Eternal Fire

Chapter 30

Midnight whacked her in the side, sending her flying across the arena, landing on her side. Ember stood on her feet, watching the green-eyed dragon, he had recovered from her attack on his tail quickly, very quickly, and was now watching her before charging into her. Biting down on Midnight's neck, he scratched her whilst pushing her into the wall. She stopped struggling and jumped in the air, uncurling her wings and flew over him, hovering in the centre. Glancing around at the other dragons, Ember noticed that they were whispering, her ears only picking up conversations about the fight, Midnight, and her.
She turned her attention back onto Midnight, who jumped into the air and started flying towards Ember, her fire pushing with every stroke of her wings, so she released a small spark which travelled all over her scales before disappearing. They started to fly towards each other, their wings striking the air and sending them closer and closer to each other. They clashed, red and black, claw out, scratching and cutting their opponents, tails lashed out, hoping to destabilise the other. Throughout this, Ember's concentration narrowed onto Midnight, his every move was seen, even if it was too late, blood ran down her body, dripping onto the floor, joining Midnight's.
He swerved and hit her into the floor, her wing throbbing, close to breaking point as she collided, dust rose from the floor, Ember got to her feet as Midnight landed on top of her, felling her once more onto the floor, his claws sinking into her shoulder as she struggled, whacking him with her battered tail, head, neck, claws, she was close to even using her wings.
"They've marched upon my home; did you know that?" He hissed to her.
Ember stopped struggling, staring right into his dark green eyes. "I cannot say that I have, I am surprised you are here then, and not helping your brother. Nevertheless, one side will fall, and if Almaisier does, you know what is coming next, and they will win." Her eyes bore further into Midnight's. "They live in harsher environments, they are tougher, stronger, have more gifts." She made her voice louder. "They are united, unlike you miserable fools. Stay out of their way and you will live, for they are coming, and come they will." Sparks of fire ran along her scales, making Midnight jump off to avoid being burnt as she rose to her feet, the sparks joining at her claws, and more appeared, building their way up her legs. "You want to see my fire, I cannot show you everything, this place is too small, you all would die." The sparks soon covered all her scales before growing into flames. "But it is my fire that will make the decision." Fire erupted from her, not taking control, not being completely controlled. "I just guide it."
Not hearing any screams of pain, just frightened noises, Ember judged that her fire was going around the dragons, not killing them for they were witnessing the fire, which started to come back in Ember's directions, forming dragon like bodies. Ember's eyes settled upon Midnight, crouched down on the other side of the arena.
"Your fire is not normal." He said, his voice barely reaching Ember.
"Thanks for that, smarty." Ember grumbled. "I know." The main part of her fire shifted, growing stronger and stronger, her breathing became quicker and quicker. Yet, she felt weak, like a log aflame in the centre of a lake during stormy weather. She fell to the floor as a green dragon walked out of her. Flickering, not solid, green flames tipped in gold and red emerged from her, stood next to her collapsed body as the dragons fell silent, watching this event, one that they had probably never seen before, happen.
The dragon made of fire looked around, its eyes, or where a dragon's eyes would usually be, stopped upon her. Her legs were bent under her, her wings sprayed out over the floor. "Who are you?" She said, her voice barely audible.
The fire tilted its head before uncurling its wings. Those beautiful wings, the emerald wings were like the body, but even more extravagant, golds and reds twisted together and apart at the edge closest to the ground, the amber eyes, now revealed, took in the wings. But its gaze turned to her once more as it folded its wings back in, taking in all her scars, scratches and cuts, rather than just looking at her head like it had done last time.
"I am your fire; you are my container. Your father is the same," Ember met its eyes, she still felt weak from the fire emerging, "the more this happens the less tiring it will get, and we will be the best dragon at fighting throughout these lands."
"Two things, were you the one burning me? And, why now?" Her tilted to the side as the fire twirled its tail around its back leg, but untwirled it a few moments later.
"Yes, I did burn you, but, I had to ensure that I would one day appear, most fires are not strong enough, kept under too tight control, or are too weak to hurt the body that it is being contained in. Same for all elements. You turned ten, so that's when I had a ginormous, you could say, growth spurt, and I have only been able to come out now." The fire looked at Midnight and Shade, who had jumped down from the spectator area to stand with Midnight against the fire. Ember noted how close they were standing, their tails were twined behind them, their wings brushing against each other. "My name changes, species to species, area to area, civilisation to civilisation. I am your own version of Fire. Call me what you like. Sorry about your strength, it will return, and every time this happens it will not affect your strength as much."
Now that the fire had said it, Ember did feel that some of her strength had returned to her body, she was now able to stand, so she did, her knees felt relieved to not having all the pressure on them. Her fire stood next to her, watching her stand at her full height whilst she watched the other dragons. "So, now what? I would quite like to leave now, you've seen me fight, seen my fire, you do not need me now." At least, that was what she thought.
Midnight stepped forwards, watching the fire as he spoke. "Please remove the fire, then, and only then, will we talk about your immediate future."
Ember looked at the fire, pondering whether the fire would let her. "Can you leave for a bit; I won't get anything out of them otherwise." Standing still, the fire stared at her, seemingly to process what was happening as the whole place was silent. Nothing moved. Nothing talked. Nothing made a sound. The fire was the only thing to move, the flames flickered before it walked right into her, causing an overflow of fire to run through her blood. The torrent was so strong that she released some into the air and onto her scales, she watched Midnight as she did this. "Don't you dare put those things back on me." she kept burning her fire, even now she didn't have an overload, but it was better if she burnt more off, it would have time to fill over time.
Looking at the bindings, Midnight replied. "Put your fire out, only then will we talk." Ember snorted but extinguished her flames. "So, you will still not take up my offer?" He stared at her, his body tense as she remained silent. They stared at each other, neither backing down from their opinions of the matter at hand, neither admitting that they were the weaker of the two.
"Nice staring match, but let's talk about your future here, Ember." Ember vaguely heard Shade say as neither backed down, their lips drawn back from their teeth as they remained still. "Quit it, both of you!" Something obscured Ember's vision, making Ember refocus as she blinked with all three of her eyelids, letting her see that Shade had stepped in between them. "Sort out your hierarchy problems when we don't need to sort things out."
***
The other deities were staring at Hell, questions in their eyes as to what had happened down in the living realm below, but Air was watching the other deities curiously, wondering when they realised who had picked Ember to represent one of them. In a way, Air had had more of an influence than any other deity here, the only probable exception was Hell, but that was for another day, or year, or decade, or century, or millennium. Nine deities, nine prophetic dragons, Air wondered when the others were going to figure out that there were two other deities that they were not aware of, what they would make of Time, Air had no idea, these deities were so similar, perhaps it was from being around each other for eternity. Air made a mental note to not stay around here for the rest of eternity.
"I thought you all could do that," Air, keeping their body posture neutral, watched Hell look around, his body stiff and his tail was curled around his legs whilst looking at the other deities, and their unamused faces and body language, "I really did think that your powers could take on a physical form. Mine can, but not so much as a personality that that one had."
"How's this going to end? Are we going to let that much power run around, the power of a deity, potentially massacring many dragons?" Heaven grumbled.
Air stood and walked towards the centre of the deities, "I thought you were meant to be the optimist?" Air said, keeping their voice as smooth as a steady breeze along a nice and peaceful coastline. "You do not know that," Air sighed, "Ember might go and kill everything. But, again, you have to trust her, she was not chosen just because of her power, but also for her heart, and what she has chosen to do. I'll give you miserable flying lizards some more reasons, shouldn't I? One, just make it rain, that's her weakness, it's the same as all the other fire dragons that stalk this planet. Two, -"
Heaven growled, Air felt the impact in the air, even if they were blind and deaf, they would still know where everything around them was. "You are forgetting something, Ember can just evaporate the rain, it'll be a minor inconvenience."
"Yes, but not for long," Rainbow cut in, her scales changing colours slowly, blending each colour together before moving on to the next, "you forget about her personal prophecy," Rainbow struggled with words and phrases for a few moments, and ended up saying "her greatest physical strength is her fire, yet, that will be, or is, her greatest physical weakness, it's going to get too strong for her."
"I've just been thinking, where do these prophecies come from," Ancient grumbled, his voice echoing throughout the weird place that they were in, "I don't create them, so who does?"
All vibrations in the air stopped, no tails disturbing the air with every move, no speaking, no breathing.
"So, who does?" Ancient said after a fair few moments. Air looked at the claws on their own paws, slightly uncomfortable at standing in the centre, so sensibly, Air moved to where they were before. The others watched every single of Air's movements as they sat down at the edge of the circle. of deities.
"Whoever it is, I would like to call them 'Fate', or something of the like," Rainbow muttered, "unless they already have a name, then it's-"
"Fates. You are thinking of the Fates of-" Air mumbled but caught the words in their mouth, as they nearly said something that could not be taken back. "They are somewhere in this world; I'm not telling where."
Heaven's eyes bore into Air's, as did every single deity, or as close to Air's eyes as they could. "'Fates of' what? Finish the sentence, I think you know more than you are letting on. You five," Ancient jerked his head at the five sense dragons which made up nearly half of the deities there, "find any dragons that seem to be too powerful to be mortal or are hiding their powers. Sight, take the west; Sound, you take the east; Touch, feel north; Taste, try the south; Smell, you go for central Ballasmara. Try your best and rotate, keep repeating until you find something." Ancient looked at Air, "Air tell us everything you know, it'll cut this search up to a smaller timeframe."
Air closed their eyes, "I can't."
A growl split the air, Heaven, "I- what do you mean, 'I can't'? You have the ability to speak, so tell us!"
"They are not for your own selfish needs!" Air stood, they could see the intention in Heaven's eyes, the lust for more power, something that was meant to be so pure, in Air's eyes, was more corrupt than the God of Hell. "They are their own, this is their life, you have ruined mine, I am not letting you ruin any others, they have earned my trust, you have not."
"So, you do know the Fates?" Asked Rainbow, her voice soft compare to the jarring comment that Heaven had made. How was Air going to get out of this one? They'd have to fight their way through this.
"I do know the Fates. They do not see the future all the time, and certainly not on command like our elements."
"Air tell us, or show us, they don't need to know that you have helped us." Ancient said, the tips of his long teeth peeked out of his mouth as he tried to keep his frustration- at least, that was what Air thought it would be, that or anger- in.
Air snarled, much louder than any of the other deities would have managed, her powers enhancing the sound. "They. Will. Know." She struggled out. "They know everything." Air shook their head as they tried to vent their anger without damage. "You get so easily distracted." Air closed their eyes and reached out, feeling every particle of air in the immediate vicinity, then spreading out, and released the message into the air so that any that were able to feel the messages of the wind would be able to feel them, Air just hoped that they passed the message on to the correct dragons. Something jarred into Air, and they whipped their eyes open to see Heaven's golden eyes glowing, almost too painful to look at, eyes glaring at Air whilst they collided.
---
What Heaven was trying to achieve, Air had no idea, the normal, physical battle quickly changed into one between two deities, neither backing down as they took on forms that were not confined to their ordinary bodies. But the small battle ended as quick as it started, even light could not defeat the very air itself, Air tore Heaven apart, but to the other deities it looked like light was splintering into many pieces as the air rushed around the strange area that only the deities could access. 
All the deities knew that it was over when Heaven appeared, back in her physical form, unconscious on the non-existent ground, looking as bashed up as a deity could get, whilst Air reformed, into their usual self, standing a few steps away from the unconscious body of Heaven. Any mortal would have died in an instant when either deity changed forms, no matter of what species or power.
"Don't bother with going at me again, I'll just disappear, and you'll never see me again. You have been warned." Air said, as the other deities watched them. Apart from the sense gods and goddesses, which were still sat, eyes closed, focussing on trying to find the Fates of life. "Try that with the Fates, and you will be as powerless as a mortal against them." The deities stayed silent, still none moved. "As helpless as a dry stick in a volcano, as a spark on the ocean. I have never seen their full power, we are deities, they, they are something else. None can control the Fates, so tell them to come back before you lose them forever." Air said and walked into the darkness.
But Air sent a message over towards the deities. "They wouldn't dare. It will be the end."