The sudden appearance of a more humanoid Aradie didn’t sit well with Quinn’s overall perception of things. However, as the fight began in earnest, there was too much for Quinn to focus on to dwell on the sudden change to her familiar. But once they got out of this situation…

As they clashed, Quinn turned her attention to Narilin, who sat on the floor, vines greedily trying to connect to her as she attempted to extricate herself. She’d been the first person to recognize what they were, after all, and they appeared to be eager for revenge.

Quinn ripped Narilin up, hovering her over to the table behind where Quinn stood. The Salosier book doctor seemed shaken up, but there was a new fire in her eyes that hadn’t been there previously. It made Quinn realize that she’d never actually witnessed Narilin being angry at anything, considering this was what happened when she got pissed off.

“Calm it down.” Quinn whispered. Now is not the time.

Narilin grunted, and a wave of healing energy passed over her. At first Quinn was shocked, but then she realized that Narilin was a book healer, she could work with all types of trees and their products. Which would, in a way, help herself too.

Aradie skidded back, almost bumping into Quinn before diving back into the fray. From the stance and expression on her owl’s face, Aradie seemed to be having the time of her life.

Nishpa had since moved both herself and Karella to the same table Narilin sat on.

“Plan?” she snapped impatiently. The Firionas’ gaze kept glancing at Karella, as if she wasn’t entirely sure where her loyalties lay.

“Get you out of here so I don’t have to worry about setting you on fire.” Quinn said, without skipping a beat.

“Is he really...” Karella’s voice cracked and a tear ran down her face. She couldn’t take her eyes off Haritan’s body.

Quinn felt a pang of sadness for the woman, and yet... not completely. “Give me the book before you leave.”

Karella glanced at her, mild confusion crossing her brow as she did. “Book?”

Quinn groaned. She should have realized it was all too easy. Comparatively anyway. Damn it. “Nevermind.”

They’d have to figure out that aspect of it later. While she wasn’t hopeful Haritan had it, there was still a possibility he did. Whereas... she was fairly sure Irias was keeping it in her own dimensional storage. Not the best place for it considering the current fight.

Quinn glanced around and up at the owls guarding the skylight. She could handle keeping that safe, at least as long as her energy held out. Beckoning to them, Quinn narrowly avoided a type of wooden dart that almost hit her in the face.

One of the massive owls hooted long and low, and Quinn found that even though it wasn’t spoken in words, she sort of understand his intonations. “Yes, please... get them out of here. Keep them safe. Fetch help if possible. Do not let the rot from here get through the aperture.”

She didn’t even have to ask twice. The larger one gripped Karella by the shoulders, somewhat gently, and raised himself up as he flew her out. The other took Narilin in much the similar fashion. Nishpa shot Quinn a flat look. “I can fly under my own steam. But will you two be okay here?”

Quinn shrugged and gestured at the blurs that were Aradie and Irias. “Probably. I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to help. Failing that, I’ll feed her whatever energy I can spare. Just in case.”

Nishpa nodded. “I’ll keep a track of you.”

Quinn smiled tightly as another projectile barely missed her. They were starting to piss her off, but not Nishpa. Instead, she told the Fae princess, as she’d now learned, to be safe. “Don’t worry about me.”

Nishpa fluttered off and Quinn sighed with relief. What she planned to do couldn’t happen if she had to worry about too many people.

You okay if I use some fire? she sent the thought out to Aradie

Please! But even though Aradie should probably be stressed from the amount of flitting around she was doing, she sounded positively vibrant. Alive! Like this was what she was made to do.

It gave Quinn an entirely different view on just what the Nightowls were. When she really thought about it, it made little sense that all they were there for was to give a feather once a year that could help write a very specific magical affinity.

A grin floated through Quinn’s mind, which was an odd sensation, all things considered. She’d never really felt an expression before. But this... it was like her familiar was conveying the emotion in a more well... emoting form.

Fire was a go then.

Her first order of business was to create a barrier for herself so she wouldn’t burn. Her scales obliged, ripling over most of her body to encase it in a skin tight shield that somehow felt like an extension of herself. Scales rippled over her body as they settled under her clothes, over her skin. A refreshing sense of protection.

With the rest of them gone, and no one but themselves to protect, Aradie began fighting in earnest. Quinn could feel the stakes rising as she did so, the way her power vibrated in the air like the perfect note on a violin.

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Aradie began shifting. She wasn’t just a blur of speed and feathers, but this time, she shifted her size, her form, and became a complete and utter menace.

Which allowed for Quinn to focus on what really needed to happen.

Irias had long since given up the pretense of keeping herself above the vines, above the floor of the forest. The roots and vines had greedily reattached to her, and that was when Quinn realized the extent of her magic. The root system was feeding her power, directly. Giving her more energy the more she used, so that she’d never run out.

A part of Quinn was fully aware that the thousands of people who’d been here were probably holed up in a room somewhere being sucked dry like husks in order to feed their energy to Irias. She only hoped they could stop all of it in time to at least save some of them.

First things first, though, Quinn stomped on the ground, more to give Aradie a warning than to attempt a distraction for Irias, but both seemed to work. Aradie made sure she hovered a few more inches above the ground while Quinn’s flames ate it up.

In her slight confusion by Quinn’s sudden movement, Irias paused ever so slightly, which gave Aradie enough leverage to hit her with a surprisingly hefty uppercut. It clipped her under the chin, lifting her enough to snap the hold the undergrowth had on her and send her flying into the closest wall.

At the same time, the flames spread faster than the wildfires on Earth, gobbling up the power in one fell swoop. Blue flames licked at everything around them, and Quinn barely kept it under control. Apparently magical foliage, even if it was rotting from within, was highly flammable to magical flame.

To Quinn’s surprise, not only did the flame devour every single vine and root within the room, but it remained contained in the barrier Quinn had attempted to set it. She could feel her own energy whoosh out of her, but at the same time, it began to replenish, along with the complete destruction of each section of the room.

Both Aradie and Quinn navigated the area, moving around so that the flames wouldn’t catch up to them as the fire scoured the room.

Irias gasped several time, and her once white and red skin began to morph darker. Whether that was because she’d expended some of her power, Quinn wasn’t sure, but nevertheless, her appearance began to change drastically.

The black began at her feet, feeding up through her torso in streaks, like she was burning alive herself. It gave Quinn pause. Perhaps the undergrowth had been directly connected to her after all. It was another thing Quinn didn’t know.

Aradie landed several hits while Irias was partially out of it.

It was obvious the fire caused her pain, energy loss, and a type of grief.

Irias screamed. “You’ll pay for that!”

Quinn strengthened her shielding and extended it to cover Aradie as well. She wasn’t taking any chances and at least her energy levels weren’t at all depleted thanks to the purified energy the fire had managed to feed back to her after destroying all the roots and vines. There was so much she still needed to understand about her powers.

The ground rumbled underneath her, and Quinn lengthened the distance she hovered above it, just in case. She could see Aradie do the same thing out of the corner of her eye. Quinn didn’t quite make it out of the way though as the ground exploded up, a thicker root breaking through the scorched ground and rising up like a hunter from the deep.

Quinn dove to the side, almost rolling off the table as she skidded across it. The wood bit hard into her, winding her slightly, despite the fact that she knew the heat had weakened the tables too. She had to shake her head to get herself to focus properly.

Aradie had Irias by one clawed hand, holding her neck just like the Balisor impersonator had done earlier with Narilin. Thick, sludgelike blackened red goop began leaking down from the scratches inflicted by the Nightowl.

The ground beneath them rippled again and Aradie tossed Irias against the wall, just like Haritan had earlier, in order to save herself as she retreated atop another of the tables. It wobbled ever so slightly, the legs more fragile now the fire had eaten away at them somewhat.

Quinn didn’t lose anymore time now she was back in possession of her faculties. Igniting the ground once more with blue flames, she could hear a high-pitched squeal emanating from the roots and undergrowth that tried desperately to emerge from the ground beneath them. It wanted to rip them apart. The intent was there, as palpable as the heat from Quinn’s flames.

There was a sentience to it, just ever so slightly. But even so, that didn’t give Quinn pause. This thing was out to get all of them, and she’d be damned before she let it. Tightening her grip on the flames she’d only just learned to control, Quinn applied more pressure to the area. At the same time, with her focus pinpointed and finely tuned, she began to extract the moisture from around the ground and the vines themselves. It was a difficult task to wield both elements at once, especially given their direct juxtaposition.

She could feel the sweat beading on her brow and it had nothing to do with the heat surrounding her right then.

The undergrowth squealed again, and Irias fell down to one knee, her own body beginning to crack.

A part of Quinn that wasn’t fully concentrated on the fire and water realized the benefits of affinities being split like they were. After all, having a water control affinity without the ability to evaporate that same moisture, sort of meant the water affinity wasn’t completely finished. Quinn, however, never had to worry about that. She had more than enough affinities and room for all the rest.

The fire burned hotter, giving Quinn ample tinder for fuel. The ground beneath them burned, but the shielding kept both Aradie and Quinn safe. Not that she didn’t think her familiar could totally take care of herself, but, this way Quinn hoped to free up some of Aradie’s energy for taking down Irias.

A loud, echoing scream escaped from Irias at that precise point in time.

Quinn looked up, but didn’t relinquish any of the heat she’d gathered, and realized, perhaps with a strange detachment, that somewhere along the way, Irias had managed to get too close to the fire. Given that most of the moisture had been drained from her as well, her toes touching the flame basically acted like a wick.

The flames shot up her body, enveloping it in hot blue, tinged with pale yellow. Irias writhed against the back wall, slowly smoldering the greener vines away in the process. Apparently, her real skin hadn’t been marble, but a different type of wood. She writhed as the flames threatened to engulf her, no longer able to issue coherent threats.

Aradie flung what looked like a wind blade. It spiraled through the air, cutting clean through the fake Irias’ neck, severing the head cleanly.

Irias’ body dropped to the ground, her head rolling to the other corner, the eyes open in shock and the face barely singed.

Quinn watched it until it came to a stop, not entirely sure how she should feel.

“Put the flames out.” Aradie said to her, the words cutting through to Quinn as she turned to the owl person who usually sat on her shoulder, and she blinked.

Extracting the oxygen effectively put the flames out, but Quinn couldn’t stop thinking about Irias death. Not that having the charred corpse and detached head sitting right near her helped any.

Aradie might have decapitated her, but Quinn pretty much burned her to death.

She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt.

But she did know she didn’t feel bad about it.