The city is bustling.

Gentle winds rustle clothing as the twin mages put their staffs together and lift debris with tornados. They’re small ones, of course, and cause no more damage than wholly necessary for the clean up; but Flare still finds them respectfully destructive and entertaining to watch from Its place beside Umbra.

Across the way, Volera walks with the construction workers of Unity and details what needs to be done.

The two swordsmen of the city council are rallying several others, lumber jacks, carpenters, and so on. They all work together to hack, cut, and break up all the debris they’re planning to reuse while women of the city pick and sort through the results and organize them into tidy piles for ease of use.

Umbra, himself, is helping out by taking the metal pieces and chucking them into a large vat.

The vat, of course, is already occupied with various other metal pieces that have melted down by now. The reason why, however, isn’t just the fire raging below it: it’s also because of Flare.

The flame being is swimming through the molten metals, turning them into an evenly cooked soup.

The prospect of this action had initially struck the city folk as bizarre: who swims in melted metals??? But, then, they quickly realized that the notion was actually quite obvious: why wouldn’t It do that when It took so much pleasure in melting down their buildings to make toys out of metal puddles?

Rebuilding the city still takes them a while.

The sun is already well past high in the sky when they take a break, sitting down to eat, laugh, and drink. Umbra holds Flare on his shoulder, again, to offer a barrier between city folk and void being.

But, in the process of carrying Flare around again, Umbra notices something unpleasant: It’s dimmer.

The orange of Its person has mostly gone away and all red is gone, leaving behind little else but yellow. The burning blue is still there, as is the hot white of Its teeth, but Umbra cannot help but feel It’s colder.

Is that even possible for a literal being of fire?

Concerned and confused, the fallen angel shifts the other inhuman creature and then taps Its knee. After getting Its attention, he poses the question: “Are you alright?” Flare simply nods. Umbra frowns, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” the flame replies, sounding oddly tired, “It is as I told you: I can’t hold forms for long.”

Suddenly understanding, Umbra frets, “Is there anything I can do?” He looks around, probably for fire. His eyes land on the large vat of still molten metal and he wonders if that just made things worse.

How much energy and heat did Flare loose in there?

“No,” the living flame replies, shaking Its head. “I simply need to return to the Void and recharge.”

“O…” Umbra frowns, feeling sad once again. The feeling isn’t as odd, now that they aren’t fighting, but it’s still a bit confusing. Figuring that it’s simply the result of his protective nature, Umbra yields, “Ok.”

Flare smiles and pats his head, “Aww, going to miss me?”

The fallen answers honestly, “Yes.”

~

The city is confused and sad.

“You have to leave already‽” the redhead cries. He seems genuinely upset and Flare laughs at this.

Then, It nods, “Yes; I am not of this world so I am spending a lot of energy to be here. But I’ll be back.”

“You promise?” Apparently, Umbra is not alone in this confusing desire to keep Flare here. But why?

The flame nods again, “Yes, I promise.”

The brunette twins approach, also seeming to not want to let go. They bow and give their own promise, “We’ll make a platform over the water so your return will be easier and cleaner.”

Knowing they’re talking about the destruction It caused, Flare laughs and nods, “I’ll look for it, then.”

“Approximately how long will you be gone?” Volera asks a bit stiffly. Umbra raises a surprised brow; he’d expected himself to be the one to ask that; but, he supposes, the Council Head needs to know that.

Flare seems to think about her question carefully; “Hm… a week, perhaps?”

Volera nods, “That should be enough.” Then, she looks meaningfully at Flare, “Don’t miss the platform.”

Somewhat antagonistically, the living flame grins down at her, “O, I never miss a target.”

Watching the two glare at each other, Umbra silently wonders what they got themselves into.

~

The city is reformed.

Once Flare is gone—no offence to It—the peoples of Unity reshape it quickly. Within days, it is beautiful: tall spires shining in the sunlight, clean streets gleaming proudly, and homes once again sweet and cozy. People are bustling again as their lives return to normal—that flaming creature as far from their minds as the sun is to their whole planet—and everyone’s place of work reopen like nothing happened.

Such is the resilience of human beings.

Umbra has always found it fascinating: how quickly these fragile things bounce back. Even from him.

The platform the twins made is a large one, stretching from the shoreline to several yards out.

It’s designed to absorb large impacts, distorting like a strange combination of a trampoline and a net. Supposedly, it will keep Flare dry as It descends into the water and then spring It back out.

They’re still not 100% sure it’ll work, though.

But, to be fair, the biggest failure it could have is burning.

~

The city is gathered.

As the shooting star descends upon them again, the citizens of Unity stare. They’re strangely excited, like giddily expecting a visiting friend. Even Volera seems enthused—although she insists it’s just pride.

“The platform will work and we can all be proud of our rebuilt home.”

Rota nods, agreeing easily with the Council Head’s words. She does feel quite a bit of pride, after all. Around her, people are video taping and photographing the falling flame being with their phones. Beside her, her crew are filming, too, as well as setting up for when Flare is finally on the ground.

It’s rather strange to think that, just a short while ago, they were all terrified of this being.

Now, they’re welcoming it.

(Then again: they did the same with Umbra, didn’t they?)