A Change of Heart

Evening of Thursday March 11, 1490

The incandescent heat that blasted through the doorway nearly knocked us off our feet, and Ynez gave a little yelp as it seared her cheeks. Then the impact faded and I opened my eyes to an inferno. What little I could see of the cavern walls through the raging flames glowed white hot and dripped with molten stone like candle wax. In the middle of the conflagration stood a tall, proud woman bearing a longsword made of bone. Her bone, in fact — eons ago, driven mad by her fetters, she had wrenched off (and then regrown) her own arm and forged the bone into a weapon to hold sanity at bay. Mad fires blazed fiercely in her eyes as she stared contemptuously at us, and for all that she had tapped into the core of her power for centuries to survive, she still projected the same majesty that Hades did.

Not the fire elemental of my nightmare but she embodied all that was great and terrible about Ars Essentiae.

Two twangs, so close together they might have been one, rent the air, and two arrows, one right after another, thudded into Hestia's chest. Almost dismissively, she brushed at them with her free hand, and they crumbled into glowing ashes that blew away at once.

Her flaming aura did shade almost imperceptibly from white hot towards a cooler yellow, though, and the flames wavered for a moment, splitting just long enough for me to spy the Hearthstone itself behind her. After burning out the caves during Despina Delios' time, it had settled down here, in this deepest cavern, as a molten lump that pulsed eerily like a heart and radiated waves of Quintessence to fan and fuel the inferno.

Drawing my pocketknife, I whittled a bucket and attacked the Hearthstone itself, straining against Hestia to contain her inner fire. I might as well have poured a bucket of water down Vesuvius. While it was erupting. My feeble Effect evaporated almost before it brushed the stone.

In response, Hestia threw back her head and roared with laughter, spewing fire from her throat. "Fools!" the inferno howled along with her. "I draw my strength from fire itself, and for as long as it burns in the hearths and hearts of men, I shall prevail!"

With one swift lunge, she impaled Gus on her sword.

Snarling furiously, more like wolf than dog, he danced back, scattering drops of bright red blood through the air but taking the sword with him. Hacking at a piece of wood, I struggled to shatter the blade.

"Dad!" screamed Tel. Dropping an arrow back into his quiver, he ran towards his father and threw himself onto his knees. "Mel! Heal him!" he appealed, raising his hands in supplication.

A bandage of bright violet light staunched the flow of blood but left the sword in the dog's side.

"Ghallim!" I cried, twisting my head around and searching for him. However, he had stepped back from the doorway and was focused so intently on a ritual that he didn't even hear me. I didn't dare interrupt him.

Hades blew a dirge on his horn and called upon his own divinity, and the flames about Hestia flickered just a hair lower. The aura around her began to shade towards orange.

"Such arrogance, brother!" she spat scornfully. "Fire is the blood of humanity, and you cannot extinguish it — or me — unless you end this pathetic little world." Even as she spoke, tendrils of fire unfurled from her fingertips to lick at our defenses, seeking the weakest link. "You should never have freed me, for I have always been stronger."

Faster than a firestorm, she punched a fist directly at Tel's head.

Without any deliberate action, Ynez suddenly manifested her love as the beautiful, snow-white swan I had only seen once before, when Zoe died, and it dove in front of Tel, partially deflecting the blow with its wing. Acrid smoke from burning feathers filled the air, and Ynez, the swan, and Tel all screamed with pain.