Never Fire [ONC2020]

Chapter 6: The Winning Move

There were more of those like her. There were more. As the remaining sparks fluttered to the ground in a frenzy, Sienna thought for certain the crowd would react in the same way. She watched for a mob to form like bees and storm into the temple. She braced herself for the inevitable jeers and cries to fill the air—she even thought of the notion that someone may try and kill her for bringing her cursed matches to them.

But no such thing happened.

The people left over from the Washing raised their heads slowly as though a phoryth shooter were pointed at their heads, and as soon as Sienna pictured that, she knew: this was their act of surrender. She read it clearly in the way they looked to Fajhiro for guidance. The way the absence of a part of the crowd hung heavy in the hot air. The resignation behind the veils of the women and the marks of tears that stained those veils.

They feared him.

"Break fast on the turn of the moon cycle." The High Priest Nazirad had climbed the steps of the temple and addressed the remaining people. His dark, kohl-lined eyes rummaged through the crowd like a thief in the night rummaging through treasure—subtle and precise—and once he found the treasure he was looking for, Zimorrah, he smoothly continued. "Azarahn, you have honored both your god of fire and his Esteemed One with your gift. May this new cycle bring blessings upon you."

Though the masses broke out into noise as they gathered their grief and left the foot of the temple, a tense and quiet restraint rippled through. Sienna wanted to scream and cheer and cry out all at once and her mouth opened, but all she felt was her throat closing. She wanted to feel the horror and disgust she'd felt at the sight of the matches. She wanted to feel the rage she'd felt at discovering Fajhiro's hand in her fate. She even desired the biting grief she'd felt at leaving Djianora, her best one.

But all she felt was relief.

The High Priest informed her that it was Fajhiro's wish to break fast with her that morning, but the relief did not sway. She wasn't alone. She wasn't alone.

All this time, all of those years losing herself to the countless identities she'd had to put on, all of those worlds making her trudge up the ladder of society and keep herself secret and cautious—and she wasn't alone.

Climbing up the stairs to meet Fajhiro with a calm she knew should be wrong, he greeted her and led her into the Fire Temple. The immense, firelit space still daunted Sienna, but could anything interfere with the elation of a burden being lifted off her shoulders?

"So you see now," began Fajhiro on their way, "just how little you know. But you are pleased?"

"It's a comfort to know that the burden you have placed on me is shared."

"The Matchlights, yes." He called for a priest to open a set of doors Sienna had not gone in before, and told the priests and guards in the room to leave them. They were alone.