Dance with the Flame

Everything around me shattered like a piece of glass.

One second I was standing in the dusty courtyard of the Solus Sanctuary, sweat trickling down my neck from the blazing sun or from the nerviousness of being caught. Hell knows what would happen if they found out I was lying.

Now I was sent to god knows where (again), I was lying flat on my back, eyes blinking against an unbearable brightness that was not sunlight but something sharper, something harsher. It pressed on my chest like a fist, and the air tasted thick with smoke and something bitter.

I scrambled up, heart pounding so loud I was sure it echoed in this place. The sky above was no sky at all. It was a swirl of red and black, bleeding into each other like a nightmare that refused to end. The ground beneath my feet cracked and cracked again, shards of earth glowing like embers as if I were walking in an active volcano.

I wanna go home.

A desert stretched out before me, but this was not like any desert I had seen. The sand burned beneath my boots, the heat prickling my skin through layers of clothes.

Flames danced on the horizon, licking at the sky like tongues of fire, but they did not consume anything. They just burned, endlessly...

I opened my mouth to swear, but words caught in my throat.

Something was wrong. This place felt wrong. Not just a different world, but a warped mirror of my soul. 

I feel as if I were in my mind, somehow I just knew it.

 Then A voice, calm, mechanical, and as unwelcome as a migraine, buzzed in my head.

[ Trial Initiated: Jewel of Ra : Trial of Rage ]

[ Objective: Confront the flames within ]

[ Warning: Emotional and physical hazards ahead ]

I clenched my fists. "Perfect," I muttered. "A trial where I have to feel all the crap I have been stuffing in the back of my head."

Just perfect.

The system's cold voice gave me no choice. I knew I was too far deep to go back.

I scanned the horizon and saw it, a raging waterfall, a patch of green life in the fiery desert. It stood out from the beige sand, but it was the only thing not consumed by flames.

I started walking toward it, boots sinking into the burning sand with every step. The heat sucked at my breath, and the air felt hard to breathe, distorting everything around me and making me dizzy.

As I drew closer, the waterfall twisted. The green trees melted into smoke, the water turned to boiling fire, and then there she was.

Her face.

My sister.

Not her, but a burning silhouette, her features flickering in the flames. Her eyes burned into mine, full of silent accusation and something else, pain maybe, regret.

A rush of memories slammed into me like a freight train.

The night she died, the cold hospital room, the hollow ache I could not explain.

The nights I cried alone, wishing I had done more.

I staggered back, heart racing. The flames roared, swallowing her face, and replacing it with an angry red light.

I ground my teeth. "Okay, yeah. That's the part nobody tells you about. The emotional flamethrower right out of the gate."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced myself forward. If I wanted that jewel, I had to get through this.

The sand beneath me cracked, and the flames reached out like fingers, hot enough to melt steel. I dodged instinctively, the heat burning my sleeves.

The desert was alive, twisted, and dangerous, and it didn't want to let me go.

I wanted to scream, to lash out, but the voice in my head warned me again.

[ Physical combat will not succeed. Emotional mastery required ]

Great. So fight with my feelings. That isn't going too well.

I took a deep breath and tried to focus.

The flames shifted again, and the image of my sister's face reappeared, more defined this time, her eyes full of unspoken words.

"Why did you leave me?" The voice was not loud but it hit like a punch. "Why didn't you save me?"

"It´s all your fault!" She screamed at me.

My mouth opened, but no words came out. The heat rose, sweat stinging my eyes.

My mind flashed back to the last conversation we had, broken promises, silent tears, and my own helplessness.

I stumbled, nearly collapsing, and for the first time, my walls cracked.

"What a hell of a trial," I whispered to myself. "Just kill me already." 

The flames became even brighter as I muttered to myself," Is this the only way?"

The flames surged forward again, but this time, I did not run.

With a sigh, I raised my arms, not to fight but to brace.

To accept.

The desert wind howled like a chorus of ghosts, the flames licking closer, the weight of my guilt pressing down.

The heat was unbearable, but I stayed rooted, refusing to run from the fire that clawed at my skin and soul alike. Every breath felt like swallowing molten iron, but I forced myself to breathe deeper, slower. Control the fire... Control the rage. That was the point, wasn't it?

A flicker caught my eye, and the burning silhouette shifted again. This time her eyes softened, and the accusing glare melted into something almost like understanding. Almost.

"I didn't leave you," I said, voice cracking. "I was just… lost. I didn't know how to save either of us, if I had known, I wouldn´t have let you go, sister."

The flames around her pulsed with every word. It was like speaking to a wound that never healed but needed to be faced.

The desert sands beneath me glowed, and the air shimmered with raw power. I could feel the trial tightening its grip, demanding more, more honesty, more pain, more reckoning.

Then the ground beneath me trembled.

Cracks spread like spiderwebs, and from the glowing fissures emerged shadows, twisted echoes of my past anger, monstrous and growling. They weren't real, but their roars echoed inside my chest.

One lunged.

I dodged, barely. The trial was testing me, pushing me to lash out, but I knew better now. The system's warning echoed: emotional mastery, not brute force.

I closed my eyes, centering myself. "You're just memories. You're not real."

The shadows faltered, then dissipated like smoke caught in the wind.

When I opened my eyes, the desert had shifted again. The flames burned lower, the sky less angry. And there, hovering just above the cracked sand, was the Jewel of Ra, a glowing fiery gem pulsating with power.

Finally, this nightmare is over.

But before I could move, the silhouette of my sister reappeared, clearer now, less a shadow and more a person made of flame and light.

She smiled. Not the warm smile I remembered, but something sad, fierce.

"You must face what you bury, Theodore," she said softly. "Only then will the flame accept you."

I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of her words sink deep.

This wasn't just about rage.

It was about accepting the anger I tried to ignore. The anger towards the world, the anger towards me... The guilt, the loss, the parts of me I hid even from myself.

I reached out, trembling, and touched the jewel.

The world exploded.

Flames engulfed me, not burning but burning away everything I pretended didn't hurt. My memories flashed, pain, sorrow, anger, love, all tangled and raw.

And then, silence.

I opened my eyes.

The desert was gone. The flames extinguished.

In my hand, the Jewel of Ra pulsed softly, warm and alive.

A new voice, soft but clear, whispered inside my mind.

[ Trial Complete ]

[ Jewel Transformed ]

[ Entity Materialized ]

And then, before me, stepped a girl, with fiery red hair, eyes blazing with passion and pain, and a smirk that promised trouble.

"So," she said, voice like a spark ready to ignite. "Looks like you woke the flame."

I groaned.

The real trial was just beginning.

And I already knew this was going to be a real pain in the ass.