As the opacity cleared and the dancing flames again became translucent, Chandra knew that she was free. Golden heat flowed through her blood with rich, reassuring familiarity as she turned toward Walbert.
Her sorrow would always be with her, but there would be no more haunting nightmares. No more screams and acrid smoke pursuing her through her dreams.
Chandra stepped out of the Fire, out of the mysterious flow of white mana that had embraced so many souls for so long. She knew now that Walbert had misinterpreted what he had seen in the flickering white blaze. And if she did indeed have a destiny on Regatha, if there truly was a reason that she had been meant to come to this plane… now she knew what it was.
The harsh glow of victory was in Walbert’s pale blue eyes as he watched her walk out of the Fire and stand before him.
“Things had to be this way, Chandra,” he said confidently. “It’s for the best.”
She considered this. “Perhaps.”
There was no need to prepare further. She had found such focus, such strength, such certainty of intent in the Purifying Fire, all she had to do now was inhale deeply, spread her arms wide, and reach with her will for the rich red mana of Regatha.
Walbert understood an instant before it happened. “No!”
Chandra unleashed a spell that exploded with golden fire and fury throughout the entire cavern.
“You were right,” she said to Walbert, raising her voice to be heard about the thundering roar of her spell. “I guess it is my destiny to change everything here, after all. I am the cataclysm you foresaw.”
“No!” Walbert staggered backward, shock and horror contorting his face.
Above them, the ceiling of the cavern started caving in, in response to the power of Chandra’s spell as it pushed skyward with boundless fury.
The mages of the Order were screaming and racing toward the steep tunnel that led back up to the palace and a chance of survival. Some of them would make it to safety. Others certainly wouldn’t. Too many of them had come down here to watch Chandra be stripped of her power so that their Order could commence an era of unchallenged domination over Regatha.
“Bad decision,” she said to their fleeing backsides as they stampeded past her.
“You can’t!” Walbert cried, too appalled by the destruction of his dreams and plans to run for his life now.
“I can,” she said. “And I’m pretty sure I’m actually meant to.”
Walbert had gone too far. He had tried to use the Purifying Fire to disrupt the balance on Regatha, to trample on the practices of other mages and other ways of life. He had disrespected and dismissed the value of all mana except that which empowered him. And now the white mana flow that ran deep beneath the plains of Regatha had embraced and then freed the fire-wielding planeswalker whom Walbert had brought into these ancient caverns to become the key to his conquest.
Now everything would indeed change.
The madness of sudden, agonizing, unforeseen loss twisted Walbert’s face now, and he attacked Chandra, who was off-guard, watching the celebrants run. He was stronger than he looked, and she staggered backward under the weight of his enraged assault.
Overhead, the ceiling of the cavern split open with a terrible crash, and a portion of the Temple, which had sat high overhead, plunged into the far end of the cavern. Moonlight pierced the big, ragged hole that was growing above the chamber, and dust, rocks, and boulders flew recklessly across the cavern at deadly speed. The walls and floor shook, and the hysterical screams coming from the world above were scarcely loud enough to carry through the thundering roar down here of crashing stone and groaning rock face.
A raging burst of red-and-orange heat roared across the chamber. It flowed over Chandra, mingling with the fire that sparked along her skin and the flames that raged in her hair.
Walbert screamed as the fire that engulfed the two of them consumed him. He tried to fight it off with his power, but Chandra could see that none came to him now when he called on it. The white mana that had spared her had also, it seemed, abandoned the high priest of the Temple. Chandra watched dispassionately as Walbert died like any common man.
“Chandra? Chandra?”
The sound of her named brought Chandra to her senses. She opened her eyes and wondered why she was lying on the hard stone ground.
The blood that trickled down her face when she sat up, as well as the sharp, blood-smeared rock lying nearby, answered her question. Now she remembered something falling onto her head-hard-only moments after she watched Walbert die.
She looked up and saw Gideon stepping through rubble and rock fragments as he approached her. Moonlight shone down on the far end of the cavern, but this portion still relied mainly on the glowing spires of rock for illumination. Chandra looked around and noticed that some of those spires had been destroyed in the cataclysm.
The Purifying Fire, however, glowed white and strong, enduring, as it always had.
“What happened?” Gideon’s voice was hoarse.
Chandra touched her bloody forehead. “Falling rocks from overhead. I got knocked out.”
“No, I meant…” He leaned down, seized her shoulders, hauled her roughly to her feet, and gave her a hard shake. Her neck snapped back and her aching head protested as he shouted into her face, “What did you do?”
When she didn’t say anything, he shook her again. “Chandra! What did you do here?”
“You can see what I did,” she said, feeling worn out now. “It was a boom spell.”
He shoved her away so violently that she bounced off the wall behind her and nearly fell back down.
“I didn’t tell you how to save yourself so that you could do this!” His face was white with anger, pale and stark against the coal black of his hair.
Chandra looked around at the devastation she had wrought. The fire had been so hot, it had turned bodies to ashes, so it was hard to tell how many members of the Order had died here. She knew it must be at least a dozen. Perhaps more. There might also have been people in the portion of the Temple that had caved in and fallen when part of the cavern ceiling collapsed.
“The temple is ruined,” she guessed. “And the Order…” She took a breath and thought it over. “Well, in disarray, certainly. Destroyed?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. The mana flow is still strong here. They’ll regroup in time. But perhaps they’ll remember what happened here when their reach exceeded their grasp.”
Gideon grabbed her again, and he looked so enraged, she thought he was going to strike her. She didn’t resist or try to stop him. She knew he felt betrayed. In his position, she’d want to lash out, too.
But he let her go and turned away, breathing hard. “How could you do it?” he asked in a low voice.
“In a way, I think Walbert was right,” she said. “I was meant to come here.”
He gave her an incredulous look. When he saw that she was serious, he said, “You don’t believe in destiny. Neither do I.”
“I don’t really believe in visions, either, and yet Walbert had them, and I was in them.” She shrugged. “And even if none of that is true… it is true that someone had to stop him, and I was the one who could.”
“I shouldn’t have helped you.” Gideon wasn’t looking at her. He almost seemed to be talking to himself.
“Why did you help?”
For a moment, she didn’t think he would answer. Then he said wearily, “Because I learned on Diraden what it was like to be without my power, and to think I might be stuck on one plane for the rest of my life.” He met her gaze. “And because I saw there what that was like for you.” He looked away again. “I couldn’t see you like that permanently. I… couldn’t.”
“What Walbert wanted to do was wrong, Gideon,” she said.
“No.” He shook his head. “What you’ve done is wrong. And I…” He sighed and closed his eyes. “I helped you.” After a moment, he said heavily, “You planned this. It’s why you asked me to leave.” It wasn’t a question.