Rashik marched through the temple, his steps hurried but filled with purpose. Tatiana’s longer legs allowed her to keep up with him easily. While he had originally planned on Sati following them, she once again surprised him with her capability.
He looked over at the head of his staff with more than a little reverence. She had turned into a fla completely and then sohow joined with the focus as if it were nothing at all. Truly, he could not believe it. A living fla, just like the Great Fla itself.
His people called the moon the Great Fla, the fire that both birthed and was born from their world. In truth, none could not hear Her voice–but they could feel it, that sohow within them was the Great Fla that they took into themselves, and it was alive, they were sure.
Stopping in his steps for a mont, Tatiana let out a startled sound as she almost ran into his smaller back. “What is it?”
Rashik hesitated. “I just realized. Sati, to get through Ur’Rena… I may need to embellish the truth a little. Could you go along with it?”
Her voice ca from the staff. “I do not wish to lie to others. What did you have in mind?”
“I planned on…proclaiming you as a true prophet of the Great Fla. That you have heard its plea and are here to rescue us from the taint, which…is not that far from the truth!”
Tatiana gasped. “But that’s blasphemous! She doesn’t even know our core tenets, let alone believe in our divine! You also know almost nothing about her!”
“How does that matter? I know enough–I saw how the Great Fla reacted to her. The first prophet had no temple, no scripture, and no na for the divine. And yet, Sati could feel the Great Fla’s intent, its desire to beco one with her–that’s more than we can say for so many of us! Who are we to question who the divine chooses? The gods do not ask permission before they speak through mortal lips.”
Tatiana narrowed her eyes at this and then looked over to Sati’s fla within his staff. “And what do you think, Sati? Are you okay with being called our prophet?”
Sati replied, “A prophet is soone who receives the divine will, or ssages from the divine, are they not? I have my own spiritual beliefs, but seeking transcendence as I serve the dharma, the cosmic order, would not interfere with being your prophet–assuming our actions are righteous. I do not wish to mislead others, but what you said is all true. By the definition of the word prophet, I am one.”
Rashik smiled a little at her approval. “Desperate tis call for desperate asures, Tatiana. Our insular, sheltering nature is about to bring about our doom. We must keep our minds open so we can hear the Great Fla’s holy voice.”
Tatiana still hesitated. “I suppose…that what you say is not far from the truth. I will do my best to aid you, but I’m not sure how much I can help.”
Sati said, “My Lord and his family, Clan Hart, are the only heroes necessary. That you have helped at all and not stood in our way is enough, Tatiana.”
Rashik led Sati and Tatiana the rest of the way through the temple until they arrived at the center–the main hall. It was a huge, long room where hundreds of disciples could sit under nurous archways and both worship and train.
The huge doors leading to the core sanctum sat at the end of the hall, and unfortunately, a crowd had gathered. More than a hundred disciples and elders waited, and Ur’Rena was at the fore.
Rashik hesitated. Sati said, “Worry not, Rashik. No number of your people can stop , and they do not need to be hard. However, how do those doors open? It looks like there is a keyhole.”
Tatiana chuckled. “You’re kind of the key right now? Rashik’s staff must be inserted into the slot, and our fire combined with twisting it will open it.”
“Convenient for us. Why does Rashik have such a tool?”
“I must et with leaders inside to direct the external affairs, so I am granted this privilege for expediency’s sake.”
Rashik tried to feel confident as he approached the crowd…more like a mob, really. Ur’Rena had clearly gotten them worked up, and they all had faces full of scorn and disapproval on them. As Rashik and Tatiana neared, the disciples moved to surround them.
Ur’Rena laughed. “That’s far enough, Rashik and Tatiana. We were just on our way to see you traitors, to make you pay for your cris.”
Tatiana was alard. “Traitors?”
“What other na would there be for a group that brings outsiders into our temple, our inner sanctum? And where are they now? Don’t tell they are running around sowhere unattended? We will have to send people to capture them, even if they cannot harm us right now anyhow.”
Rashik cleared his throat, preparing himself to speak loudly. “I had to co quickly. The great enemy plots against our world, against our very temple! They’ve been poisoning our food, and they seek to summon a horrible enemy within! We must take action to clean the enemy’s taint from our inner flas, for you see, I have found our true prophet, and we must allow her to commune with the Great Fla imdiately!”
Ur’Rena scoffed. “Have you lost your mind? Sati was surely an excellent potential disciple. I will not deny you that. However, you and I both know she has no interest in becoming one. She is here to infiltrate our great temple for her own ends; she even said so! And where is she, anyway?”
“Our prophet is before you. Behold!” Rashik slamd his staff on the ground, and Sati’s fla shot out before burning brightly as a large, golden fla that rose above them. The orb of fire actually resembled the one shown from their test of purity to enter the inner sanctum.
Many had to shield their eyes from her sheer brilliance, and for a mont, it actually felt like Rashik was in front of the Great Fla. He would only be allowed into the core sanctum rarely, but this was still a feeling he could never forget. He could feel the Great Fla’s holy presence–there was no mistaking it!
And Rashik wasn’t the only one impressed. The crowd of clergy murmured and exclaid, shock evident in their voices. The rumor that she might be a prophet for real was spreading, and Rashik couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride.
Ur’Rena scowled. “It is nothing more than a trick! She stole the Great Fla and is planning to interfere with our worship. This cannot be allowed!”
Sati appeared within the fla after drawing it in, and she shook her head down at the troll. “I took nothing that was not offered to freely. The fla itself sought to join . I only wish to cleanse this temple of evil, to free the Great Fla from the poison that ails it.”
It almost looked like people were going to believe her, but a pulse of darkness ran through the crowd, and shouts calling her a false prophet and a call for them to punish the traitors quickly rose. Before long, it was a chant to kill the three of them.
A clergy goblin male yelled out, “You call our divine evil and poisoned? We have heard enough. Kill the traitors and the outsider!”
The dozens of powerful clergy drew up the flas within them, their tattoos blazing with fire in the surrounding crowd. Not everyone joined them, but there were more than enough of them attacking to be dangerous. Tatiana and Rashik each built up their own flas in defense, but they knew surviving against so many flas at once was a fool’s errand.
They launched attacks at Rashik, Tatiana, and Sati. Fireballs, darts, and gouts of fla launched from all directions.
The heat within the chamber rose to dangerous levels, to the point Rashik was actually rather concerned. He was forced to protect Tatiana, shielding her from the heat with his presence and the fla from his staff drawing it away from them.
The fierce storm of attacks lost form, if they had any, as they neared the Sati, the living fla. They were drawn like strears into a cyclone of fla, Sati disappearing from Rashik’s sight. A giant orb of fla replaced where she floated, as if the flas were lding into her.
Golden fla then ignited, the orb of fla only brightening around her. Once again, it was just like the baptism ritual, the moon glowing from above them and bathing them in her holy radiance as it began to shrink.
Sati’s form eventually appeared once more, more brilliant than before, as she floated in her cross-legged posture, her hands clasped in front of her. “Driven by fear and ignorance, you attack those who wish nothing more than your safety and happiness–your benefactors, your saviors. Know that I forgive you. Know that I return your hatred with nothing but love.”
Ur’Rena trembled with rage, her hands curled into fists. “Forgive ? Benefactor? Attack her again. There is no way she could take on a concentrated attack from all of us! Use your inner flas!”
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Their cores all ignited, the people drawing from their special cores. This was usually reserved for their worship only, allowing themselves to give to the Great Fla as they purged and cleansed themselves. Their inner fire was not ant to attack, as they had long since learned that the Great Fla’s will was against this.
Their flas burned brighter and hotter. Perhaps because so much of the taint within them was present all at once, and because Rashik had been purified, he could actually feel the taint much like what was within the idol.
Sati shook her head, unbothered. “The result will be the sa as many tis as you try. For I am the fla, born of that which you use against . Does the fla fear the heat? You are only giving fuel to my pyre. I am thankful for the al, but ti is nigh. If we do not purify your core’s fla soon, this world shall fall.”
The larger flas were shot at her again, and the result was the sa, just as she said. Strears of fla swirled around her, containing the fires of their cores. As the sphere ford around her, the heat was substantial, to the point where even Rashik’s skin began to burn. Just as he felt this, a blanket of fla had enveloped him, protecting him and Tatiana.
It took longer for the sphere of fla to shrink, but when it was done, Sati was even more golden, giving off an aura that was even more powerful than before.
“What?! How?”
Murmurs went through the crowd, and Rashik slamd his staff on the ground, getting their attention. “Don’t you see? Sati is one with the fla, made of our divine’s holy fire! Just as I said, she is the prophet of the Great Fla, that which birthed the world. She is from another world, true, but she speaks the divine ssage. How can you feel her radiance and doubt her purity?“
“We must move now, Rashik.” Sati gestured to Rashik’s staff, and he felt it pull from his hands. He let it go as she sohow lifted it into the air and sent it toward the gate.
Soone shouted, “Don’t let her!”
Arms fanned out behind Sati, sprouting more than a dozen from soplace behind her back. They grew longer than her actual arms, and they imdiately began slapping out at the enemies in front of her, sending them tumbling away. The swarm of people failed to even impede Sati as she floated the key and herself toward the gate, arriving just a short distance in front of it.
“I wish you no ill will. But I must go. Fate and duty call .”
The key turned, and the large gate began to open. However, it seed a man was waiting for this on the other side. He walked out, and Rashik recognized him. He was one of their several cardinals, the leadership who drove aspects of the temple. This man was a troll, large and strong, veins filled with billowing fla.
The troll wore golden robes with depictions of the Great Fla all over it and held a staff, which was Rashik’s equal, lined with gold. The heat coming from the troll was intense, and his form towered over their people and the floating Sati.
The cardinal looked down at Sati with contempt, only a few paces away from Sati with his long stride. “What is happening here? Who dares disturb our worship?”
Sati sighed. “I see. So there was another source of the taint within. There is no use talking to you, but I am Sati.”
Rashik could feel it now. Thanks to being cleansed, he could feel the wrongness coming from this man. The people around him all seed excited, reverence and respect on their faces as they bowed to his presence.
Tatiana looked like she was going to throw up. “This is bad. I never imagined they would get inside the core sanctum.”
His eyes widened as he understood the implications. The cultists and infiltrators had made their way all the way into the core sanctum? Never could he have imagined that they could get that far.
The troll spoke, “Why is this outsider here? Who allowed her into our inner sanctum?”
Ur’Rena moved toward the man before bowing off to the side. “Cardinal! This one has infiltrated our temple, and Elder Rashik and Tatiana are to bla! Please, forgive us for this failure. The invader is too strong.”
Rashik denied her, proselytizing to the people near. “She is too strong because she is the prophet of the Great Fla! Sati is born of fla, and she can hear Her voice. Can you not feel the Great Fla within her as she becos one with it?”
The troll sneered as he looked at Sati, who just floated impassively. “Sati? She is nothing before our god’s true power. Behold!”
The troll roared as he raised his staff, and embers filled his veins as his entire body ignited, bursting into black and red flas as large as a bonfire. The malevolence was palpable, the wrongness twisting Rashik and Tatiana’s stomachs. Surely, they could feel this?
However, counter to his expectation, many of the gathered clergy, the nurous priests and disciples cheered and fell to their knees. Their eyes wept as if they witnessed Her splendor for the first ti, and many began to pray.
Sati shook her head. “You rejoice? Has the wool been pulled so far over your eyes that you cannot see? Make no mistake: evil stands before you. What calls out to you is the taint of the evil god Balor within your poisoned veins, not the blessing of the Great Fla, your god. You claim to be pious, but your divine weeps as the villain treads upon Her throat.” She pointed with many arms behind the Cardinal. “Look behind the villain with your own eyes. You have all been deceived.”
Rashik and many others who were still standing fell to their knees as they saw. The gate had opened as the cardinal appeared, but they had focused on him. Behind was the pillar of fla spewing from the volcano’s vent.
And it was not bright red with hints of gold as it should be. It had streaks of darkness within, and if that was all, it might not be that big of a deal–Rashik and most disciples knew there was sothing wrong for quite a while. But several core disciples remained chained within, clearly against their will and feeding into the flas.
Tatiana said, “Why…why would you do this, Cardinal? You’ve… betrayed our god, and chained our core disciples? You must be involved with those that poisoned the Great Fla!”
“Poisoned? No. Can you not feel it? Balor is real power, true divinity. Too long have we worshiped our god, and it has not heard our voices because it is not truly alive. Balor has called to , and I have, for the first ti, heard His voice, His instruction! But it does not matter. Soon Balor will be here, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. I will first erase the traitors.”
The fla converged onto his staff before he launched it over at Tatiana and Rashik who had stood a little off to the side.
Despite what he said, the powerful fla shifted direction toward Sati, the fla drawn into her just the sa as the others. Each of her many hands clasped together around her in prayer, a pleasant aura being released that weighed down on Rashik from where he stood. Her flas brightened as the vortex of flas was ford around her, and people were shocked that such a powerful fire was nothing before her.
Sati shook her head sadly. “What a weak, disgusting fla. It seems you never listened to your god from the beginning, for Her flas carry many truths, each flick of fla and breath of fire singing in my ears. She tells that purpose is the very fuel that ignites our hearts and drive, tempering them with devotion and humility. Your ancestors prayed for so long, and this was seared onto Her very existence. I could hear it, and the many disciples here know it. But you, a core disciple, could not? Pathetic.”
“What do you know? I’ll make you pay for your disrespect!” The troll roared in anger, his hatred building as he drew up another fla, this ti larger and with even more effort.
So of the hands around Sati took different poses and mudras as the fla was once again drawn into her. “I know that fire is passion; its emotional heat is what causes the fla to burn hot and brightly within our spirits. Your hateful malevolence and greed are nothing but empty heat.”
Suddenly, the entire temple shook.
The troll cardinal growled. “What is happening? You, Outsider! You did sothing!”
Sati said, “Your plot to summon Balor’s Aspect is coming to an end. Your sins will be punished, and justice will prevail.”
His flas rose again as he roared, the darkness and malevolence growing. “I won’t let you! I’ll crush you, and then–”
Sati sighed and shook her head sadly at him. “I apologize. I am in a hurry, and you are little more than a lit match. Your fuel will run out, and then you shall crumble and be discarded like all those who worship Balor. I need not do more than speed this up.”
Sati appeared in front of the core disciple, her many hands clasped in prayer as if she had teleported–Rashik had not even witnessed her move. She reached out with her main body’s index finger extended, but what sat at the end of it nearly blinded him. It was a minuscule fla, like a brilliant white and gold candle that made his heart pound. The purity and weight could be felt from a distance away from where Rashik stood.
Her finger moved slowly, deliberately, but the power contained in that finger either had the cardinal transfixed, or there was so other reason he could not even move, because he did not. His eyes went wild with shock, and all the dark flas surrounding him looked like they wanted to flee, the fingers of fla curling away from it.
Sati touched the cardinal’s upper abdon gently, where his fiery core no doubt resided. She then floated away past his side, as if the battle was already won, and headed toward the volcano vent rapidly. But everyone could hardly take their gaze away from the cardinal.
Her ntion of a match was apt. The whitish fla ignited, burning away all the darkness within him–the veins of black and red replaced by the sa white and gold ink added to water as he began to scream in agony. His core burned so bright it could be seen through his skin, and as the fla reached his face, he fell to his knees, and tears ran down his cheeks. There was a mont of clarity within his eyes as he spun and looked toward the volcano vent with what looked like regret.
Unfortunately, his skin aged decades in just a few seconds as it beca dry and desiccated, losing all the life within it. The troll’s body burned and crumbled from the fire as if it were a mixture of black sand and stone. His staff clattered to the ground, the crowd of disciples shocked into complete silence by the event.
Sati now floated inside the gate to the core sanctum, the volcano vent’s heat palpable to everyone, and she turned to speak. “Disciples of the Great Fla, there is a path to victory, but it is narrow and filled with hardship. My Lord will crush the worshipers of Balor, but we all must pray. Show your god your devotion by stoking your inner flas, holding on to your love for the Great Fla to cleanse your divine of evil. When wicked evil threatens to consu and change us, it is the only fire that cannot be snuffed out.”
Tatiana asked, “What about…the core disciples? Can they…be saved?”
“Baron Hart can save them if you allow him. But we must hurry and act now. I will do my best to purify the fla, but I shall not succeed alone. ” She began floating toward the vent, leaving the stunned clergy.
Rashik turned and addressed everyone, drawing up his purified fla from his core, bathing his body in fire. “We were ignorant of her suffering, the evil enemy plotting our downfall. This threat is perhaps the greatest our temple has ever faced, but we are not alone. Everyone, we must gather all disciples around the World’s Pyre. Led by Her Prophet, we can still save Her. Let us shower Her in our love and devotion and cleanse Her from our failure.”
Tatiana’s wings began to flutter, the woman preparing for flight. “I will collect all that I can and return here.” She then called out to several of her sylph brethren, and they took off to spread the word.
Rashik looked on at the volcano vent, the World’s Pyre, with more than a little trepidation. Seeing the taint within it was enough to bring him to tears. They would do what was necessary to make this right.
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