"No!" Or'do scrambled forward, a point above his heart glowing faintly. He watched with eyes not his own as Aleorn knelt, as that ragged scythe's wicked, silver edge was pressed against his pale neck, and brought to bear with devastating force.

"Damn it, help him!" He addressed only the Keeper, yet her voice was not his to hear, and the only attention he drew was the caress of blighted warmth emanating from the foul inferno that clung to this realm's twisted, ruinous Shrine. The Doll, either mute or merely apathetic, spared him not even a glance, not a raise of her head as she slumped amid the flames, neither suffering their touch nor repelling them. "Help him." Or'do whispered, watching helpless as the scythe came swinging down. He slammed an iron palm against that molten patch above his heart. "Save him!" His fingers dug into the leather of his cloak, crunched through the flesh beneath.

He flared the Cinder, pouring all his strength into it, kindling inside himself, the blaze that would devour all darkness. The planes stretched near, and between them a rift blazed into being; an oval of blinding light that connecting realms of bleak darkness.The Flame heard his wish, yet at the last moment spurned him: he came surging through the portal in time only to catch Aleorn's body as it fell, the cold lifeless impact tipping both back into the void. He had failed, his greed, his lust for power had spurned the Flame, and now, when he needed it most, the Flame turned its back on him. The portal vanished with both still inside, ripping Aleorn from his arms, casting both across the planes.

Glacial fire swelled in his heart, stole his warmth, stole his mind, as Or'do looked upon the drifting corpse, watched helpless as it faded into the darkness, spat out upon some other plane like a distasteful morsel. He felt an incredible hate burning through him, a terrible inferno that swept through him like rivers of molten steel. It was at this moment, he turned his back on the Flame forevermore; it was here and now, that his path would forever change, it was here and now when the cruel Fate smiled, his foul plan set in motion that nothing would ever halt.