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The lake is quiet today, its usual whispering ripples replaced by an almost reverent stillness. The red bamboo sways along the shore, but the breeze doesn’t seem to touch the water.
Tahlra stands barefoot at the edge, her breath misting in the warm air, the obsidian pendant cold against her skin despite the heat. The fire spirit had visited her dreams again last night no words, just a beckoning, a flicker of gold and ember in the darkness.
She wades in, each step stirring faint ripples that quickly vanish. When the water reaches her waist, she dives.
The familiar heat envelops her, but this time it is not just warmth it is a current that tugs her downward, deeper and faster than her strokes alone could carry her. The vents loom ahead, glowing like molten eyes in the rock.
She slips into one. The pressure builds, the water around her shimmering with heat, but the pendant remains cool, an anchor.
And then she breaks into a hidden chamber.
The water glows from fissures in the rock, and in the center hovers the fire spirit, its form shifting between a humanoid shape of living flame and a burning serpent coiled in the water. Yet the water does not extinguish it instead, steam wreathes its every movement.
Fire Spirit: “Daughter of the warm waters, you came again.”
Its voice is in her head and in her bones, an ancient resonance.
Tahlra: “You called me.”
The spirit tilts its head, embers flickering off into the water and vanishing before they touch her skin.
Your people seek to endure. I can grant you warmth and power… if you will bear my mark.”
A curl of steam coils toward her, brushing her cheek like a testing hand.
Tahlra: “And in return?”
The spirit’s eyes flare, two suns under the lake.
“When the mountain stirs again, you will serve me.”
The chamber hums with heat, the stone walls trembling slightly.
Tahlra hesitates but only for a breath. Then she nods. The spirit presses a burning hand to her chest. The pain is sharp, but it fades into a rush of energy. The pendant glows, no longer cold, but pulsing with heat.
When she surfaces again, gasping, the sun is lower in the sky. The settlement’s fires burn brighter against the coming night. In her heart, she carries the warmth of the spirit and the weight of its promise.
