Marrow woke with the sun and got into xir daily clothes. Xi packed xir three robes, a healing robe, the fire robe, and a weak water robe, and headed out the hotel room door.

At the bottom of the stairs were two customs guards talking to the receptionist.

“… Xi rubs me the wrong way, but I don’t know anything about illegal,” the receptionist said before turning her eyes. Instantly, the receptionist looked embarrassed to have been caught talking about the guest.

“Is everything alright?” Marrow asked.

The two customs guards looked at Marrow, whispered to each other, and then looked back again at Marrow. One said, “We received a tip that your passport is fake.”

“It is very real.” Marrow pulled xir very real passport from xir satchel. “It is watermarked and has the official magic signature.”

“Fertile Moon has extremely strict laws on not allowing money to be taken out of the country. How did you afford the train ride?”

Marrow had to think. Lying was still against xir cultural code, but weaving a truth was proving difficult. “I performed some farm work in the neighboring nation.” Xi had actually planted the seeds of a pumpkin xi had stolen and eaten and left an apology note, but farm work was farm work.

“We’ll have to take your passport while it is under review.” The guard reached and took the book.

Marrow didn’t protest. Xi did worry about being discovered for the false application for the passport, but that application was rotting in a filing cabinet in the cellar of an understaffed embassy on the other side of the globe. The chance of customs going through the trouble of traveling that far was slim to none.

Although that did mean xi couldn’t leave the island. The only way out was through the Five Corner Rail Union.

Xi worried about running out of money. What was a great fortune in Fertile Moon wouldn’t last the month in Tys.

The guards left and the receptionist looked at Marrow. She almost looked sick to her stomach.

It wasn’t a reaction Marrow was a stranger to. Moon mages looked like walking corpses, and their reputation didn’t make them look any kinder.

For a moment, Marrow wondered who had tipped the rail union that the passport was fake, but the thought didn’t linger long. People hated the idea of people from Fertile Moon so much that they would lie to keep xir from boarding the same train as them, and there was a good chance the tip didn’t exist at all. The Five Corner Rail Union proudly advertised their trains to be free of rats, and the rats on the posters wore clothes from Fertile Moon.

“Suppose I’ll be staying a while,” Marrow told the receptionist. “Afraid this is the only inn I’m approved to stay in.”

The receptionist nodded.

“I suppose since I can’t leave, I’ll be exploring the island. I will be back by sundown.” Marrow waved and left the building.

Of course, by that point, xi was planning to stay a while, anyway. Who could see such an amazing phenomenon and leave without first finding out the cause?

The trail out of the town was longer than it looked, however. Xi was unaware the inn was situated partially up the volcano, and what appeared to be a morning walk to the jungle-riddled horizon was actually a walk through to the afternoon just to reach the edge of town.

By the time the roads turned to dirt, Marrow was exhausted. Heat and water clung again to xir skin.

Still, xi carried on. It was cooler under the tree canopies that shaded the dirt path than it was in the cobblestone town, so it became a more pleasant idea than turning around.

The road was well-traveled. Farmers pulled carts of crops, mostly peppers, to town, and they pulled empty carts back. Occasionally, one had a horse pulling the cart.

To either side of the road were endless native berry bushes and trees. The traveling often picked food as they walked, but none seemed to be taking it to sell. It also attracted a series of small animals, rabbits, birds, turtles. Occasionally, a Common Fire Wisp, a type of small jungle snake with wings, lunged at the birds. Not a true dragon due to being made of meat instead of magic, but often mistaken for one due to its ability to cast fire spells. It was also a very small creature, no bigger than a hawk, and they pestered those on the trail by spitting embers at their pepper carts. A few farmers bribed them by tossing them meat scraps, but Marrow only imagined it only made the fire wisps more incentivised to terrorize the carts.

The further the path went, the less certain Marrow was that xi was going in the right direction. Curiously, however, there started to be little decorations on the side of the road.

A rock carved in the shape of what Marrow could only guess was a lady made of slime had fresh flowers and spicy candies thrown around the base of it. Ants swarmed the candies.

Some sort of religious idol, Marrow figured.

Some of the trees had bottles hung from them with notes. Marrow stopped at one and tried to read a note without removing it from the bottle, but it was tightly wound. Xi could only make out that it seemed to be a poem of some sort.

Further down yet, xi came across a cliff face that had been painted. It appeared to be regularly repainted as each line was feathered with old lines not perfectly traced, and it depicted a story as Marrow walked.

The first image, the same farmer as the statuettes in the mage shop with a pepper basket on his back. He was facing a pregnant woman and holding her hands.

The next, the man with his pepper basket, on the ground and weeping. The no-longer pregnant woman and child were drawn, but their hands were crossed over their chests.

A sad story. Marrow didn’t much like that.

Then, the man had the dead child in his arms, offering it to the lady made of slime depicted in the statue xi had passed shortly before (except then it was clear she was made of lava).

The next drawing, the man looked up in awe at the child as it floated in brilliant light. In the next, the child was no longer dead nor human, but a red jinnie with with arms lively flailed.

In the last, the jinnie rode in the pepper basket as the farmer happily carried on.

It was signed Ek.

For a man that seems to hate Pyreborn so much, he sure capitalizes on her popularity, Marrow thought to xirself. But the thought was short lived. People breaking their morals for an electrum were no less common than fire wisps in tropical jungles.

As Marrow walked, a man carrying a medical kit came around a bend and stopped. He looked at Marrow with shock and disgust, something Marrow was quite used to. Especially since the doctor was of obvious Fertile Moon origin, even if he wore Tys clothing (or, more accurately, Marrow thought, the lack of clothing in Tys).

“Hey,” the doctor said in a sharp tone.

Marrow carried on.

“Hey,” the doctor said again, sharper, as Marrow passed.

“Stop,” the doctor ordered. He ran up and grabbed Marrow’s shoulder, and his surprising strength for his little body spun the poor moon mage around.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Did you need something?” Marrow asked. “I’m quite out of my element and would like to finish my walk.”

“How’d you get that robe you wore last night?” the doctor demanded.

“I’m sorry?”

“The robe. How many of our kind did you have to sell out to afford a robe woven by a goddess? No one from Fertile Moon has money, especially not moon mages.”

“Ek sold it to me,” Marrow said plainly. “For around ninety electrum. I suspect he didn’t realize how powerful it is.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

The longer Marrow looked at the doctor, the more xi began to notice subtle things. The slight clouding in his young eyes. The grey hairs. The light paleness of his skin. A moon mage, but one that looked only aged to an untrained eye. By the feel of the stale magic in his body, he didn’t use it very often. Not uncommon. Robes were expensive, more often than not kept in families for generations.

“I’m afraid it’s the truth,” Marrow eventually said.

“And you have a second robe. A healing robe.”

“Yes, my great grandfather weaved it in secret during the first moon war, though he died to a sand dragon before its completion. My mother finished the stitching, and my grandmother enchanted it, and she wore it under her regular clothing to sneak into locked-down villages to heal the plagued. A pity she was outted by someone that wanted her robe, but she hid it well and it outlived her, sands rest her.” Marrow loved talking about xir robes, however rare xi got the chance and however hostile the fellow moon mage was. It was part of being a moon mage, having elaborate stories of resistance and war in each enchanted cloth.

As much as the doctor was suspicious of Marrow, he seemed a little moved. There was an unmistakable jealousy, a wish that he had the same stories to share. Like all moon mages that escaped, however, there was a heaviness to his eyes. If his family ever had a robe, it was long gone, and judging by the accent, the doctor was a first generation immigrant.

And, judging by the anger and longing for a story of his own, he had arrived to Tys alone.

“Perhaps we should have a drink sometime,” Marrow offered. “It has been seasons since I last saw a fellow moon mage.”

“I’m not a moon mage,” the doctor said softly. “But I know the politics of robes. No one person owns more than one unless they sold out a family.”

“Or if their entire bloodline bottlenecked in a night,” Marrow barked. “Eight robes ran in my family, six were stolen. I only found two when I came back from a water trip to my village burned to the ground, the healing robe and a water one. The fire was recently purchased using money I scavenged from the ruins.”

The doctor’s armored nature melted, and he dropped his lie of his origin. “I have a similar story.”

“We all do.”

“But don’t think I’ve cleared my suspicion of you. As I said, I have a similar story. We both know the other is capable of selling the other for an electrum. And frankly, I don’t know why you felt the need to take a robe that means so much to Tys when you know how important it is a robe stay with its family.”

A farmer rounded the bend with a cart of peppers, and the doctor acted as though the conversation hadn’t happened at all. No, the doctor kept walking the way they were going without an extra word or staying long enough for Marrow to point out the robe was already outside of its family in Ek’s hands.

Strange.

Marrow carried on.

Xi finally reached the farms, almost all growing peppers, but the farms quickly tapered back out into tropical forest. Not as dense as jungle, but less shade from the sun.

Marrow was so distracted by heat that xi didn’t notice that the trees were burned to charcoal husks, that no rabbits or fire wisps danced in those parts. Xi didn’t notice as the ground became entirely flat until xir feet clanked on rough glass.

Obsidian.

Yes, under xir feet was pure obsidian, and when xi looked forward, it was nothing but obsidian until halfway to the horizon in a crude disk shape. In the center, a chasm glowed with lava.

A tall-tale nest of an obsidian scale dragon, and a powerful one at that. Xi had read up on them, but their rarity (and the fact they only appeared near volcanos) kept xir from ever having seen one. For the better, too. They were known for their sheer raw power and aggression, power enough to make a blinding pillar of light. Legend said stepping on their glass disks led to being cursed.

Marrow quickly jumped back to the soil. Xi was above superstition, but just in case.

Then xi noticed something near the chasm. A body. A bright red body with a white mane and black horns.

Pyreborn!

Without thinking, xi rushed across the jagged glass and towards the center. Xi crouched by Pyreborn and took off xir glasses.

Her magic wasn’t as active. Still beautiful, but no longer dancing. It flowed only enough to keep her alive, and the pool was insanely low. Perhaps a bigger dragon could drain a lesser one of its energy?

Xi didn’t have time to answer questions. Xi needed to get them out of the nest before the dragon came back and ate them both, so xi picked up Pyreborn.

A very hard task for a scrawny person like Marrow, but a task that was perfectly possible when lives were on the line.

Xi dashed in an almost random direction until xi was off the disk and put Pyreborn down. With some of Marrow’s magic stolen in the run, she had a little more color in her scales, but she was still out cold.

Marrow rested a hand on her cheek and let xir magic seep in. Her pool got healthier and healthier until it began to dance again, but xi still wouldn’t wake up.

She needed rest.

Marrow looked around. Nothing but forest for a while, but a trail was worn into the brush nearby. Perhaps it led to someone xi could ask for help from.

Xi walked along it for a while, and in only a few minutes, came across a strange clearing.

A farm. At least, it was at some point. Vines had crept in over the fence and young trees stood on the fringes of the field. Grass ran wild through it and grew taller in the rows that had been fertilized in the past for crops. On rare occasions, Marrow stumbled across an old, stray pepper plant suffocating in the weeds.

Xi reached the house in the center. Small, modest. Half destroyed by fire. Xi wasn’t sure why xi went inside, it seemed to be abandoned, but xi did.

A clock ticked on its lonesome. There was ash that had become one with the wooden floors over the years. The walls were cracked from the heat it once faced, and several birds nests rested where the sun shone into the broken roof. The entire house was deeply enchanted with fire resistance, but some stronger magic had bested it a long time ago. Claw marks left scars in the furniture. The rug’s only sign of existence was some surviving fringe. Every step made the house cry out in pain.

The clock’s hand brushed a lever that rung a bell.

The clock worked?

Marrow looked at the clock on the wall. The hand had just passed through mid-sun, and was headed for sun-down.

Odd. Someone had wound the clock.

Someone had dishes that were dirty but not too nasty on what was left of a dining table.

Someone lived here.

“Hello?” Marrow called out. Xi walked along the empty home. “I was hoping someone could help. Pyreborn’s ill and low on magic.”

No answer.

Marrow looked in every room. No one.

They weren’t home.

Just as xi turned to leave, however, something caught xir eye. A painting, mostly destroyed by the jagged claws of an obsidian scale dragon.

A painting that pictured a very young pyreborn in a man’s lap, signed Ferra and labeled, “For my niece.”

It was Pyreborn’s house.

Ah, what bad luck. And what terrible living conditions.

Before xi could try to work out which direction would lead xir to help the fastest, there was a distinct roar, one that sounded like nails on a chalkboard pitched down. Like steam out a kettle, but thicker.

No good. The obisidan scale dragon was close.

Xi rushed for the door, but a massive beast crashed into the porch, breaking it. It weaseled back into a stand and spread its massive wings. It looked at Marrow through the doorway, and Marrow saw in its eyes weakness. Its magic pool was low, likely because of its display last night, and like all dragons, that meant it was barely conscious.

Weak or not, it opened its mouth of terrible sharp teeth and dense fire magic began to gather in a ball above its tongue.

Then, the porch broke further, making the beast fall, and Marrow wasn’t about to lose the chance to escape. Fighting any dragon was stupid. An obsidian scale dragon was double stupid.

Xi hopped onto the flailing beast and then to the ground before bursting into a sprint.

With troubled roars, the beast sloppily gave chase, its low magic being the only thing keeping it from instantly catching Marrow and tearing xir limb from limb.

Xi reached into xir satchel and took out the weak water robe. Water, xi had read, would put obsidian scale dragons to sleep and was practically the only way to kill them. As xi ran through the forest, however, xi realized that, somehow, in a jungle on an island, it can be difficult to find water.

The trees behind Marrow snapped as the beast barreled into them. No matter how much Marrow begged xir burning legs to go faster, the sound of crashing wood and distressed animals got closer and closer.

But then, a stream! Marrow jumped over the creek, fell on the landing, and turned to see the dragon leaping with its mouth open.

With a swift hand movement, xi changed the current of the stream to up, and water hit the dragon for its entire leap over. While mid-air, its eyes closed and its body went limp, and Marrow rolled out of the way just before it crashed into the soil.

Safely asleep.

Marrow cautiously stood back up and walked around the beast. Curiosity wanted to study it so bad. To pick up the wings and see how they moved. To examine the rough, dull claws up close. But logic said it was very big and scary, and Pyreborn still needed help.

Oh, Pyreborn!

Marrow limped with fatigue back to the disk.

She was gone. She must have woken up and gotten help, Marrow decided.

And with that, xi went back to the inn, then able to write about the real Grand Flame of Tys.