It hurt to breathe.
Every breath was so hot it was like a bag of knives going down her throat. She could barely move, her skin so dry it was cracking and falling off in places if she so much as twitched.
But she'd done it.
The fire and wind died down, the last of it sucked into her alongside her magic. There was a heat inside her now that ensured she'd never be cold again. Her magic itself was warmer than it had ever been before, at least when it was inside her.
That part she wasn't too upset about, since she hated being cold anyway.
Her magic felt different under her skin now.
Changed.
Like she was, but she was less pleased about that. She'd never been in so much pain before, watching her skin fall off when she tried to reach up to touch her cheek to see if she was crying. She looked like some monster from the stories of the tribes in the Wastelands, who told of giants made of rock and volcanoes who were sleeping gods.
But she had done it. The air was still filled with smoke so thick and grey it hurt to open her eyes, but she did it. Forced them open and felt a few of her eyelashes fall off in the process. Did she even have eyebrows anymore?
And why did she care right now?
She'd stopped the wildfire. They'd lost most of the borderlands, but at least the wheat would grow again, and buildings could be rebuilt. The population would struggle, but with the protection of Sorrow, they'd be able to recover, too. Though it would take generations.
That they'd managed to save anyone was a bit of a miracle.
One she would carry proudly for the rest of her life.
Death was still here, off to the side and seemingly unbothered by the vortex around him. His human face was blank, and he hadn't made any move to help her. Or to hinder her, so she thought there had to be some pride there.
She'd done it after all.
Her great task.
She could go home now. Or whenever it was finally her time. She wasn't quite ready to leave just yet.
The wind picked up again, but it was fresh, clean, the Rock awakening to dispel the smoke.
It was meant to be morning again, she realized. It had taken her all night to absorb the wildfire. No wonder she was so hungry and so tired and so hurt.
But as the wind began to dispel the smoke and it hurt less to keep her eyes open, her vision began to clear.
Through the fading smoke, the soldiers became clear.
A massive army of the combined kingdoms of Song and Snow, marching in the wake of the fire. They had extra cloth wrapped around their feet and faces to protect them from the heat.
It was a brilliant plan. Send the fire first to do most of the damage, and then the soldiers were at minimal risk as they followed and finished off anyone lucky enough to survive.
The element of surprise was impressive.
A pit of fear formed in her stomach. Her magic was still ready, it always was, but she wasn't, physically or mentally. She was too tired to control it if she let it out again, which would pretty much guarantee she went home early.
She couldn't even speak to cuss them out. She tried, but her lips cracked and her mouth filled with blood and the tang of iron.
The soldiers hesitated, clearly not expecting to see someone alive amidst the fire or to see it disappear the way it had.
Eirian probably looked a bit terrifying herself, sitting in the middle of a puddle of melted armor and scraps of burned clothes, like some demon freshly crawled out from the fire of the underworld.
Before either she or the army of Song and Snow could react, a long horn sounded.
The same one she'd heard before the attack on her camp.
The pounding of charging horses began like a lightning strike, thundering across the smoking prairie.
Soldiers of the Crimson Army and tribesmen side by side, following Chenzhou, Mingzhe, Beng Shen, and Kai Low. The Loqui are blowing their horns to summon anyone within earshot.
They blew past Eirian without slowing down, and it was a bit of a miracle she didn't get trampled, and slammed into the soldiers of Song and Snow like an avalanche.
The invaders didn't have time to prepare their defense, the first few lines falling immediately. More and more soldiers from the Camelia and tribesmen responded to the horn, pouring onto the battlefield from all directions.
This time, the chaos was on their side. Forcing Song and Snow on the defensive and leaving them unable to predict where reinforcements were coming from.
Eirian didn't move, couldn't have even if she'd had the energy. Just watched as the combined force of Sorrow and the borderlands pushed Song and Snow back until the last of her lines broke and ran.
It was the quickest battle she'd seen since she left the capital. It only took an hour before Song and Snow began to retreat, unable to make up for the unexpected advantage of Eirian's magic and the surprise of the desperate charge.
No one should have had the energy to fight after two days of fleeing a wildfire, but the anger inspired by Song and Snow's attack had spurred them on. So many soldiers who'd resigned themselves to death already had decided they'd rather die fighting, and Song and Snow had not predicted that.
~ tbc