Padomme the djinn sat suspended in the air. Most djinn could fly, but no one on Tarkir could fly like her. She was young but already presumed to be a leader of the Jeskai clan. She studied hard and learned quickly. Although with all the praise given to her, she couldn't help but find it wanting. A nagging emptiness clung to the back of her mind that no amount of enlightenment seemed to fix.

Wuyong's blaze raged on for miles. He had lost his home and his family. The Dragonlord Ojutai sought to reclaim the lands he protected for Atarka. He survived. As for how, he couldn't say but he survived. He was a proud efreet shaman of the Atarka clan and that meant he wasn't going to let Ojutai refreeze the lands he called home.

"You lack understanding." Padomme said without opening her eyes. She floated above the rushing river her students surrounded. They were a mix of human, aven, and djinn.

'They are so young,' she thought. 'Was I this young when I began? That's hard to believe.'

"To reach the clouds, one must realize that there is nothing in their way." She drifted to her student and looked him up and down. "Look above you. There is no obstacle in your way." Padomme followed her student's gaze to the clouds. There was nothing above them but open air.

"But master, no matter how high I jump I will always land back on the ground." The human replied.

"Do you think of me so highly that I will never hit the ground?"

"No master."

"I will land again. And I will rise again but I will always land." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Think on this and tommorow I will show you all how to truly jump." She told them with a smile. "You are dismissed."

Her students bowed and went their separate ways. She stayed at the river but changed to a more relaxed posture. She lay in the air in line with the river's flow. She reached into the river. Cold quick water spread over her hands. This was all she ever wanted, understanding of the world, students, respect from her peers, understanding of her ability, but she could not find what it was she lacked.

"Master Padomme." A voice appeared at her side.

She drifted to the bank and landed on her feet. She bowed to the courier. "Yes?"

"Elder Korrei has requested you by name for an important mission." The courier bowed and handed her a scroll. "You are to leave immediately to hunt down the heretical monk Wuyong."

"Wuyong of Sage-Eye?" She blurted, "I would never have picked him as a traitor. Was he not the highest ranked efreet in the clan?"

"Most of us are under the same thought, master."

Padomme couldn't believe what she had heard. A thought sparked in her mind like a fresh campfire. "What of my students?"

"Elder Korrei said he would personally see to all of your responsibilities."

Padomme sighed. "Well if Elder Korrei thinks I am best suited for the task I cannot doubt his judgement. I will find Wuyong and bring him back to Sage-Eye Stronghold."

They bowed at one another and the courier left. Padomme lingered at the river for a moment. Elder Korrei had been her teacher he knew her better than possibly she did. 'Why only me?' Wuyong was an accomplished monk and master of bloodfire before he abandoned the Jeskai. Could she face him in battle if or when it came down to it?

Wuyong glared at the dragons circling the neighboring Ojutai sanctuary. It was a smaller sanctuary but well guarded. It protruded from the side of the mountain on a sheer cliff. They had done this to him. They had taken his wholeness and left him feeling empty. He would not rest until he personally delivered one of their brood to Dragonlord Atarka.

He had climbed for days to reach the gates of the sanctuary. He was ragged and tired but his rage pulled ever closer to the prey he sought. Fire poured from his hands and there was no gate. The air here was cold and draining but Wuyong had plans to remedy that. Cold and ice would never be a problem in these mountains. The glory of fire would consume them all.

"Stand at the ready!" Monks shouted from all around him.

A single djinn woman walked to the opening he created. They locked eyes and she spoke, "What does an Atarka serving boy want with our sanctuary." Her voice was power in sound form.

Her blood was hotter than the other djinn around her. Wuyong had more often relied on his heat sensitivity than his other senses. He could feel the heat of fire in living being waiting to be freed. It made him an excellent game hunter and a better fighter.

"Your icy breath betrays you. I am the unattended ember and I am here to burn you to the ground where you belong." Wuyong shouted. "I will have my vengeance." He charged at the stoic djinn, his hands filled with fire.

The monks on the ledges readied their weapons but the djinn woman raised her hand to call them off. "So it seems talking isn't an option." Her toes lifted from the ground and she sped towards Wuyong. He tried to bring a handful of glorious fire to her but she slid between his legs. She released her weapons. Two unassuming cloth ribbons of stark red. The cold air whisked them up and unfurled them. There were blades sewn into the exquisite fabric. Rising up into the air she surrounded the efreet in four upward columns of red. He swung at the cloth but as he did it coiled around his limbs.

As he struggled to strike the cloth. The monk flew and spun, twisting him further in the prison of fabric. He paused. He inhaled deep and exhaled a plume of fire at the ribbon tying his wrists. That was exactly as the monk had planned. While distracted and off balance he was defenseless from her assault. She pulled a large dagger from her ribbon and brought it down with force into his shoulder. A quick twist of her body and the djinn's leg careened into Wuyong's wound. He sped into the sanctuary wall.

"You are untrained. Your emotions cannot guide you further than the door. Skill is what will bring you to my battlefield." She flicked her wrists and he was untied. Frigid winds brought the remaining ribbon to her. It wrapped her arm with the blades on the outside.

Wuyong wrenched the blade from his shoulder and cut himself free from the smoldering cloth. It was an more elaborate and decorated than any weapon he'd seen. His clan did not bother with decoration, so long as the weapon worked. He seethed hot air into the cold around him.

'How dare she say that. I am the most skilled shaman in the Fire Rim. I have personally fed Atarka!' thoughts raged in his mind. They were made all the worse by her glare.

He placed his hands on the wall behind him. He felt the cracks his body had made by crashing into it. Behind it was the mountain. He felt the heart of it beat loudly in his mind. Fire longing to be free. Free to show these ice monks its power. The sanctuary shook with his raw power and that of the mountain.

Glowing orange lava spewed from the wall. It surrounded him like a cloak of molten rock. "This is my emotion Monk! This is my vengeance!"

Monks scrambled to and fro to protect what they could of the crumbling sanctuary. Wuyong roared with triumph at the glorious lava pulled the building into the canyon below.