Though I was frightened, the flame did not diminish, it only hovered there in the air where the bird had been moments ago.
“Violet...” a voice called to me, loud and clear. I looked around but did not see anyone, or anything. Any sane woman would have high-tailed it out there, but I suppose one who just watched a hummingbird turn into a flame, might be a little daft, and therefore I did not run back to base.
Perhaps Norman was right, perhaps I needed a sense of adventure, or perhaps I just needed to have a complete and utter mental breakdown.
Same difference.
As if the flame could understand my mindset shift, it flickered, dancing before me. Enticing me.
No, leading me.
I followed the flame as my magic guided me through the glowing forest. My feet picked up the pace, until I was running, entranced by the light.
Finally, it stopped, in the center of darkness. Gone were the glowing trees and fauna, and in its place, death.
A firepit with overgrown vines and dead plants, sprawling outward along the damp, dark earth. Instinctively, I could feel the ley lines beneath me had stopped. There was nothing here...
I turned to see the flame had started to get bigger, its light casting golden shadows onto thewallsbehind it, on the sides of it. Walls built into the trees, with ornate design. My gaze followed upward as the flame started to take shape, the center bright and golden.
“Violet...” The voice was stronger now, and undeniablyfemale.
I watched as the flame took shape, growing new pathways, that looked like arms and legs.
A silhouette emerged, and I got the feeling that I’d seen this before. Somehow, some way, even though I knew with absolute certainty I’d never seen a fire-being before.
My magic culminated at my palms, flowing through me like an electric current, through my fingertips and toes.
“Can you feel that, sweetheart?” A woman’s voice, soothing and warm like the sun whispered in my ear.
I dug my fingertips into the soil, letting my magic flow, watching as tiny purple flowers sprouted above the black dirt. Violets.
Without thinking, I knelt down on the ground in front of the flame, and I sunk my fingers into the earth.
I was surprised at howeasyit was. How it felt so natural.
I’d fought so hard to keep my magic under control, I’d never once considered what it would be like to just... let it go.
I watched as my pink and purple energy cut lines through the soil, raising dead plants and breathing new life into them. Where decayed vines loitered the ground, they were now plush and green, tiny purple and pink flowers spreading like brightly colored fungi.
What is this place and why do I feel like I’ve been here before?
I stood up, looking at the flame-being before me. It had no eyes, no nose or mouth, but otherwise its shape was recognizable.
The shades of ochre and orange burned bright, and in them I could see the faint image of something.
No, someone...
I took one step toward the flame being, and reached out to it. I had the strangest understanding that it would not hurt me.
That it only wanted tohelpme see.
My fingers brushed its warmth and my magic rocked my entire body like an earthquake, and then...
My world shifted into bright fire. Flames lit up the expanse of the world around me, as dead vines retracted to show bright, ornate carvings in the trees, and so much flora it was damn near breathtaking. Purple and pink flowers speckled the walls that lead up to large turrets, and the stream that ran around the space I was standing carried on through and around the...
Castle.
I looked up at the structure before me, seeing it in all its glory.
