Week 604: The Flames of What We Once Were (Fated Alliance)

[Deni Perfide]

The Flames of What We Once Were


Val as Deni Perfide
Dys as Ignis of Animi

[16,962]

​

---

The descent of the sun brought a chill to the evening of Hiemis. The warm natural light died and gave way to the artificial lights from the apartments and street lamps of Lupanar, though unlike the sun, they did nothing for the cold. Deni dragged the lapels of his black trench coat tighter together as if that would somehow prevent the vicious chill that the night brought, though it was difficult with the square box tucked beneath one arm. He had learned about the history of his bloodline from a young age and his family in Pelagia could track his ancestry back to Arctoa. He didn’t care much for any of that, but he had no idea how his ancestors had managed to withstand the cold that far north. He cursed them under his breath for not making him more resilient to the hideous weather.

As the pale-skinned velen navigated the streets, he glanced down to the box he carried. It was unsurprising that he’d had to travel to the Ruby Jewel to find such a thing. To think he’d spent an entire day looking for it, not to mention the exa he’d spent on transport around the damned metropolis! And that was to say nothing of how much he had paid for the parcel. It would be worth it, he was certain. He told himself that until he believed it.

Deni rounded a corner and was forced to dodge out of the way of a passersby. From them he caught a hint of the spicy, smoky scent of folium. He inhaled deeply then grunted the air out. What he would give for a smoke. When he made it back to his apartment, he was going to light one up and brew a coffee. There was not a lot else to do there now that he had moved most of his possessions into the Societas headquarters.

A sigh escaped the pelagian as he turned the last corner and finally caught sight of that familiar stone courtyard. Half a dozen terraced apartments lined the ground floor with the staircase up to the first floor at the side. A crumbling stone wall ran parallel to the staircase, acting as some kind of rail. It had already been weak before the daemon invasion but since, a little bit of the wall broke away whenever anybody leaned on it. Deni crossed the courtyard and headed up the staircase. A few steps up, he caught sight of something underneath the stairs. A person? He stepped back down and approached them. A laicar male in dark blue clothing, hunched over and crouched on the ground.

“You okay there?” Deni asked, fingers brushing his belt near his gun holster. The man stood up straight and stretched his back. He was tall, even taller than Deni. And wide. Even in his baggy clothes it was obvious by his neckline that he was muscular. He reminded Deni of Orator. Only less grandiose.

“Huh? Oh, I’m just cleaning up some of this mess,” the laicar replied in a deep voice, gesturing to some of the rubble from the crumbling stone. The velen’s deep blue eyes locked with his for just a moment. The man’s face held a warm smile, but his brown eyes were fixed on Deni. That stare was a little too intense for the average citizen, even those in Lupanar. Deni’s lifetime of troubles had honed his ability to detect them.

Why was he there? The local residents barely bothered to clean up the rubble in the past and the man looked unrecognisable. A surge of heat prickled all the way down Deni’s spine as he discovered why the burly laicar was there. Regardless, Deni reciprocated the smile.

“Just checking, y’know,” he chuckled. “Almost seen a few accidents on this staircase, I was just making sure you hadn’t fallen.”

“Oh, no,” the terran laughed, “just cleaning up.”

Deni nodded and gestured a friendly wave with his hand before heading back to the stairs. A quick glance caught a demvir and a few other figures conversing on the other side of the courtyard. They appeared to be engaged with each other, but Deni could have sworn they were looking sideways. Towards him. The velen ground his teeth as he fought the urge to bolt upstairs, as he continued to maintain the facade that he was blissfully unaware of the danger lurking around him.

Serpent’s saggy tits, the velen thought to himself. Who sent them? What do they want from me? I’ve pissed so many people off it’s hard to keep track!

Heart trying to beat its way out of his chest, he slipped his key into the door and twisted. He stepped into the apartment and closed the door slowly. Carefully. The second the lock clicked, he strode past his little table to the cooker, placing the square box on the floor in the corner. He filled an iron pot up with water, setting it to a boil on the hob. Rushing around the small flat, he began to go through a mental checklist in his head.

One webbed hand reached inside his jacket and pulled out his artifact, Lachtára. The glass orb was framed by some kind of thorny dark metal, caging the fuchsia smoke that continuously swirled within. With an anxious sigh, the rogue entered the bedroom and dropped to the floor. He reached one long arm underneath the bed and shifted a couple of the floorboards, hid the artifact beneath them and set them back the way they were.

I guess I won’t have time for that coffee then. Or a smoke.

Deni made his way back into the cramped living area, filled with boxes for moving and clothes strewn about the place haphazardly. He opened one of the small wall-mounted cabinets and pulled out his box of folium.

Or will I?

The pelagian sat down at the table. Adrenaline was already gushing through him, causing his leg to bounce as he tried to focus on rolling the cigarette. The dried leaves scattered over the sides of the paper as he stacked it too high, but he paid no notice. His fingertips gently rolled the paper up. With a wild smirk brimming with anticipation, he put the cigarette to his lips.

A loud crash shook the apartment as the front door was smashed off its hinges. Three figures in masks barged through. Before Deni could even get the measure of them, he kicked himself away from the table with both feet as hard as he could. The table was launched across the room and pushed the shrouded figures out of the apartment. The force sent him out of his chair and into a roll before he could bring himself back onto his feet.

“And here I thought you were going to go for the silent approach!” he laughed as he turned to escape through the window. There was no sense in taking a handicapped fight.

A pressure around his throat dragged him backwards. If it weren’t for the wall behind him he would have ended up on the ground. His lips cursed his own arrogance as he desperately clawed at the arms around his neck. Peripheral vision turned black as the air was squeezed out of him. He needed to breathe, to escape. The other three climbed over the table and made their way towards him.

Aquila’s arse!

Deni’s hand went to his pistol instinctively. Three bullets left the serpent’s kiss as fast as the velen could manage, one for each thug. All of them reeled back at the impact, but he only bought himself time. Grinding his teeth, Deni swung with all of his strength, knocking his grappler into the pan on the stove. A guttural scream of pain deafened one ear as his attacker’s leg was scalded by the hot water. Definitely a woman from that high pitch, but it didn’t matter who they were. What was important was his survival.

Her grip only loosened for a moment, but it was enough for Deni to snap free. He spun and instinctively grabbed her by the shirt, sprinting as fast as he could to the open window. Both of their bodies were flung through the air until they hit the concrete below with a sickening crack. Deni groaned as pain jolted through his leg from the impact. The woman he landed on top of cried much louder.

“I’ll remember this as the one time I was not proud of being on top of a woman,” Deni grunted as he lifted himself off of her. Gloved hands desperately clawed at his ankles but he limped out of her reach and she seemed too injured to persist. Not that he looked back to check. Panting, wheezing, eyes plagued by black flecks from having the air choked out of him, he staggered desperately down the alleyway behind the apartments.

The injured velen made it to the street. The Societas Headquarters were only a few blocks away. If he could duck and dodge around the alleyways, he might be able to beat them there. Then he would be safe. With a determined grin, he continued to limp down the street, heaving air and trying to quell the urge to cough.

A clutter of footsteps slowly came into earshot and his grin dissolved. Deni quickened the pace as much as he could, using the buildings alongside him as balance while he hobbled. One of the masked figures appeared from another alleyway ahead of him. The footsteps behind him stopped and he spun his head. Four behind. One in front. The grin returned, though it was just a front. Deni knew pain was coming.

“It isn’t too late, y’know,” the Pelagian said in a casual tone. Even he was surprised by how steady his voice was. “You can always head back to your employer and let them know how badly you got your arses beaten. I can probably pay you more than them.”

“‘Probably’ isn’t going to cut it,” a gruff voice from behind him replied.

The five of them leapt towards him at once. His fist connected with the jaw of one of them, then he spun and threw a kick on his awkward leg at one of the others, but they were too much for him to handle alone. He grabbed his pistol and it was immediately kicked out of his hand. The impact of hitting the concrete beneath him followed and that was just the beginning. Fists and boots flew at him from every direction, a vicious volley of punishing blows. All he could do was cover his face with his arms as heavy boots stomped on his head, smashed at his ribs. Fists pummeled his torso, beat at his already injured leg. The savage beating lasted what seemed like hours and all Deni could do was grit his teeth and groan at the fresh agony that was being hammered into him.

When he could barely move his arms, a black bag was put over his head and the thugs heaved him by the shoulders, dragging him down the street. Futilely, the beaten rogue still tried to tense his arms. He could only reach his folium pouch. One of his assaillants said something and the others laughed, but to his ears it sounded like they were talking from behind a wall.

Shit, he cursed to himself. It’s up to her to find me now.

---

After their last encounter, Ignis was left wanting more. There was no denying the regret, shame, and guilt that plagued the roguish velen for his actions. Beyond that, the avian wasn’t sure punishing Deni for cheating was worth spending what could be her final days alone. Even Amicus hadn’t been able to deny Ignis the urge to seek comfort. The shrub-like woodland spirit carried his own guilt for the events that led to the enlil’s possible untimely death.

Ignis could never blame Amicus for not being able to rescue her from that demonic hellfire. That situation was, in part, her fault, too. More accurately, it was entirely the avian's fault. But the mons infans didn’t see it that way. He had failed to protect his contractor, his familiar. And now, Ignis’ continued existence was in danger. If she were to die, would the bit of her spirit tethered to the natural plane persist in some form? Ignis didn’t know. Wasn’t even certain whom to turn to for an answer.

Aeria had been supportive as ever, but support wasn’t an answer. It wasn’t a cure.

Unsure of what to do with herself, the enlil had turned to her engineering projects. The spacious work room she and Aeria shared at Brigid’s Hearth had more than enough space for both women to tinker with a wide variety of inventions and machinery. After she finished Cora’s maintenance, the engineer turned to experimenting with radios. It had nothing to do with solving her problems, but it was relaxing to focus on soldering wires, turning knobs, and debating on what size antenna worked best. Mundane issues were much easier to grasp.

That procrastination led Ignis to go out in search of more materials for her stream of trinkets and gadgets. Precious metals like gold had many applications when it came to conducting electricity. Half a dozen experiment designs crowded Ignis' mind when she swept out of Brigid’s Hearth clad in a grey tunic that resembled a lab coat. It had large pockets for storing anything of use she found in its interior and exterior. Ignis had even stitched in a large centre pocket for Amicus to rest in comfortably.

It was from that pouch that the mons infans needled at her with worry. She wasn’t taking her responsibility to Natum or the threat to her life seriously; dabbling with bits of wire and trying to generate enough electricity to light up those glass bulbs she’d bought and modified wasn’t going to solve anything.

Ignis didn’t care.

Or rather, she did care, but there wasn’t much to be done about it, so she had resumed pretending it wasn’t a problem.

The bickering between contractor and familiar paused as Ignis made her way towards Lupanar District, intent on seeking out someone selling suspiciously cheap jewelry, the likes of which could be melted down for precious metals. She found a pawn shop with an open sign inside the scratched up storefront window. The store’s wares were arranged on rows of tables and a few shelves. There were all sorts of items available -- sextants, pocket watches, hunks of metal from scrapped vehicles and more. Ignis scanned these items briefly, but remained steadfast in her search for precious metals. A few battered necklaces and rings caught the engineer’s attention. She scooped up a few of the items, pieces that were likely abandoned family heirlooms, and brought them to the register located at the back of the shop.

A gruff looking man stood behind the counter. He had a heavy five o’clock shadow and a bald head with ridges atop it that suggested a mixture of velen and laicar heritage. He wore a simple linen shirt with short sleeves that was off-white from being dirtied and then laundered countless times. A close look revealed that in some places the fabric of the shirt was thinning and becoming threadbare. A cheap, paper name tag labeled the spurii as “Kyrie”.

Ignis offered the man a sharp-toothed smile and set the items on the counter.

“How much for these?”

Kyrie glanced down at the pile of jewellery.

“Seventy aurits.”

The enlil’s feathery brows rose. “For that? The price of gold isn’t that high…”

“It is in this shop.”

Ignis’ eyes narrowed and her arms folded across her chest.

“You can try that all you want. You ain’t the first feather brain to come in here thinking they can scare me into a lower price.”

Ignis hadn’t been intending to intimidate Kyrie into lowering his prices when she walked into the establishment. However, the grizzled man’s attitude was starting to annoy her. She could feel heat prickling under her skin in response to her souring mood.

The spurii paled when he saw black flames starting to dance across the woman’s feathers and skin, threatening to burn the shop and everything in it.

“Alright, alright, fifty aurits to get you out of here,” Kyrie said quickly.

“Thirty and I won’t come back here again.” Ignis sweetened the deal by lowering her hand to rest on the countertop, flames growing on the back of her hand as well.

“Deal!”

“Smart man.”

Ignis set a few golden, x-shaped coins on the counter before scooping up the jewellery and leaving the store at a brisk pace. The cool air against her skin and feathers helped the enlil start to calm her temper. It had gotten worse lately, something that the engineer wasn’t exactly proud of. Either way, she had her gold and it was time to get back to Brigid’s Hearth. With a sigh and a few deep breaths, the enlil managed to reign in the flames for the time being before making her way through the oddly empty streets.

Getting a name for being a walking fire hazard would be annoying, but it seemed that it was too late to hide her condition completely. Ignis dug through her pockets for the remainder of her last joint and lit it with a small flame on the tip of one curved claw. Shoving it between her lips, Ignis changed course. Maybe seeing Deni would help her calm down and soothe her nerves. Even though their last interaction had been emotionally turbulent and painful, there were precious few people who Ignis would allow to see her like this.

Finding her way to the apartment where she had once lived before their initial separation -- did it count as a breakup? -- was easy. It felt like returning home, even if she’d technically moved elsewhere. Were her things still in his apartment? Ignis couldn’t imagine Deni throwing out the few tunics she’d left there or getting rid of her toothbrush. Even after what he’d done, the man had given her the impression that he’d never really accepted a life without her. A comforting thought. It was nice to think that there was someone who couldn’t bear to let her go aside from Amicus.

When she reached the door, Ignis hesitated. Rather than being in its usual spot, the door lay inside the apartment on the floor. It had clearly been kicked in or smashed with a makeshift battering ram judging by the way the wood had cracked and splintered. In its place, the dining room table leaned across the doorway, likely having been thrown at the incoming attackers. Her eyes widened as she took in the scene before her.

The window was broken, with very little glass having fallen inside, suggesting that someone had been shoved out of the apartment through the jagged exit. The stove was still on, a small flame flickering weakly and a pot lay off to one side, a drying wet spot marking where someone had knocked over hot water.

Ice cold shock slid over Ignis, trickling down the back of her neck and raising goosebumps. Her feathers fluffed up in agitation, making the slim enlil look a bit larger. It was quiet, suggesting that everyone had gone already. After what felt like an hour of simply staring at the scene laid out before her, Ignis stepped over the table and into the apartment she had once shared with Deni.

“Deni?”

Silence answered her.

Gingerly, the engineer crept deeper into the apartment, piecing together the struggle that had taken place earlier. She crouched next to the wet spot on the floor and touched it. It had gone cold. How long did it take hot water to cool? Assuming it had been near boiling, probably five or so minutes if it had been left in the pot on the stove but not on the burner. When spread out across the floor, even less time would be needed for residual heat to fade. The calculations proved useless.

Ignis stood and turned off the stove.

Suddenly Amicus’ viewpoint took over her vision. The mons infans had climbed out of the pouch in her cloak and wandered into the bedroom where he noticed a floorboard under the bed. The board was slightly lifted at one corner.

With a nod, the engineer joined her familiar and got down onto her stomach to reach under the bed and pull away the floor board. It moved with little resistance, allowing Ignis to catch sight of something glimmering.

Lachtára.

Ignis grasped the artefact, feeling the thorny metal that encased the smoke-filled glass orb digging into her palm. She pulled it from its hiding place and stood up again. The artefact’s presence in and of itself was proof that something was very, very wrong. Deni would never have left it behind and hidden it like this unless someone was after him. Someone who he couldn’t simply fight off on his own. The velen had likely been ambushed by a group rather than a single person. His skills with a pistol and outright scrappiness made him a difficult catch.

“Faex,” the engineer swore before returning to the kitchen to investigate for any other clues.

She found the scattered papers Deni preferred for his hand-rolled joints and a mostly spilled box of folium. The engineer scooped up the box and a few papers before sitting on the floor to roll herself a new joint. The one she’d been smoking previously lay just outside the apartment, having fallen when her jaw dropped.

With Lachtára, Deni’s remaining folium, and a few crumpled rolling papers shoved into a pocket, Ignis left the apartment in a hurry. If she was going to go after Deni, she needed more firepower. The enlil put out her joint when she reached the edge of Lupanar District. Smoking wasn’t permitted on most modes of transport that would get her back to Avelyn in the timeframe she wanted. The now sour-faced enlil accosted a man standing beside a basilisk with a saddle strapped to its back and shoved a bag of coins into his hands.

“Take me to Avelyn and hurry!” she commanded before climbing aboard.

The laicar opened his mouth to complain before thinking better of it. He opened the bag and noticed several silver and gold coins and decided it was in his best interest to climb up onto the large lizard and use his heels to nudge the beast into motion. His bossy patron had more than paid for the trip she requested.

Ignis sat behind him, mind furiously working to come up with a plan of action. Once they reached Avelyn a few hours later, she directed him to her house. Once they arrived at the gates of Brigid’s Hearth, Ignis slid off the beast’s back and delivered a gruff “wait here,” before entering the estate and making a beeline for her and Aeria’s shared laboratory. There, the engineer found the lovely gun Deni had gifted her only a few days prior. She tucked it into her cloak. Hurriedly, the engineer grabbed a spare coin bag packed with aurits.

She ran back to find the basilisk driver still waiting.

The enlil climbed aboard once more. “Societas Headquarters.”

The laicar grunted and kicked the basilisk into gear once more. The feathered woman had paid him more than enough for the amount of travel she requested. The bag of coins was more than enough to cover what he’d normally make in a week.

“You got it, Missy!”

By the time they reached Ignis’ requested destination, the enlil had managed to calm down a bit. Or rather, the folium had taken effect and allowed her to slide into a more distant state of mind. She slid off the basilisk’s back and waved the lizard’s rider away.

He left quickly, not wanting to give the enlil a chance to decide she wanted change.

Ignis was already tracing a path from Societas towards Deni’s apartment to see if he had come this way. It was the closest safe house he could have tried to run to. After two hours of carefully combing the side streets for any sign of a struggle, the enlil found something that made her heart sink.

Serpent’s Kiss, Deni’s iconic pistol, lay on the ground. Abandoned. Sinking to her knees, Ignis grit her teeth and held back a pained howl.

“No,” she heard herself say. “No, no, no, no, no.”

---

The waking world slowly stirred for the pelagian. Dull noises. They were what he noticed first. It was like two people talking from the other side of a wall. The throbbing pain came into focus. Bruising on his ribs and forearms. The worst headache. The combination made him groan. He tried to bring his hands up to soothe his head and realised they were bound. Heat prickled down his spine as he remembered what had happened.

Deni's eyes snapped open.

Brick walls. Old, faded, but maintained enough to keep the building stable. No sign of rot. Quite a spacious room, longer than it is wide. Might have been a shared bedroom at some point. Formerly a factory? Or an office? Could have been loaned out to the Vis-forsaken mercenaries by some big shot. They couldn't have made it far without risking someone seeing a body being dragged through the street. Don't remember a carriage or wagon. Must still be in Lupanar.

"You done napping?" An agitated voice grated from the doorway ahead of him. Deni's heart sank at the sight of the man. His stomach began tying itself in knots.

"Linus?"

The enlil was not tall, but even at his height he was an intimidating sight. Bright green eyes naturally stared death, emerald flames ablaze with hatred from beneath his dark hood. Though at a glance he might seem lean, his physique was pure muscle.

Something had changed about him since the last time Deni had laid eyes on him. His golden feathers had always been spiked, but now they drooped down to his eyes. No, that wasn't it.

"Oh, I bet I'm the last person you expected to see," the avian said in a low, husky tone.

The velen glanced casually to one hand and then the other. They were bound to a rack of some sort, so that his arms were fully extended to each of their respective sides. His ankles were bound in a similar way, so that his legs were a stride apart. Suspended on the metal frame, there was no way to escape.

"Not the last," Deni replied, "though you are pretty far down on the list."

Linus sneered as he approached his prisoner. With a flick of the wrist his hood fell back. Deni's eyes widened.

A metal line ran underneath his chin - how had he not noticed? - securing a plate beneath his lower jaw that stopped at his throat. A complex dark alloy with a dim silvery glow. Bigatium.

"The reconstruction took a long time and all of my patience, but we're finally here."

Deni silently cursed. It could have been any number of delinquents he had wronged. Why did it have to be him?

"It's amazing what a little exa can do nowadays," the velen said with a smirk. "See? Slap a little terra regia on there and you don't look so bad."

All of the air left the pelagian as his body strained to arch forward. The force of the blow almost made him heave. It was like being hit in the stomach by a hammer.

“You collapsed that building!” Linus growled through grinding teeth. “You killed my beloved and everyone that meant a damn to me!”

“...and your employers,” Deni wheezed between ragged breaths. “Let’s not… forget the Furveris brothers. They are the ones who employed you… after all. You didn’t have to take the job, but you did.”

The velen winced as Linus’ flagrant expression looked as though he would hit him again. A pair of figures halting at the doorway stalled the avian’s hand. Linus leaned in to whisper something in their ears and they slunk back into the shadows. In his groggy state, Deni could not plan an escape well enough and his words would never work on Linus. After the mercenaries brought their quarry to their employers, the Furveris brothers had planned to kill Deni and sell him for what he was worth. Outnumbered seven-to-one, the gunslinger had not had much of a choice. The explosion from the gas tank that he shot had swallowed the whole place. Though he too had been gravely injured, he had managed to escape then. Linus would not allow that a second time.

Deni’s eyes, as heavy and bloodshot as they were, took on a melancholic shade.

“I… do regret Dulcia,” Deni said croakily. “She treated me well while I was a prisoner-”

The back of Linus' hand caught the velen off guard. It put a ringing in his ears and a coppery taste in his mouth.

“You dare speak her name?”

A straight fist to the face watered his eyes and cracked his head against the metal rack. Liquid flooded from Deni’s nose. He thought the pain was bad before. It felt like his brain was trying to claw its way out of his skull. He barely managed to stay awake for the next strike. He wished that he’d failed. A kick between the legs had Deni cry out in sharp agony. Veins bulged in his arms as his body desperately tried to curl up. Everything was pain. Then everything was black.

---

Ignis' vision blurred with moisture that threatened to spill past her curled lashes and onto her cheeks. Amicus' leafy hand patted her gently but it was like offering a bandage for a missing limb.

As angry as the woodland spirit was with the aquatic man for betraying Ignis, the heavy flood of emotion from his partner from discovering what had happened to the man was far worse. Letting out a rustling sound, the mons infan's version of a whine, Amicus gripped his head. Trying not to drown in Ignis' feelings when she got like this was nearly impossible. His own vision blurred despite his beady little eyes being dry as their vision began to overlap. The chubby shrub stumbled away from the distraught woman, overwhelmed, when he stepped in something. Unlike the regular pattern of rounded rocks embedded in the cobblestone street, he felt something grainy under one of his stumpy little feet.

Confused, Amicus looked down and caught sight of a powdery white substance on the ground. He would have ignored it were it not for the way the white powder formed a trail. An uneven line broken up into segments of differing widths but a lead nonetheless. Before he communicated anything with his contractor, the shrub-like creature needed to confirm his suspicions. Could it really be a clue left behind by that idiot of a fish-man? Crouching, Amicus sniffed the substance. There was no doubting that distinctive, tangy scent. Folium. He recognized it from the many times Ignis smoked with and without Deni. That irritating scent clung to her like a second skin after Deni broke her heart. She’d relied heavily on that pack of joints Amicus had lifted from the scaly bastard.

Meanwhile, Ignis had begun to dry heave. The sickening feeling at discovering that Deni had been taken was powerful. It twisted painfully in her abdomen, like someone was wringing out her stomach. Acid burned the back of her throat and bile coated her tongue. She nearly missed the stinging sensation of Amicus ripping out a few of her feathers. The ashen woman scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her palms before pressing one hand over the injured area.

“W-what?” The avian tried to glare at her companion’s blurry outline.

Amicus brushed aside her annoyance easily and focused. With some effort, he managed to shove aside the heavier feelings weighing down his contractor before shoving the image of the powder trail into the forefront of her mind.

Ignis blinked rapidly to clear her vision before focusing on the folium trail.

“Ami, you’re the best!” The engineer grabbed her dear bushy friend and hugged him tightly, nearly crushing some of the finer twigs on his body.

Feeling the discomfort trickling through from the mons infans moments later, she set him down quickly.

“Sorry! I’ll get you berries. The best ones, promise!” the avian assured Amicus, ruffling the leaves atop his head.

Amicus rolled his eyes and clambered onto Ignis’ shoulder before she straightened up. Once she was standing upright, he climbed into the folds of her cloak before sliding into the pouch on the front of her grey tunic. His weight tugged the fabric of the garment forward, but didn’t put any uncomfortable pressure on Ignis’ neck. She’d taken to modifying her own clothes to make it easier to carry her leafy friend. For nicer garments, the enlil subjected some poor, harried (albeit well-paid) tailor to her specific designs and instructions. The chubby woodland spirit was worth every dahl spent on him; he proved it with his faithful companionship. Now, however, he’d given her something equally as precious —hope.

Many of the circumstances of her life seemed beyond her control: the hellfire that threatened to destroy her very soul, the horrible accident in the Arctoan ruins that led to Deni’s infidelity, the bounty on her head in the criminal underworld. Feeling helpless was something she’d struggled against and then leaned into in alternating turns. Deni being ripped out of her life before she could even choose whether she was done with him had been just one more drop in the overflowing bucket. However, there was a chance that the engineer could seize control of the situation through problem solving.

She grasped the opportunity tightly, diligently following that folium trail through the city and towards its outskirts. Ignis pursued that thread of hope relentlessly. The strange looks sent her way and the whispers about that crazy enlil staring at the ground and ambling about in a nonsensical path fell on deaf ears. What did it matter if she was truly insane? Ignis was going to take Deni back from whoever made the poor decision to steal him away. Sure, there was no fighting that demonic bitch who’d seduced him. But the mortal fools who had stolen him away this time? They were fair game.

---

Consciousness stirred in the constrained pelagian. A high-pitched whistling rang in his ears. Every time he tried to open his eyes it was as if they had weights holding them down. His head pounded with thorough pain. His wrists ached with the pressure of his bindings. None of it compared to the overwhelming agony throughout his abdomen. That made him feel sick to his stomach.

How long had he been hanging on that damnable rack? There were no windows in the room he was being kept in, no way of keeping track of time. It didn’t help that he kept falling asleep. By the Vis he was tired.

Perhaps this was how it was to be for him. He had always been a survivor. That had been proven time and again. He’d escaped the Furveris brothers and an entire mercenary faction by collapsing the building on all of them. Daemonic incursions and wicker worms from the deep had not been able to kill him. Yet Deni was not a good person. He had toyed with people’s lives in the past, used them until he needed them no longer and left them. He had killed. There was no way to sugarcoat it, he was a manipulator and a murderer. He even hurt the one woman he cared about the most. Though few of them would admit it, those who associated themselves with him were infected by his poison. For years he had been waiting for the day for his chosen path to collapse beneath him and swallow him whole. Nobody knew he had been kidnapped and he would likely be dead before anyone from the Societas could figure out where he had been taken. When he closed his eyes, he could almost feel the void taking him.

Or maybe that was the concussion.

Concentrating on vibrations in the thin walls stopped him from fading again. It sounded like a conversation was happening just outside of his makeshift cell. With his fuzzy head it was hard to focus and everything sounded muffled, but with his eyes closed he could find the words.

“...not enough. She needs medical attention. We need to be reimbursed for this.”

That voice sounded coarse and deep. Not Linus.

“I will pay you the other half of what I owe. That should cover it.”

There was no mistaking that permanently agitated tone. Definitely Linus.

A loud thud shook the thin wall.

“That’s not good enough, Linus. Kesli has a spinal injury. You failed to give us all of the details on exactly who we were dealing with. Her ailments are as much your fault as his.”

“Fine. You can keep his pistol.”

“His pistol?”

Somebody groaned.

“Don’t tell me you left his pistol lying on the side of some street,” Linus’ voice grated. The metal augmentation of his jaw gave it a demvir-like creakiness. “You’re aware that the pistol is made mostly of auritium? It would fetch you a fair basket of aurits. If I were you, I’d send somebody to collect it, before some passerby picks it up.”

The door into the cell creaked open. Deni had to muster strength just to force his eyes open.

“Man can’t survive on unfiltered rage alone, you know,” Deni croaked. His mouth felt like he’d just drank a pint of sand.

“You’d be surprised what man can survive on,” Linus retorted. He leaned against the wall and just stared at the captive velen. Blood stains crusted beneath his nose, his lips were dried to cracking. He looked as though he’d been on the drink for a week and then beaten and left for dead.

“You’re right,” Deni said quietly, voice still echoing in the box room. “It never stops surprising me.”

After a short silence, the pale gunslinger sighed.

“Alright, let’s get on with it. Do what you need to do. Torture me until my body gives up. Beat me until you kill me in a fit of rage. Whatever will make you sleep better.”

“Nothing will make me sleep better,” Linus said. Oddly, he seemed somewhat pensive. Not a trait that Deni had ever seen in the man. It looked as though he was planning something that he’d rather not do. Or he had resigned himself to it. “Though it might make me feel better knowing that you won’t be sleeping well either.”

Deni’s blue eyes remained half-open staring at the enlil fighter as he began to pace back and forth. He ran his fingers through the golden feathers that hung over his eyes, slicking them back only for them to droop again.

“Short. Black feathers. A dreamy gaze in her eyes. Sound familiar?”

Deni’s heart skipped. The pain had made him feel sick but this made the churning much worse. Linus knew about Ignis? Was he aware of the extent of their relationship? Though he had feared the man may stoop as low as to hurt those around Deni, it was not entirely unexpected. There would be a way for the velen to mislead his captor here, though feigning ignorance would certainly fail. How could he be careful with his words when his head felt like it was trying to split itself open from the inside?

Of all of his ailments, Deni’s smile caused him the most pain.

“You mean that cute little piece that follows me around everywhere?” Deni laughed, though it came out as a low groan. Every word felt like a thorn in his chest, but he wanted - needed - to draw Linus away from Ignis and bring the focus back onto himself.

“She saw me in action once and went all dewy-eyed. Ever since, she’s stuck around. She practically worships me. She was so easy to coerce.”

Deni could feel his throat clogging up. After what he had done to Ignis, saying such things about her felt like pouring oil on his burning shame. Linus was not yet convinced. He would see through Deni’s facade if he kept on talking. But he needed to.

The face of the She-daemon came to his mind. Her incomprehensible beauty, the way she took the most beautiful features from all of the mortal races. The way she showed him what he could do with his own mind. He didn’t want to relive that night, not after what it had done to Ignis, but…

With the image of him taking Hlífa in whatever way he wished, the rush of arrogance flooded him. He reaffirmed how truly awful a person he was.

“That little black-feathered bitch gives me whatever I want, any night I want. Saves me exa on whores. That’s all she is to me.”

“We’ll see,” Linus replied, “when I bring her here and take what I want from her, right in front of you.”

Deni ground his teeth. His immediate reaction was to power forward, rip himself free of the rack and pound that little avian’s head against the wall until it was a red stain against the brick. He wanted to howl in rage.

But that wouldn’t serve him. He needed to show Linus that he didn’t care about Ignis, that her presence here would be pointless as it would not cause the velen harm. So Deni continued to strain into that arrogant smirk. He was not the Deni of this world, he was the Deni that existed back in that pocket of Infernalis.

“Do what you want with her,” Deni shrugged. “Once you’re done, perhaps you can leave her in here. Maybe she can please me one last time before you kill me.”

Linus stared at the pelagian for a few moments. His face seemed… thoughtful. Deni thought he preferred the predictably angry version of the enlil.

Without another word, Linus left the room and closed the door. Deni sagged. He looked to his left, then righy. His hands were clenched into fists and the veins beside the hydrofoil on his forearms were swelling. If Linus had noticed that, then Deni’s argument might have been for nothing.

He lowered his head.

“Oh, Ignis…”

---

It took hours. It was dark now, and had been for a while. With the aid of flames hovering above her palm and Amicus’ sense of smell (who knew plant creatures could smell?) Ignis followed, lost, and rediscovered the broken up trail of folium several times. At this point, she was trudging along aimlessly as the rush of emotions worked its way through her system with each step. Being devastated, angry, confused - all of it really - took energy. Energy that was slowly running out as the seconds dragged by. The enlil pushed that aside in favor of moving forward.

Her movements had slowed down and her feet dragged with each step. Passerbys, though their numbers were thinning as well, gave her odd looks as she muttered to herself and wandered in odd patterns. Finally, something caught her eye. A glint of something beneath the flickering streetlights. Ignis blinked and scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her palms a few times to ensure that it wasn’t a trick of the imagination. Squinting in the dim lighting, the avian woman realised that the trail was going cold.

“Aquila’s arse,” she muttered, using a phrase borrowed from Deni.

Then, the sound of movement nearby redirected her attention. Ignis spun around, to find that she and Amicus weren’t alone. No, they’d been followed for some time. The figures approaching her weren’t like the odd passerby who dismissed her as crazy and moved on. Rather, they made a beeline for her position.

“Who are…?”

The question hung in the air, unfinished.

Did these people who had taken Deni know about her? Were they coming for her, too? A mix of rage and excitement battered at the heavy tiredness that had been weighing her down. Wordlessly, she urged Amicus to stay hidden and make sure these people didn’t find Serpent’s Kiss or her own pistol. She had yet to name the gun Deni crafted for her. Perhaps the Eagle’s Vengeance would be a good fit. The avian was feeling particularly vindictive at the moment.

Eyes narrowed and beginning to glow red, Ignis locked eyes on the small group that had encountered her.

“What do you want?” she asked tersely. “I’m a bit busy.”

The enlil had half a mind to let them capture her. Maybe these people could take her to Deni. Maybe they were random thugs. Was it worth erring on the side of caution right now? Ignis wasn’t sure she could bring herself to be particularly careful. The black flames hovering above her palm cast an eerie glow over her face, highlighting the ugly expression marring it, threatening to freeze her approachers in place.

"They didn't tell us Deni was screwing a mage!" One of the group members protested.

At the sound of her lover's name, the enlil grinned.

"So it's about that, isn't it?"

The menacing red glow faded from her eyes and the flames intensified. They closed in on her. The flurry of punches and kicks wasn't memorable. It hurt but very little could compare to the hellfire that clung to her soul. After putting up enough fight not to be too suspicious, Ignis let a particularly nasty right hook make contact with the side of her head. She collapsed, dizzy, with stars flooding her vision. Eyes closed and face slack, the avian pretended to be out cold.

Fortunately, Amicus was relatively unscathed, and had managed to crawl into Ignis' tunic unnoticed.

---

The velen wheezed from his splayed position on the rack. Thick blood dripped from his lips like crimson treacle. His body was beginning to feel like it had after the ancient ruins had collapsed on him in Ísvaskur. A throbbing ache encompassed all of him. If his binds were suddenly cut, he was not certain he would be able to keep himself upright.

"You… had your fun… yet?" Deni asked between deep, desperate breaths.

Linus was sitting on a chair opposite, unravelling the wraps that had protected his hands during the beating. He had always pictured Deniisis as a coward, a worm that slithered through life without committing itself to a purpose, always fleeing at the faintest signs of danger. His assumptions had been wrong. The velen was tough. That much should have been obvious from his recent accolades, but it was difficult to imagine the desperate lowlife that murdered his love all those years ago to be celebrated as a hero.

"Not even close," the enlil replied, with the metallic creak of his jaw. Once the wrappings were off, Linus opened a case that he had placed near the chair. Deni's eyes caught the flash of metal reflected in the dim light of the musty room. Methodically, Linus removed what appeared to be small, surgical blades.

Deni barked a laugh that sprayed blood across the floor.

"You stop the beating so you can… start the cutting? Not very… creative."

"These are not for you."

Silence thickened the room as Linus continued to inspect the blades consecutively. He held up a spoon-shaped object.

"Should I gouge her eyes out before or after I have my way with her? Maybe I'll do one before and one after. Whatever will make her scream the most.”

Deni attempted to feign indifference through clenched teeth. He was good at covering his emotions, but he was almost certain Linus had the better of him.

"Once she has satisfied me, I think I might tear the feathered skin from her scalp. Those beautiful black feathers would really improve the decor of some crime lord's manor. I wonder how long she will remain conscious while I carefully flay the skin from her face."

"She's innocent, curse you!" Deni howled. His blue eyes were a furious wildfire. “You got me! You can torture and kill me if you want. You have the means. She is just someone that I… frequent. You don’t need to bring her into this.”

The velen swallowed a lump of blood and phlegm.

“She will move on fine enough when I’m gone.”

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” Linus responded, running one finger gently along the edge of one of the small knives. “It doesn’t matter if she is a fling or a long-term partner of yours. You’ve been seen with her on more than one occasion. So I’m going to kill her. And you’re going to watch.”

Deni’s pleading had done nothing to deter the augmented mercenary. He only hoped that it had served to have him underestimate her. Ignis was much more intelligent than Deni and just as tenacious. She should be able to get herself out of this mess.

A loud metallic clang echoed from down the corridor, causing Linus to clench his teeth together. The enlil placed the blades on the floor and leapt out of his chair, poking his head out of the small torture room.

“What’s the racket?” he demanded.

Linus was greeted by the sight of the large laicar man he'd sent after Deni earlier. Only this time, the burly man had a familiar figure in tow, kept in place with a rough grip on her upper arm. She was pale, of modest stature, and had short, dark head feathers. A grey tunic hung loosely from her slight frame. Unseen, Amicus hung from the downy feathers covering her torso like a baby monkey, his form obscured by her tunic. He was miffed, but understood the need to play along.

The gruff laicar shoved his captive forward, causing her to stumble. She let her body sway a bit more than necessary before recovering her balance properly. When she lifted her head, Linus would recognize her despite the split lip and black eye. The dazed expression on her face hinted at more than a few blows to the head. If nothing else, she matched the description he'd just given his captive an hour or so earlier.

Rather than look for Deni, Ignis focused her gaze on Linus. The avian knew if she looked at Deni long enough to catalogue any potential injuries, she might not be able to control the flames threatening to wipe her from existence. For a brief, dark moment, the enlil considered ending it all here. Taking out Deni with her seemed like just desserts after all. He'd burned her first hadn't he? The ones who'd dared laid hands on him would be reduced to mere collateral damage. Ignis knew she could live with that. Could die peacefully knowing she'd taken these bastards down with her.

Amicus quickly disabused her of that notion. Ignis winced at the white hot anger her companion sent her way. Even though she knew he wasn't angry on his own behalf, the realisation that she would have hurt him was terrifying. How much of that was the flames' influence and how much of it was her own disregard for the well-being of everyone? Amicus didn't deserve that. The horror on her face was well timed. The engineer knew she needed to use it to her advantage. She needed to get to Deni. To free him and get him out of here. Looking around the room somewhat frantically, the avian woman tried to calculate the quickest way to get past the enlil sticking his head out the doorway.

"We found the bitch," the laicar announced. "It seems you either didn't have proper intel on your marks or you simply didn't feel it was necessary to share all the relevant details for this job. The original price you offered isn't enough. Not even with that Vis-forsaken pistol."

Ignis wobbled on her feet, but didn't make any attempts to escape. Not yet. She needed to find Deni first. It was by sheer dumb luck that the group didn't search inside her clothes very well, allowing Amicus to hide in her feathers and beneath her tunic. They had taken Serpent’s kiss but failed to find Deni’s latest gift.
The group that caught her had rifled through her pockets while her familiar did his best to flatten himself against her torso, with her gun pressed between his leafy body and his contractor's feathery one. The shrub-like creature's ability to flatten out impressed Ignis. She hadn't expected to learn something new about her friend after all this time. All the more reason not to ruin this stroke of luck with impatience.
"She burned up Camille and Camden. If I hadn't knocked her out, I would have been next!"

In his defence, Ignis' little fire problem wasn't exactly well documented. Her hermit-like behaviour after her latest escapades didn't help gathering information on the wanted criminal-turned-hero.

"What… what do you want from me?" Ignis asked, her tone outright pitiful.

She had to counter any perceptions of herself as a threat. Standing here, teetering a little from dizziness, Ignis looked small and battered. Not at all like the demonic, red-eyed, spitfire the laicar and his buddies had tangled with. Her eyes watered thanks to Amicus ripping out a few feathers from a sensitive area. A few fat tears welled up before rolling across her cheeks, smudging the dirt on her skin.

Linus’ jaw creaked as he grinned. The enlil stepped out into the corridor. He was not much taller than Ignis, but other than his race, the similarities stopped there. His physique was much more muscular and his feathers were golden where hers were dark. Even in the early night it was easy to catch the occasional glint of light reflected from the augmentations surrounding his lower jaw.

“I’m sure I have another few bags of aurits hanging around to compensate you,” he said roughly to the merc. “And you will still be receiving the share from your fallen comrades. I will hand them to you myself when I am done with them. Until then, drinks are on me.”

The muscular laicar shoved Ignis forward. Linus caught her head in his arm and dragged her back to the cell. Ignis coughed at the rough pressure Linus exerted around her neck. Instinctively, her hands came up to grasp at her more muscular counterpart’s forearm. Her talon-like claws dug unto the man’s arm weakly in a desperate but (intentionally) futile attempt to break free. She stared at her love, with a frantic sort of expression.

Deni’s eyes locked with Iggy’s.

His heart raced. The sliver of momentary hope that calmed the roiling sea in his stomach was swiftly overwhelmed by a feeling that only the daemons had ever given him. Terror. Ignis was here. And Linus could fulfil his promise at his own leisure.

For once, he had no idea how to respond.

“For the sake of transparency, let me tell you why you’re here, little Ignis,” Linus began, grinning right at Deni. “It’s a very short story. Deniisis here was in a spot of trouble - nothing unusual for him, I imagine. I was just working as a mercenary with my beloved, as I always had, restraining him for my employers. An average day in my line of work. This deadbeat shoots a gas pipe that blows the building to pieces, crushing everybody under rubble. My love… she was killed by the blast. He killed her.”

Linus turned to the shorter avian, white hot rage in his eyes.

“He took the one person on Araevis I cared about away from me. So I’m going to do the same to him.”

She was struggling. However, what neither man realised was that the woman was struggling against herself more than anything else. The timing had to be perfect. But something about Linus’ explanation elicited a hoarse laugh.

“That’s what you brought me here for?”

With her face out of the other enlil’s line of sight, Ignis didn’t have to control her expressions so much. Not that she had much control over anything in the moment.

“You think I’m someone he loved?”

There wasn’t much time for Linus to respond to that. Ignis’ hands tightened with more force than before, driving her claws into his forearm.

“You must have mistaken me for that infernal bitch he was rutting!”

In some ways, she was telling the truth. Deni loved her but the fact that it hadn’t been enough to make him faithful still stung. At the same time, Ignis knew she meant more than the world to the velen. The avian woman had felt it herself through Lachtára’s connection.

“Well, go ahead!” The words were tumbling past her lips faster than her mind could keep up. “Get on with it and see if he’ll shed some crocodile tears for me.”

Each word lashed at the velen man like a whip beating his already bruised heart. Ignis was being cruel and she knew it. The heat prickling beneath her skin was growing more unbearable by the moment. Sweat glistened on her forehead in the dim lighting. The frenzied expression on the woman's face was perhaps the most genuine thing about her at this moment. Ignis could have told herself that she was spinning a tale in exchange for her own life, trying to manipulate the enemy by causing him to question his decisions. But that wasn’t the point. It was just a fortunate side effect, if that. No, she was being spiteful and angry. For the briefest of moments, Ignis could empathise with Arline.

That realisation was akin to having ice cubes shoved into one’s garments. Shockingly cold as it slid from the base of the neck, leaving a wet trail down the spine. She didn’t want to be anything like that hateful fae woman. And then, Ignis realised she was still laughing not because she could hear it but because her throat was raw. It constricted painfully as more tears fell.

Deni said nothing. Her acidic words were a punishment he had long since deserved. He wished that she had lashed out like this when he had first told her about his disloyalty. Simply fading away from him felt as though nothing was being resolved, that soon she would leave for good and be out of his reach permanently. And there was nothing he could do about that. Though the pain of his injuries overwhelmed his senses, he still fought to maintain the facade that he had tried to play against Linus. He was certain his wet eyes betrayed him.

“Oh, sweet child,” Linus said softly, wiping his thumb beneath her eyes. He glanced at Deni and then back to Ignis. “I have no doubt that this man has caused you harm. It’s what he does. Unfortunately, he cares about you.”

Linus returned the grip that her claws buried into his forearm. He forced her back a few steps and then slammed his fast into her face, cracking her head against the wall.

“Ignis!” Deni roared, veins bulging as his arms and legs ached to pull free from the rack where he was bound. His purposeful exterior crumbled, revealing an insensate prisoner that longed to kill the captor who dared lay a hand on his love.

Yet as Linus had promised, all he coukd do was stare futilely as the bastard’s fists continued to pummel the avian woman into the stone wall.

The first blow made her vision go dark for a few moments, her cheek throbbing violently. Even her teeth hurt and a few of them felt strangely loose. She grunted as her back collided with the wall, arms coming up to protect her torso from Linus' fists. More accurately, to protect her familiar. The dark feathered woman wasn't about to put her best friend in the line of fire, not again.

When he was content with how much he had pummelled her, Linus turned and moved back to the chair in the centre of the room with a smile on his face.

“I am going to kill you, Linus,” Deni growled.

“Oh, we’ll see,” Linus replied with a smile. He leaned down and pulled one of the small silver blades from the case on the floor. Tapping the tip of the blade gently with his fingertip, his smile deepened darkly. “I’m going to have some fun with your girl. Just try and stop me.”

The mons infans clambered down his contractor's torso and made his way to her back. For extra measure he buried his hands into Ignis' feathers to conceal the bright white glow from his healing spell. Ignis' breathing was ragged, but she was in better shape than Deni for the moment. Even with the dark bruises mottling her face, the swelling that distorted its shape and the ache from being pummeled. Amicus had already sneakily healed the worst of her injuries from the scuffle leading to their capture.

Now, it was Deni's turn to recover. Amicus hadn't targeted the velen out of any real concern for his safety. The rogue was still on the woodland spirit's shit list. However, he was useless to Ignis if he was too beat up to fight.

Meanwhile, the enlil woman sagged against the wall for a moment longer and then forced herself to stand.

"He doesn't need to stop you."

She sent the velen an apologetic look before opening her mouth and letting out a Vis-awful shriek. Her war cry was both chilling and grating. Beneath her tunic, Amicus shuddered at the awful noise. The best way to describe it was to liken the cry to nails on a chalkboard at the same volume as a gunshot. It left her throat extra raw, and she could feel something slick sliding down it. Gagging, she coughed up a mixture of phlegm and blood.

She spat it directly at Linus with enough velocity to pelt him from across the room with a wet slap.

"You should've caught me first," the avian woman rasped before black flames erupted across her skin, heating up the whole room.

With considerable effort and another grunt, she managed to suppress the flames somewhat. Smaller flames flickered along her neck, shoulders and down one arm. Ignoring the uncomfortable heat, she approached Deni, wary that Linus might somehow break free. She used her talons to slice through the bindings on the velen's wrists but made no move to catch him if the pale rogue fell. The entire time, Ignis positioned herself so that her back wouldn't be facing the other enlil.

Amicus dropped to the ground behind her and jabbed at Deni's calf with a sharp, twig-like finger. Once he had the newly freed man's attention, the woodland spirit handed him a familiar item. The dark wood grip and carefully carved wings made the pistol distinctive enough to recognize.

Ignis was already stalking towards Linus, sharp teeth bared in a silent snarl.

She slapped him with a flaming hand, letting her claws catch his skin to leave behind shallow cuts that immediately cauterized themselves.

"You want to go the way of your dead girl, you sick fuck?"

Unlike Linus, she made full use of her talons when she struck. A clawed foot came forward to kick him in the stomach before her toes flexed, seeking to puncture his torso with the curved claws on the end of each digit before she pulled her leg back.

"Do you think I let him survive going to hell and back, didn't castrate him for cheating, just for you to swoop in for your petty revenge?"

The fire spread across her body, making it uncomfortably hot to stand near her.

"Maybe I should use you and make him watch."

A clawed hand clamped around his jugular, establishing a very hot and very sharp grip. Whatever Deni had been up to since Linus saw him last, he'd wound up in the grasp of a dangerous woman. One who looked like she might take off her own lover's head after she was finished with Linus.

"Petty!" Linus choked, as the flames seared the flesh around his throat. The silver jaw scraped Ignis' hand as he filled the flaming room with roaring laughter. "You stand here denouncing your partner for being unfaithful and call my cause petty? You would have been better had he died on that island! Do you really think that he-"

Bang. Bang. Bang. The three shots silenced Linus. The avian's body grew limp against Ignis' wrist and blood oozed from the eye where one bullet had entered. The two other holes on the side of his skull also began to leak the thick, crimson fluid.

The sound of her gun firing was startling enough to loosen her grip on Linus' neck. Not that it mattered. Death had already rescued him from her grasp. Her arm lowered as the other enlil's dead weight dragged it down along with Linus' crumpling body. Ignis released her hold on him, watching in stunned silence as the man keeled over at her feet. She looked down at her blood soaked hand. The feeling of something warm and wet splattered across her face drove home what they had just done.

The sight of Deni's battered form wiped away the guilt clinging to her like cobwebs. Still, the surviving enlil couldn't say she was proud of what just happened. Shame lingered like the bitter aftertaste of burnt coffee.

"I didn’t want to be made to watch any of it," Deni said in a flat, husky tone.

Fresh tears mixed with the blood on Ignis' face, rolling down her cheeks in dark red streams. Amicus' hands glowed once more, the woodland spirit doing his best to patch up the damage. Seeing it all through Ignis' eyes with a front row seat to the painful twisting sensation in her chest was too much.

"I was… I was sick of people trying to steal my man," she retorted. The attempt at humor was weak, but it got the point across.

In an instant, the avian woman found herself in front of Deni, feathered arms clasped around him tightly.

Deni winced as Ignis embraced him. Every ounce of him ached, but he still wrapped his long arms around her shoulders. He felt a wave of relief ripple down his back as muscles that had been tense for hours finally relaxed. His lips curved into a grateful smile.

"Your man, huh?" He said in a raspy whisper. "You seemed all ready to use Linus a moment ago. You can still try if you like. Maybe his man-part got resconstructed."

Ignis' nose crinkled at the suggestion. She shook her head.

"Not my type. And that's… not really my style."

A rough chuckle followed. Vis, she'd missed this. Missed Deni. The enlil loosened her grip on the velen, mindful of his injuries and leaned back to look up at him.

"Let's get out of here."

Deni released her and turned his head away to spit blood onto the concrete floor.

"That sounds like a damned good idea.”

As the pair of them left Linus’ body in that dingy cell, they were greeted from the opposite end of the mould-stricken corridor. Of course it was the huge sack of meat that could be called a laicar. With Deni’s pistol. And cronies in tow with guns pointed and blades brandished.

“You can give me my pistol back and keep everything else he promised you, plus whatever else he has lying around,” Deni offered. The winged vitatium pistol - the best he could do as an apology to Ignis - rested in his hand at his side while his blue eyes scanned the mercenaries.

After a silent moment, the laicar shook his head. He pointed the serpent’s kiss at Deni.

“You broke Kelsi’s back. And you…” - he switched his aim to Ignis - “You burned the twins. We got ourselves a reputation to uphold. Besides, I’m sure somebody will pay handsomely for your bodies.”

The velen pulled Iggy back into the room as the bullets began to fire. He groaned as a stab of pain ripped up his torso.

“Think you can have Ami make a vine wall? Some cover?”

Ignis winced as the rapid movement made her head swim, but flashed Deni a grateful smile anyway. Even if the shots might not have been fatal, the enlil was still glad to be spared further injuries.

"Yeah, we're gonna need it. Stay low though, Serpent's Kiss may be able to punch holes through our defenses. Give me a second, I can whip up an Aquila spell to help us out as well. If this works as planned, you'll have her back."

Deni fired off a few blind shots down the corridor. The curses that followed told him that he'd hit somebody. From a vitatium pistol, that would cause some damage.

Vines, branches, and thorns materialized around the door frame and stretched across it. Meanwhile, Ignis scooped up her familiar and deposited him back in the large pocket at the center of her tunic. The woodland spirit's bulk and weight caused her garment to sag, exposing her feathered collarbones.

"Hands of the gods bridge the gap between domains,

Reveling in the escape from distance's chains,

Imparting to mortals the strength of those gains," the avian muttered the prayer under her breath like a mantra.

The gunfire got louder, indicating the laicar's approach. A few bullets punched through the leaves and vines covering the doorway, prompting Amicus to add yet another layer.

"Vis-balls," Deni cursed as a round from his signature pistol pierced the vines and cruised over his head. It was fortunate enough that he had squatted to reload Iggy's gift.

The tortured velen continued to retaliate, shooting the mercs through small gaps in the vine shield. Shouting could be heard from the other side.

"Burn this thing down!"

Deni glanced at his avian companion. His mouth twisted into a crude smirk.

"Let's give them what they want."

"Need a couple more minutes," Ignis muttered between utterances of her prayer to Aquila.

Deni snatched some rounds from Iggy's belt and continued to fire through gaps in the greenery. If she needed time then that's what she'd get.

Ever since she'd found faith in one of the Vis in those desolate Arctoan ruins, the avian had leaned into those old prayers in times of need. They seemed to work best in moments of desperation. She just needed a bit more time to ensure that the spell was strong enough.

Then, belatedly realizing what Deni had asked of her, she allowed those hellish black flames to resurface. Not missing a beat she approached the barricaded doorway, keeping off to one side to avoid stray bullets. Crouching beside the doorway, she unclasped her hands momentarily to slap one palm against the vines and branches covering the opening.

Returning to her focus on prayer, Ignis did her best to tune out the screams on the other side of Amicus' protection. The black flames eagerly spread across the kindling and sought out anything and everything they could consume. The burning vines began to fall away, revealing one lackey rolling on the ground in a futile attempt to put out the flames. The laicar wielding Serpent's Kiss hung back, having leapt backwards to evade the draconic hellfire. A third person was dashing away, likely to seek reinforcements.

Deni's bloodied form surged through the crumbling flames like a rabid beast. He leapt at the man holding his pistol, webbed hand grasping at his face and slamming his head against the wall. He channeled his thoughts back to Infernalis, to Lachtára, the artifact of his that was not currently present. But it didn't need to be. It was a little piece of Infernalis that he owned and he could bend those powers to his will.

The laicar fought the connection, naturally, as the velen sought to claw his way into the man's thoughts.

The distraction was all Deni needed.

Two quick shots down the corridor caught the fleeing merc, one in the ankle and another in the opposite knee. Close enough. Judging by the scream, the victim was a woman and she hit the floor hard.

Now he just needed to deal with this meatsack of a man he was grappling.

With the spell mostly ready, Ignis recalled the structure of the building. If memory served correctly, then there was a support beam that she could bring crashing down just outside the doorway.

She just needed a minute more. Thirty seconds if she was completely focused.

Amicus, sensing the impending danger, began to needle the man with a sense of urgency. Though nowhere near as strong as his empathic connection with Ignis, it got the point across. Something was coming.

As for the laicar, the leafy creature clambered around Deni's torso until he could reach the hand clasping Serpent's Kiss. The mons infans wrapped a thorny limb around the laicar's hand and sought to shove it between his palm and the gun's grip. The struggling mercenary let out a surprised noise as his grasp on Deni's weapon loosened. The velen would be able to feel the vicious satisfaction his woodland friend got at digging those thorns into the laicar's skin.

Deni grinned as Amicus helped tear his gun from the laicar’s grasp. Golden auritium serpent’s head in one hand, silvery-green vitatium wings in the other. The pelagian had both pistols. Now that he had retrieved his gun, he wrapped his arm around the merc leader’s neck and dragged him into a position where he could hold the Serpent’s Kiss to his head.

“Should’ve taken the deal, zarim,” Deni growled, glaring at the remaining few lackeys that didn’t seem certain as to whether they wished to save their boss or flee for their lives. It was then that Deni became aware of Amicus’ urgent tapping.

Just after Deni cleared the threshold, Ignis managed to focus on a support beam in the ceiling. Glaring at that structure as though it personally offended her, the engineer focused on pulling on it with telekinesis. The strength lended to the technique by her fervent prayers was enough to cause the thin, rusty metal to creak and groan until it finally broke free.

“Oh.”

The velen shoved the laicar towards his comrades and leapt away from the doorway where Ignis was preparing to do something dramatic.

Shortly after Deni stepped inside, the support beam fell with an echoing clang followed by a crunching sound. The laicar that the velen had been dragging howled. His legs were trapped beneath the fallen metal.

Sweating and panting, Ignis relaxed for a moment and the spell ended. If not for the less than stellar structural integrity of the building, her plan would have failed. Fortunately, the warehouse wasn’t in the best shape. Even without her intervention, that beam was at high risk of coming down on some unfortunate soul.

The enlil winced at the writhing and groaning man on the ground and looked away for a moment. Her stomach turned. There was no denying that was her fault. The scene before her was more vivid and visceral than the chalk outlines she’d once used for target practice. The smell of iron and ammonia in the air hinted at blood and the man pissing himself. The pained noises he made didn’t help.

Ignis stared, mouth agape, at what she had done.

The bulky man beneath the metal beam snarled as he turned his ire to Ignis.

“You bitch! I’ll fucking kill you!”

Deni groaned as he used the wall for support, limping towards his wide-eyed avian companion. He could see the horrified astonishment on her face. She was a tenacious fighter, an intelligent engineer and a quick thinker. Deni knew that better than anyone after the times they had fought alongside one another. Killing a vicious daemon was easier on the mind than killing another person, however. The pelagian had learned that lesson a long time ago.

One grasped pistol gently leaned on Ignis’ shoulder as Deni tried to turn her around.

“Look away, Iggy,” he said softly.

The shell-shocked woman pivoted, moving in the direction her partner nudged her towards, facing away from the injured laicar.

The velen hobbled over to the man trapped on the floor.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

Deni aimed the Serpent’s Kiss at his head.

“No, stop!”

Ignis squeezed her eyes shut.

There was no emotion in Deni’s eyes. He was putting down a wounded animal. Ridding him of the pain he was feeling.

Bang.

The enlil flinched at the noise.

The velen’s arm dropped to his side. It ached to hold his guns up for too long.

"I think I've had enough of this place."

"Yeah… let's get… let's get out of here," she mumbled.

Amicus waddled towards her and reached up, one twig-like hand snagging on a few leg feathers. The woodland spirit tugged a few times to get Ignis' attention.

Absently, she bent down to scoop him up.

"We should go," the engineer repeated, more for herself than for Deni.

"Uh-huh," the bloodied velen grunted, rotating his head slowly to stretch out his neck. Now that the fighting was over, a fatiguing ache plagued his whole body. He turned to face his avian companion.

She turned around, catching sight of the dead laicar. Quickly, Ignis looked away. The smell and sight of smoke redirected her attention. The lackey that had caught fire earlier was still burning, emitting an awful stench. The heat of the black flames had caused the body to curl up and twist on itself unnaturally. It resembled an oversized lump of coal more than a person at this point.

"We gotta go!" Ignis grabbed Deni's hand and began pulling him towards the exit. As she rushed along she nearly tripped over the cooling corpse beneath the beam and tugged her partner along. She held her breath until they were further down the hall, sucking in the less putrid air to fuel a mad dash towards the exit.

"What-" Deni managed before he was pulled across the corridor. One quick glimpse at the smouldering corpse and the humanoid form became suddenly engulfed by a roaring blaze. The force hurled a door from one of the adjacent rooms through the spot where Deni had been standing a moment earlier.

"Okay. Yeah. We're leaving!"

In her haste to buy them more time, Ignis had failed to consider the deadly nature of the hellish flames she had called forth. They were much easier to unleash than they were to banish. Hungrily, the flames consumed anything and everything in reach, spreading unnaturally quickly down the corridor. Perhaps the black flames had spread to an ammunition storage, or maybe the fighting had knocked a gas pipe loose. Regardless, the floor groaned beneath them like a great beast in pain. The building was unstable and they needed to escape or they would be swallowed by falling rubble.

Deni inhaled at the wrong moment and began to cough uncontrollably. Moisture blurred his vision as they reached the end of the corridor.

"I think it's left," the velen said with a voice like sandpaper scratching wood. Without hesitation, he pulled his partner that way.

Just after Deni whisked Ignis around the corner, a loud crash sounded behind them. Twisted metal and broken wood lay in a heap where they’d passed mere seconds before. There was no time to worry about that, however, the creaking and groaning of the building spurred Ignis to stay in motion.

“We gotta get up the stairs!” Ignis shouted, her voice ragged but not as rough as Deni’s. “They’re at the end of the hall to the--”

The engineer suddenly grabbed Deni and threw herself to the side as another section of the roof caved in. Though the metal was mostly sound, the wooden parts of the structure were quickly deteriorating, causing parts of the building’s frame to cave.

Deni stared wide-eyed from the floor at the pile of rubble that had almost landed on his head.

Ignis scrambled to her feet before helping Deni up, or rather, pulling on his hand until the velen was on his feet. She dashed towards the staircase, pulling Deni along by the hand. The stairs were fortunately intact, but that wasn’t guaranteed to last.

“Up the stairs?” the velen asked as he hobbled as quickly as he could towards the staircase. “You want to get to the top of the falling building?”

"Any floor with windows will do!" Ignis explained.

Amicus, ever the helpful soul, created a small, hovering platform made of woven vines and branches. Ignis scrambled aboard and helped pull the injured velen on after her. The platform was barely large enough to hold the trio. Nevertheless, it rapidly flew them up the stairs. A loud crash behind them followed as more support beams bent until they broke.

“Come on, little tree-man!” Deni coughed urgently.

Ignis' lungs burned and her chest felt tight. Time was running out. Even more pressing than the flames was the smoke. Smoke inhalation would do them in long before the actual fire or falling debris.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, Ignis' eyes squinted from the sting of the smoke. Through the haze, light caught her eye. A window.

Amicus caught on quickly. The vines and branches extended, stretching to wrap around the trio, before the entire ball of branches accelerated towards the window and burst through. Ignis felt herself pinned to the side of the ball from the momentum, Deni's larger body crushing her against the wood and vine. The sphere containing the three of them kept going, putting increasingly more distance between them and the burning building.

Until they crashed.

In that brief moment of space when gravity felt absent, the velen grabbed his partner tightly. Then ripped her from the branches and spun, wrapping her in his arms.

Branches and leaves exploded in every direction as the air left Deni’s lungs. His body hit the ground hard as the momentum of Ami’s cocoon transferred to him, sending his body skimming across the concrete like a stone across a pond. Ignis was pulled from his grasp as his arms and legs flailed helplessly to ease his landing, twisting and tumbling until every colour faded.

The sound of the building exploding and their shield shattering left a high pitch whine ringing in Ignis’ ears. She couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed. Everything was still spinning as far as the avian was concerned. She wheezed and coughed, gagging on a dislodged molar. Her head flopped to one side allowing the enlil to spit out the tooth weakly.

One hand lifted, weakly grasping around the cracked cobblestone in search of something. Her fingers brushed against burnt scales and crispy skin for a moment.

Not too far away, Amicus shook himself off before rushing to Ignis' side. The smoking mass of bruises and feathers twitched on the ground. A few groans escaped her lips.

“Ami? Deni?”

Even though the words were barely a whisper, they scraped against her throat like sandpaper. She wanted to ask if they'd done it. Whether they were truly free. Well, as free as someone with impending doom hanging over their head could be.

Amicus rustled and attempted to heal the worst of her injuries. He'd already spent a lot of energy trying to keep Ignis and that scaly rotten fish alive.

The ringing still drowned out most sound. Ignis wasn't sure if she and Amicus were alone or not. A kaleidoscope of colors swam across her vision, making the enlil queasy. A miserable groan made her still bleeding throat burn. She managed to pat Amicus’ leaves weakly, silently promising him whatever fruit he desired. Then, she continued to reach around until one hand rested on Deni. Oh good. She hadn't imagined that.

“Better. Be. Alive,” Ignis grit out.

If that idiot died… she felt his arm twitch. Good. Ignis needed him alive. She couldn't very well kick a corpse's ass. If they both made it through all of this, Ignis could decide how much of her remaining time would be spent making the velen regret betraying her. Or enjoying his company, depending on the mood. Her head spun too quickly to make a decision right now.

Amicus made sure to encourage beating Deni. The mental images of her clawed foot shoved against his scaly backside to kick him over forced a painful chuckle past her bloody lips.

Ignis tried to turn her head towards Deni and winced.

Deni coughed, gurgled and spat, taste of copper in his mouth. One webbed hand pressed gingerly against his ribs and he flinched, wiped the back of it across his mouth. It took him a moment to figure out where he was.

“Serpent’s… saggy…” he groaned weakly, “...fuck.”

The building groaned under the unnatural black flames spreading through. Even at their distance the burning wreckage cast a dim orange glow over Ignis’ face. Deni sighed to see her alive and immediately regretted it, instinctively reaching for his ribs. Which he also regretted.

“You got anything left, Ami? Once we’re out of here… we can get some help.”

The shrub-like creature looked up at the velen and shrugged. Despite lacking traditional facial features, the sagging branches and drooping leaves made the mons infans look tired. He reached toward Deni with a dimly glowing branch. The light flickered out after half a minute, however.

Deni hissed, uttering some guttural curse in his native tongue. Every cut, scrape and bruise burned as he shifted his body and he growled, urging the adrenaline to take its second wind. The cartilaginous spikes on his head brushed beneath Ignis’ arm as he tucked himself under. His long arm stretched around her waist and he clenched his sharp teeth together tight.

His shaking legs wobbled as he heaved, gurgling and growling in the back of his throat as he dragged both himself and Ignis onto their feet.

Ignis barely managed to suppress several curses as Deni hauled her to her feet. The patch job Amicus had done was enough for her to stand with support but it left many injuries tender or outright painful. The feeling of Amicus clambering up her tattered clothing squeezed a few choice words out of the avian woman.

She held onto Deni as best as she could while the pair began to limp away from the wreckage. Ignis paused and lifted a hand towards the burning building in an effort to subdue the demonic flames. She couldn't do anything about the natural fire but leaving behind the hellfire she'd started seemed like a bad idea. Ears ringing and vision periodically blurring, the enlil struggled to concentrate. A few black flames danced across her own feathers for a moment.

The last traces of black fire faded, leaving behind only a regular fire burning the building while the destructive duo hobbled away.

“Our track record sucks,” Ignis muttered with a hoarse laugh.

“I don’t know,” Deni coughed, as likely a groan as a laugh, “we’re doing a pretty good job of staying alive.”

Some time after the building was no longer visible, although the plume of smoke was still easy to spot, Amicus created a platform. It was thin, with gaps between the roots and branches.

Ignis smiled at the sight, feeling a little nostalgic. The happy expression vanished when she felt an uncomfortable heat prickling beneath her skin. That couldn't be good. Was Natum calling her? Would she be summoned back to the natural plane before making sure Deni wouldn't croak? If she went now, could she return before he keeled over or at all? Ignis said nothing about it, her attention shifting towards holding back the inevitable. She was going to burn.

“This feels familiar.”

His bloody mouth cracked into a smile. He remembered the aftermath of the prison break vividly, the pair of them injured from the crash of the airship after rescuing Orator. Riding along on Ami’s platform in the wilderness, not another person for miles. They barely knew each other back then, but it’s where they shared their first kiss. To Deni, it felt like a lifetime ago.

A harsh noise escaped his throat as he heaved Iggy and himself onto the platform, then collapsed in a heap.

Ignis grit her sharp teeth and her throat constricted around a pained noise. Her eyes squeezed shut while she took shallow breaths.

As he lay there, black flecks swimming across his vision from his tentative, shallow breathing, he found himself thinking of all that they had been through. They had first met briefly at the Astra non Obligant uprising. Then the jailbreak. That was when they had grown closer. Since then they had survived the Black Portal together and the conflict between the ophidians and Pelagia.

Then he’d fucked it all up. Ignis tensed. He knew it was likely the pain from her injuries, but with the adrenaline wearing off, he found the nostalgia brandishing the sharp sting of regret.

“Listen, Iggy. Y’know I’m sorry for everything, right?”

Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused eyes resting on Deni’s contrite expression. A singed, feathery brow lifted. She tried to take a deeper breath and stay still despite the heat under her skin threatening to seep through her pores and set everything alight all over again.

He shook his head then winced. That was pitiful. Try harder.

“You might’ve noticed I’ve never been good at doing the right thing,” he croak-laughed. “I deserved everything you said back there. Don’t know why I’m so good at fucking everything up. So good at it, somehow made it my lifestyle.”

He sighed. Why was this so difficult?

“I’m not making excuses. I just… I want to come out of this. I just don’t know how.”

Ignis tried to shove the uncomfortable fires of hell from her mind for a moment. The slight breeze drifting over the platform was almost cool enough to soothe her clammy, sweaty skin. Deni’s words sounded distant as if he were a hundred feet away instead of right next to her. Something about what he said made her giggle and then wince.

“Me either,” the enlil admitted, voice barely above a whisper.

Amicus rustled and fussed over her, aware that something was very wrong.

Ignis ruffled the leaves atop his head and tried to reassure him. Getting worried more wouldn't help. Maybe if the exhaustion dragged her under, she could hold on a little longer before it all burned down. Maybe it just felt worse than it was.

“We're both great at making messes, but not the cleanup after.”

What did she want Deni to say to her right now? Ignis had no idea. She had wanted to decide what to do about their tattered relationship without some outside force interfering. Now that she had the chance, the avian realized she'd not thought this far ahead. Ignis rarely did. Consequences and long term impacts were usually dealt with as they came, when they were inevitable and hardly a moment before.

She couldn't ignore the thought that her days were numbered. Couldn't pretend she hadn't missed Deni. Yet, he'd betrayed her in a way Ignis had never expected. Made a mess of something that had been good. Shattered something previously unshakeable. How to balance those opposing feelings? Ignis blinked a few times and tried to focus on Deni’s face, searching for an answer.

“I suppose we are,” he replied, forcing the smile, staring into those dark eyes of hers.

It was strange to think of their journey. She was a quiet engineer who liked to tinker in her workshop. He was a loud-mouth gunslinger who loved to go out drinking and cause a scene. It was a miracle that their two worlds had ever crossed, that nefarious circumstances had brought them so close together and heroic excursions had solidified such a unity that Deni had never experienced with anybody else. It was a shame a fish couldn't change its scales. Despite his shortcomings, there was still nobody else he would rather spend his time with. She would always be special in his eyes. One of a kind.

He pressed a finger to her forehead and stroked against her feathers to her ear. She felt hot, though that was unsurprising.

“I don’t know what we are anymore,” he said. “All I know is I care about you more than anyone I ever have. I’ll find a way to make this right, even if…”

He pulled his fingers away from her head and rubbed them together, stared at them for a second. There was something dark on them. Burns? No, he hadn’t felt it. Singed feathers. She was too hot. She should have been cooling down by now.

“Iggy, are you alright?”

Ignis smiled at Deni, struggling to focus on his worried expression. She wanted to reassure him but couldn't bring herself to lie.

“Not really.”

Tears blurred her vision, the salty water hitting her cheeks with a soft hiss.

“The flames… they, they aren't gone.”

“The flames?”

The enlil didn't know how else to explain it. For all her intelligence and education, for the feverish research she'd done in the moments when distractions didn't burn through her time, Ignis didn't have an explanation or an answer beyond what she'd learned that first time on the natural plane.

“You and Aeria saw what happened. The dragon hit me. I couldn’t… Amicus tried but he only bought me time. Natum wasn't exactly pleased with me bringing hellfire their way.”

Deni wasn’t sure what he was hearing. The dragon? From the Black Portal?

Little wisps of steam curled as they rose from her tear stained cheeks.

“I didn't know how much time I had to fix it. Like I said, I'm no good with cleaning up the messes I make.”

Faint flames started to flicker, pushing past her skin and feathers.

“No,” Deni whispered. His stomach sank. He grasped at her wrist but his hand instantly recoiled from the heat.

“I wasted a lot of time I should have spent figuring this out,” she admitted, lifting one hand towards Deni’s face. Ignis hesitated, worried she'd burn him.

“I didn't even figure out how to tell you, how to tell Aeria properly.” A sniffle punctuated her words. “And now I think I'm out of time.”

Deni ground his teeth together and grasped her wrist, growling at the searing pain.

“No, Iggy,” he said. All the words had left him. All logic had left him. Fear and pleas and desperation remained. “We’ve been through worse, you have been through worse. You’ll come out on top, you’ll see!”

But they were a stranger’s words pouring from his own mouth.

Heat radiated across her whole body. Her feathers began to smoke. Her eyes widened with fear, still only half focused. Ignis squirmed, struggling to roll off of the platform before it could catch fire. Amicus clung to her tattered and singed robes. Impulsively, Ignis grabbed at Deni’s face, her overheated palm landing on his neck and jaw.

White-hot, searing pain, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull away.

“I don't think I'm coming back after this. I'm sorry.”

“Don’t say that, Iggy, don’t-”

The flames spread to her robes, prompting the enlil to let go of her partner and friend before launching herself off of the rickety platform that had been carrying them to safety. Black fire danced across her face, arms, legs, everything. With some of her remaining strength, she pulled on Amicus, the fabric of her robe ripping in the little shrub’s stubborn grasp, and threw him at Deni.

Amicus landed on Deni’s lap, but he never felt it. He couldn’t feel anything except horror.

Her mouth opened and smoke poured out, drowning any last words she might have said. And then, all Deni and Amicus could see was Ignis' silhouette engulfed in hellish fire.

“Iggy!” Deni screamed, helplessly watching her ascension. His burnt hand reached up towards her, desperate, useless. He’d never truly followed the Five, but he pleaded, prayed that it wouldn’t end like this. It couldn't end like this.

Amicus tried to jump back into her arms, uncaring how the fire would affect him, arms outstretched.

The fires died down after a few minutes, leaving behind a surprisingly small pile of ashes.

Amicus landed in the ashes, sifted through them, all confused. Deni couldn’t bring himself to pull his arm down, couldn’t stop it from reaching towards her last moments. He blinked and saw her silhouette, burned into his vision by her final, bright conflagration.

Daemons and ophidians, people both good and bad. Deni had faced them all, had always come out on top, always persevered. During no time in his recent life had he ever felt so lost, like a ship without a rudder. For years, even after their awkward split, she had always been a keystone in his life, the greatest source of his affection, of his inspiration. Of his morality.

“Ignis, you were…” he croaked. “Without you, who am I? What am I?”

The acrid smell of burnt meat made him feel sick. The faint outline in his eyes was already beginning to fade against the black sky, littered with stars. It hit him, worse than any bullet, bite or monstrous aberration ever had. The true weight of grief and loss. The anguish. The agony.

Deni howled wordlessly into the night.

---

It was morning by the time Deni’s broken body limped to the stairs into his apartment. The yellow sunshine was just tinting the horizon, big clouds over Terminus just drifting their own way. He’d had to carry Amicus. The tree sprite echoed his own mood, slumped in his arms, barely moving. They’d had disagreements as soon as Deni had tried to store Ignis’ ashes. That had gotten him whipped by some nasty branches, which he didn’t doubt that he deserved. Still, at least this way he would be able to pay respects, to hold something akin to a funeral. If it came to that.

With a lot of groaning and dragging of limbs and the occasional rest along the way, Deni eventually made it to the top of the stairs and collapsed in a heap. His ribs were all sharp pain with each breath. Every muscle in his body ached. His jaw, neck, hand burned. Amicus slapped at his arm and he looked down.

“Sorry,” Deni said, voice ragged like it had been dragged through a rusty fan. “Didn’t mean to squeeze.”

The pair of them made it into his apartment. The table was on its side still, chair across the room, metal pot on the floor, the boiling water gone cold. He gently set Amicus down and crawled to the other side of the cooker where he left that square box he bought from the Ruby Jewel, dragged it out with one arm. With a grunt he sat next to the little woodland spirit and popped the box open.

“Look inside.”

Amicus almost fell inside the box it was so deep, but he managed to lift himself back out with the object between two of his branchy limbs. A beautiful glass square with a flower encased, black petals splayed out in a mesmerising pattern, a yellow centre that glittered with the light as if made of hundreds of tiny crystals.

“Some kind of flower. Florist called it a sky lotus or something. Only grows in pools of water found on the tallest trees in Boreas. Can’t find it anywhere else.” Deni laughed, like razors grating against his vocal cords. “Could’ve made another auritium pistol for the price it set me back. Bought it for her. Something symbolic.” Deni sighed. Then winced at the pain. “Never been good at any of that, but I had to try everything to make it right.”

Even with his strange physiology, Deni could see the sadness in the little tree spirit, see his own anguish reflected back at him.

“I tried everything I could, Ami. To get us back to where we were. That’s not something that’s going to change now.”

Deni looked down to his waist, to the two pistols in their holsters. The Serpent’s Kiss on his right side, the auritium pistol with the snake’s head barrel. On the left, the vitatium one he’d crafted for Iggy. Light wings along the side, barrel sticking through the beak of a bird of prey. As far as he knew, she hadn’t gotten around to naming it.

“Natum. That’s where you’re from?” Amicus nodded. “She said they weren’t happy with the flames heading their way and I don’t think there were enough ashes for a full body there.”

Little leafy branches twitched, but it wasn’t certain whether he understood the insinuation and Deni definitely didn’t understand Amicus as well as Ignis did.

“We’re going to get her back.” Amicus waved his branches in excitement, or at least what looked like excitement. Deni didn’t feel excitement. He felt something unfamiliar. Resolve, determination with such an intensity that he had not known in a long time, if ever at all. The grief. The loss. Her ashes. They would all have to wait until he had exhausted every possibility that she was not still alive out there, captive to Natum’s masters.

“We will get her back. Whatever it takes. Whatever the price.”

Webbed fingers pressed into the side of his jaw. Fresh burns grew hot and painful. It might be a long journey. He needed to remember the heat, the pain. Remember all of it.

Even if it costs Araevis itself, I will get her back.