Daveth nodded down at him and took the box back. “I suppose I am. But this is mine.”

“You could at least maintain the illusion of being subjugated until we’re beyond Nauders’ borders.” Aldric sneered at him.

“Where are we headed next?” Daveth asked.

“Tired of the cold already?” Aldric returned, but grinned nastily. “I know just the spot.”

“It’s not cold there, right?” Daveth asked as he mounted up on his monster steed.

“Nope.” Aldric replied, sending out the requisite hand signals to get the Seventh Seal underway. “We’ll take a ship at Einsamkeit. You should be able to figure out where we’re going after that.” Aldric replied back with a grin.

“You dragged us all the way up here from Einsamkeit!” Daveth growled, and Aldric shrugged, hoisting his hands to the sky. “Eh. Just how it is, sometimes.”