The land had turned to fire. Black smoke covered the skies.

Sir Ivan was running with Father Petrov dangling over his shoulder. He must have been using some sort of emergency speed boost technique; they covered ground much, much faster than Petrov dared to hope, faster than had ever seen him run before in his life.

But it wasn't fast enough. In no time, the conflagration caught up to the pair.

"Light!" Father Petrov summoned a protective cloak around both of them just a moment too late to avoid harm entirely, but in time to save them from anything worse than blisters by the fires that instantly spread through the entire death zone.

Still, he urged Ivan. "Go! It won't hold for long!"

Also, there was another problem. While they were protected from the heat, that sort of protection allowed air through so that people could breathe and talk and all that good stuff. In other words… it didn't keep out the smoke. Father Petrov only managed the one sentence before he choked on the smoke.

Then, he pa.s.sed out, while Sir Ivan ran for safety.

***

When he came to, he and Sir Ivan were outside the death zone, near enough to feel some heat, but far enough to avoid getting burned.

Professor Alexei and Mindy were nowhere to be found.

"Alexei… Mindy…" Father Petrov coughed. "No…"

He got to his feet, took a wobbling step toward the flames.

Sir Ivan grabbed him. "Sorry, Father. I can't allow you to go back."

"But… I can't just… leave them…" Petrov coughed.

"There's nothing we can do." Sir Ivan shook his head.

Father Petrov just stood there, staring into the fire and the smoke. Sir Ivan held on to him with a girm grip despite his own battered state. Time slipped away like sand through his fingers as he stared helplessly while the great flames raged and devoured everything they could in a frantic burst of activity and then began to fade away when they had consumed all there was to consume and there was nothing left to sustain their brief, forgotten lives.

Then the great flames were gone, and only the small ones remained, the weak replacing the strong for no reason other than that they fed on less.

The wind howled through the bones, like a mournful dirge lamenting the loss of such brief glorious lives, such that the world could not sustain them any longer. The smoke began to clear.

"We should go." Sir Ivan said at last.

"Not yet. At least…" Father Petrov lowered his head. "At least I should say the last rites for them."

Sir Ivan nodded wordlessly as Father Petrov began. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…"

The words trailed off, as Father Petrov stood there, staring.

"Father?" Sir Ivan prompted. Then, he turned to see what Petrov was staring at. "What the…?"

Walking through the burning land as though on harmless gra.s.s, was a figure wreathed in fire. A vague outline could be seen, as if the flames surrounding that figure had taken on the shape of a bird, complete with wings. "Mindy?!"

Mindy stepped out of the death zone and approached them, still wearing that bird shaped fire.

Sir Ivan squinted. "Is that… a protective aura?"

"Mindy! Are you all right?!" Father Petrov asked.

"Yeah." Mindy nodded.

"And… Alexei?"

To that, Mindy shook her head wordlessly.

Sudden light and heat flared overhead as a bird of fire descended upon them. It was a big one, with a wingspan of easily a hundred meters. Not quite as large as the Roc King or the likes, but still very big compared to a human, and more importantly, it actually seemed to be made of flames.

"Run…!" Sir Ivan gasped, stepping in between Father Petrov and the bird.

But Mindy went over and stroked it and spoke to it in a low voice without hesitation and didn't spare a moment to worry about getting burned. "Calm down. This is my friend, Chirpy. Or at least, her avatar."

"Her… avatar?" Father Petrov blinked.

"It's like… a piece of her mind. A wisp of her consciousness." Mindy scratched her head. "But it's her. Chirpy, these are my other friends…"

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But the fire bird completely ignored Father Petrov and Sir Ivan. In a voice of thought rather than sound, she spoke. [What happened?]

"I'm sorry." Mindy lowered her head. "The professor went mad and started casting magic at the seal. I drew my sword."

[You knew about the fumes. Wasn't there any other way to stop him?]

"I panicked." Mindy confessed. "I didn't even think of an alternative."

"None of us were thinking straight. Something about the Source affected our minds." Father Petrov consoled her.

"But perhaps we were just overexcited." Mindy said, dubiously.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps there's a serious reason why the Source was called 'evil'." Father Petrov shook his head. "I knew Alexei for a long time. I've seen him excited before. That back there… that was something else."

There was a momentary stark silence.

[I must see to the Seal. This explosion may have caused it damage.] the fire bird said grimly. [This could take me weeks to repair. There is no telling what might come through otherwise.]

"Before that… could you give us a quick lift out of here?" Mindy asked weakly.

"Should we really just go home like this, leaving the damaged Seal to a bird?" Father Petrov asked. "I'm not an expert on magic Seals, but there might be something we can do."

"We might just end up getting in the way." Sir Ivan pointed out.

While they stood there in discussion, solemnly thoughtful, the fire-bird swooped up with Mindy on its back, swooped down and picked up both Sir Ivan and Father Petrov with a claw on each of their shoulders, and then soared into the open sky before either of them could so much as yelp.

***

They were dropped off at the edge of the Roc King's territory. By that time, Father Petrov and Sir Ivan were already in dire conditions, having been hanging from their shoulders uncomfortably. They were sore by the time they landed.

"We should take a short break." Mindy wasn't a stranger to long flights. Though their fire-bird ride was incredibly fast, the trip back was still going to take a while. She got off the firebird and stretched her legs a bit.

Sir Ivan was checking his shoulders.

"What are you looking for?" Mindy asked.

"Burn marks." Sir Ivan said. "I was wondering how I didn't get burned to a crisp being carried by a bird of fire."

"Oh. She can control it. Don't worry, she won't harm you. For now."

"I'd like to keep it that way."

"You'll be fine." Mindy said. "You can sit on her claws and hold on to her ankles. That should make the rest of the trip back more comfortable."

"How far can your friend take us?"

"All the way to KarGoth, I believe."

"Is that really going to be okay? I mean, we'll be crossing the Roc King's territory and everything…"

"Oh, don't worry about that. They won't cause any trouble. They won't even complain at all."

"How long would it take her to send us to KarGoth? What about the Seal in the meantime?" Father Petrov asked.

Mindy glanced at the bird.

[I have sent another avatar over to handle the Seal. I will handle it.] the fire bird said. [You just… keep your mages away now on.]

"That is not a job I look forward to." Mindy said gloomily.

"It could be worse." Sir Ivan consoled her.

"How so?"

"You could have my job." Sir Ivan said. "I have to tell my squire's family that he won't be coming back."

"That sounds bad." Mindy conceded.

"Actually, there's an even worse job." Father Petrov groaned.

"What's that?"

"Who do you think is going to have to talk to all those other families?"