Searing wind blew past her, carrying with it a cloud of softly glowing embers. The flames around the princess sputtered, shuttered with the breeze, their roaring encirclement dying as her world dimmed to a whisper. You swore you heard a crack, and that sound ripped open something so viscerally in her chest that it may as well have been her heart shattering. Her outstretched arms caught the last breath of warmth from the flames of an apparition as its garnet core fell to pieces.

"Little sister, are you okay?"

It was headstrong and stubborn, but it was hers. Its temper flared and it threw tantrums, but it was a good child. It would listen to her when it mattered. It was just a little difficult at times... Just a little possessive. Just a little defensive.

Sand grit into her skin when she dropped to her knees, the fading embers of the Salamander apparition she'd nurtured since childhood nestling in her hair as her shaking fingertips scraped the crystalline shards of its core from the cooling tiles.

"You... Killed it." The words trembled form her lips. "Killed... My..." She cradled the broken garnet in the palms of her hands, and felt the warmth of Salamander recede from the depths of her soul. That simple flame, the affection and teasing heat that linked her to the desert's pulsing Throne, gone cold in its brazier. It was a chill she'd never known in her life... And her throat constricted agonizingly, a choked scream strangled stillborn as her head hung.

Blood beaded from her clenched fists, digging the jagged shards into her numb flesh. She seized him, that bastard, the one who'd murdered <span class="mu-i">her</span> child, and screamed... But the guards were upon her almost immediately. She screamed, trying desperately to ignore the hollowness that echoed in her gut. She flailed and thrashed, wresting her way free of two sets of hands, only to be pulled down by three and four more.

"I'll kill you!" She swore with every fibre of her being, locking eyes with her older half-brother as he wiped the blood - her blood - from his cheek. "I'll burn you alive!" She ripped an arm free of the guard's restraints and summoned the flame, screamed with a desperation that raked her body from within for Salamander's fury to match her own....

...But only the desert's cool night air kissed her tear-streaked cheek in answer.