The pain was still there. Zach would immediately notice if it faded. It didn't.
The sensation of fire was the same.
It was the temperature in the air around him that suddenly started sinking like a rock in water. It was subtle at first, but with every second it fell faster and faster until it started plummeting so fast that Zach had to open his eyes.
What he saw scared his face pale.
The flames of Friebel's pool of fire had gathered into a funnel with the point focused on the base of his head.
He couldn't help but think it was the end. The trial was harder than he had thought. It wasn't just the pain. The second stage was to endure a tornado of fire, wreaking havoc across his body.
After the mental torture, he wasn't sure he could handle it.
But then he realized that the funnel was already moving. It wasn't a part of the trial or an attack on his body.
It was swirling and shrinking like water in a basin with a hole in the bottom.
