33 Risen#re

The first night on the riverbank was more of a celebration for the students, the fires blazed on as the students took their time to eat the rations they were given.

They sat around the flames and told the scariest stories they could as the night grew ever darker, and at one-point Tobias lead the scouting parties to go out and hunt a few creatures.

Using branches from the trees they skewered the lumps of meat and hung it over the flames to slowly roast, Lirian generously allowed the usage of some of the ridiculously priced spice for the occasion.

Tobias saw Lirian sitting at the highest point of the area they were camped, like some sort of guard, which he found strange.

It didn't matter where Lirian set he was blind so there wasn't much he could do no matter how high he sat.

He walked up to Lirian and found him tinkering with some loose tinder, slowly forming a pile of dried up sticks.

Tobias took a seat next to him wordlessly with his eyes fixed on the large fires and the roasting meat.

"I heard that you led the hunt and you managed to deliver a fatal injury to one of the creature's," Lirian said breaking the silence as he stroked the dry tinder.

Tobias chuckled, "They are exaggerating, in truth the hunting parties did all the work and had me deal the final blow when it was safe," he said glumly.

"Rumours are spreading about the roles, and they are only trying to suck up to me in the hopes of getting a good role when we start assigning them," Tobias sighed.

"It's only natural isn't it, if we can't become the leader, we try to please the ones that lead in the hope that they will recognise us," Lirian said with simple elegance, "In a way they are no different from us candidates."

Tobias grunted in agreement, it was their fate to do everything in their power to impress and please the nobles that looked down on them from above.

"But it would be different if I was more like you," he added in a disheartened tone.

"More like me," Lirian muttered softly, "How do you figure that would help you?" he asked with an amused tone.

Tobias shook his head, 'Lirian won't understand, he doesn't get what it's like to watch him, he's a candidate yet he can control so many cultivators with his strength alone.'

"Don't mind me it was just a slip of the tongue," he sulked and drooped his head down.

"Try me," Lirian smiled at him, "You may not know this but I'm a good listener, not that I have much of a choice in that," he chuckled at his own joke.

Tobias fell into thought and decided to give it a shot, "Do you know that on my first expedition I got into a huge fight with my class, they thought that without supervision, they could take control of the expedition and do things their way,"

"It was only twenty of us, but I still lost control of them, and after a few days I challenged the person who took charge, I won but I was injured."

"I got my position back, but we lost five days because I had to recover," his voice was dyed in heavy guilt.

"But watching you back there when we left, you took control of a full 3000 cultivators by yourself with complete ease," he couldn't hide the admiration but most of all envy in his voice.

"None of them would dare to actively try poaching your position, you've led this expedition better than I could have and I've done this four times already,"

"Sometime I feel like it's blessing that I got to witness you as a candidate, but it also feels like a curse to see you do every thing that I can do and do it better than I could imagine," he sighed looking down at the large fires and the students that were enjoying themselves.

He was certain that had it been him leading there would have been a mutiny by now with so many people, this scenery would have never happened.

Lirian was lost wondering in his thoughts, Tobias's envy was different from the others, it wasn't pettiness, but rather it was born of his own insecurities that he wasn't good enough.

Lirian stroked the tinder with his walking stick, "What do you see when you look at this?" Lirian asked pointing at the neatly arranged tinder with his stick.

Tobias looked down with a strange expression, he figured that it was some form of trick question, so he thought a little before giving an answer.

"A nice fire to roast some marshmallows," he answered.

Lirian chuckled, "That's a good answer," with the flick of his hand a silver thread of energy shot out, one end touched the flames of a torch and the other struck the tinder.

Then the entire thread turned into a flame and a crackling fire was born before Tobias's eyes.

Lirian open the dimensional storage, and pulled out a few skewers and marshmallows, much to Tobias's surprise.

"I sneaked these past the guards, but I couldn't bring many," Lirian explained.

Tobias laughed loudly, it was the first time he was happy about Lirian's skill in sleight of hand, he never thought that his ability to steal food would come in useful now.

As they begun roasting the marshmallows Tobias couldn't help but ask, "What does this have to do with what I told you?"

"I'm getting there," Lirian said as he took a bite of the gooey marshmallow.

"How long will the fire last? how long can it burn strong? How big can it become? What can it achieve in its time burning?" Lirian asked him suddenly to which Tobias only narrowed his eyes as he ended up lost in his thoughts.

The question seemed to be one of those philosophical ones, the ones that make you think deeply about what you are doing and where is it that you intend to go.

Lirian pulled down the blind fold and intense spots of red light assaulted his eyes.

Tobias sat across from him and was immediately taken by the sight of the red embers being reflected in Lirians silver eyes, even that murky black couldn't hide its radiance completely.

"The fire burns, the fire grows,"

"The fire consumes, the fire grows,"

"The fire devours all things, and so the fire must grow,"

"But what happens when all is eaten, how then shall the fire grow,"

Tobias heard Lirian say those words at barely a whisper, it sounded more like some mantra, but as he looked into the eyes of Lirian he could see images being reflected from the fire.

He looked back to the fire and in it he saw, what could only be described as a luscious forest of green trees as tall as the sky's above.

In the fire he saw images of people setting their fields alight, to burn away the dead crops.

Tobias found it hard to believe what he was seeing, he was looking into a fire, yet he could see the colours of the spectrum, he saw fires within the fire.

"The people completed their ritual of burning away the old, but little did they know that the fires had come alive and formed a pact of their own," Lirian began to narrate as the fires moved.

"The fires had come to live and like all things with sentience, they did not want to die,"

"As the people went to end the lives of the flames, the flames responded, they reached out and wrapped the people in cloaks of fire, eating them, consuming them, living of their burning flesh,"

Tobias's eyes shuddered as he saw what Lirian described in the flames, the crackling of the wood, sounded like the shrieks of the people.

"And so, the fires spread, from person to person, from home to home, but it was not enough, they moved on to the unburnt lands and spread to the forest around,"

The images in the flames continued to flow like a movie, only it looked more real, to Tobias it felt like he was looking through the eyes of another, as he saw the fires spread to the top of the trees that touched the sky and the smoke that filled the skies.

"It caught the animals, and burnt the hobbles of every creature, but it's hunger only grew, some even devoured others in its uncontrollable hunger, however the survivors were severely weakened,"

Tobias saw the flames fight tussling around, burning each other's air until even the victor looked ready to die.

"So, the greatest flame saw an opportunity it devoured all the others and spread it's flames to grow even mightier,"

"The fires raged through the forests for months, but soon they came to the end, and set their flames on the cities,"

The flames showed the edge of the forests and a great marble city that looked like those found in ancient times.

"The flames burned concrete into puddles of liquid magma and caught the fleeing people in its burning maw,"

"And so, the flames devoured all life, and turned all things to ashes but,"

Tobias saw all the flames converge onto a single spot he knew what was to come.

"The flames converged to the final point from all directions, and with one final spark of glory it burned itself out,"

"But little did it know, that one of the other flames survived it wasn't as ferocious as the others, rather it was smart, it devoured the borders of it's lands to make it look like it devoured everything, and while the other flame ate at a gluttonous pace,"

"The flame burned soft and bright in its own paradise, burning leisurely at its own pace."

Lirian finished the story and the images in the flames vanished.

Lirian raised his head to face Tobias, "You shouldn't envy me," he said with a small smile, "We both know which flame I am, we both know how it's going to end for me, it will be short but brilliant."

"There are million morals to be learnt from this story, but I think the most important one is to follow the cunning flames lead, don't copy those around you and stay true to who you are, play to your own strengths,"

"While you may never beat the big flame, you can outwit it thus outliving it," he walked over the small flames and tapped Tobias's massive shoulders.

"Now if you'll excuse me I have a party that needs to come to an end," Lirian walked down to the big fire, he didn't mind the party but they had to sleep earlier or they would lose time on the march.

Tobias watched Lirians back with a look of contemplation, he had always thought Lirian had wise eyes, but he was so self-absorbed that he could have never pictured him being truly wise, but now it seemed to fit him well.

'Ah, I forgot to ask him how he did that thing with the flames,' he realized a little late.