You stupid little girl, echoes from the darkness surrounding me. There is less than nothing in this place—emptiness so complete that it tries to drain the life from me even as I recognize it—and I start to glow. My form becomes a blue-white torch in the darkness, but there is nothing to illuminate. I am the only living being here, the only thing that burns with the fierce joy of living. How long do you think you can hold me here? Something like an arm, but longer, and with talons rather than with fingers, snaps past me and a long, shallow cut appears across my clavicle.

“I don’t have to hold you here for long, Beast,” I call out to the darkness, my voice resonating like Tibetan bells, “you’re going back to the Darkness Which Encompasses.” He slashes at me again, and this time there’s a cut across my cheek. It doesn’t really matter—he can’t do anything but land glancing blows—and every time he touches me a part of him is left behind, trailing smoky darkness into that endless night.

I clawed my way out before, I can do it again, comes his taunting voice from behind me but I do not turn. You can only send me if you catch me…a guttural cry from behind me tilts the corners of my lips into a smile and now I do turn, saying,

“I don’t have to catch you,” looking at the now thrashing pair—one male and one female; the male form is twisted, deformed into something all spikes and jagged edges while the female is an inky form of living glass—I add, “she will.”

Watching the form of Jarvis-the-Beast writhe in the sinewy arms of Solaine-the-Beast I note how she’s like me, the way a feral cat is still a cat; all lean-lethal lines and dark, dangerous eyes. She’s as perfectly lovely as I could ever hope to be, if I’d never been born human and had nothing but time to explore the wonders of my form. A suggestion of long hair chases around her body, kicked up by an invisible wind, and Jarvis-the-Beast thrashes impotently in her grasp.

I will find you again, he snarls and Solaine-the-Beast head-butts him once, hard enough to make his thrashing subside. I will kill you again, his promise is lost in the long, inhuman laugh that rumbles out of Solaine-the-Beast’s throat and crests like a wave breaking against the shore.

There will be nothing left of you, she promises and turns with him in her embrace toward me. This one, she says, voice sighing out of her as gentle and calming as a mother’s cooing, cannot be saved.

“There is no soul remaining in him?” I query gently and my counterpart shakes her head, almost sadly.

He has consumed it all…and countless others…

“There is nothing else for it, then,” I agree and I close my eyes. I draw up the white-hot light from within the swirling of myself and Jarvis-the-Beast starts writing and thrashing with renewed vigor. It’s all she can do to contain him and I feel only a moment’s question before the thought is gone. I place my sunsfire hands on his form and he shreds to pieces, each tiny piece being consumed in turn by an orange-gold flame, before winking out into nothing.

What was the price? Solaine-the-Beast asks me and I am forced to dial down my radiance before answering,

“His love,” she looks confused and I can’t blame her, I don’t entirely understand it myself. “I used his love to consume him, for I was just its keeper and he so desperately wanted it back.” The Beast that is not me looks pensive for a moment, features rising out of that fluid ebony until I see a face that might resemble my own if distorted by some angular mirror, before exploding into a fire just as bright as my own and I ask, “What is your price, Beast of mine?” We are nothing but two faces wreathed in flames as she smiles and answers,

“A name.” Her voice posses a softness that takes me aback. It surprises me that this creature born of darkness can shine so brightly, but I don’t have time for introspection as she repeats, “I want a name of my own.”

“Mirari,” I answer without hesitation. “Your name is Mirari, because you are a miracle.” Mirari smiles so sweetly that it nearly breaks my heart.

“I dreamed a dream of living,” she whispers and I have to lean in to hear her, “and you shared your life with me. You saved me from the Darkness Which Encompasses, Solaine, you’re my miracle.” I imagine she meant to say more, but emotion closes her throat and I rush to enfold her in my arms. After her quiet shudders subside, Mirari whispers, “All my strength, my knowledge, my power and my life are yours.”

“No,” I say, and Mirari pulls back, confusion crinkling her softening features, “your life is your own. I would never let that be taken from you.”

“You don’t have to,” Mirari replies, a smile tugging at her lips. “A gift freely given can only increase the giver. You taught me that,” she turns to leave and I want to call her back. Where there was nothing, there is a lightening all around them, like sunrise in a mist, and the landscape becomes more distinct as Mirari retreats into it. I want to call her back, but I can’t bring myself to do it as I watch the land jump from beaches to meadows to woods and back again with each step she takes into it. Mirari must sense my confusion and turns back toward me, shouting, “Don’t worry so much!” Her voice echoes as if she’s already much farther away than the brightening morning would suggest as she adds, “I’ll be back, and you’ll be fine!”

With those words of encouragement I feel myself drawn back to my body and I stop fighting its pull. After all, I think to no one in particular, you can never truly lose yourself as long as love remains. A soul always comes back to the ones it loves.

There is no sign of Jarvis, and I am finished playing nice. The door no longer serves as an impediment; I raise one hand to chest level, draw power from within, and the door explodes outward in a whuff of heat and light. I stride out of the room and my feet set fire to the remainder of the door. Trailing my hand along the wall, the tapestries catch fire as well. Thus assured that the blaze will consume all traces of my departure, only then do I walk across the stone courtyard. The sun is lightening the east and as ultramarine submits to cobalt submits to aqua, I throw out my arms and embrace the dawn for my own.