Walls of Smoke, Heart of Fire
Everything was burning. The house she grew up in, the tavern she worked at and the only one that truly ever loved her was inside. Crying was the only thing she heard, her own crying, as she sobbed at the loss.
"They lit my town on fire, killing the only one that ever loved me. I will do whatever it takes to get revenge!" she snapped, her voice cracking.
Everything started to turn black, the crying continued but the pain of loss was fading. Power emerged as anger and rage took over her, the air around thickened.
This summer day, once promising and bright, was now a cruel mockery of her internal state. She could feel the faint breeze on her chocolate hair that rustled the nearby leaves as her body felt like a vessel ready to burst.
The rampage was coming soon, and she would not be able to control her powers at full range. She knew she could die; she knew after this she would be not the same.
The seer said so, warning the young foolish girl, but she did not care, not at that time and certainly she does not care now. The awareness of her own mortality, a chilling realization that she could very well die here and now, was both frightening and strangely liberating. She was about to cross a threshold, to become something she would struggle to recognize, even in the reflections of her own eyes.
Her memories of a good and simple life were lodged in the pieces of wood that were lying on the ground.
The sun was high in the clouded sky, it was being swallowed by darkness as the house and the tavern burned even more to the ground. Everything was over, right there, as the fated day truly arrived. The once ignorant girl no longer existed.
As everything continued to turn black right before her eyes, her limps were frozen, she was unable to move, only her memory worked as she recalled the beautiful memories of a beginning time.
"I wish I was never born." she sobbed, putting her hands in her face to wipe the flowing tears.
The others present just stared, worried at her as she cried, saying furious words at thin air.
As she opened her arms, the power strongly emerged in her blood, hurting her veins all over her body. She screamed in pain as she tried to do the impossible. A scream, born of both pain and awe, echoed through the space as she wrestled against this untamed energy. She was trying to bend the rules of reality, a task that was as audacious as it was terrifying, a struggle that pushed her to the very edge of existence.
"Please, work! I am begging you...You said if I ever needed power, you could lend me, all I had to do is ask" she begged, talking to the ground. She clutches at the dirt, her knuckles white. The heat from the fire is intense, a physical reminder of her loss.
She sank to her knees, the rough ground pressing against her skin. She wanted to scream, to shatter the silence with the pain that clawed at her insides. But all that came were more sobs, silent tears that mixed with the ash and dirt, watering a barren landscape of grief.
"Here I am, begging on my knees for some sort of power. This human did not deserve this fate! P-Please...Help me... please... just this one time..." she clutches at the dirt, her knuckles white. The heat from the fire is intense, a physical reminder of her loss. Suddenly, a drop of blood hit the ground below her.
Leodora's gaze shifts to her hands, turning them over, in disbelief that they are so small and weak. She returns to her pleading, this time filled with a raw anger as her earlier hope disappears.
"Why do you do not give me power. I cannot turn back time on my own!? I have so much power and so much nothing at the same time." she screamed.
"Why do you not give me power?" she demanded, her voice cracking with desperation and a newfound ferocity. "I cannot turn back time on my own!" The words were ripped from her throat, a lament both accusatory and pleading. "I have so much power," she continued, her voice rising to a scream that echoed through the ravaged landscape, "and so much nothing at the same time!" The contradiction tore at her, a maddening paradox she could no longer bear.
She crumpled, the anger receding into a wave of self-loathing. "I am just useless..." she whimpered, the words barely a breath. Tears welled, hot and stinging, mixing with the blood that trickled from her nose. Sobs wracked her body, each one a painful acknowledgment of her powerlessness.
A bitter, self-deprecating laugh escaped her lips, laced with despair. "How could I not see the outcome?" she whispered, her voice barely audible over the crackling fire. "Death will always follow me, now and forever, as I am stuck in this endless pit of suffering." The weight of that knowledge settled upon her like a physical burden, crushing her spirit.
Looking down and watching her blood stain in her right arm, a melancholic feeling ran though her.
Her gaze drifted down, landing on her right arm where blood soaked into her sleeve, staining a vivid crimson against the dull grey fabric. The sight triggered a wave of melancholic resignation, a profound sadness for what was and what could never be. "I am sorry," she whispered, the apology laced with the weight of her imagined failures. "Since I do not possess such grand power, the only thing I can do is to go mad to avenge your death." The statement was a chilling promise, her sobs intensifying as she stared blankly at the burning buildings around her.
A moment of silence enveloped her, broken only by the roar of the flames. She lifted her gaze, sweeping it across her surroundings, locking eyes with each person who remained amidst the devastation. Her stare was hollow, devoid of warmth, yet somehow charged with a dangerous intensity.
She was utterly exhausted, the weariness seeping into her very bones. Tired of the constant struggle, tired of living a life that felt like a continuous battle, tired of forcing smiles that never reached her heart, tired of simply existing. In this moment of despair, the complexities melted away, leaving behind a single, burning purpose: revenge. It was a dark, consuming fire, promising nothing but more pain, yet it was the only thing that could pull her from the abyss of her grief.
She felt a strange, hollow calmness creep over her, a numbness that was both a blessing and a curse. It was a way to survive, to keep existing in a world that felt suddenly and irrevocably empty. But it was also a prison, isolating her from any semblance of future joy. Her world had shrunk to the size of the ravaged building in front of her, a fiery tomb for the only person who had ever genuinely loved her.
The fire continued its work, a ferocious beast devouring everything in its path. And Leodora, lost in the desolate echo of her own crying, knew that a part of her had been burned away with it, leaving only a hollow shell, a broken echo of the girl she once was. She did not know what the future held, only that it would not be the same as it should have been, as it could have been if he was still here. Now, there was only the darkness, the burning, and the endless, heartbreaking sound of her own despair.
She stares at the burning remains of her home, a newfound coldness settling in her eyes. No more tears fall, just a hard, burning resolve. A wicked smile slowly emerged in her pale face.
"Revenge it is." She sadly and madly laughed looking at the disappearing sun in the sky as her green eyes of hope were replaced by total blackness.