The final straw came when Asher woke up early one morning to find Elena sick in the bathroom. She felt better after lunch, but Asher was still worried.

“I’m sure I just ate something.” Elena said, trying to comfort Asher. But the same thing happened the next morning.

“We need to go see a doctor, Elena.” Asher insisted. Elena reluctantly agreed. So they made their way to the doctor, where they received the news.

Asher sat in shock. Elena began to cry. Cry tears of joy.

“Oh, Ash, we’re having a kid!” Elena exclaimed.

“Wow.”

“Oh, we get to build a nursery, and everything, oh it’s so exciting!”

“What if they have the voices?”

Elena sighed, feeling the joy of the moment swept up by some invisible wind. “Ash, we’ll deal with that if it comes to it.”

“I don’t want them to live like this.”

“Ash, please, we’re supposed to celebrate!” Elena begged.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

That night, after spending hours planning the new room with Elena, Asher whispered to Wymer.

“Wymer, what would happen if your souls were satisfied?”

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“We would leave.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. Some would cause some havoc around, but most of us just want to be free, to rest in peace.”

“So you would leave my kid alone?”

“Yeah.”

“Then it’s time to start planning again.”

Asher couldn’t let this happen to his kids. He wouldn’t. And to be free of the voices would just make his own life so much better. But this would require precision, planning, and more than just setting a small town of fire. It would require an earthquake.

“How, exactly, are you going to make an earthquake happen?” Asher asked Wymer.

“Well, you’ll have to give us some power to make it happen.”

“Don’t you have any power left from the town?”

“Nope.”

Asher sighed. “Alright. So Phase One is setting another town on fire?”

“Yep.”

“Can I warn them this time?”

“Well, then you’d have to destroy more, but it could work.”

Asher remembered that feeling of power he had gotten when he had destroyed the other town. That rush… Asher had liked it.

“So that’s it then? You’re going to do it?” Wymer asked excitedly.

“Wrong decisions, right intentions, it all evens out, doesn’t it?”

That morning, Asher quietly slipped into the town and warned them. Small posters, nailed to posts and doors. He knew they wouldn’t believe him, but did it really matter? Surely, it was just a little fire. So that night, he stood atop the hill overlooking the town and drew back the string of his bow. The flame-tipped arrow shot into the sky. It formed a phoenix in the air, twisting and turning in a beautiful dancing arch.