Standing before the Keeper, I trembled, fear setting me alight with flames cold as glacial ruin. Her eyeless stare unnerved me, impressed upon me that somehow, she could see, she could know what we planned.

"How many Lords have you slain?" Or'do had asked as we rested in the humble warmth of a bonfire.

"Three worlds worth, yet what difference does it make?"

As if quoting something he had read, something etched or scribed long ago, Or'do's tone lost its usual luster. "If thou a thousand Lords slay, their Flame shall bend, and the Light shall ebb at thy call"

"What does that mean?" I asked, peering through the sinuous flames, yet seeing nothing in his unreadable gaze.

"That when the Keeper casts their remains upon you, a portion of their power takes root within you. Slay enough, and you shall command the Flame."

"How many?!" 

He spread his hands. "I myself have cleared four worlds, and like you, sense their power only when I search for it."

Peering inside myself, I found indeed a small warmth that was not my own; a seed of immolation yet unseen that pulsed with delight at my touch. 

"To what end?" I murmured.

"Call upon their power. The Keeper reforms, yet with their might, I feel that you may find and devour the Keeper's soul."

She smiled, gesturing that I should kneel, and receive the Lords' ashes once more. I complied, the chill in bones intensifying with each breath. As their power flowed over me, I drew upon that seed, that ember buried deep inside; furious power swelled through me, burning outward in long, serpentine vines that thrashed and writhed along my body. I stood, and wordlessly plunged my bare fist into the space above her left breast, where her heart lay. White flame curled along the length of my buried forearm, and in the innocent shock on her features, I could restrain my tears no longer. I bowed my head and wept, resting my scalp against her trembling frame, and when collapsing to, she whispered to me, her words only intensified my suffering.

"I do not blame thee, Ashen One. Thou does only what thou believes to be right."