Steel Spike was growing more afraid of her own goals. She and Blue Flame had been traveling for weeks, though in Spike's opinion it had felt far longer. She had been assisting Flame in tracking down a thief with her divination skills. As their journey continued, "Blue Flame Consumes the Pyre" had begun to show a cruelty that made Spike deeply uncomfortable. He was generally polite when it was just the two of them, but he had been beating up or demanding "tribute" from every Traveler they met that did not offer what he considered to be proper respect. At first it had been berating some Vagrants who hadn't bowed to him in passing, but recently he had begun delivering beatings to anyone for even fabricated reasons. He had been filled with enough rage at the beginning of their journey, given the value of what had been stolen from him, but the distance they traveled only fueled his anger. Spike had even begun to notice Flame sneering at her while she continued her divinations, seeming to blame her for their continued travel. If he hadn't taken weeks to discover something had been stolen or found a competent diviner quicker this entire journey would have been a much more bearable length.

Spike's divinations couldn't actually predict what would come to pass. Her skills could only reveal locations, not events. Nonetheless, Spike was certain that when she and Flame found their target, killing him wouldn't be enough to sate  Flame's rage. She hoped perhaps he would just torture the thief and be done with it, but she knew better. This was the sort of anger that ended bloodlines, led to massacres, and it could never truly be satisfied.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Steel Spike rose, gathering her tools, and tried to calm herself. After a moment, she pointed the way and they both began walking.

"Steel Spike Seeks True South," Blue Flame began, "you're certain this is still the correct direction?"

"Yes," She replied with conviction. Her divination had started repeatedly returning the same results recently, with variations of only fractions of a degree. Whoever they were after has stopped moving a few days ago, not that they had been traveling at a great pace before. It moved forward when they would catch them by a decent amount.

Spike thought about the thief's coming fate again, stealing from an immortal was a death sentence, but how much collateral damage would Blue Flame cause? Should she try to reign him in once he went too far? She probably wouldn't be able to do much. Besides, he had paid in full for her services, it wasn't her place to judge what he did once her job was done, or at least that's what she told herself.

As Steel Spike decided that she would be merely an observer to what was to come, she thought, I need to start charging more.