Juliet didn’t know how she had come to the decision that she had to save those two men on the ground. She just knew it.

She had not thought about it.

She had seen them suffer and decided that they shouldn’t be suffering. It was that simple. There was nothing complex about it. And if anyone wanted to disagree, they would be welcome to try.

Jacob had told her multiple times that her heritage was something far greater that she could ever imagine. Phoenixes were the apex of healing properties. When she had envisioned the Golden Flames, she had thought about that, about the power that comes from giving.

And while looking at noxious vapors burning out of existence thanks to her flames, she thought about that notion once again.

She wasn’t skilled in Formations nor Inscription Patterns. She could not care less about those things. And if Helena wasn’t so set on looking like a little genius to impress Jacob, she would have even refused the lessons.

Now, though, Juliet thought about one very important notion that Jacob had taught her.

Formations were not something artificial. They were present in nature and dominated the landscape of multiple places. Even a particular arrangement of trees could be considered a Formation in their current world. Inscription Pattern helped with harnessing the power of such Formations or they enabled Humans and other races to create new ones.

That had been something that Juliet had understood.

A simple concept.

Nature.

She formed a circle of Golden Flames with a flicker of will and traced it outside herself and the two men.

If this works, Helena can fucking kiss my ass.

She spread the flames evenly, careful to feel any uncertainty inside the flames. She was looking for the feelings inside the Phoenix Golden Flames.

From her first understanding, she had thought that Phoenixes were a bunch of egotistical creatures who only cared about themselves. But Jacob had explained her that there was a nobility, a noblesse-oblige, that characterized such mythical creatures. They would bless the entire world with their flames when needed. They would heal and restore, create new things from ashes.

And let ashes be life, once again.

She looked at the two sick men.

She took in the gory looks of her bodies. Their legs were the only affected part, as if it was a sick joke played on them by God—no, not God: by a monster.

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Whatever, or whoever, had played with life like that deserved a terrible end. An ocean of pain where to drown.

Juliet felt a spark of pure black rage in her veins. It still belonged to the Phoenix heritage, but this was not the moment for it. There would come a time, for sure: but not right now.

Right now, Juliet had to be what she had seen in the Golden Flames. She had to be healer and saviour, not the angel of death.

So, she harnessed the power contained in the circle and started humming. She had seen Phoenixes sing in the vision where she had found the Golden Flames. Now, she tried to immerse herself in the same song that had mended the wounds of dying warriors and banished sickness from mothers and their children.

The muffled sound of her voice initially fell deaf on the air.

But then, something happened.

The air started visibly heating up, distorted in the same manner you would find in a scorched desert. It was a spectactle of rare beauty to behold in the middle of a city.

One would have expected the two people on the ground to start suffering for the rising heat since the man outside the circle started sweating like crazy.

However, the hum had invaded all the space in the boundaries of the Golden Flames. And now, it started turning into a song. Bit by bit, it sounded like Juliet voice was disappearing and something greater took its place.

The humming started becoming clearer than crystal, more powerful than a mighty wave rocking the coast.

Juliet felt her throat brim with power and her heart beating by the same rhythm of her humming. She could feel an incredible power come through her chest, contained by her ribs, and be released with the air coming from her mouth.

Everything started vibrating.

Everything.

It was as if she had set the world on an invisible fire.

And the two people, the two poor men laying on the ground, started breathing faster.

Juliet wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad sign, but she still kept at it, unrelenting.

There was something ritualistic in what she was doing, something ancient. At this point, she was barely conscious of her actions. She was being guided; otherwise, she could have never performed this ceremony.

In the past, people would make offers to Phoenixes in exchange for their benevolence and gifts. The luckiest could aspire to even receive a drop of their sacred blood. In this case, however, Juliet didn’t even need the blood.

Diseases were great and she had no doubt that the Plague Doctor was one of the greatest monster in existence. But this was a primal power, something as great as Dragons. Phoenixes had never walked Earth, to everyone’s knowledge, at least; so, no one knew what their true might would be in the flesh.

Here, however, Juliet figured out the answer.

She had sorely underestimated the power contained in her veins, in her own blood. It was much greater than anything she had ever even thought of.

She had no vision nor great enlightenment.

She was just guided by her senses, by the same blood she had so underestimated.

Juliet kept humming with power, reinvigorated by this gesture, and she saw the purulent cracks on the two men’s skin start to recede. The disease lost ground by the second, slowly releasing the two from its grip.

It took barely a minute and the two started breathing normally, now both asleep.

Juliet exhaled and dispelled the ritual she had summoned. She felt it in the back of her head, much clearer than before.

This was the solution for the plague.

It wouldn’t kill the Plague Doctor, but it would certainly stave off the mass murder he was responsible off.

“Wow, you cured them!” the man started jumping in the air, barely able to contain his excitement. “What’s your name, if I might ask, young woman?”

“Juliet,” she said with a satisfied smile.

“Oh, Juliet,” the man grabbed her hands and shook it warmly. “So nice to meet you. My name is Bob.”