The Fire
Maya tells the truth about the Fire
Welcome to the final story from The Great Fire collection!
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The Fire
I didn’t feel guilt instantly but it bled into my being and slowly began to fester. Now all I can think about is how more than anyone, even more than Favian, I am to blame.
I used to think that I realised what I had done when I saw my city burn or when I watched the fire steal the night. But it was before then. I knew the moment that I told Karmen that her child had died.
She had a child?
Orel. The young thing who spoke Favian’s fate. I shouldn’t have lied to Karmen but the child was on my mind because I had gone searching for her. At the time I didn’t know who had revealed Favian’s fate. It couldn’t have been the thing from Lirahndür because it would have gloated about it. Karmen had said she would never reveal someone’s fate, it went against what she believed.
But Orel was just a child.
I had a suspicion that Favian had convinced her to tell him his fate. I just wanted to find her and ask. Maybe I could have found a way to end things before it got any worse.
But I didn’t find her, I found Favian.
We both turned onto the main hall at the same time and when he saw me, he smiled.
‘You,’ I managed to utter.
‘You’ve cheated death a few times tonight,’ he said. ‘I’m quite impressed. No matter. Someone will take care of it, I’m sure.’ He started to walk to his chambers. We had begun to live separately when my father died and he said that my sadness was contagious.
He didn’t try and attack you then?
I don’t think he could be bothered. He was never lazy but knew what was and wasn’t worth his time. He left me in the hall and I forgot all about Orel and his fate. I became murderous.
I stalked after him without a weapon and kicked down the door. He laughed when he saw me.
‘Don’t be pathetic,’ he said. I crossed the room in three paces and screamed as I wrapped my hands around his throat and began to strangle him on my father’s desk. His laughter gurgled up his throat – he was so sure that I wouldn’t succeed. But despite his spoken fate, I knew that it was working. I was going to kill him.
The last of his breath was escaping him. His eyes went wide and I could see that he was finally afraid. He could feel, like I could, that he was dying. His fate was wrong. He was wrong. But then Adrian pulled me me off him.
Who’s Adrian?
You would know him as the Wolf.
You know the Wolf?
Yes, quite well in fact. He wasn’t always as blood-thirsty as he is now and I would have thought he’d have some sympathy for my cause but he pulled me away. I struggled against him as we watched Favian gasp for air before his laughter wheezed out of him once more.
‘You can’t kill me,’ he said. ‘No one can.’
‘Liar. I’ll find the one. I will take back what you stole from me.’
‘I doubt that,’ he said as he rubbed at his neck with a handkerchief. I managed to break free of Adrian’s hold and grab his sword. I ran towards Favian screaming again but Adrian grabbed my hair and threw me to the floor.
‘I’ll send someone to deal with you,’ said Favian and he threw the handkerchief at me and they locked me inside.
It was humiliating.
How did you get out?
There’s a passage behind the main tapestry that connects Favian’s chambers to Karmen’s. He thought I didn’t know but it was my castle before his – her room used to be mine as a child and I would walk that passage to my parents when I couldn’t sleep.
I took the secret path so that I could get out of the castle before he succeeded in his plan to kill me. But then I found Karmen waiting in her room as if nothing was going on at all. She wasn’t surprised to see me enter from Favian’s private door. She barely looked up from the book that she was reading.
‘Maya, darling, what brings you here?’ She said. I panicked, I had already tried to kill Favian and failed and I could feel the walls closing in around me. His manipulation, his abuse of the power that I gave him, his apathy at my presence.
I wanted him to pay and I couldn’t be sure that she would help me. She needed to hate him as much as I did. I wasn’t myself but still, I’m to blame. I blurted out:
‘Orel is dead.’ She stiffened. ‘Favian killed her.’
It’s almost impossible for me to describe because no words will do it justice but I understand that seems foolish to say given why you’re here. When I first told her, she didn’t react not because she didn’t hear me but because she didn’t understand. So I lied to her again and told her Orel was gone.
I wanted her to feel the pain that I felt. To do something with the rage that I couldn’t use. She’s pure-blood Neerah, Einar, she could do so much. And all she had to do was go to Favian and end it.
But I forgot why the Neerah steal their magic from others. To use their own is like pulling at chaos.
What happened?
She broke.
Or I should say, I broke her. I waited for her to react, watching her face twitch against stillness as she processed what she heard.
‘Karmen,’ I said as I reached for her. Her name broke her trance and her grief surged from her. It was a wave of power that sent my flying to the wall where I smacked against the stone and fell to the ground unconscious.
I don’t know how long I was out, but when I woke, Karmen was gone, the room was on fire and Death had come to greet me. The Horashi loomed over me, studying me,
‘Am I dead?’ I asked.
‘Not yet,’ he said. He dragged me to my feet and pulled me by my sleeve through the halls that were thick with smoke. ‘So is it just Teron that you want burned to the ground? Or is it all the seven kingdoms?’
‘I don’t understand,’ I said. He spun around and spat the word at my face:
‘THINK!’
But I didn’t know what to think. All I wanted was for Favian to be gone and to get my throne back. He groaned as he grabbed my sleeve again and continued to usher me through my own home. We didn’t pass another soul.
‘You let this schmuck into your hall,’ he said. ‘Give him all your power and watch him piss over your dignity and then burrow down into the dirt and hope it all goes away.’
‘I was trying to find a way,’ I said.
‘Well find it faster!’ He snapped as we broke outside onto the streets of Teron. We were down on the first line, not far from where we are now but still the streets were empty except for the thick smoke moving through the air.
‘Where is everyone –’ He twisted his head, showing me his freshly cut ear that had been halved; the part of him that he must have traded for my life.
‘This is what you are worth. You ran out of time before. Now you have another chance. So fix it.’ Then he was gone. It’s not the only time I’d wager a debt with Death but that was the first.
He had guided me to the stables, which leads onto the armoury behind it. The entire regiment was readying themselves for war. A full army to face one woman. If it was anyone else, I’d say they were overreacting.
They came to attention when they saw me and I prepared myself as if our goals aligned. But I didn’t want to kill her. I wanted to talk to her, to try and stop what I had started. But as you saw, it was no use. She killed all those soldiers and let me go.
You chose to run.
I did.
Where did you go?
Back to the tunnels. I wasn’t sure if they would survive the fire or collapse underneath it but I had to escape.
I couldn’t see the fire behind me but I could hear it. The flames were ripping through the houses and buildings of Teron and it was deafening. When the bakery exploded, I knew the city was lost – the fire took on a new ferocity that couldn’t be tamed.
I thought she had died with the fire.
She doesn’t seem to remember anything.
Once she told me what it’s like to feel as Neerah. It’s almost painful. Even joy is overwhelming and make it’s difficult for them to think. They were taught not to feel, to detach themselves from emotions. I remember she used to worry about Orel because she was half-human. She always struggled to detach.
Some Neerah would lose their senses if they felt too much.
The pool you saw, it wasn’t just filled with her memories. It was filled with her pain.
It almost killed me.
I bet it almost killed her as well.
I wish that I could ask you to help me or even that I could give you a choice. But you have none. Whether you like it or not, Favian dies by your hand. It’s only a question of how many more people have to suffer before you do.
How do I know that you would be any better? If you were to rule, what would you change?
Everything. Starting with what’s forbidden. Anyone would be welcome in Teron. You’d be free.
Good. When do we start?
The Great Fire is complete! Later this year verse will be releasing a printed version of the collection, so make sure that you’re subscribed so you can stay up to date.
There will be also be more serial fiction from verse soon! I’m looking forward to a whole new story and storyworld to explore.