A world void of color and swallowed in swathes of smoke greeted Kealie as she found her way towards the city's heart.

Slick stone, darkened by fall rain bled into the dirt path she'd come from. Mostly mud now, the caked surface had only just begun to dry out as the heat baked the earth and air.

She felt the grime of it on her skin, settling onto her forearms and grating against her nerves.

Kealie could barely make out five paces before her, the clouds snuffing out the light from even the sun above down here.

Perhaps hiding in the safety of the estate was for the best, though it didn't sit well.

Not as the smell she couldn't scrub or swallow away with water drowned her, burying Kealie in the sorrow and grief permeating the air as well. The screams were deafening now, ringing against the small shops and homes.

It echoed it's way deep into Kealie's chest.

She knew what she was going to see as she drew near, keeping her vision pasted to the cobblestone ground. Her footing was uneven, each step taking the concentration she didn't want to use.

The chime of clinking chains gnawed at her attention, begging for her to acknowledge them. She'd dare engage for a moment, lifting her stare to the Nerydian folk whose wrists and feet were bound. Those chains burned a bright molten copper, their skin charred with sizzling sparks of magic searing their flesh.

Kealie felt her stomach clench in newfound pain and anguish.

They were beautiful humanoid creatures, with gorgeous big eyes the color of the sea and scales lining their prominent features like their cheekbones and hairline. She'd known too, that their spines were lined with small dorsal fins and a thin whip-like tail sprouted from royalty.

To them, she must appear as awful and cruel as any other human girl.

Kealie's own flesh had been reduced to a sad porcelain color, with smaller features.

Nausea crept in, whether from her thoughts or the wretched smells, she didn't know.

But when Kealie turned towards the heart of town, her racing thoughts were flattened into petrification.

A wild bonfire arched and curled, wicked and alive, towering over the smallest of homes. The flames grew over the lip of a large metal container dug into the ground. Water roiled and sloshed over the edges. The fire's body widened to encompass the town square, with hundreds of people coiling around the outside.

Kealie gripped at her chest, clawing down ever so slightly in shock as a woman lashed against four guards, wailing profanities and lunging for their weapons.

A burnt corpse of a man lay on the ground before the flames.

Kealie thought he looked of burnt logs, his bones cracking and breaking apart right before the woman. They had fished him out of the steel pot, dumping his body before his wife.

Nothing remained of his clothing, no personal effects survived. There was almost nothing left of him as he turned to ash.

All that could be heard for miles were the woman's broken sobs. "Vinn! Vinn! VINN!"

Kealie knew what came next.

Victims often would go into a crazed state, losing their minds in the midst of grief and lashing out. She'd wondered from time to time if it was on purpose, if these people were looking for their place in death alongside their loved one, so Kealie did not flinch when the woman finally found her way to a blade and aimed to slit the guard's throat.

She saw blood spraying back against the woman's face, the guard choking and gagging.

Heard her broken laughter as the others hauled her weakened frame towards the bonfire.

The fragile sound of more rattling chains.

"No..." Kealie found herself whispering. "No, no..."

Kealie's stomach cramped and twisted rapidly enough to send her vomiting into the nearby bushes. Worsened by the awful, burning death that intensified in the air, she knew she needed to get up.

Knew she needed to get away.

So Kealie swayed, staggering from the ground and taking off through the outskirts of the city she couldn't stand. The people. These Human monsters.

Binding and ruling over souls who did not share blood with them, who did not need to be beneath them.

Kealie sprinted, dodging down alley's, swerving through every empty street she could find. Running farther and farther away from the screaming.

Where this woman fell, another would take her place.

Tears burned in Kealie's eyes.

She lost track of when they started to stream down her face, wobbling and flying from her chin. She didn't know when her breathing became labored, suffocating.

Burning.

Everything burned.

The bonfire was a kindness, Naida had said.

It saved the Nerydians from the torture their Keepers might inflict, the pit of foul sea water they would open up underneath that wild flame ending their suffering.

It made her sick.

It all made her sick.

A spectators event at the cost of lives just like any other.

Kealie threw herself against the cliff's edge, throwing up again into the abyss beneath her. Her bile disappeared into the great blue ocean below.

She never should've left.

Her body ached, her magic roared, thrumming to life in her ears as if it could sense the waves beneath her.

She continued to dry heave, exhausted pants filling the quiet breezes around her. Kealie did not hear anything anymore, not even the waters breaking against the cliff face.

It hurt.

The pain seizing through her bones and deep into her core.

Kealie stared at her stolen comfort, at the tides churning below her. Calling to her. Beckoning her. The whispers danced along her aura, tempting her with something far more dangerous than some fire.

She fought the song, fought off all the turbulent thoughts and feelings painfully stabbing into her bones.

Her magic had a mind of its own.

Fighting to her feet, the world swayed around Kealie as she attempted to hush her breathing. The seas stretched towards Nynoli in the north and Azuris in the south, a deep blue that consumed all other colors. Storm clouds churned along the horizon line.

She could almost feel the crackle of lightning in her veins.

One deep breath.

Then another.

Kealie's vision focused and honed in on the winding path that led down from her high perch on the cliff. It meandered down to the coastline itself and despite her better judgment, she listened.

She heard.

Heard the soft singing that ebbed from those swirling eddies and powerful wakes.

Kealie's tension eased before winking out entirely. She stumbled, beginning to make the descent down. Following the curves in the path and watching as the vast sandy beach began to stretch out in front of her, she sucked in a breath.

Kealie cleared the final cliff, her gaze falling onto a gorgeous Nerydian ship in ruins.

Moss had just barely begun to coat the hull, spotty along the outer walls. A scene that told of disaster and death. Large gashes in the floorboards accompanied the fallen masts, broken near the center and arching into the ocean below.

She had forgotten to breathe, mindlessly stepping closer to the ship.

There were no remains in the water, only floating or submerged boards and supplies.

The song grew louder, whispering more secrets. A faint language she no longer completely understood.

But they told her to come closer.

To investigate.

And without question, Kealie did.

Word Count: 1,247          Total Word Count: 3,471