No!

A silhouette writhed within the fire-demon’s claws, darkened against blinding reds and oranges. The Torch hadn’t been fast enough, fire caught up to him. He should have sped forwards faster, or side stepped to the narrow clear path and kept on along that lane, then he might have a chance of coming out alive.

Instead, panic and fear evidently gripped the unfortunate Torch. He became lost to his paranoia and shock, and he ceased in running, twisting around in place, fighting the flaming leash that ensnared him.

All at once, Tyler felt talons rake him, memory swooping over him like a beast from an old nightmare that returned to haunt him. Phantom pain erupted across his skin, nerves reliving the moment of his accident, where fire ravaged him whilst he laid helplessly pinned on the ground beneath a busted column too heavy for him to move.

It wasn’t until capes and water fervently beat down on him, whilst he coughed into the ground on his knees and hands, and he vaguely registered someone rolling a charred arm that bumped against his own, did he realize he didn’t just re-imagine the skin tearing heat.

Tyler had actually just sprinted into the roaring wall of flames and somehow dragged the trapped person out. He was shocked, bewildered how it all happened before his realizing.

It was a miracle he even came out of it alive.

He vaguely recognized Kovan’s face thrust into view, scrunched down on the dirt on his knees and hands, in a manner too ungainly and unglamorous for someone of his looks and bearing. He heard him calling frantically as well, questions about his well-being firing off rapidly.

Tyler took several moments more to focus, head swimming in disorientation from the ordeal. When he held enough wits about him, he noticed the genuine worry and frenzy in Kovan’s green orbs, and managed a weak smile.

“I’m fine,” he mouthed silently, too weak for words to come out.

Hands reached him, gentle yet firm, Kovan’s and some other people – probably the medic attendants – gingerly helping him sit up. Their touch calmed him, quieting the throbbing terror along every inch of skin and bone that remembered his trauma. Instead of being self-absorbed in his pain, he cast a worried glance at the figure wasted on the ground beside him, eyes consciously shrinking away from the angry reddish, raw flesh of his burnt limbs.

“He’ll live,” he heard Kovan assure him, and nodded to himself. It was cold comfort, since the road to recovery was a long and painful one – one which Tyler himself was well acquainted with.

But at least, the other Torch – who would soon be ex-Torch – was alive.

Two stretchers arrived, quickly followed by a blur of figures and faces – some he noticed were the other Torches and their owners. He blinked away his clouded vision, eyes still hurting from the singeing heat. His ear functioned better, catching drifts of their murmurs, stunned and in disbelief over his inexplicable actions and miraculous survival.

The crowd above was equally stunned and baffled, murmurs quickly rising in approving praises, and praises that continued into applause.

Tyler felt a wretched ache settle into his bones, adding weight to his already worn and exhausted body. He rather they discontinued support for the sport in thanks, than offer such poor, shallow gestures of approval for the appreciation of a life.

That would have saved a lot more lives and put many bondsmen in a lot less pain.

He felt too tired to climb into the stretcher himself, so he let the medics carry him onto the thick linen canvas. As they shifted him, he was suddenly aware of an approaching cloaked woman with a slight hunch, who caught his attention because it was hot in the middle of the day. No one in their right minds would be covered from head to toe in such thick-looking drapes.

He saw someone intercept her before she reached any closer.

She stopped in her hobble, head angled in his direction, over-sized hood spilling shadows that exposed only the astute line of her lips.

She lifted a slow, shaky finger, pointing straight at him.

“Atari… Atari has chosen you,” she rambled, her voice scratchy and hoarse, and strangely loud and echoing even though no sound amplifiers were around her.

Still in the stretcher, he carefully propped himself on an elbow and twisted to lay his weight on the side, frowning as he watched her.

“W-what?” his voice came out raspy, asking for confirmation if she was really pointing to him, or if he was imagining it.

“Atari, has chosen you,” she repeated the second time, earning a baffled frown from Tyler who was still nursing a light cough and suffering from the earlier heat.

“Pay her no mind,” Kovan dismissed her without interest, urging the medics to get to where they could give Tyler a proper checkup.

Passing it off as nothing more than the ramblings of some deluded Atari believer, the medics went on their way, hurrying across the sun-beaten grounds.

Up above, the Echelon were a mix of response and interest in the hooded woman with a hunch and a wobble in her steps. Most laughed snidely, ridiculing her ungraceful step and deranged proclamation. Whilst Alssya also found the scene ridiculous, she felt some pity for the handicap, thinking she was undeserving of some of their mockery. Some of the Upper members do tended to go quite overboard with their opinions, to which Alssya most often have problems with.

Herself being of strong opinions, she doesn’t shy away from putting others in place if she thought them overbearingly nasty. Her father had after all, raised her with a confident voice that was more unprejudiced and accepting than most others of their status.

Her sense of justice kicked in, urging her to hush the nasty comments swimming around her in the narrow, crowded confines of the levitating platform.

However, her mother stole her full attention, when she shuffled towards the edge for a closer look, but stumbled and nearly fell over the mid-waist barrier.

“Mother!” Alssya cried and caught her shoulders, pulling her back at the same time, “Be careful!”

Alssya drew shaky breaths, mirroring her mother, heart thundering wildly from the scare.

“Whatever happened?” she turned her mother towards her, “Are you feeling faint?”

“No, I’m quite alright, I just tripped over my own foot,” her mother replied with a faint smile, “I’m sorry for scaring you.”

Alssya nodded, exhaling deeply. “Good.”

However, she noticed her mother frowning slightly, crinkling a very faint line in her brow that was the only line marring her otherwise still beautiful skin.

She followed her mother’s line of sight, realizing she was intensely concentrated on the cloaked woman down below.

“Mother? Are you pondering over the woman’s words?”

She thought she saw a jolt roll across her mother’s shoulders, lightweight scarf rustling briefly. She couldn’t be sure, as a breeze was also blowing, so the fabric might just be flirting with the wind.

“No, absolutely not,” she denied sharply, head whipped around to face her in that astute, convinced manner, “Those were nothing more than the ramblings of an unbalanced individual.”

Alssya nodded to show her outward acceptance of Mother’s claims, ignoring the slight tremble she detected in her tone.

Even though she had called her ‘Mother’ for as long as she could remember, and grew up under her care with such close supervision and loving attention, that she did think of her as her birth-mother, there were certain times, where she felt that uncommon distance.

Like instances such as this, where Mother seemed to hold back on her, hiding her thoughts, barring her emotions behind a wall that made Alssya feel disconnected. She couldn’t really explain it, why she felt this way. Mother doted her plenty, and it was obvious to anyone with eyes to see.

Yet all the years could not erase the lingering unease that lay uncomfortably under her skin. Every now and then, it ate at her – this unexplainable anxiety that made her feel like she was nothing more than a stranger’s child held at arm’s length.