"How am I alive?" I mused, directing the question more to Fate than my comrade.

"I do not know." Or'do spread his hands, shrugging, yet something about it did not convince me. I decided not to press the matter, for he would tell me in due course, and as he not I saw fit.

"The Nightmare deepens, and no longer have we the luxury of endless retries." I grimaced, a sudden flare of pain bursting from my weary heart and spreading to the edges of my smouldering skin.

"I'm alright," I said unconvincingly. "We've greater concerns."

"Like how you became a Lord of Cinder in a land without Flame." His words brought the redness of embarrassment to my cheeks, a memory of screaming in hate, of tearing my own ribs and setting them alight.

"I-" My voice faltered and failed me, a sudden, profound sorrow surging from within like a font of glacial ichor. "I thought I had lost you, and in my blind fury, I tore my own bones from my body, and ripped free a shard of my own Cinder."

"Or'do!" I screamed in fury, thrusting my flame wreathed hand deeper into the pile of damp bones. Lightning flashed through me, and with a blinding surge, the Flame flared to life, flooding me with impossible strength, intensifying my weary body's agony, yet giving me the strength to stand all the same. I stood with hands fisted and trembling at my sides, flame rolling from my body as if eager to be rid of me. 

"Damn you!" I spoke to the Dark itself, shouting in almighty rage. My Flame swelled, curling around me, devouring my sight. When I woke, it was upon the field where my dearest friend had fallen.

"Damn!" Or'do seemed at a loss. "Just damn! You ripped out your own cinder?!"

I nodded wearily. "I have built the first Flame here in the heart of Darkness, planted the seed of a cancer that shall forever spread. The Ashen Ones can now flood to this realm, can now realize what we did." Another flash of searing pain, my vision turned grey as the Ash itself.

"Aleorn!" Or'do's words startled me. I shivered, realizing that I had fallen, and now lay prone upon the earth.

"I was the Heir, yet now I am the Lord." I managed, trying without success to rise. "The Flame exacts a great toll."

"You don't say." He said, gently lifting me back into a siting posture, setting me against a spur of rock as if I had no life of my own; a child's doll set in dramatic pose.

"We cannot tarry here." I indicated the bleak heavens. "The Dark will return."

"Alright then, my damsel." Or'do scooped me into his arms. "Let us away."

"Damn it Or'do" I muttered, yet relief as much as merriment pulled a smile across my lips.