"What do you fear?"
The words were there and gone so quickly Rynn couldn't decide if she'd actually heard them. Her attention was suddenly snared by the chill, groping feeling inside her own skull. A sweat broke out across her skin and she started to shake violently. Her knees felt too weak to hold her upright.
"But of course... you fear what will be found."
Rynn forced her dry throat to swallow and stubbornly locked her legs. Although her heart was hammering, she followed Ebontyne's advice of holding her head up and stared grimly into the darkness. She tightened her grip reassuringly on the hand grasping hers.
It's funny that when someone tells you not to think of something, you almost always do. The simplest way to ignore something is not to draw attention to it in the first place. In not trying to think of her fears, Rynn felt each and every one bubble up in her thoughts, happily offering themselves to be viewed and made flesh.
The cold feeling crept around inside her mind like a freakish hand.
"Ahh..."
Rynn almost jumped. She had felt breath brush against her face.
Or maybe it was just the darkness... solid darkness.
Then her own voice whispered... "You fear yourself..."
The darkness shifted...
Delon's form staggered back on the rocky platform, his hands clutching his head as Runeblade's magic exorcised Navaros from his mind.
Rynn, breathing heavily and clutching Runeblade in both hands, abruptly noticed the hole in the platform... and ran forward... screaming... "DELON!"
Her brother stepped off the brink and fell, his fingers almost brushing his sister's gauntleted hand as she made a last desperate grab.
"RYYNNNNNNNnnnnnnn...."
"I'm sorry," Rynn choked, crouching on the edge of oblivion. "I'm so sorry..."
"...you fear you're not enough..."
The darkness shifted...
"We're ready," Star said. He finished tracing the last line of the Order's symbol on the ground with his dagger. Sheathing it, he backed away and drew his bow. "It's up to you now, Rynn."
"Good luck," Glaive and Ebontyne said.
The four dragons said nothing, each standing in a circle around the pattern and facing outwards, watching for any enemies that might sight what they were doing and come running. Only Arokh glanced back to give his Bonded an encouraging wink.
Looming above them with dark clouds roiling about its heights was Mount Tibor.
Rynn stepped forward to stand in the center of the pattern, but sudden fear grasped her. What if she did this wrong? She'd kill all her friends. "You shouldn't be so close," she cautioned.
"We trust in you," Ebontyne said. "It's a part of the spell, remember? You need our trust."
"You need to believe in my intentions, not in my abilities," Rynn pointed out. "What if-"
"Rynn, I believe you can do it. Don't fear." Ebontyne drew her black sword with a smile and turned to stand guard with the others.
A gush of wind swept across them all, as cold as the depths of winter. Distant thunder rumbled from the storm above the mountain, and the clouds there suddenly parted in a wide, black circle, lightning dancing around the circumference.
"Hurry," Glaive said softly.
Rynn felt a moment of panic. She wasn't ready! On top of that, some part of her mind was screaming that this wasn't even happening! She was totally confused and frozen... knowing that what she was about to do would end it all.
But not for Navaros.
"Now!" Glaive snapped, and Rynn drew a sharp breath, calling upon all of the elemental magics at the same time... Fire flashed in her mind, fuelled by her high-running emotions... Earth rumbled, as firm as the ground she stood on... Air sang, its voice shrill with her unsteady breathing... Water glistened, drawn from the newly falling rain...
Rynn held all four forces within herself and felt them grow, boiling up inside like a potion going beserk.
"This spell of my casting, I cast for the hope of the future," she gasped out, the first phrase of the ritual.
She got no further.
The spell detonated with a ghastly roar and the pent-up force of the four elements exploded outwards in a tidal-wave of death. Rynn caught a glimpse of faces turned to her in horrified disbelief before they were torn away and the screams began...
...her own among them...
"...you fear failure..."
The darkness shifted...
"You are all that remains to keep the Flame alive..!"
Rimril's last words flashed through her agonised mind as Delon's face smiled. His foot lashed out and caught her under the chin where she knelt, throwing her back to land face-up on the rocky summit of Mount Tibor.
Chaotic energies filled the void that had torn a hole in the sky above her... Navaros' spell coming at last.
"Watch your world die, girl," Navaros said, and lifted his hands to embrace the emerald-green fire pouring down from the void. It struck him full on, a pillar of green flames from the sky, then flared outwards in every direction like light scattered from a crystal.
One of the beams shot through Rynn and she felt something deep within herself being ripped away...
...somewhere, Arokh was roaring in pain...
"Sssssscream for ussssss, Rynnnnnnn..."