Stellar

The volcanic devastation on Hawaii is fairly impressive but one must not forget that it's an island surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. Now that's a lot of water. Next chapter, you will discover Natalia's fate.

Araziah's motives may become a little more explicit in the next chapter. More to come on that! Water is a powerful influence and its magic has some unique properties that the other elements do not. The Tempest is, without doubt, a force to be reckoned with.

Sebby did say he was tracking Araziah to stop an alliance with the Conclave, previous chapter. It's a safe bet his presence at the Barents-Whitehouse building was not coincidence. Though, he does seem quite interested in Darren's blood. Hmmm. In this instance, 'cousins' is not a reference to the earth type, as they are not about to help the Conclave destroy the world -- the Spirit of Earth was a reluctant party to the original banishment after all -- so they aren't about to rejoin the whole messy conflict without a very good reason. Instead, 'cousins' here refers to his and Nero's blood cousins; the literal children of a parent's sibling. Why this involvement might be risky, I leave to your imagination.

"Me?" I was slipping again, falling behind in the race I'd been running with reality. The goal of understanding what was going on seemed to keep moving ahead, always that little bit faster than I could chase it. "How? Why?! What is this ... place?" The glow faded from Triskeleth's eyes, and she blinked once, before drawing in a deep breath. "I had imagined many possibilities, but I will admit this one did not enter my consideration. Come closer, Torsten. Sit with me. I will tell you what I c

Here's Chapter 12. Ugh, I'm sorry it took so long!

Well that's part of the fun -- keeping people guessing about why, how, what, and who -- so I wouldn't want to entirely spoil it for you. However, it's safe to say that both Torsten and his grandfather are/were (apparently?) fully human. There's a couple of fairly basic reasons already incumbent in the text that can be harmlessly extrapolated, and they are: Terrence Wilde lived and died within a normal human lifespan (dragons typically live for centuries, assuming they don't meet a premature end) and Torsten is both susceptible to compulsion like a regular Joe and seems to have no magical ability of his own, nor the ability to change forms. It's a more likely scenario that theirs is regular human DNA and not the magical flying-murder-lizard variety. However, you'll note the use of 'apparently' and 'seems to have' in the preceding sentences, and this is because, well ... it is possible everything is not as I have shown you. Then again, that's always possible regardless, so you could quite happily take my entire reply with a grain of salt. Thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying it!

Well, I like hearing everyone's ideas just as much as I like playing the counterweight to conjecture and theorising, whatever it may be. In this case, it is the safer assumption that Sebby's intentions are not harmful -- the two goddesses are sisters and closely aligned after all -- but it is not the only possible explanation You are quite right that a human as a seer would have a natural disadvantage -- no innate magical ability nor psychic power nor the simple ability to shift form to a flying murder-lizard. Presumably, foresight would be the only benefit. Still though, maybe your guesses have some truth to them! Isn't the real question here: why is it going to be Torsten and not some other water dragon instead? One would certainly expect this to be the case, so the reason behind it should be an important one! Thank you! I'm glad you are still enjoying Spirit of Fire.

There are quite a few who would find Torsten's current situation of extreme interest, if they were to find out. A monkey wrench is about right. Thanks so much for all your comments on my story! I won't respond to them individually on the previous chapters, but I will say that if you have any more questions or thoughts, I'll be happy to address those here on chapter 11. I'm glad you are enjoying it so far, and I'd encourage you to reread if you think it'll clarify anything.

Oh, I do expect the readers to distrust overly friendly characters, though I fully intend to be the devil's advocate on these occasions also, just to make you question what you might believe. In this case, I'm wondering what exactly the deception is. I mean, he certainly could be pulling some kind of con, but to what end? He's arrived ostensibly as a servant of the sky goddess, so whatever his 'real' purpose is, it will have something to do with her involvement (or lack thereof) in the entire conflict. And taking advantage of emotional vulnerability? Hmm. What benefit does Sebby get from comforting an upset boy and giving him some kisses? Well, apart from the, uh, obvious enjoyment of the act that is. He didn't ask for anything in return, except to drop by in future -- and with Torsten's permission. He can't really be that bad ... ... can he?

Minato would object to being called a ninja (he's Japanese American, not a stereotype damn you!), but that's something that Crawley probably would say, just because casual ironic racism is exactly the sort of thing that he'd inflict on old friends to make him chuckle. They are acquaintances who used to work in the Order together, so Minato knows both Crawley and Celeste from that same connection. Haha! Didn't miss that dodge, huh? Torsten got sidetracked pretty quickly before he could tell the audience what it was. You're right, Darren did get quite close to the box, but ... he didn't take anything.

Yes indeed, this is the part that is incomprehensible to Triskeleth; it should not be possible for a human to be a seer, yet that is what her foresight is telling her will happen. Uh, the relationship you are talking about is between a high priestess and her deity. There is no pair-bonding aspect to it in the sense you are considering, and this is not only due to them being same-gender but also because, um, well ... she's a goddess. Traditionally, the Spirits haven't had any interest in pursuing romantic attachments, as the fleeting lives of mortals don't hold a lot of importance to a literal deathless force of nature. The 'holy rampage' Lady Shiba is on, is because of the war with the Conclave; Triskeleth's whereabouts are still very important, and the avatar needs to be found and killed, so ... she is not sitting around idle, but getting her hands dirty, so to speak.

So, you think that Sebby is up to something nefarious? Ignore the impracticality of mental compulsion being detectable by those who are the victim of it (assuming a bare minimum of self-awareness), and you have a case of not just 'how?' but also 'why?' So that is precisely what I'd say here: *why* would Sebby be duplicitous? It's a requirement of motivation more than anything. During his introduction in chapter 9, he explicitly told Grand Secretary Ridefort that he was sent as a gift by his goddess; 'a token of faith to aid her sister, during this most unstable and critical time.' Essentially, he was claiming his purpose is to help the Spirit of Water in her fight, and by extension, the Order also; they all have a common goal in preventing the Conclave's plans from coming to completion. Not only this, but Sebby mentions Celeste multiple times, including that his presence is to act as a counter for Araziah throwing in with the Conclave -- and wasn't this the main reason that Celeste 'went upstate' to visit Ridefort over? Also, do you think she would allow Sebby near Torsten if she believed for even a second he constituted any kind of danger? Additionally, Torsten is quite surprised -- both of them are, apparently -- about how profound and how impactful their first impressions of one another are, but also wary enough not to jump to any conclusions. Hopefully, the prose reflects this adequately. Whatever feelings exist are quite new and yet to be properly understood, but you can bet that neither have a lot of interest in the whole 'love at first sight' trope and the clichés that arrive with it. With regard to the glove, Crawley, of course, does not yet know that Theo is dead, although, Darren isn't, and ... there are a number of other dragons in the Seventh House. Options exist. Lastly, Celeste has no idea about how a new seer is created when the previous dies. Similarly, the Conclave also wouldn't know anything about who would take over when Triskeleth is gone and lacking any informants, would stay none the wiser. Araziah, however, certainly might know a thing or two because his insight seems to have provided him with some clue about Torsten's future. The only other who (might?) know about this is the Lady Shiba herself, though we will come to that thought at some point in the future ...

Thanks! I love that you're enjoying it.

And now 11!

The walk home was a daze. I was exhausted from the running, the heat, and the tension of keeping it all together for those critical minutes. It hadn't even been that long since I had arrived home with Theo, another school day finished, and now I was returning from the forest with the experience of his death fresh in my memory. My body wasn't the only thing that was tired. Mentally, I was used up, and I didn't think about anything much until I was touching the handle of the sliding do

Thank you so much for reading! The most pleasing response to get as an author is that the characterisation and the plot has depth to it; a lot of work goes into creating something authentic and empathetic. However, there is no shame in feeling as though you have missed something, because my writing has a lot of small detail that is very easy to overlook, so please don't feel like you are 'stupid' for not getting it all. I encourage everyone to re-read if any part of it has escaped you, because you may pick up new information that will make things clearer. So, thanks again for following Spirit of Fire, and I hope you'll stick around to see the story through.

You are completely right! Darren is going to want revenge, but nobody from the Conclave knows what has happened here yet, and they probably won't until Araziah himself tells them. Something like this might complicate his plans to work with them, given that Theo was a member of the prestigious Seventh House. Regarding his feelings for Torsten though, in whatever capacity those feelings may be: there may be some truth to that. If there are deeper emotions residing beneath his outermost layer of ambition and ego, they could very well be misunderstood and ignored .... for now. What would happen if he is required to confront those emotions though? You will see more of Torsten's reaction in the following chapter. Their fight took place within the forest and over a hill some distance from the town, so it is not immediately visible to any residents. Probably the most notable thing would have been the noise -- a dragon can make a roar that has a good volume to it, and sounds nothing like any other commonly known native American wildlife. If anyone was close enough to hear it, they might've thought they were hallucinating.

Er, no. As I said, the Sixth House is extinct.

If Araziah was capable of physically beating Theo to the point of knocking him out, he would have done so during their melee. Theo was right in stating that the red dragon was too small to win the physical fight, and did not have the size and strength to force any kind of peace -- you need to realise that Theo was roughly three times Araziah's weight. Restraining him would have taken some next-level ninjitsu. If Araziah had been a bit older and a bit larger, perhaps it could have gone differently. However ... Theo wasn't counting on the infernal breath attack nor teleportation, and these things were instrumental to the outcome. Basically, Araziah didn't have a lot of other options except to kill if he wanted to win, and he did not enter battle with the intention of a stalemate or loss. On top of that, while Torsten is completely justified in feeling upset, Araziah did indeed warn them before any of this happened. The threat was there, and the risk of ignoring it was one they chose to take.

Araziah was relying on Torsten's ignorance of his situation continuing, and it was quite the unexpected surprise for his facade to be exposed; without that ignorance, the whole premise comes crashing down. You could surmise that Araziah has temporarily given up on the idea of getting Torsten to voluntarily cooperate and is instead looking at alternatives. One cannot assume, however, that this idea is permanently shelved.; these creatures are, after all, ambitious and pragmatic when they wish to be. Obstacles are to be destroyed or subverted, whichever is simplest, and if a way does not exist, one will be created. Araziah will do what he needs to in order to get what he wants -- it all comes down to the attractiveness of whatever the Conclave can do for him versus what he would require to ensnare Torsten's help, if that is possible. One thing is for certain: those options are mutually exclusive, so it's got to be one way or the other. Sadly, unique skills do not function post-mortem, and the dead are dead without second chances -- with the exception of the Spirit of Fire itself, but gods do work by different rules to the mere mortals. Theo is gone, and unfortunately, he is not about to return.

If Torsten was smart enough to figure out what was basically a bluff, does he strike you as the sort to give in to coercion in a situation where he holds all the power? Would that sort of behaviour fit his character? When the option exists to simply refuse cooperation at any time, what recourse does Araziah realistically have? As for last chances, it remains to be seen what the Conclave can offer him and if it is enough to be tempted to an alternative course of action.

The Conclave will not be pleased, although it's worth remembering that Theo was not the only one working on acquiring the Fear through Torsten's family. Darren was intending to ... do something about this (see Chapter 9 for reference) and he will likely be even less impressed when he discovers Theo's fate as he genuinely loved his little brother.

The prophecy and Araziah's future are not explicitly linked. That's not to say that the two won't be intertwined, because there isn't much room for these things to occur completely without touching; just that at this stage they remain independent. However, the Conclave is in definite need of any help it can get, and Araziah, whilst uninterested in resurrecting the mad god, might find something in their intentions to work to his advantage. The Sixth House is indeed extinct. The progenitor Irofex was, in simple terms, a prolific backstabber, and so were his descendents. This tendency eventually led to the destruction of the house and the death of the remaining members. At some future point, you may learn some more of this and other fire dragon legends.

It's Chapter 10! Don't miss it.

The feeling of being mentally commanded was nothing what I had experienced before. Something in my brain had control taken from it, and my ability to do anything other than exactly what I was told was slipping away, moment by moment. It was freakish and unnerving, and I had no way of stopping it. But ... I could still try. I locked my muscles in place, my shoulders so tense that they hurt, my whole body shaking from the strain of resistance. "Theo." A tear ran down my cheek, not e