"Fallen embers." Willow whispered.
His flames finished cutting through a demonic beast.
The army was nearly destroyed. There should be no massacre. Everyone should be safe when that Clive guy arrives.
"Rhen…" he said, eyes lingering on the burning beast. "There's something I always wanted to tell you."
"He's alive I'm sure and I bet he's a hunk! He has to be if he caught your eye! So, next time you see him, tell him how you feel." Felicia's voice echoed in memory.
How could I? How could I say the words I held in for five hundred years. After my sister, the one he loved died. How could I be so selfish?
The fires around him dimmed down.
Sylvia, I loved you so much. You knew everything; you knew I was going to confess to him. You knew the risk of telling father everything. Asking to break tradition. Asking for my death even if it means nothing. Because of how I feel.
Yet you said, Rhenvar isn't capable of love. Rhenvar is soulless. But I saw Rhen's soul. That day I cried. I saw it and I know it in my heart. It's beautiful.
It's sad, but fun.
It's hopeless but daring.
It's hurting, but it's goofy.
It's lost but wants to be found.
Sylvia. I know why you did it. And it hurts even more knowing. It was your only logical choice and for that. I'm so sorry.
He fell to his knees.
"Why does this feel like torture-"
Growling echo. More demonic beasts approached.
They just don't stop...
He looked up. All his fury erupted. He wanted this time for himself.
I want Rhen.
He killed one.
I want to be happy.
He killed another.
I want to be loved.
An inferno engulfed. He exceeded his magical limit. Wasted power on emotions. Every beast was killed in his fire.
I want… my sister back.
He spat on the ground, as if these creatures were beneath him. And he turned back to the ballroom.
****
The ballroom.
The ballroom was a nightmare.
The music was gone. Black spikes tore through chandeliers, pillars and people…
Blood magic dripped from the ceiling like melted rubies.
He stood at the shattered entrance, flames licking at his fingertips, his breathing heavy from the slaughter outside.
And then he saw him.
Rhen?
He felt the same but he was no longer the man he remembered.
Skin pitch-black. Veins glowing red. Eyes blazing. Skull splitting skin. Deformed figure.
Magic incarnate. Black flames swirled around him. He moved like a monster, no, a weapon.
That's not him. It can't be.
"Rhen!" He shouted. But it was like screaming into a void.
Rhenvar didn't even turn his head. Blood spears circled. Black spikes pulsed.
Viir was crumpled on the floor.
"Viir… FELICIA!" Willow screamed scanning the room and found her. Some red-haired girl huddled behind a broken column, shielding her.
Willow exhaled in relief. Then he stepped forward.
"Rhen please. Stop this."
The answer was a black spike that lashed out, too fast to dodge.
Willow raised his palms, fire erupting into a brilliant flame shield-
-but the strike hit like a cannon, hurling him backward into a cracked pillar.
He hit the ground, coughing. Dizzy. Alive.
He should run.
He should fight.
But instead… He stood.
And walked toward the center of the room, even as blood magic coiled around him serpent-like.
"I know what this is…" Willow whispered.
"This isn't you. This is the part you tried to hide. The part you feared."
Rhenvar's blood magic pulsed.
A spear hovered inches from Willow's chest. Watching. Waiting.
"Thirst." A voice whispered in his mind.
Still, he walked.
Black fire erupted around him now. But that didn't scare him.
Willow saw the fires and summoned his own. Not to defend, but to hold.
"Feed."
He kept walking.
This thing, it isn't you.
"You're not a monster," Willow smiled at him. "You're Rhenvar!"
The black flames flickered.
"Devour."
He stepped closer.
"The man who brought me daylight when I cried alone at night. The man my sister said she loved… to protect me."
The blood spear trembled.
"You're the man I hated my sister for loving. Because you were everything I wanted and I couldn't have you."
The chaos magic hissed.
"Consume."
He stepped forward.
"The man I would risk everything for, even my life."
Then-
The ring on Rhenvar's finger glowed. Alive. Like a heartbeat.
"Love."
Like ice touched by fire.
Willow raised his hand to Rhenvar's skeletal cheek.
And Rhenvar collapsed. Skin reforming. Bones breaking then, snapping back into place.
He was human again.
Black spikes shattered like glass. Magic unraveled, spilling into the air.
His eyes returned.
"Willow…?" Rhenvar's voice was barely a whisper.
Willow dropped beside him, fire fading from his hands.
"Yeah. I'm here."
"I- I lost control- I couldn't stop it-"
"Then stop now. Come back." Willow cupped Rhenvar's face in both hands. Smiling gently.
To me.
"Remember Sylvia."
I love you.
Rhenvar collapsed forward, his forehead against Willow's shoulder. Shaking. Broken. Then as if life had left his body. He stopped moving.
"I'm sorry," Rhenvar whispered like a man talking to a ghost. "I was commanded to lie. Aucteros killed your sister."
Willow held him tighter.
"…I know," he said softly. "Thank you."
And in that shattered ballroom, for just a moment fire had embraced chaos.