[i]When it comes down to it and you stand here, at the very edge of the world, and the end comes for you.....can you look in the eye and say that you’ve done everything that you wished to do.[/i]

He burns.  He feels the pain, the searing sensation of agony across his back from the flames.  Yet even as he burns, Merrill shields Callie from the worst of it.  He holds her as he pushes through the inferno, covering her from the fire, using his body to shield her.  Feeling his arms burn, his legs burn, his face burn, Merrill doesn’t flinch as he presses onwards.

[i]Lying in the arms of night,
In the shadows of the firelight,
Suspended by this feeling of fading away,
I want to run away with you,
So meet me by the cut through,
Together we'll make our sweet escape,[/i]

For the second time tonight, the forest turns into fiery death as Callie’s magic takes spark.  Trees burn.  Bushes burn.  Grass burn.  The animals, those too slow....they were caught fast in the tendrils of burning doom.  

Despite it, despite all of it, Merrill pushes through.  Scooping Callie up, his body now a shroud of fire, he holds her into him......ignoring the terrible pain and ignoring his fading strength as he continues on, one foot in front of the other.  

[i]The vision won’t come true.....not this time.  The end comes for me.[/i]

The flames eat away at him, and the thought pushes away the dark void inside of him.  He was dying, that he knew.  Yet, that was immaterial.

[b]”I am expendable,”[/b] he gasps, his features twisted, burned beyond recognition.

[b]”But you must live.”[/b] 

One foot, another one.  Carrying on, because that was all that there was.  

[i]Under a canopy of stars,
Where thought and truth divorce,
In that latticework of dreams we are shameless,
I want to run away with you,
Somewhere they cannot undo,
Together we'll make our sweet escape,[/i]

Through the tops of the trees, the canopy of stars shone down on the burning man and the girl he was trying so hard, so desperately hard to protect.  Even though it cost him his own life....  

And then finally he was free.  Free of the fire around him.  Free of the smoke.  Here, once more at the brook, he fell to his knees, letting Callie go.  Falling forwards, hiding his burned face from her, holding his hands up to hide it, feeling his life fade from him.....dissipating into the ether like the ghosts that had chased him now for so long.....he gasps.

[b]”Callie....”[/b] his voice is no more than a faint echo.....a ghost on the wind.  [b]”The world is yours to change.”[/b]

Then his world fades into the blackness of oblivion.....

[CENTER]***[/CENTER]

[b]”Your magic is powerful, but uncontrollable,”[/b] the woman steps out of the shadows, as she had stepped out only minutes before to confront Merrill.

Her dark eyes gleam as they fixated on Callie, standing as she was there with the fallen Merrill.  The colours of her clothing were in sharp contrast to the darkness of the grotto, outlined by the orange fire in the distance.  Walking slowly over to where Merrill lay, her dark expression was unreadable.

[b]”I came here to kill him.  I did not expect him to die at the hand of the girl he was trying to protect.”[/b]

A small smile crosses the face of the stranger as she looks at Merrill’s ravaged body.  She reaches out, her own perfect hand touching burned skin.

[b]”Not this way.  It should not be this way.”[/b]

Her eyes spark for a moment.  Dark irises become white, and her hand begins to glow.  Before Callie’s eyes, Merrill’s burned skin begins to fade.....becoming whole and pink once more.  His body glows, and the wounds close, the burns all across his body fade.  She gently turns his body round to face the stars.  His chest rises and falls gently.

[b]”His life has a price.  It is one I will come to claim from my brother in time, as was pre-ordained.”[/b]

Standing, she looks to Callie.  The strange woman’s voice begins to fade as her form begins to dissipate.  She looks to Callie as she does, and she smiles softly.

[b]”Remember girl, despite what you may have been told, and despite what history would have you believe.......not all of us bring death.”[/b]

And then she was gone.