Scorio tuned them out as he studied the blazeborn queen with his Heart’s senses. She was at once manifesting her power as well as evoking something from the depths. It was like nothing he’d ever seen. She had no Great Soul Heart to power her abilities, but rather simply exerted her will. No mana poured forth; she wasn’t tapping a reservoir, but surely she needed mana to empower whatever she was doing. Nox drank Coal mana until he became engorged. Was the difference that she was birthed from Noumenon? Then again, he’d not seen other fiends use mana as Great Souls did, so…?
There was so much he didn’t understand about hell and its denizens. Scorio smirked. If Lianshi had been there, she’d surely have been able to lecture him.
The air beneath Xandera’s hands began to shimmer and glow even as the ground abruptly rumbled. To Scorio’s Heart senses the floor beneath Xandera was growing brighter, not with a visible light but with potential, with power.
A moment later that changed. The stone itself began to smooth out, then glow from deep within, a subtle crimson at first that began to lighten to golden yellow at various points, points which quickly spread out and merged so that several yards’ worth of ground beneath Xandera became fiery.
The heat began to waft up along with an arid breeze that stank of burning rock and sulfur.
“What’s our back-up plan?” whispered Alain. “If lava starts fountaining everywhere? Hmm?”
“Scorio and I get away,” said Naomi.
“Heartless. And rude. I’m right here, you know.”
Xandera’s feet sank into the soft, glowing rock, and she laughed, the sound one of pure exhilaration and delight. The ledge was shivering constantly now, a deep rumble causing rocks up and down the ravine to shift and groan as they adjusted themselves continuously, and cracking sounds broke out above them.
Then, abruptly, the center of the glowing floor dropped, rippled violently as it became lava, and then burst upward explosively in a bright gout of burning rock.
Alain cried out and jerked backward, but Scorio simply gripped the edge of their promontory and stared, wide-eyed, as Xandera stabbed her hand up and froze the gout mid-explosion.
The geyser of burning rock ceased moving and remained still, a dozen yards of explosive fury trapped in time. The heat was tremendous, the lava’s surface so raw as to be without even a thin skin of congealed rock. Xandera laughed again, and moved both arms around, causing the geyser to follow suit. The explosive column bent and curled, swirling about the blazeborn queen and then poured into the molten floor at her feet.
“There!” Her voice was bright with cheerful delight. “I did it! A vein goes from here all the way down into the arteries, and nothing was destroyed!”
“Oh, joy,” said Alain weakly, pushing off the back wall.
“Well done!” Scorio narrowed his eyes against the rising heat. It was surreal to see the young woman standing so boldly upon the molten ground; it shimmered and roiled with different colors, the temperature fluctuating so that swirls of orange and crimson chased beams of gold. The heat was spreading, however. With each passing moment more of the canyon floor began to grow soft and glow.
And, he realized, he found himself drawn to that burning glow. He wanted to leap down and sink into that molten morass. To plunge his arms into the burning marl and drink the wicked heat into his soul.
“I’ll fashion a chamber for you.” Xandera frowned and studied the ground. “This is new. My kind don’t mind heat. But you will char. So…”
Scorio blinked and came back to himself. Where the hell had that desire come from? It lingered still, urging him down, but he fought it off and watched the queen instead.
She moved her hands about in a mystical pattern, and walls of lava rose up, to curve and form a great egg that rapidly cooled to gray and black. Xandera considered it, then drew up more lava to thicken the shell. Then she drew her hand back, as if pulling on reins, and steam suddenly rose from the black egg with a hiss.
“There. Warm, but pleasantly so.” She considered. “At least, for me. Come try.”
“I’ll go.” Scorio couldn’t resist the invitation. So he ignited and rose into his scaled form. “I’ve some heat resistance. Wait here.”
And before anyone could respond, he dropped to the ground beside Xandera. Only to hiss as the ground began to burn the soles of his feet. But instead of wanting to dance and get away, the pain felt like a beacon. It felt right in a way that scared him witless. What did it mean? Fire? Burning? Why should he wish to cinder himself?
Unnerved by his own instincts he stepped inside the blackened egg, and found the concave floor warm but manageable. He shifted down to his human form, and though his feet were tender from just being burned, he knew they’d be able to travel within the egg as it was.
“Will it get hotter? When it, ah, submerges in pure magma?” Did he wish it would?
“Hmm?” Xandera seemed to consider, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her. “Yes? But I can make it so that it doesn’t. In fact, I can probably…”
She extended her hand and her golden eyes flashed. The ambient heat around them immediately curled and wafted away, leaving the air to rapidly cool.
“Oh.” Scorio wiped his forearm across his sweaty brow. “That’s better.”
Naomi and Alain leaped down the rest of the way and approached gingerly over the glowing floor.
“So, it’s basically lava, but not… hot lava?” asked Alain, lifting his feet to examine the undersides of his boots.
“It’s my lava. My heat.” Something in Xandera’s voice was akin to a flash of steel. “I can do with it as I wish.”
“Right! Good. That’s great. I wholly approve.” Alain edged toward the egg, palms raised. “Just asking.”
“She’s not mad at you,” said Naomi, walking normally alongside him. “Just enjoying discovering what she can do. Right, Queen Xandera?”
“Yes. And this…” She gazed about the glowing floor once more. “This is but a taste.”
“How long till we reach the Fury Spires?” asked Scorio, sitting down gingerly on the whorled black floor.
“How long?” Xandera flashed a bright smile again. “I’ve no idea! I will simply follow the call home and we will go as quickly as I can. Now!”
And the egg sealed over so that they were plunged into darkness.
Scorio activated his darkvision and saw Alain’s wide-eyed stare.
“Hey!” Alain pounded on the wall. “We need air! We can’t stay under magma forever inside a stone egg!”
As if in response, the egg lurched, rocked subtly from side to side, then dropped. Scorio reached out to both sides, but the movement settled into a steady rocking motion.
“Well.” Naomi sat down beside Scorio. “Now I guess we wait.”
“What, to see if we cook to death?” asked Alain.
Naomi glared at him. “Has anybody ever told you how great you are to travel with?”
“No. They usually tell me to be quiet, or I head off so they forget about me again.”
“I was being sarcastic,” snapped Naomi.
“I know,” Alain snapped back. “I was pretending not to understand to annoy you further.”
“Can we enjoy this trip in silence?” Scorio leaned back and interlaced his fingers behind his head. “Just envision us traveling through an artery of pure lava and enjoy the moment, yeah?”
The other two subsided. The egg thrummed as its rocking diminished, and soon it simply vibrated without any other movement. Occasionally it lurched in a random direction, and Scorio tried to imagine the cause; a sudden dodge of a rock, or…?
“Strange to think of Xandera swimming beside us,” said Naomi quietly. “She must look amazing in the magma.”
That was the last anyone spoke for several hours. The temperature mercifully remained cool, but the air slowly grew more stuffy. On and on they flowed, until finally Scorio chose to ignite so as to ease the pressure on his lungs.