Natalie found it difficult to breath. Her breath came in shallow gasps that scorched her lungs. Suddenly, the leading fire vanished as if thrust into a pool of water, and she felt the snakes cold coils wrapped around her, squeezing. She erupted in self-loathing, in desperation, in a desire to be strong. She erupted in flame.

Screaming with her last breath, she wreathed her whole body in flame, a flame like liquid that poured around her sloshing and splashing. Taymyr whipped away, recoiling from the glaring fire. Natalie collapsed to her knees but held her head up. She could see. She could see, now, the death in the room. A great constrictor lay against the back wall, a pair of oozing holes testament to the venom-filled strike that slew her. Taymyr writhed against the far wall, hissing in rage, his red eyes gleaming.

“You murdered her!” Natalie cried, stepping fully into the den.

Taymyr slithered back, attempting to pull himself up the wall, anywhere to escape the roiling flames that approached with every step Natalie took.

“It is the Rite of Ascension! Death is the path to Sight! She knew it would come,” Taymyr screamed.

Natalie strode on, and the flames licked at Taymyr’s scales no matter how he writhed.

“Think,” he screamed. “She was the Answerer. Think, Fairy. Would she not have foreseen me?”

Natalie froze, and her fire cooled. “She knew you would kill her?”

“Yes.”

“You are the next Answerer?”

“Yes”

“Why didn’t you foresee me?”

“Let the fire go. I will explain.”

Natalie shook her head slightly. Her wings quivered and her legs trembled but not from rage anymore. Energy seeped from her, a waterfall from her heart. A few seconds would find her exhausted. “Explain and I will drop the fire.”

Taymyr hissed.

Natalie collapsed and darkness took her.