When Ember and Ishaza return together to the main hall of the dormitories, Ishaza cps her hands twice for the room’s attention. The other students come out of their dormitories, Maeve and Fianna fixing their hair and clothes on the way, and Ember shares a smile and an eyebrow-waggle with Camellia, her gaze lingering on Maeve and Fianna’s poor attempt to cover for the fact that they were engaged in heavy petting not a minute ago.
Ishaza ignores Maeve and Fianna’s dishabille state and addresses the room in a clear, strident voice.
“Everyone. Now that you are able to ignite and extinguish the fme inside you at will, you are to be officially admitted to the ranks of the kindled, ciming your status as third-year students of this Academy. While the full rank of Courtesan is still beyond you all, and your transformations are not yet over, you have made the most difficult transition safely.”
Her gaze alights on Fianna, then flicks over to Ember. “While some of you still have work to do to become truly stable, the majority of the major risks are now over. As such, it now falls to me to lead you through the steps of a tradition established two hundred and fifty years ago, when Valerian founded the modern Guild.”
She turns, her hooves clicking against the stone floor. “Follow me.”
Ember, Camellia, Maeve and Fianna fall in behind Ishaza, and after a short walk they emerge into the central courtyard of the whole compound. While few of them have been here for any long period of time, all of them recall the bonfire in its center that burns day and night - and which now lies extinguished.
Ishaza stops in front of the fallow heap of branches and kindling. “You all have seen this bonfire, if only in passing,” she says. “It is the true heart of this branch of the guild. Two hundred and fifty years ago, when Valerian opened the guild and began to train students in kindling, they lit a heart-fire in the center guildhall, which once was nothing more than an ordinary brothel. The bonfire behind me was lit with a spark from that fire on the first day this branch of the Courtesan’s Guild was established. Each year, when the students of the guild are kindled, the bonfire is doused; and when they have learned enough to re-ignite it again, it is their duty and honor to renew it. Any branch of the guild that fails to tend this fire has gone astray, and will crumble in time.”
Ishaza gestures to four marks around the bonfire, at the north, south, east and west compass points. “Each of you. Take a point of the compass.”
Ember moves to the north compass point, while Camellia takes the south point across from her. Maeve and Fianna take the east and west points.
Ishaza gestures. “Lay your hands upon the fire, and call up all your skill. Renew the heart of the guild for another year, and you are admitted formally to your third year of studies. Fail, and the guild fails with you.”
She raises a hand over her head, so all four students can see. “At the fall of my hand.”
Ember shares an uneasy look with Camellia across the circle, and ys her hands upon the dry wood in front of her. It won’t do if she just throws fire at this; it’ll use up all the fuel too fast and burn out instantly. She has to be smart here, and use what she’s learned from Ishaza. Precision. That’s key.
There are small shavings of tinder and kindling at the base of the bonfire, hidden among the logs; she grasps a handful of wood shavings, and looks to Ishaza’s signal.
Around the bonfire at the three other compass points, Camellia, Maeve and Fianna y their hands on the branches. All of them look to Ishaza’s signal as well.
Ishaza brings her hand down in a sharp, cutting motion.
Ember channels all the power in her heart down through her arms, pushing the smallest, most precise fme out of her body; the kindling in her hand catches, and she feeds it with smaller branches, letting it grow slowly, before ying it at the base of a heavier branch. The fme trembles, delicate, wavering in the wind. If it doesn’t catch the rger branches the bonfire won’t light —
But to her left and right, Fianna and Maeve are doing the same thing, following the instructions Ishaza gave not an hour ago, the lesson fresh in their minds as well; and while Ember’s fme flickers and refuses to jump to the wood, Maeve’s fme spreads to a rger branch, and then slowly up into the heart of the pyre.
Ember’s fme catches a few seconds ter, followed by Fianna’s, and stly Camellia’s fme leaps up to and into the heart of the pyre as well. The whole thing catches with a distinct whumph, a hidden reservoir of mp oil in the center touched by the fme, and before long the pyre is bzing merrily, sending sparks scattering to nd on the students’ skin. The heat is intense, but it feels right. It feels like home now.
Ember lets out a heavy breath, and Fianna ughs a little shakily.
Ember looks over at her, and smiles, and Fianna smiles back.
The four students walk over to Ishaza, and she bows shallowly to them. “Congratutions,” she says. “You’ve passed, yet again. Now I will be turning the reins over to another instructor.”
She gestures to her right, and a woman with metallic-gold hair, gold-glowing lips and nails, and a deep brown skin-tone steps out into the courtyard. She’s surprisingly well-muscled, and wearing a heavy canvas backpack with a thin-strapped top and trousers. Wait, that’s —
Camellia’s eyebrows jump, and the word comes to her lips at the same time as it does to Ember’s —
“Liv?”
Ember double-takes. “You know her?”
Before Camellia can say anything, Lively Spark sweeps into the courtyard and grabs Ember in a sharp hug. “Ember!” She sets her back down on her feet and grins. “So good to see you doing well! I had to come for your confirmation.” Then she turns and looks over at Camellia. “And if it isn’t my best little herbology student! The wings suit you, I have to say.” She comes over and pauses for a moment before hugging Camellia, only for Camellia to close the distance and hug her hard, wrapping her wings in.
Ember looks over Liv’s shoulder at Camellia and raises an eyebrow in a silent question.
Camellia gets a sheepish look on her face and carefully extricates herself from Liv’s arms. “She was my tutor in herblore for four years before I joined the guild,” she expins. “Sorry, I should have told you.”
Ember lets out a soft ugh and shakes her head. “What are the chances?”
Camellia looks away. “Pretty good, actually. There are only so many healers in the city willing to teach bright young sparks with not a lot of money to their names.”
“And there’s also —” Liv starts.
Camellia holds up a hand. “Liv, please no. I know, I know, but please save the embarrassing stories about me for ter. We’re trying to be serious here.”
Liv raises her eyebrows at Camellia, but nods. “Alright,” she says. “I’ll keep mum. Anyway. I’m here because for once you girls get to learn something fun.” She grins, and beckons. “First one to the scorched-earth training ground gets first go at the fun lesson!”
Ember and Fianna lock eyes — and the two of them run for it, both trying to be the first back to the training ground. It’s a close race, but Fianna skids into the courtyard a few strides ahead of Ember, and almost sms into one of the courtyard walls as she tries to arrest her momentum.
Liv arrives only a few strides behind them, the pack on her shoulder ccking with each step, and stops a few strides behind Ember and Fianna, who are both leaning against the wall panting.
“Nice going, you two. Fianna, it’s your turn first then.” She unslings the pack from her shoulders and undoes the metal snaps on its top. “Here we go.”
Inside her pack is a rge stack of cy disks, each about as big around as her hand, and a strange contraption with a runic circle on top and a tripod of heavy metal legs.
“What on earth is all that?” Maeve’s the first to question Liv’s strange accoutrements.
Liv hauls the tripod device out of her pack, and sets it up on the grass, the runic circle facing up: she loads the stack of cy disks into the top, and aims a small marker on the edge of it at the back wall of the courtyard.
“We’re going to be pying Bst Disk today,” Liv says with a grin. “It’s my own personal training program for fire-throwing. You all know the basic technique to call up fire now, and if you go about it in a stupid way and just improvise you’ll be able to figure out how to burn down whatever you want, so we might as well train you so the skill’s actually useful for self-defense. This is dead simple to figure out, so we might as well fuck around with it in a fun way before you do it by accident.”
She sps the top of the device, and the runic circle hums to sudden life, crackling with fiery energy - and then the bottom disk of the stack is abruptly flung directly up into the sky.
“Pull!” Liv shouts - and with an overhand toss of her arm she flings a bolt of fme that strikes the cy disk dead-on, shattering it and making a cloud of cy fragments rain from the sky.
Fianna gasps; Ember and Camellia cp; Maeve just looks on with a look of horror on her face.
“You hand this over to everyone you kindle???” Maeve’s eyebrows are practically climbing off her face.
Lively Spark nods. “Yep! Once you know the ignition technique it’s dead simple to channel fme wherever you want it by instinct, and we have to teach that because it’s the exact inverse of the extinguishing one that lets you not torch the countryside. Most of our candidates are selected for brains; it doesn’t take a lot to figure out ‘the opposite of extinguishing something is setting it on fire.’ Better to train it now if we gotta do it now. But it’s Fianna’s turn first. Fianna?”
Fianna takes a breath, and nods resolutely. “Sure, I’ll try!”
Liv grins. “Tell me when you want me to pull!”
Fianna looks up at the sky, and holds her hand out in front of her. “Okay. Hit me!”
“Pull!” A cy disk leaps skyward at considerable speed.
Fianna makes the same overhand throwing motion as Liv, and the cy disk is hit by the firebolt and shatters, just like the one Liv fired.
“Wow,” Fianna says. “It’s almost exactly like throwing a ball. I feel like I learned this as a toddler or something.”
“Kindling instincts,” Liv opines. “Fme’s the easiest thing to do. That and lust. You’ll catch up to the really dangerous stuff over the rest of the year.”
Maeve’s eyebrows are only rising higher. “The really dangerous stuff?”
Liv nods. “Yeah. I shan’t say more, Ishaza would kill me.” She shrugs and spreads her hands. Then she looks over at Ember. “Your turn, Ember. Tell me when you want me to pull.”
Ember looks up at the sky, and readies her hands. “Okay, I think I’m ready.” She doesn’t know how this works, but if it’s so apparently dead simple she’ll give it a try anyway.
Liv adjusts the angle of the uncher, and then shouts once more: “Pull!”
The cy disk leaps skyward, and Ember channels fme out, aiming at the disk —
And a lot of complicated things happen at once. The fire inside her coils, adjusting her aim, adjusting her posture, telling her this is how to destroy that which you hate, and the fme bursts from her hand with a ferocity she’s completely unfamiliar with, jumping skyward as fast as the disk itself —
The disk is hit, and shatters.
Ember lets out a high whoop, exhiration running through her veins, and grins at Camellia.
Camellia bounces on her feet and grins, and cps lightly for Ember. “Good shot!”
Liv nods. “Good shots all. Camellia, your turn!”
Camellia steps out in front of Ember. “Alright. Now!”
“Pull!”
The cy jumps off at an odd angle. Camellia pauses for an instant, making sure of her backstop - and then shes out, fire exploding from her hands to shatter the cy. She lets out a little whoop as well and raises her hand to high-five Ember.
Ember grins and high-fives her. “Great shot!”
Liv looks over at Maeve. “You’ve got to try too,” she says. “You’ve got to learn what it feels like before you do it in anger.”
Maeve takes a breath, and nods. “Alright.” She steps forwards between Ember and Camellia and squares up like a fighter before the range. “When you’re ready.”
Liv nods sharply, and sps the disk-thrower again. It spits out a disk low and ft, aimed almost directly at the back wall of the courtyard —
Maeve throws a nce of fire that impales the disk, and it shatters before it can hit the back wall. A smoking spot the size of her palm is left on the bricks behind it, charred by her bst of fme.
She looks down at her palms, and lets out a heavy breath. “Whoo. That was… That was an experience.”
“You’ll get more control over it with more shots,” Liv says. “Another round?”
All the students nod, some more enthusiastically than others.
Fianna’s the one who puts it to words. “Another round!”
