[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/T6uxyr0.png[/img]

[url=https://vocaroo.com/13bfD1pFmMgL]OST (volume warning)[/url]
[hr][/center]


Sullen orange light played over the cascading steam, but [i]especially[/i] over the bared teeth of Rivka Sokolov. The blazing contrail struck a plane of light with a sound like blazing hellfire, piercing through to the hostile Ars Magi's mask— and beyond. The masked woman shifted, her newly uncovered eye pivoted to meet Rivka's— 

Something within her shuddered to see her own eye in that woman's face.

Rivka's convictions were strongly (and [i]vocally[/i]) held. Many took that confidence for arrogance. Viewed the assurance of skill and practice as a belief that she was, herself, the standard of perfection to which every other should be held. Anyone with an artist's soul knew better. You cannot strive for greatness without seeing your faults, the flaws upon which you seek to improve. No one who seeks perfection knowing its impossibility, that the pursuit of the unattainable is what matters, can set foot on that path without understanding that imperfection is [i]human[/i]. Rivka is deeply, deeply human. The doubts she holds inside herself are the most pernicious. The questions that challenge her deepest convictions are the ones that find expression in her arts, and in their expression she searches for meaning. For answer.

She has not forgotten the monster with her face. To know that it was a nightmare is no comfort. A dream is no less ephemeral, but the right dream will drive a soul forward until the day it goes out. The monster [i]matters[/i], as much as her belief that an Ars Magi is a beacon of hope for humanity to find shelter within. Fire like hell strikes through holy light to reveal the monster with her face. It isn't [i]there[/i], but the [i]question[/i] is. 

Why has an Ars Magi turned her back on humanity?

Why strike against the innocent?

[i][color=7e5e7f]Why was she given fire?[/color][/i]

Her Ars Armagus ached in a way that it hadn't since her rebirth in flames. Her Elementum said something about her. She truly believed that, and because of that belief it [i]troubled[/i] her. Fire was [i]capricious[/i]. For all humanity's history fire has been revered and reviled in equal measure, embraced for its utility and spurned for its volatility. 'It will warm a home as easily as burn it down,' ancestors have warned their children since time unrecorded, 'The burned hand teaches best.' Fire will turn as easily as she who starts it as it will her enemies. When she discovered her power it delighted her, as much for its capacity for destruction as for its beauty. She did not fear, she did not worry unduly, because she was an Ars Magi. She was a hero for humanity. That was her shelter from doubt, from the plaguing questions that had stayed just below the surface from the moment that she understood the woman she shot in the dark was not human— but she [i]used[/i] to be.

She faced now a contradiction, a nightmare in the flesh. Proof that humanity could be threatened by a woman of holy light clad in gleaming armor and her purifying flames simply smelt now to her of [i]brimstone.[/i] The opal at her core, in her hands, upon her face did not seem to shine with the virtues of its infinite shades. It did not shine at all. It simply hung, heavy, pulling into its depths the good until only a bad omen remained.

Rivka hesitated, and if not for Kheper's towering protector it would have killed her. 

Not because of her intervention, though her help could not— could never— be taken for granted. Just the groan and crack of earth and stone that spoke of her presence, here, watching her back without ever being asked.

[i][color=0892d0]"... you’ll only get yourself and others hurt by hesitating."[/color]

[right][color=00aeef]"Get to the others."[/color][/right]

"I'm... no, we're Ars Magi now."

[right][color=00a651]"We got through this much together already, didn't we? I'm sure you'll be okay. You can trust us."[/color][/right][/i]

In the subway she'd faced a choice. In catching Crystal she'd faced a choice. Goaded by her evaluator she'd faced a choice. Every time she had made the same decision; to do what she thought was right, regardless of orders, or risks, or someone else's opinion. She [i][color=7e5e7f]chose[/color][/i].

[sub][i]I take it, then, that you do feel different after your transformation?

[color=7e5e7f]Of course I do. But that’s not the answer you want, is it? You want a clinician’s answer. To know if I’ve stripped a gear, if I’ve developed a God complex.[/color]

Have you?

[color=7e5e7f]How could I not? Not a God complex, but a god complex. I’m neither omniscient nor omnipotent. But what else can I be but a god of flame? And if I am, are you, this whole institute, not a modern Prometheus? How can this be so dull for you? So… Mundane. What you have all learned to do is a miracle. What you have made of me, and of my peers, is a miracle. I hope I never forget that. I hope the people we save see us as the deliverance of a merciful and loving God, and the Void see us as Her retribution.[/color]

How do you feel about your peers? How did they do?

[color=7e5e7f]Amateurishly. The devushka was slow. That girl, Aoife, came in out of turn. And Chie got hurt.[/color]

…

[color=7e5e7f]Don’t look at me like that. There’s nothing wrong with being an amateur. Once upon a time the word meant love. Passion. To do a thing for the love of it, not because of the money. That is an amateur, and that’s why they’ll be perfect. In time. Nothing motivates, nothing pushes us to soaring, heart aching, pulse pounding heights of artistry like love. 

Give them time. Give [b]us[/b] time. We’ll be the best Ars Magi the world has ever seen.[/color][/i][/sub]

[center][img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/944002965742710824/1386086400369233970/rivka_selma_combo_hit_rounded.png?ex=68586d0e&is=68571b8e&hm=55678562bfc5ba5efe027fcede8d44933cad741989a3e176c70b44ffbee13158&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1032&height=599[/img][/center]

That's right. That's the [i][color=7e5e7f]vow[/color][/i] she'd made, even if no one else knew it. Even if it was impossible, even if she burned herself out [i][color=7e5e7f]today[/color][/i] reaching for it. The only way to do nothing wrong was to [i]do nothing[/i], and she refused. She was afraid she could choose wrong? Make a mistake? Become a monster, like this woman?

Rivka yanked the sidearm she'd requested out of her pocket with a speed no soldier could have matched, paying no mind to the earth and stone that rushed past her body. She trusted Selma. And Crystal, and Chie— [i]Kheper.[/i] The onslaught knocked one of the encroaching weapons off course, so she prioritized the lead of the remaining trio and fired. Then the second. Then the third. She didn't need to [i]destroy[/i] them. Just disrupt their attack run. If they could target autonomously, they would have struck at Kheper before Rivka shot their master. They were likely controlled by [i]thought[/i] (or a similar near-lightspeed medium) because they were able to shield their mistress after she heard the shot, but [i]before[/i] the shot reached her.

In other words, they were only as good as this masked woman could multitask. And with the same reaction enhancements she has, Rivka and Selma had twice the bandwidth.

If she ever strayed, her friends would stop her. [i]They[/i] trusted [i]her[/i], and that was plenty.

She'd finally grasped something else, too, in watching their opponent move. Neither light nor fire worked this way naturally. She had channeled her Elementum through her rifle so much because it was the only way that made [i]sense[/i]; channeled combustion. Almost everything she did, in some way, came from that same basic thought. Well, this woman was using flying diamonds to fire lasers and make a shield. And you know why?

Magic.

Ars Magi didn't just control an Elementum, they [i]decided[/i] the nature of reality and reality [i]obeyed.[/i] She'd learned the steps, she'd learned the notes, she'd learned the [i]rules[/i] and like any good artist now it was time to learn how to [i]break[/i] them. She shoved her sidearm back into her pocket and took a single deep breath... A breath that turned the rain around her instantly into steam on its way out, leaving the ground around her feet briefly bone dry for a foot in any direction. She yanked the bayonet off her rifle and slung it, flipping it between her fingers as she pushed off and gathered her Elementum within the blade in her right hand and around her hand itself on the left. The two sources burned a blazing, blinding contrail behind her as she closed in on the hostile Magi a few paces behind and to Selma's right, eyes gleaming in challenge and elation.

She had a few fresh new [i]ideas[/i] for this menace.

[hider=Credits]Great big shoutout to a good friend for enabling my BGM wishes, and thanks to all of you for your patience.[/hider]