Fire and Ice

Control Brought by Pain

Screams of agony echoed through the halls of the shrine, setting everyone on edge.

It had been nearly a month since Klare's return to the shrine. She resumed training and tutoring with the Sisters, however today they were doing something different. Today, the three chose to go to the main shrine, the one that was forbidden to anyone other than the three Phoenixes.

Rin, who stood leaning on the wall next to the entrance, was beginning to fidget much to the surprise of those who noticed. The sound of the screams were tearing him apart it seemed.

The screams... They belonged to Klare, but at the same time he didn't feel any pain. He was certain though. Those screams surely belonged to his sister and it was taking everything in him to keep from entering.

Finally, the screams halt and the doors slide open to reveal a worn out Klare with her neck decked out in bandages. Before he could even think to ask what happened, she fell forward, unconscious.

The other two walked out after Rin caught her and tried to hurry away, but they weren't quick enough to escape as Rin's cold voice made them freeze in their tracks. "What the hell happened to my sister in there?"

"It was her idea!" Brisa pointed an accusing finger at Ira as they turned to face the fuming boy. Ira raised her hands up defensively. "She consented to it! There's no way we'd of allow any harm to come to our precious Chilam unless it's for her own health and she agrees to it! I swear!" Ira squeaked, meeting the young teen's deadly cold glare.

"What exactly did you do to her?" They looked nervously at each other. Brisa sighs and meets the boy's gaze boldly. "Look, ever since she came back her power has been increasing at an exponential rate. We all noticed it a couple days ago and started looking through the scrolls to find out why it was happening. We didn't really find much out, but what we did learn was that if her power grew too much too quickly, it could overpower her physical body and spirit... Which would eventually cause her to go on and absolute rampage and destroy anything and everything around her, including herself..."
"So, in order to keep that from happening, she had to be given her mark. We were thinking about doing it before she had ran away, but she was too young back then and there's also the matter of her vanishing before hand."

A look of confusion distorted his face. "Her mark?" "All of us have one that could be given if needed. Our marks stabilize our powers to a certain extent so that we don't become overwhelmed by them."
"Yeah, for example, while you were gone Ira had to bestow mine before I accidentally created a tornado. That's one of the reasons I've calmed down so much. See? It's on my shoulder." Brisa shifted her silver kimono a bit to reveal a tattoo-like mark of silvery-white lined angel wings. Ira nodded. "As for me, I've yet to need one, as it's not very common for my lineage to acquire a mark unless they live to at least the age of 59. I still have a lot of years before then."

Rin nodded in understanding, picking Klare up bridal-style and taking her to her room. He stared at her peaceful expression, a sight that he hadn't seen since before their mother passed. The bandages caught his attention as she shifted in her bed. "What does her mark look like?" He whispered to Ira, who leaned next to the door of the room. When Rin glanced briefly back at her she had a conflicted look on her face. "I don't know. The bandages had to be placed in the middle of the sequence, so we weren't able to see it. I'm... not sure what exactly happened for such a thing to happen. With Brisa, we didn't need any bandages, only a cooled cloth wrap to ease the stinging afterwards."

He turned to face her in alarm. "What are you saying? Didn't something go wrong?" She shook her head, a hard and serious expression adorning her face. "Not that I'm aware of. I did the same thing with her as I did with Brisa. However... It's never even been thought of that a mark would appear from the neck of all places. Perhaps that has something do with why she started bleeding so profusely... Honestly, there's no way any of us expected the process to be so painful for her."

The teen stood up from his sister's bedside and exited the room, pausing next to Ira to send her glare that was stronger than any that anyone in the shrine other than her have seen. His eyes revealed the purest rage and hatred possible. "Wasn't it you who always said to expect the worst no matter what's happened previously? You think you've got everyone fooled by that caring bull, but I know you already knew that she was different in every single aspect. You knew that there was always something off about her from the very beginning." He practically growled through clenched teeth before continuing to walk away.

Ira frowned, looking over her shoulder to watch the boy walk away. She frowned in annoyance and glanced back at the younger girl sleeping calmly. With a scoff, Ira walked up to the girl and tucked some of her snowy hair behind her ear. "Yeah, you're different alright. Wether that's for the best or worst isn't really up to me though, now is it?... What I did to you in the past was wrong and it took that poor boy's life. For that, I'll apologize, but the mark was truly out of my hands. I can only hope that you'll believe that." After whispering that, Ira left and closed the door behind her.

Now alone, asleep in the chilly room, a tear slowly slipped down Klare's cheek. She may not have heard what all has been said in her unconscious state, but she had felt the warmth of others that had been there. Once that warmth was gone, her mind reminded her how alone she was.

**Dream**

Klare smiled as she saw Zuko. He glanced over his shoulder at her when she called to him, but as she took a step towards him he looked away and walked off. Some unknown source made Klare stop and she just stared at his disappearing figure with sorrow written all over her face. Something cold slipped down her cheeks. When she wipes it away, she realized that she was crying as more drops fell down her face.

She was alone and it was so dark that she couldn't see a thing other than herself. It was cold, so cold that she swears she could feel it in her bones.

Cold.
Alone.
Afraid.

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Hey hey hey! Another update for my wonderful readers! I hope you all liked it! I know it kinda changed a bit randomly, but can ya blame me? Writer's block is horrendous!! So, this is the outcome! The pictures of the marks will be given in the next update, I promise! And I mean seriously promise! Like, "slit my throat, gauge out my eyes, and chop off my hands if I don't" kind of promise!!!!
Klare: ...
What?
Klare: You seem like you've got some issues there...
Says the one who was just bleeding from the neck.
Klare: Sure, and I wonder why that is. It surely doesn't have anything to do with a certain Author-chan making it like that.
Think of it this way, I could always make things worse. You could suffer effects of blood loss from losing too much blood. I mean, if I want to have that happen. Might be pretty interesting, in my opinion.
Klare: You wouldn't dare...
Just try me, buddy. It would make things fairly easier for me... But I'll be nice. If you die now, my whole mentality for the story will go down the drain and I'd have to end the book much sooner than I'd like to. Consider yourself lucky...
Klare: ...Do you need a hug?
...yes **goes to emo corner**
Klare: **sighs** Well, like she said before, we hope everyone is still enjoying the story. If you don't mind, please do the usual stuff. Like, comment, vote, all that shizz... Hey, Author-chan, can you do the conclusion thing?
**shakes head** uh-uh, nope.
Klare: Geez, alright. I'll do it this time, but you're not getting out of it next time... Okay, whelp! As always!

Until next time~!!!!

~Ali🌹