Firesight

Disclaimer: I own neither Tolkein's nor Jackson's original creative material, on page or screen. My OCs might get a bit mischievous and break the universe, but that's their business.

Author'sNote: Yes, I have risen from the dead! For new readers, this is a sequel to Starsight, which covers the events of DoS. I strongly recommend you read that first, otherwise you won't have the foggiest idea what's going on here. But for those of you who have stayed wonderfully patient between Starsight and Firesight, I can only hope you'll find this first chapter a suitable reward. Can't promise that this story will be finished anytime soon, but as always, I do promise my best efforts. Happy reading!

Chapter One

The Return

Cauna steered herself against the night wind, fully inhabiting the body Ember used to own. Each cold breath was a dose of ecstasy, a reminder that after years of sub-existence, she was once again alive.

The witch cast wary glances up at Smaug as she gained on him. In no time at all there would be chaos and fire, tragedy and destruction. She needed to get the sister safely away before any of that happened.

'Slow your path, fire-drake,' she murmured, extending the fingers of one young hand up underneath the dragon's form. With moderate concentration she wound down the forces that swept his wings through the air. Now he moved forward still, but like an arrow through tar - and he would barely notice.

Having one less thing to concern herself with, Cauna tipped forward on Thorin Oakenshield's sword, steadily descending to water, black as the sky that had yet to dawn. The sword skimmed the water; Cauna remained upright, supported by her own magic, dark eyes fixed upon her intended docking point.

'Ember?' repeated Fili, holding Astra close while her legs were still unsteady. 'What do you mean? Did you feel something?'

Astra stayed silent, as though straining to hear a distant voice.

'I can't feel anything,' she said with shallow breath. 'I can't - her - she's not there, Fili she's not there, it's like she's -'

'Quildë, Astra,' said Tauriel, who laid a hand on the young woman's shoulder. 'If your head is not clear your heart will not know what to feel properly.'

She firmly tipped Astra's face to meet her own. 'Your sister, do you sense her?'

Astra opened her mouth, but no sound came out, because another came from the docks just outside.

'Astra?' The stairs to Bard's house creaked violently as the voice grew louder. 'Astra!'

Dwarves, Elves and children alike all stared at the door when Ember appeared there, out of breath, singed, and generally wrecked. Kili stirred, forcing himself awake to prove this was not a dream.

'Ember?' he mumbled. Astra found her strength, and used it all to crash into her twin, heaving dry sobs.

'Em! Oh you're alive, you're here, oh I am never getting bloody separated from you again…'

The sisters embraced tightly. Ember closed her eyes and ran a hand up and down Astra's back.

'It feels like an age,' she said. 'But I am here now.'

'What in the world's happened to you?' exclaimed Bofur. Astra stepped back and stared at her twin's burn marks. Ember gravely addressed the room:

'I am afraid the worst has happened. Smaug has been woken, and he is making for Lake-town as we speak. Astra, we need to -'

'WHAT?!' the room collectively gasped. Kili pushed himself off the table with a newfound energy.

'How did this happen? What about Thorin? Is anyone hurt?'

He stood before Ember, terrified, but secretly thrilled to have her back and alive. She blinked at him.

'No, no one's hurt. Everything just went wrong, and quickly. There's no time to explain, we must get out of here.'

'Where are we supposed to go?' said Astra.

'What about our da?' said Bain. 'Did you see him on your way here?'

'I - no,' said Ember, irritated by the question. 'Astra, this dragon is unstoppable, even with our powers combined.'

'Skies above, but we can't just leave! What about the Dwarves? What about everyone in this town?'

'Is there time enough to get everyone out?' said Sigrid, tearing Tilda away from the hole where the windows used to be.

'No,' said Ember. 'We waste precious seconds just by standing here discussing the matter! Astra, you and I…if this is not a sign to flee back home where we will be safe, what is?'

Astra held onto her sister's wrists. Both their pulses were rapid with fear.

'Where is the rest of your company now?' asked Legolas.

'Still in the mountain. At least there they'll be safe awhile, unlike us.'

'How is it that you came here so quickly?' said Tauriel, frowning. Ember looked momentarily thrown, and did not answer right away.

'I am lucky to have made it here with my bones still intact,' she replied. 'Smaug swept me up in his claws before bursting forth from the mountain, and dropped me in the lake. Now for the love of Eru, we need to run before we're burnt to ashes!'

'But -!' Kili and Fili protested, before being interrupted.

'You're right. Let's get out of here as fast as we can.'

Astra nodded quickly before turning to face the Dwarves (specifically, the blond prince). He looked truly pained when she shook her head and muttered, 'I'm sorry.'

Ember's smile was partly sad, but mostly relieved. She took up her sister's hand, nodded a general goodbye to the room, and crossed to the battered door.

Astra's face was calm as she let herself to be led along, and stayed calm when she took up a chipped beer glass and shattered it against Ember's head.

Silence fell with her body on the wooden boards - she lay with her hair over her face, perfectly still. Bard's children stared in horror and awe at the woman who took deep breaths to steady herself, shaking glass fragments from her palm. Tauriel's hands were over her mouth, Legolas, Oin, Fili and Kili were aghast, and Bofur was plainly bewildered.

'…What did you do that for?'

'Have you lost your mind?!' Kili all but screeched.

'I'm not the one you should be asking,' Astra replied grimly. 'Whoever this is, it's not Ember. Not the one I share blood with.'

'What are you saying?' asked Bain, taking a hesitant step closer. 'That she's possessed or something?'

'I don't know, I don't want to believe it.'

'She was acting very strangely,' Oin conceded.

'Exactly - if what she said is true, if Smaug really is about to descend on Lake-town, Ember would care more. She would care that hundreds of innocent townspeople might die today.'

At these words, Sigrid crouched to enfold a horrorstruck Tilda in her arms. Astra turned her attention to Kili.

'Not to mention she barely acknowledged your presence, let alone your full recovery!'

The Dwarf could only flush red.

'No,' Astra continued. 'I knew something terrible had happened - this is it. I don't trust this person at all, and neither should anyone else…Also, might I add, how could she have been dropped from Smaug's grip into the lake, only to turn up here dry and burnt?'

The floorboards creaked. Astra slowly looked over her shoulder.

Only Legolas dared to move, notching an arrow as an immediate defense against Ember, who stood from the floor and brushed bits of glass off her clothing with relative nonchalance. Her neutral brown eyes blinked before she reached up a hand to the back of her head. Astra's jaw dropped open further and further as she watched her sister find the tip of the largest glass shard and tug it from the back of her skull. She examined the fragment, half coated in sticky blood, with an absent-minded interest, before letting it clatter to the floor.

'And I thought I was supposed to be the clever twin.'

Cauna dropped the curtain of false appearance: it was less exhausting to revert back to her dark eyes and hair anyway. Astra backed into the wall.

'Where's my sister? What are you?'

'Oh ho ho, not quick enough, Elf,' snickered Cauna, as she halted Legolas's arrow mid-flight and reversed its direction. It neatly pinned his hand to a broken ceiling beam. He cried out, unused to suffering such a swift and violent injury. Bain, Sigrid and Tilda squeaked with fright.

'Astra, dear child,' she continued, 'you know me. I have always been here. I am your twin, and the darkness of your memory, the stardust in your scar.'

Astra would have screamed as she did the night her father was killed, had Cauna not made her vocal cords seize up with her limbs into stillness. Before anyone could react quickly enough, she pulled Astra into a tight grip with a single gesture.

'Unhand her, you demon witch!' growled Fili. He lunged forward with a sword, but wavered when Cauna pointed a threatening finger at Astra's neck.

'Hastiness will only end badly, Dwarf prince,' she said, 'for you and for her alike. I have no need of blades to open and close a person's skin.'

Fili growled as he re-sheathed his sword. Astra pushed hard on Cauna's arm but only managed to buy herself a little more air rather than freedom from her grip. Tauriel and Legolas fought to pull the arrow from his palm.

'You…you're the witch?' said Kili, stupefied.

'Yes. The witch, I rather like that,' said Cauna. She enjoyed his discomfort from her glare. This Dwarf prince, no more than a boy, was so torn between what he saw and what he heard.

'Now,' she said, measured but lethal, 'I have more pressing matters to attend to, so I will spare you all the tedium of torture, hexes, death, what have you. Provided that you do not follow us. Break this instruction and you will suffer. As will she. Tenfold.'

Nodding at the immobilized Astra was enough to dissuade Fili from lashing out. Sensing his younger brother's growing ferocity, he gripped Kili's arm for good measure.

'What have you done with her?' Kili snarled. 'Where is the Ember we know?'

'Dead, silly prince,' Cauna responded flatly. 'Dead and gone. I was always in her, beneath the surface. But thanks to this failed quest of yours, I have broken through. It wore her down, made her volatile. Made her weak.'

The witch took out Thorin's sword with her free hand, tipped it to the floor, and stepped onto it, still holding Astra.

'Not in the least,' she added, glancing at Kili, 'because of her frankly sickening infatuation with you.'

Tauriel went as pale as Legolas.

'Yes, Kili, nephew of Thorin. She loved you dearly - her first, and her last.'

Cauna fused the sword with her magic, focused on the wrecked windows before her, and took off with Astra into the dawn.

The silence left in their wake was brief: Legolas winced as he and Tauriel gave the arrow a final hard tug to get it out of his hand, which he clutched and wrapped under his sleeve to soak up the blood. Tilda quietly sobbed in Sigrid's arms.

'…What just happened,' said Bofur.

'We have to get her back!' said Fili.

'What about the dragon?' said Bain.

'What do we do?' said Kili, having been thrown to one side of the universe and back.

In the corner, after muttering some quick words of healing to stem Legolas's blood flow, Tauriel took it upon herself to control the situation and delegate:

'We do whatever we can, as best we can. I know not how much time we have before the dragon lays waste to this town, but in any case you will need more help than is available here. Legolas and I can return to Mirkwood and bring in reinforcements.'

'From those Elves?' muttered Oin.

'This is not the time!' cried Bofur. 'What about us, what can we do?'

'Head for the Lonely Mountain,' said Fili. 'Find Thorin and the others, tell him what's going on, and that we will meet them there as soon as we can.'

'Right. Wait, where are you going then?'

'To save Astra from Ember.'

'And Ember from Cauna,' said Kili. Tauriel stopped halfway out the door with a pitying look on her face.

'Kili, now is the time when honesty is vital. Do you think that there is any of Ember left to save?'

All eyes lay on the Dwarf prince. He fought a knot in his throat.

'In my honesty,' he said, 'I love her. It's all I need to begin with.'

Tauriel bit her lip and nodded.

'We will see you again with reinforcements. Come, Legolas.'

They started quickly down the stairs. Fili gave Kili's shoulder a solid pat.

'Where would they go?'

'It depends what Cauna means to do with Astra,' said Kili.

'If Cauna's taken control of Ember -'

'- then she has control of Ember's powers -'

'- and will want Astra's too -'

'- so she wants to steal back her powers -'

'- somewhere private but nearby…'

'The forest!' Sigrid piped up. 'That's the direction they're flying in.'

'Then we'll make for there,' said Fili.

'Will you be alright?' Bofur asked of Bard's children. 'Where will you go that's safe?'

'We can come with you to the forest,' said Bain. 'We'll show you the way, if we run fast enough we can reach them before the witch does anything else bad.'

'Good man, good plan,' said Fili. 'Let's away.'

'Meet you at the mountain,' said Bofur.

In under a minute, Bard's damaged lake house was deserted. Sigrid's intuitions were correct - Cauna was flying Astra out to the forest over the lake.

None of them knew she had a final errand to run beforehand.