Anyone witha stamp on their passport indicating they had ever travelled through Fertile Moon was subject to cruel and punitive security measures when traveling.
Marrow had Fertile Moon under birthplace.
The Five Corner Rail Union guard looked at Marrow’s traveling papers. Everything was punched. Strip search getting on the train, another getting off, constant surveillance while on board, two months of surveillance before purchasing the ticket, credentials proving academic intention, and a credit check to make sure Marrow had the means of going back.
The guard checked the list. Then checked it again. He had been specifically ordered to never let someone from Fertile Moon, especially a moon mage, in, but he respected paperwork. Marrow had purposefully sought out the best dressed guard with their desk things in the best order. Someone who organized their pens by length, then by color, and, well, maybe length was the better option, that person respected paperwork.
And Marrow’s paperwork was perfect.
Hair was listed as brown (greying), and it was. It had mostly turned to a muddy silver, but bundles of still-brown curls gave it a sort of glittered look.
Eyes were listed as white, and they were. Dead-looking eyes, with the pupils clouded and the iris too pale to be easily told apart from the whites. A set of quartz glasses obscured them.
Weight and Height class were both listed as small, and Marrow was deathly thin.
Skin tone was grey, and it was nearly true with how drained of blood moon mages always appeared.
Gender was marked with an X rather than an M or F, which the guard briefly considered using to deny entry. Considering how rare it was in Tys culture to be non-gendered, pretending to think it an error in the paperwork would have been easy.
But the guard was too prideful in knowing the ins-and-outs of paperwork to fake ignorance. In complete honesty, Marrow had completed enough checks to stay in Tys for up to a year despite asking for only a day.
“Am I free to go?” Marrow asked in xir scratchy, strained voice.
The guard tried one last time to find something, anything remotely suspicious about the paperwork. Moon mages were great liars, he knew, despite their supposed oath to never tell a lie, and they very rarely got permission to travel outside of Fertile Moon due to their terrible nature. They were the result of storm magic, stealing the soul of an unborn baby straight from the mother’s womb. They looked like a walking corpse, and they were capable of destructive magic. No doubt every single hoop the union made Marrow jump through was rigged to keep Marrow from getting through, yet xi had gotten through every single one. Something, the guard knew, was fibbed, but the paperwork was perfect. If he was going to deny Marrow entry, he was going to have to do it on something else.
“What’s your business in Tys?” the guard asked.
Now, Marrow as a person from Fertile Moon, had an oath to never tell a lie, and in xir adult life, xi never had. At least, not a blatant one. Marrow spoke then a famous Fertile Moon half-truth. “I am writing a research journal called Jinn of the World.” It wasn’t the main reason, but it was business and it was in Tys. Saying, “I came due to rumors a vendor has an extremely ancient and powerful artifact that could theoretically flatten a town square, and I would very much like to obtain it for purely academic reasons,” didn’t seem to be the brightest of things to do.
The guard seemed a little tickled. “Jinn of the World? What’s a jinn?”
“A being made of pure magic.”
“Oh. Around here, they’re called dragons.”
“Dragons are a subset of jinn, yes, but they can be anything.”
“What ‘jinn’ are you writing about that brought you to Tys?”
Marrow nearly took a step back in xir confusion. “Your famed Grand Flame of Tys? The unexplainable geyser of pure fire magic that bellows from the volcano every full moon?”
The guard laughed and wiped a tear. If only for the joke of it, the guard disobeyed orders enough to stamp the passport as valid. “Enjoy the festival.”
Marrow was so confused by the fact xi managed to get into Tys that xi didn’t even process what the guard had said. Xi simply looked down at the very real passport obtained through a series of falsified (but perfect) paperwork.
Not wanting to push xir luck, xi shuffled out of the customs office and out to the Water Rail station. Fire and water mages alike worked to push the metal beasts through the water to and from the island’s docks, heating and cooling the engines rapidly to produce locomotion.
And what joy Marrow took knowing xi didn’t have to get back on one right away. Instead, xi used xir validated passport to get out of the dock and onto the wooden, rural road to town.
The hot, heavy air felt like walking through a wet brick. Instantly, the desert-native began to struggle to find air in the humidity, and the cloudy sky turned the canopied jungle to a rot-smelling tea kettle. Xi carried on, though, wheezing with every step on the deck.
And the heat. How did a cloudy sky produce so much heat? How was it so hot in the tall shade of the trees?
The ground steadily got dense enough where raised walkways were not necessary to keep boots from getting sucked into the mud. Once on a gravel path, Marrow retreated behind a tree to check xir satchel to make sure everything was still there.
The small collection of two magical robes, check.
The not-very-legal-looking amount of loose money, 1,000 electrum worth, check.
The passport, check.
Only then did Marrow finally process the unusual comment the guard had made.
“Have fun at the festival.”
What festival?
Marrow decided to ignore the note and continued on the gravel path with the other travelers. Once the trees reduced to a reasonable size, from rainforest to jungle, signs of civilization came evident. A lost-and-found service stall for people who dropped something in the rainforest mud. Guards from the parent government giving directions. Road signs.
Marrow had a map and kept a firm hand on xir belongings, so none of those things interested xir.
Further on, buildings began to cluster in blocks and they had torches fastened to the sides. Seemed too many to light by hand in any efficient manner come sundown, and Marrow became curious if magic was used.
Being a moon mage, it was easy for Marrow to check.
Xi simply took off xir glasses, and instantly xir vision was gone. Moon mage eyes, like an unusual amount of their body, were made of magic, and as a result, did not see in the traditional way without the magic-focusing property of quartz. What they did see, however, were magic signatures. Specs of fire magic residue rested in places xi knew the torches to be.
Small amounts of magic were swirling in everyone’s body, some with a little more, some with a little less. That was normal. What wasn’t normal was when xi turned xir head and was stunned by the most intense magic signature xi had ever seen. Even dragons, beasts made entirely of magic, did not have such mesmerizing ribbons dancing around so brilliant a light. Flashes of gold, flakes of red, all contained in a human-shaped vessel. It was moving, interacting with people passing by, and the magic in the passing people seemed so drawn to the dance that it seeped out to join it.
It was beautiful. It was so unlike anything Marrow had seen back home. Xi almost felt an urge to belong to the magic.
“What are you looking at?”
Xi put xir glasses back on, and the distant beauty was obscured by a block of buildings. To any onlooker, xi had been staring at a cobblestone wall.
When xi turned, xi almost burst into laughter. Though the onlooker had a distinctly Tys accent, his robes, eyeliner, and facial features all hailed from Fertile Moon.
The man seemed to be hit by realization and smiled. “Oh, you’re a moon mage. You were looking at magic.” He had said it so casually, as though he had neither the bias born from Fertile Moon nor the Five Corner Rail Union. “I’m not, but I have residual magic from my grandfather. He and my uncle were both moon mages.”
Marrow nervously looked side to side at the barely-clad island residents. In a whisper, he said, “Can you speak so freely of that? Won’t you be persecuted?”
“Trust me, since The Five Corner Rail Union conquered us, it’s been nothing but trouble, but for a long time, Tys was a haven for moon mages.” The man pulled his cloth robe to reveal a magical moon mage one underneath. Its magic was weak, but Marrow could see a faint fire resistance spell in every fifth fiber. “I’m Ferra, the mayor.” He held out his hand.
Marrow looked at it with and without the glasses. Ferra had told the truth. Though he had much more magic than the average person, and most of it was the storm magic in moon mages, it wasn’t enough to make him look like a walking corpse.
The mayor retracted his hand upon realizing Marrow was a little too overwhelmed for pleasantries. “Did you come for the festival?”
“Erm,” Marrow regained xir composure. “Yes, well, no. I was not aware there was a festival, today. Mayor, I must ask, I saw a man-shaped collection of magic, more dense than that of a Sand Dragon and more beautiful than that of a god. Would you know anything about it?”
“Oh, you must be talking about the island’s pride and joy!” The mayor had a little bit of a laugh. “She’s probably just around the block.”
“She? What is she?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” the mayor teased with a wink. “What brings you all the way to Tys, anyway? Must have been a dangerous journey escaping Fertile Moon.”
Marrow got a blood taste in xir mouth. While xi had indeed escaped Fertile Moon illegally and had falsified mountains of (perfect) paperwork to travel from xir nation plagued by genocidal maniacs, xi didn’t like outsiders acknowledging the reputation the nation had. It was awful, it was dangerous, but it was home.
But Marrow held xir tongue and answered the question. Xi didn’t want trouble. “I’m writing a book.” Again, the famous Fertile Moon half-truth. As much as the mayor’s presence made Marrow feel a little safer as a Fertile Moon traveler, xi wasn’t about to tell him that xi was after an extremely powerful weapon. Though, at least then, Marrow knew it was likely left behind by one of the moon mages that once sought refuge in Tys.
“Ah, a traveler’s guide. Good luck that you came during the festival! I have to prepare for the Grand Flame of Tys, now, but if you’re so inclined, you can see the ceremony shortly after the moon rises at Vent Stadium.” The mayor pointed behind him. Carved into the side of the volcano, Marrow saw, were rows of seats facing a lava vent.
When Marrow looked back at the Mayor, he was already gone, having disappeared into the ever thickening and drunkening crowd.
Marrow didn’t much like crowds.
Marrow took the time to walk around the block of buildings and climb atop a barrel to see over the crowd. Xi searched for what xi had seen, the man-shaped conjugation of magic, but it was all vendors and children.
Xi would have taken off xir glasses to look for the magic signature, but two guards employed by the Five Corners Rail Union intimidated xir. No need to advertise the fact xi was a moon mage.
One vendor, however, was in the middle of the road rather than pushed to the sides. “Firebombs!” she cried out in a sing-song voice. A dozen patrons a minute took one of the pink, mushy candies from the many open boxes surrounding her, and almost all of them chucked money to another open box. Occasionally, someone stole from the box, but the missing coins were replaced by more patrons long before they were missed. “Firebombs!” the vendor chirped from behind the garb that covered every inch of her skin. “Pink and Poppy, Sweet and Sloppy!”
Marrow hadn’t noticed it before, but several of the other vendors were selling similar candies, and every child running free down the road had some sort of treat in their hand. Fake, edible rocks, glimmering red chunks of burnt sugar, and occasionally those weird, pink puffs called firebombs. Even the adults seemed to be getting their fill of candies.
The vendor stopped her Pink and Poppy, Sweet and Sloppy chant when her attention was snagged by the foreigner on a barrel. Her gloved hand whipped up and pointed at xir, though how she had seen xir through the dark net over her face was a mystery to Marrow. “You! Try a firebomb! Only one electrum!”
The price made Marrow so dizzy that xi removed xirself from the barrel. Though Fertile Moon used the same currency as the rest of the world, part of why Fertile Moon had such aggressively closed borders was its broken economics. An electrum was worth two barrels of flour in Fertile Moon, but was worth only a sack of flour in Tys. Marrow knew this as xi had spent hours reading up on Tys, but to hear a mere candy be compared to a hard week’s work was anxiety-inducing.
But xi was curious. The children ate them with such delight as they ran down the streets, and even the childless adults seemed to buy a few. And, well, just what did candy taste like in other parts of the world? Marrow made xir way over, shyly dug out five silver nubs, the equivalent of an electrum, and handed them over.
The fluff was sticky, and xi didn’t much like that. Mushroom-y in texture, squished in xir hand but bounced back.
Xi took a bite. The outside was rice patty seasoned with sugar cane and cinnamon, and it smooshed into a glue in xir mouth. Stuffed in the ball was pepper jam. Though the rice tried to calm the spice, the cinnamon fanned it, and the jelly texture caught Marrow by such surprise that it made xir gag.
The vendor gave a laugh interrupted periodically with a sharp inhale. “No foreigner ever likes it! Here’s your electrum back.” She gave the nubs back and received the bit-into fire bomb to throw in a trash crate. She offered water from a flask to pour over xir sticky hands.
The usage of clean water to wash hands and be dumped unceremoniously to the brick below hit Marrow like another rock. Water in Fertile Moon was so expensive that even the rich had to ration, and yet water hung in the air in Tys.
Lastly, the vendor pulled out a sack labeled “GOT THEM” and pulled out a flat bread. “This’ll get the taste out of your mouth.”
“Thank you.” Marrow reached to grab the bread when xir fingertips brushed the gloved palm of the vendor.
Magic. Magic so deep and powerful and beautiful that xi shivered as xi near involuntarily slipped xir hand to lay on the back of the vendor’s. What a foreign, unfamiliar, wonderful feeling. As much magic that laid beneath that fabric, it seemed to be calling out the magic within Marrow. Xi could feel it seeping down xir arteries in xir arms and out through the skin, past the fabric and into the vast collection inside the vendor.
The veiled vendor was whom Marrow had seen filled with magic. Beautiful, harmonious magic.
And the vendor was equally shocked. She stood absolutely still for a moment as she got a reading on Marrow’s magic reserve. It was so big that it replaced nearly half of Marrow’s blood, and it was an ambiguous type of magic, one that was useless until its type was defined by enchanted robes.
The vendor snatched her hand back when she realized she had been stealing the poor moon mage’s magic. Their magic, like hers, was vital to their continued existence.
The sadness of being separated from the awe-inspiring pool of magic snapped Marrow from xir trance. “Er, sorry.”
“You’re a moon mage,” she gasped. “You radiate magic.”
Marrow wished deeply that xi could see her expression beneath the dark veil. “Yes. Much of my physical existence is magic. It is why we often look so sick.”
“I thought you looked sick from the stolen soul.”
“That is but a myth. If humans had the magic to rip the very soul from others, there’d be not offsprings of the cosmos left.” For once, Marrow didn’t feel so burdened by the misinformation. Xi felt like the vendor understood the weight of being a stolen soul in a way even the mayor couldn’t. Maybe in a way xi couldn’t.
She silently let Marrow keep xir hand there before putting the flatbread in it. As though the silence had never happened, she chirped, “Have a great time at the festival!”
Marrow would have asked about the magic, but xi remembered the reason xi was there. With a festival soon to start, the shop xi had come to visit may close early, and xi didn’t like the idea of spending too long in a strange town with so much electrum. “Thank you. I hope your business goes well.”
Then, xi was off. The flatbread did wash the cinnamon, rice, pepper taste out of xir mouth, but it couldn’t wash the sheer wonderment out.
As xi moved closer to Heart of Tys, the city square closest to the volcano, the crowd grew thicker and rowdier. Marrow had been able to cope with the culture shock of the not-so-modest dress of the locals before then, but when coupled with either of xir shoulders bumped against four more shoulders, it made xir incredibly anxious. Xi kept a firm hand over xir satchel in case pickpockets took advantage of the crowded roads. The smell was terrible. Spice, fermented sugar, body odor. One thing Marrow had read about and had forgotten until then was how the watery air trapped smells close to the ground.
Eventually, the crowd spilled out into The Heart of Tys, and Marrow was relieved by the sight of two buildings.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
One, the inn xi was approved to stay in (not-so-coincidentally next to a guard station).
Two, the shop xi had really come for.
The one xi failed to mention in xir half-truths. Ek Mage Goods.
When Marrow opened the wooden door, the smell and noise of the festival was replaced by the calming smell of dust and the muffled cheers of the crowd outside.
The store was devoid of people, and it didn’t take long to guess why. The shelves were mostly empty except for magic-charged toys, and they hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. There were no tools or focusing crystals one would expect to see in a mage’s shop, no, just trinkets for children or the odd statuette. Many were of a man carrying a basket of peppers on his back, and in the pepper basket was a little jinnie.
Many of the statuettes had the same jinnie. Human-shaped, but with a tail and red scales for skin. Black horns, a white mane.
Perhaps it was their volcano god. Either way, they each cost over a hundred electrum.
Marrow decided to stop looking at them.
Plastered on the walls were dozens of adverts for some service where fire magic was used to coat sensitive crops during the winter months. They had all faded over the years.
And the man at the desk didn’t look too friendly. His hair was oily, his skin neglected, and his clothes were dirty.
Marrow walked up to the desk. “I am looking for Ek, the owner,” xi said.
The man squinted down at Marrow. Angry, almost. “Speaking.”
Speaking? Marrow looked the man over again. How could someone with a half-shaven face and bags under his eyes dare to call themselves a shop owner? He looked like he was some disgruntled old man that the owner had given a menial task to keep him busy.
But Marrow decided to not escalate the issue. “I am Marrow of Fertile Moon. I have come for the robe you advertise.”
The mean facial expression didn’t change. “I didn’t run an ad for a robe. I’m not a tailor.” He pointed at one of the many faded advertisements. “I’m a fire mage.”
“Oh. Perhaps I have the wrong Ek. Could you point me to who may carry a robe made of obsidian dragon scales?”
The expression on Ek’s face almost lost its aggression. “Oh, that robe. I didn’t run an ad for it, but I do know what you’re talking about. It’s in the back. Hold on a moment.”
The merchant left.
Marrow nervously looked through xir bag and counted the loose money within.
About a thousand electrum worth. The life savings of many family members that met a sudden, unfair end.
Marrow knew it wasn’t enough. Xi had known the whole time, but only then as the merchant was in the back fetching the robe did it really hit Marrow. A hundred thousand electrum for genuine obsidian dragon scale with the charge of a volcano god would have been laughed at.
And yet there xi was. With just one thousand. About to attempt to buy the robe.
The merchant was gone for a while. Marrow thought about just walking out.
No, xi decided. Xi had gotten that far, xi had traveled through the Five Corner Rail Union. Xi was going to try to make an offer, however comically small it was.
Ek eventually returned with a rotten wood box carried half-hazardly in one hand. Then, in a way that inspired a yelp from Marrow, he threw it upon the countertop. The box snapped under the weight, though it still somewhat held together.
“Don’t be a walking worry spell. It’s fake,” Ek spat. “Island’s Pride and Joy, they call her. Swindler and a liar, I call her. But if it weren’t for these festivals, I’d be out of business I suppose.”
“The candy vendor?” Marrow asked. “She sold you a fake robe?”
“Candy vendor, is that what she is tonight? Tried to sell it for years before I realized why it wasn’t selling.” Ek gestured angrily at the broken box. “Eventually a historian came by to purchase it and said it was a fake. I didn’t believe him and refused to sell for the price he was asking for because I thought he was lying, but I realize now far too late he was right. You can still look at it if you want.”
Marrow sighed xir soul out. All that way and all that worry over a fake robe. As if opening a casket, xi gently lifted the lid to the broken wooden box.
Shimmering in the torch light were hundreds of jet black scales woven together in a way only gods knew how to do. Even with the quartz glasses on, Marrow could feel a deep holy enchantment when xi held it in xir hands. Just holding it was draining xir magic, a property only genuine dragon scale had.
And not scale from any old dragon.
The incredibly rare and dangerous obsidian scale dragon.
“You can try it on, I guess. No one wants a costume that doesn’t fit.”
Marrow slowly slipped it over xir shoulders. Instantly, all the magicks of a raging volcano pricked into xir skin. When the hood was placed so two genuine obsidian dragon horns sat on xir head, it felt almost sickeningly powerful.
Wearing any moon mage robe passively drained magic. Some were light enchantments that were barely noticeable for hours like Mayor Ferra’s fire robe, while others drained fast enough that it would cause exhaustion. Generally, the more powerful the robe, the greater both its active use cost and its passive use cost, but dragon scale robes were double-hitters. Not only did the enchantment in the robe convert the storm magic Marrow needed to live into fire magic at an alarming rate, but the magical absorption property of dragon scale ate magic indiscriminately.
And, as a failsafe to prevent robes from killing the wearer, moon mage robes broke themselves if the wearer fell unconscious. Dragon scale, however, had full magic resistance that protected it from such spells.
Marrow was overcome by a healthy fear of death and shed the robe. With fear and guilt, xi looked up at the merchant, sinfully thankful the chronic pain of xir sickly existence kept xir from showing xir mistruth. “I still want to buy it. How much?”
Ek shrugged. “Ninety electrum.”
Not even the pain could hide the hammer of shock to Marrow’s chest at the price.
And Ek took offense in the wrong direction. “It did belong to the so-called Pride and Joy of Tys, you know, fake or real.”
“Yes, my fault. I am unaware of the customs here. I will pay.” Marrow dug out four spinel square pieces and ten electrum pieces from xir satchel, the equivalent of 90 electrum total. As dirty as Marrow felt not telling the merchant the value of the robe, Marrow knew the merchant couldn’t use it anyway, and at least it was being kept with moon mages that knew its value. Xi didn’t like the idea of it sitting in a museum with a placard that did not quantify the significance of the robe.
Ek accepted the change and then absently looked away. The transaction was over, and the merchant had no further use for Marrow.
Before anyone could walk in the shop and see the incredible item xi had bought, xi stuffed it in xir satchel and left.
The crowd had gotten even worse. Several different bands were in ear shot playing different songs on different beats. Between the earth’s sweat and the locals’ trapped in the jungle humidity, it felt like Marrow was breathing soup. Worse, the sweat on Marrow’s skin couldn’t dissolve into the already too-moist air, so it stuck to xir and made everyone visibly wet.
Marrow never thought xi would get sick of water, but there xi was, pining for the desert.
Part of Marrow wanted to just leave before the merchant realized his mistake, but Marrow also knew that the rail union was looking for any reason to arrest xir. Not observing the Grand Flame of Tys after saying it was why xi had come at all would give reason to suspend Marrow’s travel papers. It had already been suspended at three of the four stops on the way over, and xi wasn’t going to get lucky every time. One was going to end in an arrest.
Marrow, in a wave of nausea, remembered the rumor that Tys sacrificed their criminals to the volcano god, but xi knew better than to believe such slander. After all, many still believed moon mages to be the stolen souls of stillborn.
Marrow worked xir way up to the stadium around the volcano vent that the mayor had pointed out before. As thick as the crowd was, navigating it was easy as everyone was headed in the same direction.
Once up to the vent, Marrow found a good spot stood atop a rock so xi could look over the shoulders of the tall natives. Ferra the Mayor stood dangerously close to the volcano, and though the heat made him sweat so heavily he seemed to be part water, the fire resistance spell in his weak robe kept him shy of heat stroke.
Nothing happened for a while. The crowd chattered. The area got miserably hot, and the sulfur made breathing even harder. As the anxiety of being in such a smelly, hot bowl overwhelmed xir, xi began to think about leaving, but xi saw something that encouraged xir to stay.
There she was, The Pride and Joy of Tys. Still veiled so entirely not an inch of skin was showing. She didn’t just walk to the front of the crowd, no, there was fanfare. Horns blew in the distance, the dense crowd parted, and she came on a bed hoisted by four strong locals with scary wooden masks. They gently sat the bed on the ground front and center, and then the four locals kneeled by each of the four corners of the bed.
Mayor Ferra did not turn around to see the scene. No, when the horns faded out, he was still looking towards the vent. His expression looked enthralled almost as he rose his hands towards the vent. “The time has come again,” the mayor spoke in a grand voice. The crowd got quieter until all the stray talkers had been elbowed, and when the mayor spoke again, it echoed in the silence. “The moon is about to rise at its brightest, and so are you, Goddess of the Volcano! Your voice warms our crops, your embrace fertilizes our soils. Give us witness of your power!”
Drums beat. They came from multiple directions, but Marrow couldn’t see any. Hidden behind rocks or seats, perhaps.
“A gift!” the Mayor gasped in a dramatic shout. “A gift she promises, can you hear it?”
The drums kept playing.
“But the debt we owe her is grand for all the gifts she has already given! What, then, Volcano, must we give to pay you back twice fold, for we, your loyal subjects, crave your happiness and wellbeing above our own life! What, Volcano, is it you lust for?”
New, metallic drums were added. They began to fall out of sync, filling Marrow with a foreign sense of dread.
“Give me all that you are, the Volcano says, but Volcano, what are we in our full?”
New, high pitched horns added to the messy orchestra.
“Give us a maiden, sweet as your sugarcane. Give us a knight, fierce as your cinnamon. Give us a merchant, slick as your fermented pepper. Give us she who lives at the expense of a stillborn.” The Mayor took a step back, as if shocked by his own words.
And Marrow felt a little sick. Xi looked quite feminine, and Moon Mages were thought to originate from stillborns. What sick trick was the mayor playing, putting the frightened tourist in his little show?
But the mayor didn’t mean xir. No, Mayor Ferra turned and pointed with pure, true terror in his face. He pointed back at the fully veiled candy merchant, still sat in her bed. “Our pride and joy,” he choked out. “Is demanded as sacrifice.”
Marrow’s chest tightened no matter how much xi told xirself it was just a show. It felt so real. The toxic stillness of the crowd. The guilt on the mayor’s face.
It’s just a show, Marrow thought to xirself.
It’s just a show.
After a long, nauseating hesitation, the candy merchant stood up without a word. Slowly, painfully, she began to walk towards the mayor. The instruments died down to only the drums, and they played soft but rhythmic. Like a heart that only barely dared to beat.
It was just a show.
The merchant walked past the mayor without looking his way. As she did, he called out, “I’m sorry,” but she did not seem to hear. She walked right past him, dangerously close to the vent.
It was just a show.
Her robes, as she neared the deep pit, began to visibly tatter, as if they were being aged a hundred years a second. Closer, she wandered, and two small flames ignited on her clothes as she drew closer to the lava.
It wasn’t a show!
“Wait!” Marrow cried out against xir will. Xi used xir small size to effortlessly slip between the crowd that hollered and tried to grab Marrow, to stop xir, but xi wouldn’t have it. Xi barreled out to the main area and whipped xir new fire robe out of xir satchel.
Mayor Ferra looked towards the commotion and broke his sad character when he saw Marrow running out. “No!” he cried, unable to run in his overheated state. “She’s fine! We do this every month!”
But Marrow didn’t hear him. Marrow was deafened by fear, by instinct. Once the hood was up, the fire resistance kicked in full force, and xi gained on the advancing merchant. The sulfur was suffocating.
The Mayor couldn’t give chase. Full of anxiety, he called out to his niece, “Pyreborn, watch out!”
In that moment, Pyreborn’s outer layer of clothing caught and burned away in an instance. With the flame gone from around her ears, she heard the warning, stopped at the edge of the lava, and turned around.
To Marrow, it was shocking. The black full-body cover whooshed away in a flash, and revealed a human-shaped beautiful beast in its place. Red dragon scale as her skin, sharp teeth that hung out of her lip, a tail that whipped in wonder, and yellow and red eyes that looked on with confusion.
Between the oxygen deprivation and the sudden arrow of infatuation struck through xir heart, Marrow fainted. That was it. Just out cold for a second, and a second was all it took to trip and slam into the jinnie. Together, they toppled back into the pit and fell a few feet into the lava.
It felt like hitting concrete, and then like getting caught in a sinkhole caused by a sand dragon burrow. Marrow came to, then, sinking into lava. And, though the robe protected xir from the heat, when the sludge covered xir face, it prevented breathing. Xi kicked and flailed, but it only sunk xir further in.
A clawed hand grabbed xir arm and ripped xir from the sludge. As Marrow coughed and wheezed for air, xi was pulled up to the edge of the pit.
And there was the mayor, far too close for the enchantment on his robe to protect. His skin was blistering as he grabbed the desperate hand of Pyreborn and lifted her and Marrow up over the pit.
Mayor Ferra collapsed, and when Marrow tried to pick him up, xi collapsed too, both dying of sulfur inhalation.
Luckily, Pyreborn was born of pyre.
She grabbed them both under her arms as the screams of the crowd turned to cheers, and she rushed them away, passed the crowd, until the temperature was almost bearable.
With fading consciousness, Marrow shed xir fire robe and dug another out from xir satchel. Wheezing, xi slipped the white, thin fabric over xir daily robes and put a hand to xir own chest.
With two coughs, gunk appearing like two brown slugs projected from xir mouth: the collection of toxic material in xir lungs.
Then, xi crawled to Ferra and put a hand on his still chest.
Healing magic wasn’t perfect, especially healing magic converted from such a cheap robe. Moreso, it only convinced the body to stop damaging itself in panic and try repairing. Sometimes, the body was beyond repairing, but luckily, after a painstaking minute, Ferra seized to life. He continued to have trouble breathing through his burned throat for a while until the magic stopped his immune system from attacking the burns. Only then did he turn and cough the weird slug.
Though low on magic, Marrow kept a hand on the front and the back of Ferra’s ribcage. Ferra had saved Marrow’s life, and life was well worth passing out and breaking xir only healing robe.
“I am very sorry,” Marrow said, xir voice and arms growing weak. “I panicked.”
“You were just trying to save Pyreborn. I can’t fault you for that,” Ferra wheezed through a strained throat. He weakly grabbed at the weak heat resistance robe he had on. “Broken. Curse. This robe’s been in my family for generations. Let Pyreborn finish the show. It means so much to the town.” After that, Ferra lost all strength. He passed out on the hot ground, though his breathing remained steady, and he remained very much alive.
Marrow took off xir healing robe and looked at the stunned crowd.
Then at The Pride and Joy of Tys, at Pyreborn. She was in a long yellow skirt and a black half-tank, then, both with incredibly strong fire resistant enchantments that survived what the black veil didn’t.
“I’d help you up,” Pyreborn offered, “but, uh. Dragon scale. And you’re low on magic.”
“I think I prefer to sit, anyway.” Marrow rubbed xir sore throat. Only then did xi appreciate how sweaty xi was, and the sweat was all that kept xir skin from burning.
Two guards picked up Ferra by his wrists and ankles, but a few locals wrestled in and carried him in a more comfortable way out of the area. Though no longer dying, the skin continued to blister.
“Maybe I should introduce myself,” Pyreborn said. She reached out a hand. “I’m Pyreborn.”
“Pyreborn, truly- dragon scale, I can’t touch that right now, truly, a magnificent show.” As weak as xir back was, Marrow gave a little bow. “Terribly sorry to have ruined it, Daughter of Alnilam.”
“You’re not the first tourist to have jumped the crowd, just the first to have gotten that far, Son of Alnitak.”
“I’m not a man, though a common mistake. I am X-gender, a Satellite of Mintaka.”
“Can we drop the formal addresses?”
If xi had the power left to feel tugged at the heart after all xir heart had been through in the last three minutes, xi would have been stunned into silence.
“Sorry, but I, uh. I have to keep the show up,” Pyreborn continued in Marrow’s lovestruck silence. “It’s… Important. To us.” She gestured vaguely at the silenced crowd.
“Please, I will be a bother no longer. I hope I’m fine where I am- I really don’t feel like standing up.”
“It’s fine.” Pyreborn turned back to face the crowd. “Show’s back on!” she called out.
Most of the crowd cheered, but not in a happy way. Marrow thought it was like they were scared as to what would happen if the show didn’t go on. Perhaps it was important to the religion of Tys.
Pyreborn walked a little closer to the vent to get room before she held her hands in front of her. Slowly, she drew her hands away from each other and to the side. A line of dense fire magic materialized between her hands and floated, perfectly controlled. Not even moon mages had that elegant of control. Only a dragon could keep arches of stray energy whipping out, and only a dragon could keep the line so straight, still, and suspended.
The drums began back up, their sick, rhythmic thumping.
With a swift but gentle circular motion, she spun on one set of toes, calling a curvature and a gravity to the line. It sunk and swiveled, and it became a ribbon, then, with a burst of the drums, it bloomed from the thickness of a feather to the thickness of a support beam. Following the movement of her left hand, one end wriggled and raved to the off-beat drums. A face tried to form again and again, but seemed to just fail every time the drums quieted a moment. A flash of teeth, a whip of whiskers, the end of a muzzle. Then, with another burst of the drums, a face was carved into the flame, and then it bellowed yet another flame from its mouth.
Marrow was more than mesmerized as xi watched. In pure awe of the sheer control, xi took off xir quartz glasses.
That was an even more beautiful dance. The intense fire magic spun in careful spirals inside of the strange dragon woman until it was whisked out to join the magic false dragon outside.
Marrow couldn’t even hear the cheers or feel the sulfur burning xir chest, then. The ribbons swung so poetically, almost endlessly from Pyreborn’s reserves.
Of course it wasn’t endless, however. Slowly, through the dance, her magic reserve became ever so slightly smaller. Barely enough to notice, and Marrow only noticed because xi watched so carefully. So intensely.
After a moment, Marrow replaced xir glasses to appreciate the dance itself. To grand drums and bursts of horns, she performed a warrior’s dance, stomping her feet and moving her hands in clever ways to make her movements seem independent yet synced to the false fire dragon she controlled. The drums took a rapid light beat during the last twirl where the dragon looped up and slammed straight downward mouth open upon Pyreborn, except it went straight through her and her fireproof clothing to seem to dissipate into the ground below.
The drums stopped and Pyreborn stood incredibly still, all her weight on one leg with the other crossed over it. Her arms were held to her sides at a slight downward angle, and her eyes were shut as she breathed heavily in exhaustion. It seemed the show was over, but when Marrow looked to the crowd, they were still struck with anticipation.
Then, her arms rose. She opened her sharp-toothed mouth and raw, untamed fire magic leaked out. She whipped her head up and, with a brilliant show of power, she unleashed a massive blast of magic. Strategically not bright enough to burn the eyes, the beam shot straight up, tapering out at the height of perhaps half to the top of the volcano. The glassy rocks embedded in the ground shimmered in the arches breaking away from the main stream, and the heat the arches spewed rose the already boiling temperature of the island to unbearable.
Then, with a bit of a clumsy stutter, Pyreborn’s breath ran out. The fire magic dissipated and she coughed a few times. When she took a bow, she was visibly exhausted of magic.
“Behold,” bellowed the four masked strangers that had lifted Pyreborn there, “The Grand Flame of Tys!”
The crowd burst into cheers as Pyreborn put her hands on her knees. The show took most of her expendable magic, something dragons needed to live, but she needed the show. She needed to exhaust herself every full moon.
Marrow would have liked to stay sat on the ground and talk to Pyreborn, but when the crowd began to move, xi realized that staying on the ground would get xir trampled. Xi stood up and tried to walk against the crowd, but it was too thick, too sweaty, and too drunk to weasle through.
After a moment, xi gave up. Xi followed them until xi got to the inn xi had been approved to stay at. The attendant checked Marrow in with a very notable lack of talking.
Marrow went up the stairs to xir third-floor room, at a desk facing a window, lit a candle, and took out xir book. Xi flipped through the pages of jinnie they encountered in their everyday life, past the sand dragon and the desert horse, two common mischief makers in xir homeland, then stopped on a blank page.
The Grand Flame of Tys
That was all Marrow could write down. There was so much to write. All jinnie were made of magic, but how to express the beauty in the ribbons of hers? How to express the human sentience of Pyreborn, her importance in a town?
That was before Marrow could even get to asking xirself how much of The Grand Flame of Tys was common knowledge. Fertile Moon was a remote place, and the strict borders made froegin stories contraband. There was no way of knowing what other nations knew about Tys.
Then, a distraction came.
It came suddenly.
It came bright.
Through the intense dark of the jungle, the brightest light Marrow had ever experienced swept through the island, lighting up harsher than daytime ever could, blinding and stunning.
After a second, Marrow’s eyes adjusted and the light began to faulter.
From xir window, xi could see past the town and out into the rural jungle. Somewhere just over the horizon, a massive column of the most intense fire magic Marrow could ever hope to live to see whipped in the air. It crashed, it arced, it danced like a horse being roped for the first time, like a wild wolf in a bear trap. It wasn’t elegant. It wasn’t controlled. It was nothing but powerful.
Then, gone.
The world was once again claimed by darkness, and even the candle on the desk couldn’t be seen after watching something so bright.
Fear and excitement raced in Marrow as xi realized what xi had witnessed.
The real Grand Flame of Tys.