Drinking on a School Night

[Talon Windwaltz]

ooc: I apologize for taking so god damn long to get back to this.

Roan? "Wait, Willow!" Talon said as the Lycan dragged Muryllis off to safety, but the woman was on a mission and was determined to see the justicar to the Hospital Wing. It was probably for the best - who knew how long Muryllis could survive with such terrible fire wounds? If it was Roan who inflicted them, then it meant that they were grievous indeed...born from a raging engine of fire that toiled away within her soul.

Why would she do it? He knew that Roan and Muryllis had a rather shaky relationship, and perhaps she they had simply had a tiff in which the elementalist simply didn't know her own strength. But Willow had said that she would kill Hawkins - who had apparently arrived for the express purpose of stopping her - if Talon didn't go and save them. It was all very confusing, but the Headmaster took a deep breath and headed up the last set of stairs to the rooftop of the Astronomy Tower.

"-do not let them up here, understand?"

Talon felt a sudden wave of blazing heat as he stepped out onto the rooftop. The structure of the tower was horribly damaged, with part of the balcony having cracked and fallen to the ground below, and flames seemed to leap from the very stone itself. The Headmaster had heard Hawkins' voice - he knew he was up here, and alive - but he couldn't see him. All he could see before him was Roan...or what used to be Roan.

It was evident upon sight. The Lycan had become something else: something beautiful and terrible. Something Talon's mentors would've marveled to look upon. Roan had become her very fire itself, a blazing sun to destroy the world and raise it anew. The glory of her flames beat against his skin, and he felt the familiarity in it - once upon a time, that flame had once burned within him. "Roan..." Talon said, stepping forward, "what...what is this? What have you done?"

[Roan]

OOC: I can't muster enough muse to post as Song right now, so assume she keeps Anil shrouded and didn't try and stop Talon.

BIC:


Anil and Song’s escape were lost to Roan in the ecstasy of the moment. She could feel the pounding of life in the flames that fled her fingers. It was as if she was at the center of her own sun and the endless fields of flame residing in her were finally out for the world to see. The ecstatic pleasure of finally feeling her potential begin to release was cut short by a familiar note of disturbance nearby. She didn’t need lycan senses to know who the new arrival was. Part of the fires she so hungrily released had once belonged to the Headmaster who approached. They were what helped overflow her and fuel the beast that now sought to tear down his school stone by stone.

Roan stopped her enjoyment of letting the flames run wild down the corridor and brought them in closer as she watched her former mentor approach her. A snarl crawled across her face when he spoke to her like she had done something wrong. Like he had the right to reproach her when he helped create that which stood before him. Talon was a different story than those who had hurt her. He was a brother and father figure all at once. They had been allies so many times. The only real grudges she held against him were him failing to support her ideas at a few times and never really training her in her fire elementalism which led to her losing her grip. But it was as if her flames wanted him. They flickered angrily and flared towards him.

“What have I I done Talon? You really dare to ask me that. You who took the easy way out when giving a 16 year old child the power of fire. You who didn’t anticipate or deal with the consequences of those actions and then continually wrote me off as hot headed and childish? Don’t act surprised that things finally unleashed.” Roan held herself high and with grace as she prepared to face off with Talon. She let her white hot gaze lock onto his as she stepped to the side like a lion circling gazelle.

“Are you going to fight me Talon?” She mocked mercilessly. “Going to help that pathetic coward Hawkins take me down? Think you’re man enough to face your own fire?” Two dragons standing higher than Roan’s shoulder walked out of her fire like ink off canvas and prowled next to her eyeing the Headmaster hungrily. “Or will you walk away and let the me do what you helped give me the power to do?”

Eyes left his for a moment to the hole where Anil had disappeared. With no relentless assault of flames Roan didn’t know what he’d do. But for now he couldn’t be a worry for her. Talon was an elementalist and she could feel parts of him within her fire. He wouldn’t underestimate the flames he had once felt as well like someone who had never touched them. If Anil knew what was best for him he wouldn’t throw himself relentlessly at her when she could outlast. But she never knew the community around Firefox to be particularly intelligent.

She shot her gaze back towards Talon, waiting either to defend or attack as she must.

[Deleted]

The words had barely left his lips when Anil caught sight of the lightning mage sprinting up the stairs. His eyes widened. Windwaltz! That brief moment of distraction was all it took to crack his shield. Shit! Eager fingers of flame pried at the weakness, shattering the magic that held it together, allowing fire to rush through the opening and devour the useless remnants of the Protego spell. Anil leapt back, shooting a flurry of deflection spells into the inferno even as he dodged the streams of fire that bypassed his make-shift defense. Focused entirely on survival, he was unable to spare even a thought for the stone dragonling he had brought with him.

But it all suddenly stopped. The flame and heat abated abruptly, as if reined in with a sharp tug of a leash, and what had been a firestorm just minutes before slowly retreated back into the main balcony of the tower. Anil tensed, wand stance still at the ready, uncertain whether it was a temporary lull or if Roan really had decided to turn her attentions to their new arrival. Their voices drifted through the hole above him, confirming the latter. Taking advantage of the distraction, Anil quickly distanced himself from the ceiling fissure, repositioning where he could better hold a defense should Roan renew her attack. Meanwhile, his current problem involved getting back upstairs without getting flash-cooked in the process. It had already been made clear that direct assault wasn’t going to work. However, the school’s precious headmaster turned out to be less useless than he made out. Thanks to his surprise appearance, Anil had plenty of time to set up his next move.

Sharp green eyes scanned the area. Stone, damaged instruments, and other various debris littered his surroundings. His gaze landed on a few glinting pieces of the remnants of a telescope. Silver. Not much, hardly enough for a tiny handful, but even that amount was plenty for what he had in mind. Wordlessly, he waved his wand, beginning to silently transfigure the material around him. Let Roan play with the gutless fool Windwaltz for a while. When she was ready to be serious, he’d be ready and waiting.

[Talon Windwaltz]

Talon's eyes widened as he took in the words of his former pupil. Roan, or the creature before him, this Paragon of elementalism, was right. It had been the Headmaster's own incompetence that had led to this moment. When Roan had first come to him four years ago seeking understanding of her own enormous power within her - the power that had given life to her Five Dragons - Talon did not want to unleash it. As with all those, those many those, who came to him seeking elemental power, Talon's first reaction was to refuse.

He knew all too well the dangers of Elementalism - the dangers the others ignored, the dangers that were evident tonight. Oh, if only all those seeking to become elementalists could see Roan now - see what they could become. But she was powerful, all the same, and those who sought his gift sought power and little more. That was what Elementalism was - power, and it could be used only to destroy. They were the assassins of Mother Nature, born to kill, to lay her enemies low and set balance between order and chaos.

But still he relented to her, and gave her what she sought. He wanted to give her the chance to refine her strengths, to be known for what burned within her instead of keeping it hidden away forever. What a fool he was - even he could not control it, and his own fire was swallowed up in it. He resought his flame later through the Zodiac Book Sagittarius so as to regain his courage and steel himself against the oncoming Shadows.

Why didn't he use the Book to cure Roan? Instead, all he wanted was to teach her to control it. He had overestimated her - he believed the girl could control it herself, become a powerful Guru, to rival even Agiel Firefox himself. He had failed, as he always failed, and now here he was, helpless to stop it. If he harmed her, she would be twice victim to him, and Talon was loath to harm anyone.

Anil, however, was not. Talon knew this. The last time the Headmaster had seen him, it was right after the incident with Roan, and Talon had become a sniveling coward with no direction or inner strengths. Hawkins had cursed him and blamed him for everything, and told him that if he ever encountered Talon again, he would murder him. Perhaps it was the comedy of the stars that Talon, Roan, and Anil were now here in one place suffering the very aftermath of the encounter which made them all enemies.

Talon's widened eyes shut, and the Headmaster sighed. 'Think you're man enough to face your own fire?' The Paragon had asked him, and Talon wondered at that himself. It had been many years since he had felt anything relating to strength, or courage. He felt like a coward, locked up in his Tower, never escaping. His life was meaningless, his loves vanquished, his hatred unkindled, and his fire extinguished. The Headmaster felt the heat of his own flames tinge his flesh, and he remembered in it other days - stronger days, fiercer days - and he knew what he had to do.

"I have been a fool," Talon said to Roan, his eyes apologetic, "I foresaw nothing of my deeds, and even now I wander in darkness, unable to find the light. There are others who have seen in me something that is not there, because it is within you. You cannot handle it, Roan, you never could, and I was a fool...to believe you were capable of it!" Suddenly, the winds atop the tower began to blow, and clouds began to come together above the Headmaster's head. Sparks began to rip through the Headmaster's robe, and Talon's skin began to blacken in areas as the electricity kissed it, though it was quickly healed over.

A thunder clap was heard above, as the clouds darkened and filled with voltage. The lightning surrounding the Headmaster twisted around him and static charged through his hair. Perhaps the most magical effect was his eyes - which seemed to bleed from a blue into a deep violet color. "No more talk," Talon growled, his violet eyes narrowing, "I've had enough of your disrespect." The Headmaster stretched forth his left hand, and with a great wave of magical energy the winds soared through the flames and pushed them aside, so that with his wand hand, he unleashed a great bolt of lightning to incapacitate the Paragon.

But he knew it would not be enough. He counted on it not being enough.82

[Roan]

Roan laughed darkly as the world turned dim around them. She had thought that he wouldn’t dare fight her, especially when he apologized. It had been a long time since she saw the Headmaster actually be a strong person and would have killed him for the coward he was had he stood down before her. Anil was far gone from her head because her attention couldn’t help but focus on Talon. The man who made her what she was today. Humanity struggled within her wildly as her eyes met his and saw the regret within them but it was no match for the power that consumed her.

But then against all odds his tone changed and the atmosphere changed. For the first time she felt something powerful enough to combat her flames in his elementalism pushing it aside. The woman gripped her fists and held onto it with a snarl, pouring more of her power into the room around them to keep it the inferno that it was. What more as lightning filled the clouds and was drawn out of Talon she felt a certain magnetism towards it. Part of his fire was within her, the part that had tainted her and made her too strong to handle. And it was kin to the fire that was part of his lightning. This was her first real opponent since she had stepped out of her burning home because he understood what held her in thrall.

“Handle it? What do you call this Talon? I have handled it all these years and it has allowed me to become this. I am stronger than anyone and I will not be beaten down like I have over the years.” Roan yelled over the roar of the flames and wind. Whipping her hands in front of her the flames girding the lycaness surged forward as a shield against his lightning blast. Energy hit energy with a deafening crack of sound and blast of light as Roan solidified her position and poured her power into defense. Angered at the strength of his first attack the flames around her rimmed with white as they became hotter.

The two elementalists stood as testaments to their raw power. Those who did not understand what it meant to have an element could gain understanding in one glance at the two with it rushing over and around their bodies. It took over them and fueled them. These were the forces of Nature brought to clash on the Tower, and no power of man would stop them.

Snarling like a beast she fluidly moved again and let her power form up like a wave surging forward towards the Headmaster. What normally would be a shape of water was instead swirling fire coming at Talon to devour and obliterate him. “I am everlasting. If I have to beat upon you like an ocean upon a shore to reduce you to the rubble you are than I will. You can’t outlast me.” With the wave blocking her vision she wouldn’t be able to see it connect with the man but she watched carefully knowing this probably wasn’t going to be the last of their fight.

[Talon Windwaltz]

There was no response to Roan's boast from Talon, who stood immobile and unflinching before the wave of fire that threatened him. He watched its arc with his deadly eyes, and even allowed it to come so close to him as to lick his nose, before the very skies themselves began to bellow like an enraged beast. At the last second, Talon's eyes glanced up towards the skies, and with a furious cry from the heavens a bolt of lightning consumed him. His wizard's robe and maps remained where he stood, but the great winds swirled and carried them away from the flame's deadly embrace.

The robes soared into the sky, around the elementalist and into the clouds where they vanished from sight. The clouds began to roar again, and the voltage crackled within, and finally a blast of lightning emerged. This then broke into several chains of electrical arcs, numbering sixteen, which crashed down upon the tower and began to lick and leap at the stone floor, charging the very ground beneath the Paragon with danger except for the one spot where she stood.

Talon soared above the clouds silently, the wind beneath his feet, and his robe flew to his wand hand. He covered himself with it, and with his left hand, he made a scooping movement, as if gathering up the scuttling sparks like knives upon the ground. With one motion, all of the electrical arcs upon the ground shot towards Roan from all sides as if they were lions leaping upon their prey.82

[Roan]

Triumph made her body shiver agreeably when there was no immediate opposition to her attack. It rolled forward and she felt it get closer to him ready to eat him whole and then in a second he was gone in a burst of light and her flames had nothing to consume. Fury replaced her momentary celebration as her opponent no longer stood before her. The skin was crawling as the air became full of static which was not good in combination with the searing heat of her flames. Had Roan not been so attuned with her element the lightning strikes would have caught her by total surprise. They were part of Talon and his power though which meant her own power sensed it. Not that it did any good because the lycaness flinched away only to find herself surrounded by it on the ground.

Her flames sped towards her to protect the inevitable blast but the woman was too slow and roared as the lightning swam through her body from the ground. In her pain the fire around her rose and screamed along with her, reaching into the sky like the fingers of a greedy hand to find her attacker. It felt like thousands of needles stabbed at her body again and again. Her resiliency as a lycan and power of fire kept her conscious though it drove her to one knee while she grit her teeth against it. The brief moments the lightning was in her felt like minutes but the pain was enough to stun the horrible power keeping her humanity down. In feeling pain her mortality was able to break through as it had for a second when she had nearly killed her lover.

The eyes that looked to the clouds were not filled with rage or fire and did not glow with the heat of the sun. They were hazel, and they were scared. Roan was taking deep breaths as the pain was fleeing her body and she struggled with her power that was pushing its way back to the surface. “Talon hel-…” Her sharp scream was cut off as her eyes turned back to the fiery red and rage filled her body. She searched the clouds for her opponent with anger. He was running from her, not fighting her fairly on the ground.

“Are you all cowards? You? Anil? Muryllis? Fight me fairly!” She roared while pouring more of her power and self into the fire around her. Anger at being struck by Talon added fuel as she took the fire already reaching for the sky higher, haphazardly searching for her mentor. It was hard to feel him with the lightning around because that was him. Rage blinded her and all she could think about was his charred body joining Muryllis’.

[Talon Windwaltz]

Talon danced through the air as the arm of flame reached through the clouds in search of him. The elementalist stared at the fires coming toward him coldly, and with a great wave of his wand hand a rush of wind hurled it in the direction of the tower where it impacted and exploded with all of the Paragon's rage. The wind softly lowered Talon down from the clouds onto the edge of the tower so that he could face his opponent.

His violet eyes had no pity, even to Roan who seemed so conflicted in her decisions. With no words, he raised his left hand so that it was level with his shoulder and began to move it in a cyclic motion. The air around it became infused with his energy, and soon it made a horrid sound like sharpened knives slicing against each other's blades. In the palm of his hand lightning began to charge, and soon the electricity was swirling within the summoned cyclone.

It extended from his hand at roughly fourteen feet, and he moved his arm in a massive semi-circle like a whip. When his arm came to the center of the hemisphere, Talon smacked his wand hand hard against his left hand. The sound that resulted was not unlike a shotgun blast. The wind scattered out from Talon charged with high voltage, striking around the tower. 82

[Roan]

Her power grabbed nothing. Like a bird he was in and out of the fingers of flames never getting burned. Roan was getting frustrated at the challenge he was presenting. Against Anil raw power had been enough because he resorted to wand magic and wasn’t as agile as Talon was when he was drawing on wind. This wasn’t enough for the Headmaster and the angrier she got the harder it was to come up with some sort of strategy against him. She was the angry bull being goaded on by a red piece of fabric. Especially when he dropped down to where she could see him. Normally pretty features were ugly with a sneer as she watched his cyclone form with lightning at it’s core.

The grating noise of the wind was hard on Roan’s ears and she continued to grit her teeth and draw her power around her in a white hot cloak of protection. Again his power slammed against hers with another crash that had to have woken the school and its surroundings. It was taking more of her strength to hold him back and more flames billowed forth from her palms. Her feet planted on the ground to keep from being thrown back and when she was finally able to release her shield she did it with jerky movements and let it form a wall behind her. Steam came off her breath as she angrily glared down Talon.

One hand reached into the wall and grabbed, twisting slightly and then throwing out towards Talon. Darts of flame shaped themselves into hungry wolves which launched at him while her other hand directed another pillar of flame to come from above. She never intended the demonic looking wolves to land on him but rather him be caught if he tried to escape again into the sky. Anger held her so tightly she didn’t bother to speak or goad him on any further; only feeding it powerfully into the flames she sent to attack him. Roan didn’t glow like the sun anymore and it took all her concentration to not just mindlessly throw all she had at him in one blow.

[Talon Windwaltz]

Talon showed no reaction to the effects of his attack- he merely stood on the edge of the tower roof with the same dead expression he had kept through the entire battle. The elementalist could feel his fire within her growing like a wildfire even as it became more and more difficult for the paragon to keep struggling. He said nothing to voice this, but instead reacted to the oncoming attack by letting himself fall gracefully backwards off the edge of the tower. The pillar of flame hit the stone where he was standing and pieces of the tower broke off, falling from the heights to the ground below.

The elementalist continued to fall but stretched both his arms towards the darkened sky and called a bolt of lightning to strike forth and collect him once more. The wolves - who had leaped off the tower after him - fell to the ground and began to ignite the grass around the fallen pieces of the tower. The smell of smoke rose from below, and Talon's robe was once again swept up by the wind even as the flames began to lick at it in hopes of destroying at least a piece of their mistress's enemy.

But the Headmaster was once again above the tower, and his robe came to clothe him. A great moan came from the heavens as the air began to grow heavier and swirled down from the clouds in the form of three small tornadoes, dancing and leaving enormous cracks wherever they touched. They were not meant to harm, but to confuse Talon's opponent as they gathered up dust and ashes left behind from the paragon's fury and assailed them against Roan's senses - blinding the eyes and stifling the nose, and the rush of the wind itself battering against her ears. 1

[Roan]

Frustration was mounting as Talon once again took to the wind and simply fell off the side of the Tower. The strength of her flames managed to split a piece of stone off and her pack of angry wolves followed him down but she didn’t have to see that they didn’t get him to know that they didn’t. The woman turned around looking for him and abandoning her senses and feelings. Again he was nowhere to be seen. There wasn’t even a blank face for her to stare down. Instead she was left angrily throwing balls of fire at the empty air growling her frustration as the sky rumbled above her.

She was confused as the tornados touched down further damaging the Tower. They didn’t head for her and even if it did her reflexes were enough she could dodge them. But then their purpose became clear as dust clogged her throat and forced her to close her eyes. The stone debris of her battle with Anil went through her nose and the roaring of the wind made it near impossible to hear. This wasn’t something she could burn away as she had with all others, though she tried. Any flames Roan threw at the tornados were simply blow out and it increased her fury with each try.

Instinctively she once again drew her fire around her protectively but it did nothing against grit. Tears tried to clear it from her eyes but she got nothing but blurry vision and they evaporated on her skin. More. More fire. Burn it away. The shield around her increased in size and heat like a bubble. Nothing kept it back though as she had no idea of knowing where her opponent was unless she could see him since she couldn’t feel him with all of this power they were using. More. Kill him. Stop this. More!

The air around her rippled and with a violent yell she shoved her hands away from her making her bubble of flames expand rapidly and outward in an explosion that shook the entire tower. Stone was scorched and sank through the cracks the tornados had been in the stone. Over the edge of the Tower it spilled and up into the sky , being fed from her palms. She felt endless and yet now the rage of the fire was beginning to wear on her body. There were burns on her arms where the fire curled and yet she refused to stop her onslaught. If she had to raze Firefox to the ground from atop the Tower to get at Talon, she would.

[Talon Windwaltz]

From the clouds Talon watched the suffering of his opponent, and still there was no pity within him. Indeed, within his heart he felt a sort of satisfaction to see his haughty pupil brought low before his power, choking on dust and stumbling in the dark in hopes of reaching him. The elementalist was beginning to believe she was too far gone, too removed from the original girl who had come to him for knowledge on the power that lay within her. He pondered that perhaps it would even be merciful of him to end her life, so that she may serve as an example to all others who sought the wicked power that flowed within them.

He had forgotten that she was a victim of his own incompetence, because in his mind he had no incompetence. Was he not here straddling the clouds, the very power of Gods at his disposal? Was he not victorious? Who now would see him in all his glory and not say Talon Windwaltz was the greatest wizard in all of history? And in this thought, the first emotion finally broke through Talon's ice cold visage.

A smile.

As Talon felt the inferno of the paragon reach into the clouds, he collected all of the raging storm that churned within and around him into one counterattack. He would hurl the spear of Jupiter through the tower and destroy it completely. He would extinguish the lives of the two who were within and let them be an example to all who would speak down to him. After this night, all would know the power of Talon Windwaltz! "Fulmina!" He shouted, and with a resounding crack an enormous bolt of lightning rained down from the heavens to destroy Roan Aliagh. DERP!DERP!

[Roan]

Her orb of flame reached far but never got him. For the first time since the fire had taken over she was feeling truly desperate. It seemed there was no reason to attack him though because Talon had taken on a serious offense. The edge of her hair stood on end as the lighting raced down towards her and the girl slammed her own power of her balloon of fire to meet it in protection. This was nothing like the smaller lightning that had attacked her earlier or even the wind. That lightning wasn’t meant to incapacitate, it’s force could kill her and Roan had a twinge of fear that she had to hold her shield or she would die.

The crack of them meeting was no mere thunderclap and again she found the stone beneath her quivering under the power. It took a great deal of power to keep that bolt from striking herself and destroying her and the Tower. Her arms nearly faltered under the onslaught but fire was more than anger. It kept her going and wouldn’t let her release the shield against his lightning. Now they were both fighting to kill apparently, something Roan never would have seen in Talon against her. Maybe she fought someone as consumed as she.

Finally when the worst of it passed she took in a deep and harsh breath and shoved her shield upwards. With his attack she had a connection to him and knew exactly where he was. Up along the vein of the lightning she sent all of the power of her shield back at her mentor meaning to harm him as he tried to harm her.

[Talon Windwaltz]

Talon's smile turned into a wide grin as the murderous bolt of lightning struck his opponent, but settled once more into an indignant scowl when he saw that she was still alive. Though all of the battle had pointed to her being a haughty girl who was playing with fire she could not control, it appeared that when it came to raw force she still maintained the strength she had always boasted she possessed. The elementalist put more power into his attack, but it was to no avail - her flames began to rise further into the clouds and the heat began to press against his skin.

Their warmth reminded him of summer days long ago when he was a child, and of his passion to live up to the name of Agiel Firefox. In each stroke of the flame he remembered a side of himself he had long forgotten, and it occurred to Talon that Roan was capable of fighting against him because she fought with the fire of two people - his own as well as herself. Suddenly, it occurred to Talon - to the Headmaster - why he had challenged Roan with all his power in the first place. He wanted to help her, to cure her, to take back his own fire within her - his burden to bear, not hers - and dim the flames that she had unleashed.

But the elementalist gritted his teeth at this - she would steal his power and use it against him under her own name? She was even more arrogant than he had originally thought, and such hubris could only be met with death. She could no longer be 'saved.' There was no reason to save her. Before Talon's might she would fall, and justice would be done.

The Headmaster, however, began to weaken his attack. He took in a deep breath, and the fires grew closer toward him, licking and gnashing at him like a hungry beast. The violet in his eyes began to clear into sapphire, and Talon began to feel his heart move in two separate directions. He couldn't decide in time, and the electricity vanished as the flames finally swallowed him and the Headmaster fell from the clouds.

His robe and his flesh burned, the threads of cloth twisting and falling to ashes just as his hair caught fire and his skin blackened. Deep dark blood dripped from his wounds like oil as quickly as they were cauterized, and Talon began to wonder just who it was who was feeling the pain. In the mortal pain that overcame him, he felt the memories of his old self coming into him, and he could feel himself falling...falling...falling into the deep, black abyss where old dreams fell away, never to return.

And then, opening his eye, he let out a great cry, "Pyros!" As he fell like a comet to the earth, cloaked in flame, the very embers began to enter into his core, where they burned fiery runes into the steel of his soul. As Talon, charred and covered in mere scraps of purple cloth, hit his head hard against the cracked stone floor of the Tower, he felt complete again. He took deep breaths, though he could feel every muscle and organ in his body struggling to survive, and slowly got up onto his feet.

"R...Roan are you...hospital...I'm so..." He couldn't make out the words he was trying to say, but he struggled towards his former opponent. He wanted to know if she was alright, if she had returned to her normal state - or whether she was just the same as before, her fire strong enough to fuel her madness, and that he was walking towards his death.

Though back to his full power, he could not fight her now, lest his body fall apart. 82

[Roan]

Finally, there was her victory. Roan laughed as she felt her fire lick at her enemy up in the sky. Finally she was stronger than him and she was the victor in this battle. He would die for his crimes. She was right that she would always outlast him and anyone else who stood in her way because if the great Talon Windwaltz could not stand before her then nobody could.

And then as quickly as her triumph had come upon her it was diminished as her power weakened. The fire rushing out of her body was not by her own will and the flames reached down to her soul. All of her feelings of strength and invulnerability were fleeing her leaving. And she could feel it going to the man who she had attacked. Roan gasped and clutched at her chest as the taint that had driven her insane was purged from her body and returned to the man who had put them there. Rage was there at losing such strength but it couldn’t hold up because Talon had the original claim to that part of her power and it would always return to him when asked. The inferno raging around them flickered and then finally died leaving the Tower dark with heat rising from the stones. The woman screamed and finally fell to the ground as it ripped through her body like knives.

For a second she blacked out from the pain and stress and her eyes closed; body going limp. It didn’t last long though because as soon as the taint had been removed from her body and the Headmaster fell with his crash to the Tower Roan warmed again and awoke.

The girl was taking deep shuddering breaths as she lay on the stone. Slowly she let her eyes open and for the first time in four years they were simply a rich hazel. No embers, no blaze, just her natural color. Every muscle in her body felt like an overcooked noodle and tears were streaming down her face. She felt her elementalism still there inside her warming her weak muscles. Where before she had gone into it and felt an endless field of fire untamed this was much more contained. It was like a star she could draw upon but it didn’t try and force itself through her hands and for the first time it wasn’t a struggle to keep it down. The warmth from it was even different because it was warm and comforting instead of perpetually furious.

All the acts she had done over the night were hitting her like bricks. Phugsius dying in her home and that home burning down to rubble. Attacking her dear friends Willow and Sylph in the Greenhouse. Muryllis, her love, her heart; she had burned him and for all she knew he was dead. Anil who had run so desperately up to the Tower had felt nothing but her wrath. And Talon-

That hit her even harder and the moment came rushing back to her. Sitting up the girl clamored shakily to her feet to see what had become of the Headmaster who had plummeted towards the top of the Tower. She found him standing though barely and he looked like he had walked through hell and not quite made it out alive. “Oh Talon no…” Roan couldn’t choke back tears and pain for all that had happened but she willed herself to have strength and walked up to the man slipping her arm around him so he could lean on her. Her own body almost didn’t have the strength but she refused to fail here like she had failed the rest of the night.

It was difficult but she tried to hold on without harming the man. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t control it and I hurt so many people. I have to get you to the Hospital Wing.” She choked the words out through sobs. Her eyes looked around and saw the carnage of the Tower. There were cracks and burns everywhere and stones had dropped off the edge. The stairwell was full of caved in rock and she knew they had shaken the entire Tower badly because every battle she had been in was burned into her mind. Talon removing his power from her hand’t removed the memories. It was going to be difficult.

Looking at Talon was difficult because of how charred he was but she forced herself to fight her mistake and take small steps towards the stairwell. “Lean on me Talon, don’t let go. I won’t let you die.” Her knees nearly buckled a few times but Roan forced herself to move on. Her mind was running through the night’s events against her will and she remembered her opponent before Talon. “Anil?! Song?!” There was only a slim chance that either of them were still around after the might of the battle on top of the Tower. If either was there they could help her get Talon down and back to the Hospital Wing otherwise it was going to be a very tricky journey for Roan alone.