It was finally the night when the emperor would tell Flare if he deemed her worthy of his knowledge or not. With butterflies in her stomach and her hands shaking, she sat at the very same table she had sat at when she first arrived. The night was cool and calm, and a gentle breeze moved throughout the house, entering in the open windows and leaving just as swiftly. A hot kettle of tea sat between the two chairs, one Flare occupied, the other the emperor occupied, and each of them had a plate of crispy biscuits which often accompanied the tea. They were usually delicious, but Flare didn't see how she would eat any of them tonight as she waited for Zephyr to tell the news.

The emperor's eyes were closed, still taking his moment of tranquility that he often took before meals. He enjoyed appreciating the day and reflecting upon it, which Flare usually admired, but today she just wished he would speed along the process.

"Dune," the emperor said, opening his eyes and turning to face her. Her heart jumped inside her chest as she waited for him to continue.

"You have been such a wonderful help to our village these past few days. I've spoken to many people, and they all seem to have an extremely high regard for you. So I will give you what I know, and I will trust that you use it wisely."

"Thank you," Flare said gratefully, although on the inside she was giddy. She was one step closer to bringing back her brother.

"I know of two necromancers that still walk the earth," Zephyr replied, his tone suddenly becoming solemn. "They will probably be the last two to ever walk the earth, unless one of them has children, which I don't see being very likely, as they are fairly reclusive. One, Mortimer, is the father of the younger one, Thanatos, both male. The older had an affair with an aquamancer, who left the baby on the necromancer's doorstep when he was born and she was never heard from again."

"I don't know much of Thanatos, it's been awhile since I've last had contact with them, but Mortimer is a very, very good necromancer," the emperor continued. "He has been known to bring back many people from the brink of death, even far past it. He has communicated countless times with the spirit realm. I know he may be able to help you."

"However," Zephyr said, pursing his lips as if he was reluctant. "Mortimer is not a kind old man. His youthful spirit has been weathered by the hands of time and age. His services do not come without a cost."

"What's the cost?" Flare asked breathlessly.

"No one knows," Zephyr said gravely. "I last heard that he and his son Thane resided in the caves on the outskirts of a chronomancer territory, but as you may have anticipated, crossing through a chronomancer territory can be dangerous. Some are safe, but the one that the necromancers live near has no laws prohibiting the use of chronomancy against anyone, not even visitors. However, there is one person who can give you more information on where to find the necromancers than I can, and they reside in the territory."

"Tell me what I need to do," Flare said, setting her jaw with fire in her eyes.

***

Flare woke up to a light meow and Abby's claws lightly grazing her face. She sighed and stretched, the silk covers of the bed moving about as she got up and rubbed her eyes. Wondering why she was so tired, she walked outside, Abby following her. The sky was still fairly dark, the sun barely peeking its way over the edge of the earth, not yet illuminating the mountains where she stood.

Knowing that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep so she might as well stay up until she was to continue her journey, Flare brought forth a small flicker of a flame, which she held in her hands as she walked to the edge of the mountain. She leaned against the cherry blossom tree, remembering the first day she had arrived when Gale had told her his story against the very same tree. She never did speak to Gale in the few days she had stayed, although she saw much of his little siblings, technically, cousins. Occasionally Flare had seen him glaring at her and them from afar, but he never stepped in.

Flare brightened her flame, knowing her pyromancy skills had been getting rusty since she had been in the aeromancer village. It felt liberating to use the fire again, to let the small inferno lap at the air around it, devouring oxygen, releasing a small stream of smoke.

"What the hell are you doing?" Flare felt someone hiss in her ear from behind. She whirled around, quickly extinguishing the fire, to see Gale's irate face.

"I..." Flare began.

"I want some answers, Dune. If that's even your real name," Gale growled.

"It's not," she sighed. "It's Flare. I'm a pyromancer," she choked out, expecting Gale to be livid. Strangely, he wasn't. He just stared at her, quizzical and perturbed.

"Why'd you lie?" he asked after a moment, sounding just the smallest bit betrayed.

"I knew of the tensions between the aeromancers and pyromancers, but I needed answers. I didn't want to upset things," she pleaded, silently praying that Gale would let her go free.

"Are you mad?" she asked nervously, waiting for Gale to respond.

"Strangely enough, no," he said. "Justice was served to the pyromancers, but not the geomancers. The pyromancers and aeromancers both played a fairly equal role in the conflict. And sometimes," he began thoughtfully. "Sometimes it takes more courage, more wit, to cover up who are to save yourself than to display who you really are and... you know."

"Are you seriously going to let me go?" Flare asked in disbelief.

"Reluctantly," Gale scoffed, and Flare squealed and hugged him tightly. Shocked, he kept stiff and rigid until Flare let go, unashamed.

"Thank you, Gale," she smiled radiantly. Gale stared down bashfully.

"This is a one time thing, okay?" he said, his stern demeanor returning. "And if we ever meet again, I'm going to expect payment."

"Of course," Flare said loftily.

"So when were you planning on leaving?" Gale asked, taking a seat on the dewy grass and overlooking the curves of the valleys and slopes of the mountains below.

"This morning. But Abby woke me up, so I figured I'd leave a little bit earlier," she explained.

"Who's Abby?" Gale asked, confused.

"My cat," Flare laughed, and at that moment a mewling Abby approached from behind her. Flare lifted the cat up, her lower half wet with dew. Abby's ears were flat with discomfort as she shook, spraying water everywhere.

"Want to hold her?" Flare put the cat in Gale's outstretched hands, and she curled up close to him, purring. He smiled for the first time since Flare had seen him, and she noticed he had dimples, which added a soft touch to his sharp features.

"You have a nice smile," she observed, and he glanced up, flustered.

"Thanks, I guess," he said softly as he stroked Abby, who relaxed in his arms and purred steadily.

"She loves you," Flare laughed.

"Really?" Gale said, his eyes wide. "I've never even held a cat before!"

"Seriously?"

"Obviously I've seen them before, but we don't have too many pets up here. We prefer to live in harmony with nature, not trying to domesticate it," Gale said. "It's an admirable mindset, but it does mean that we don't get too many close encounters."

"Huh," the pyromancer said. She loved learning new things about the aeromancers; their lifestyle was so fascinating. It was different from the pyromancers, but that didn't necessarily mean it was wrong. Both were intricate and beautiful, the product of years and years of history and culture.

"It's freezing out here," Gale said suddenly, setting Abby down and shivering. "Hey, maybe now would be a good time for some of that pyromancy?" he smirked, nodding towards Flare's hands. She looked up, surprised.

"First, show me some aeromancy," Flare said with a smile.

"I'm not very good," Gale admitted, but made a few motions with his hands and soon he was sitting on a platform made out of solely air, suspending him above the ground.

"That's amazing," she grinned, watching as he descended back to the grass.

"Your turn."

"Okay," Flare said, bringing forth a small flame. It flickered in between her hands, dancing and flickering, the small stream of smoke making the background hazy. She made the fire grow, letting it swallow more oxygen and grow hotter and taller. Gale gazed at it in awe, and Flare realized that pyromancy really was a cool thing, despite her skewed image of it. She let the fire inflate even more until she realized it was tickling the tops of the cherry blossom tree branches. Soon, a few branches were aflame, fire leaping into the sky hungrily.

"How do we put it out?" Gale asked urgently.

"I don't know!" Flare cried frantically. She noticed Gale about to try blowing it away with his aeromancy, but she quickly stopped him. "That'll just spread it further!"

"What's going on?" Flare heard the calm voice of Emperor Zephyr approaching, then a gasp from him when he noticed the blazing tree.

"How did this happen?" he asked sternly. "Nevermind. First we must wait."

"How do we extinguish it?" Gale yelled, running his hands through his hair. He was not very calm under pressure.

"We don't," Zephyr said simply, looking at the burning tree with sadness in his eyes. Gale and Flare were quiet and joined him, watching as the fire consumed the tree's trunk and branches, as the beautiful pink petals shriveled up and changed to ash. The fire, after making it's way down the tree, attempted to latch onto the surrounding grass, but it failed and sizzled out, leaving just a few singed strands of grass.

"How did this happen?" The emperor asked calmly, folding his hands together.

"I'm a pyromancer," Flare choked out. "I'm sorry."

"Gale, did you know about this?" Zephyr asked. Flare looked at Gale and pleaded that he would understand the look in her eyes, the look begging him not to say yes.

"I-" he started nervously, then glanced at Flare and seemed to understand. "No."

"Flare, the destruction of a cherry blossom tree is punishable by banishment. Not to mention, you are a pyromancer. The wrongs that they did to us have not been forgotten," the emperor explained slowly, turning his attention back to Flare.

"I'm sorry," Flare said, and held back tears, her eyes burning and throat closing up.

"I will let you go. Please, never return here. You are no longer welcome in the Aeromancer Village of the Dorab'ait Mountains," Zephyr turned away from Flare and headed back to his home. Flare stared after him longingly until she felt Gale's tap on her shoulder.

"Goodbye, Gale," Flare mumbled softly, not knowing what to say and avoiding eye contact with him.

"We'll see each other again," Gale looked her in the eyes and said so strongly that she almost believed him.

"Okay," she nodded, and hugged him tightly, pressing her face into his shirt and trying not to burst into tears.

***

The descent from the mountain had been much easier than the summit. It had almost a defined path that Flare walked down with ease, all whilst admiring the grand view beneath her. However, as she got closer, she began to realize that the field below was not all sky and grass. It was filled with a deadly type of flower.

"Abby, are those Dragon's Snowdrops down there?" Flare asked tentatively, leaning her head against the cat's comfortingly soft fur. Abby mewled softly, confirming her suspicions.Buasar't Traobuv, more commonly known as Dragon's Snowdrops, were flowers characterized by their glossy black stems and snow white flowers. With any human contact, the flower's pollen stuck to the skin of them like an invisible burr and when they ingested it, through breath or food or even rubbing their eyes, they would be eaten from the inside out, cell by cell, by the fatal pollen. Over the years, many of the people who lived in the biomes where the Dragon's Snowdrops thrived, mainly geomancers, had developed an immunity, so it was possible that Flare had acquired that gene. But the fact remained that it was a slow and painful death, one that Flare was not particularly sure she wanted to risk experiencing. She desperately racked her brain for an antidote or prevention, but came up with nothing that she could administer herself.

She wanted to scream with frustration, but settled for kicking a rock and watching it careen off the mountain into the midst of the flowers, barely disrupting anything. But Flare wanted to disrupt. Picking up another rock, and another, she whipped them into the air and sent them flying through the air and into the field where they rested, out of place. Just like her.

Silently, Flare made her way down the mountain and perched on a boulder, watching the flowers sway in the breeze. If you forgot what they could do to you, they looked serene, tranquil even. She sat there admiring the field until she felt a tap on her shoulder, and nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Don't be afraid," the boy said, a mischievous smirk on his face. He was tall and lanky, with roguish green eyes and a short mat of playfully tousled blond hair on his head, a contradicting tale of messy and neat.

"Who are you?" Flare asked, clutching Abby.

"I'm Calico," he said charismatically, sticking out his hand. Flare shook it hesitantly.

"Aren't all Calico cats girls?" Flare asked perplexedly.

"I was born a girl. I'm transgender, but I still like my birth name, so I kept it," he explained. Flare ducked her head sheepishly.

"Sorry."

"No worries, no worries," Calico said. He moved rapidly and quick, like a fox, his lanky frame seemingly everywhere at once. "Also, that's a common misconception. One in every three thousand calicos is male. And right here is my calico cat. He's a boy too." the boy said, lifting up a cat that Flare hadn't seen and placing it on his lap.

"This is Patches," Calico said, and with a few flicks of his hand, made Patches sit down and wag his tail happily. Calico smiled and released Patches from his control.

"Now, I understand you want to cross that field," he rested his hand on Flare's shoulder and pointed to the field that lay in front of them. Flare nodded and moved her shoulder, letting Calico's hand fall off of it.

"What if I told you I had a way you could make it across, without getting any deadly pollen on you?" Calico grinned, staring at Flare expectantly with raised eyebrows.

"I would tell you it's impossible," Flare snubbed.

"Well, it's not. Do you want to get across, or not?"

"What's your method?" Flare asked doubtfully.

"Everything comes at a price, my dear," Calico said. "I didn't happen to catch your lovely name. What is it?"

"Flare."

"Ah, a pyromancer," Calico grinned again, displaying a mouthful of perfect, gleaming white teeth. "What are you doing out here all by yourself?"

"You're a zomancer," Flare retorted. "I could ask the same thing to you. And I can handle myself perfectly fine, thank you very much."

"A zomancer, that I am, that I am," Calico said. "But we have no time for small talk. Back to the task at hand. The cost."

"What'll it be?" Flare asked nervously, holding Abby close to her and furrowing her eyebrows.

"Just your lovely cat right there," Calico said loftily, nodding towards Abby.

"No," Flare said quickly.

"Think about it. I'm saving your life, and all I ask in return is to provide a loving home for your kitty," he purred. Before Flare could respond, he interjected. "I'm not asking you to decide right now. I'll give you a day. I assume when I come back tomorrow, you'll still be here?" he asked with a smirk, hopping off the boulder and vanishing somewhere up the mountain, Patches following quickly.

Flare sat quietly, and it scared her that her mind was exploring options other than no.

A/N: Hey guys! What do you think so far, and what do you think should happen with Abby? Let me know in the comments below!