Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. . . obviously. This chapter is going to be considerably longer than the last few (it's over 5000 words now) and more intense and dramatic nearer to the end, so be prepared for that.

Last time on Phoenix Flames:

Despite the fact that he was toying with her, Hermione finally figured it out and cut him off, "-Lavender Brown. . ."

"I see it finally clicked. . . now are you willing to cooperate with me?"

Too shocked at the revelation to speak, she nodded her head slowly. She couldn't believe that one of her friends sold her out to the people trying to kill her and she didn't even see it.

Her eyes flashed with fire the longer she sat there. The only thought on her mind was, 'You are going to pay Lavender. . . don't ever doubt that. You best be watching your back from now on. . .'

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Hermione arrived back at Hogwarts just after supper still very much in shock over her most recent discovery.

She had always wondered why it always felt as though someone was watching her everywhere she went. Part of that was true in the sense that Jeremy had been watching her from the side lines. But he was not the potentially harmful presence she always sensed and watched out for. It had in fact been one of the people she happened to have trusted most. She realized then that Snape had been right . . . she didn't know who she could trust. . .

Chapter 16 – Dangers of Playing with Arachnids (pt.2)

Hermione didn't wantto be bothered with possibly dealing with Lavender for the time, so shehad horded herself into the Ravenclawgirls' bedroom to mull over her newest predicament. Shesensed a pair of eyes watching her, but brushed it off as Jeremy staying to the sidelines and observing her so she wouldn't be harmed by anyone. She inwardly smiled at his instinctual protectiveness but was also curious how he'd gotten passed the stairwell when it was charmed not to let any male pass. She figured it was probablyhim floating above them or some such nonsense . . . (she'd been informed by pretty much every single one of her past boyfriends that the stair mechanism would only work if you were actually on them and so if you were floating above them rather than walking, they would be none the wiser about the male intruder.)

'What am I going to do? I know I need to do this for Jeremy and myself. . . but I can't bring myself to do it. It goes against my very nature as a human being.' Hermione then thought bitterly, 'But I am not a human anymore. . . I'm a phoenix who just found out there is a traitor in my circle of friends. I have to do this. . .' Hermione steeled herself against her more human instincts seeing as she was going to get nothing done if she felt guilty about what she had to do.

Suddenly, the Ravenclaw girls burst into the room in a flurry of excitement intruding on Hermione's sanctuary.

"Dallas, you will never guess whatParvati Patiljust told us!" Sally-Ann squealed.

"I don't know, what did she just tell you?" she inquired boredly.

"Apparently, Ron asked Padma if she would go with him to the next Hogsmeade visit with him. And guess what happened?"

"She said yes?" Hermione was getting tired of the mindless chattering of gossips and added, "Well, it's been fun girls, but I need to get to the library for something."

"Okay, bye Phoenix! Have fun!" said Mandy.

Hermione sighed the moment she was out of ear shot and walked to her secret refuge. . . the 3 o' clock room (instead of the library because they wouldn't be able to find her then)after she had received a note from a passerby that the Ravenclaw team wanted to get a late night practice in before their match against Slytherin. She was going to have to take her mind off of things, and that was just the ticket to forgetting her problem. When she walked in, she found that Blaise and Draco were present and sparring with each other. She smiled at the two very sweaty shirtless males and began to jog the perimeter as noiselessly as possible. She ran for her usual two kilometers and walked back to the store room trying to avoid alerting the other two of her presence.

She had just turned around to grab her grips for the bars when she felt someone lift her off the ground from behind and her phoenix side immediately kicked in trying to burn whoever had the audacity to surprise her, to a crisp. She felt whoever had grabbed her, let go of her and say, "What's the deal with you? You're really tense today. . ." Hermione smiled at Blaise (as she floated in the air rather than tumbling unceremoniously to the ground) as he looked at her with concern.

"It's nothing Blaise; I'm just really stressed out with the stuff I've had to do lately. You know . . . school and stuff," she let herself down to thefloor gracefully.

"Okay Her- Phoenix, if you insist . . . but you know I'm going to get it out of you eventually. You know you can't resist my masculine charms," he said pompously.

"Oh stuff it Blaise. I'll let you know I can easily resistyour 'masculine charms', and everyone else's being as I'm not exactly human. Not to mention you're a big push over as far as me getting my way, so don't threaten me when you know you can't get past my defenses like I can get past yours," she said walking up to him and poking him in the chest.

"So when you two are done flirting with each other, can I steal Blaise back? I was just kicking his ass in sparringnot evena moment ago and I'd really like to finish," said Draco making his presence in the room known.

"You can have him, I don't want him," she said playfully. "Anyways, I need to work my routines and stuff since I haven't even practiced in a week or so." She walked over to the uneven parallel bars and began doing her routine looking very obviously distracted to the observant onlooker.

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Blaise and Draco walked back to the sparring ring.

Draco looked at her and made to go over and talk to her but was stopped by an arm crossing his path. He looked at Blaise, "What? I'm going to talk to her; she doesn't look to be doing too well right now."

"Let her cool off first or she might get a little miffed at being disturbed. And you know what happens when she gets that way. So are you going to let me finish kicking your butt or what?"

"Ha!" said Draco as they resumed their sparring match, though neither were quite as into as they were before with the new concern for Hermione and their constant watch over her to make sure she was okay.

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Hermione had moved on to the punching bag by the time Draco left for Head boy dutiesand the guys had called their match a draw. She was so into giving the bag a beat down that she never noticed Blaise walk up and restrain her hands so she couldn't punch the bag any longer.

"Let me go Blaise," Hermione struggled only for a little while and then quit seeing that Blaise wasn't going to leave her alone until she talked to him.

"I'll let you go, but I want answers. What's got you in such a right state today?"

"You won't understand so why should I tell you?" she said in her last line of defense.

"Don't give me that crap Hermione. You should be smart enough to know by now that you can tell me anything and I will do my best to help and understand. We can even have a little sparring match if that makes it any easier for you to talk to me," he said with a smirk knowing her increasingly violent nature wasn't being taken out effectively because she had no time to get into the 3:00 room lately.

"I just might take you up in that," said Hermione walking to the center with Blaise and they began sparring as she talked about what was troubling her. "There are two things really. One, I can't kill any of my most recent boyfriends because that wouldn't be very nice, and I'm frustrated with the whole of the Hogwarts male population. They won't leave me alone . . . I mean, hell, I've almost covered the ten most attractive guys in Hogwarts this year aside from Snape and then some. I've even covered all six of the other lists with the exception of him."

Blaise stopped for a second and smirked, "You think Snape is hot? He's your uncle and a teacher for Merlin's sake!"

Hermione groaned in frustration, "NO! That's disgusting! I was referring to the lists in the Ravenclaw seventh year girls dorm with the ten males the girls think are 'hot' (Hermione winced at the term finding it barbaric and completely uncivilized) and I've dated almost every single person on this year's editionpretty much, and almost every single guy on the previous six minus Snape, who by some miracle happens to be on all of them," then Hermione punched at him seeing he was off guard, but he caught her hand before it made contact with his face.

"I see. So am I on the list?" he said with an infuriating grin that Hermione wanted to wipe off his face.

She caught him off guard and tackled him to the ground and he kept the smile on his face, "Funny, I remember this being how I always catch you and lover boy . . . I must be on the list if I get that kind of reaction out of you when he gets the same, and there's no way he's not on it."

Hermione got up and helped him up muttering something that sounded remarkably like, "bloody arrogant sod." They took a fighting stance again and Hermione continued with her anecdote, "Well, that is the least of your concern. Anyways, that isn't really the problem, but it is an annoyance."

"Ah, so now it's on to the real problem," he said sounding remotely like a psychiatrist she had seen once when she was younger and began showing signs of having 'unusual powers.'

Hermione punched him in the stomach then, "Yeah, the real problem. Well, you know my brother stopped by today-"

"I didn't know he was your brother, but continue." He took a swipe at her and she blocked it easily.

"Well, he told me he's been spying on me ever since he left my family to join the Scorpions approximately fifteen years ago. And then he has the audacity to show up and expect me to listen to him like a good little girl," Hermione ducked a punch and tried to undercut Blaise, though he had anticipated this and jumped out of the way.

"Hermione you're stalling. Get to the point already," he said getting her left leg (as she began moving her leg back into a squat) and pulling so she fell and he pinned her down by holding her arms by her head and sitting on her legs.

"Fine. Lavender Brown is a Black Widow spy and reported that I'm alive. And now I have to infiltrate Black Widow territory and convince them somehow that Lavender was lying . . . after I kill her and any other spy at the school of course, except you. And if that doesn't work, I'm supposed to kill the lot of them so I can stay safe."

"That's messed up. I didn't even know Lavender was involved at all. I was more suspicious of Ginny than Lavender for being against you. And are you certain you can trust this guy?"

"That's how I felt. And yes, he's my brother. Now I know you probably like this a little too much for your own good, but would you kindly get off of me so I can get circulation back into my legs and arms," said Hermione pushing him off of her unceremoniously.

Blaise gave another infuriating smirk when they were both standing up again, and said, "I win."

Hermione smacked him in the back of the head saying "git" under her breath.

"My, my, what ever did I do to deserve such a sound tongue lashing from you? I never knew you felt that way before."

"Well, my, my, aren't we just full of ourselves today?" she countered. "Now if you don't mind, I need to find the quidditch team because we're to be practicing tonight so we can royally whip you in the upcoming match," she said as she left him standing in the room momentarily until he caught up with her.

"You can have your little fantasy Granger, but don't count on beating us. I'm sorry to ruin the dream, but it just isn't going to happen for you guys."

"Ha! Just keep your silly little delusions of grandeur to yourself Zabini! I really won't mind wiping that smirk off of your face come game time." Hermione walked off towards the quidditch pitch assuming that was where her teammates would be since the pitch was reserved for them.

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Blaise went by to visit Draco in the Head boy / Head girl dormitories. "Hey Drake, you in here?" he called up towards his bedroom. He heard rustling up there and no reply, so he knew that Draco was probably doing something that he shouldn't be. (A/N: Keep your minds out of the gutters people!)

Blaise walked into the bedroom to see Draco throwing things all over his floor in search of something. "Drake, what are you doing up here?"

"Um, it's my bedroom. I was looking for my Head Boy badge since Padma was complaining about the fact that I wasn't wearing mine."

"Is that all?" asked Blaise, completely unconvinced by the argument having known Draco to mutilate himself for some twisted way to let off stress. Blaise grabbed Draco's left arm causing him to stop looking for the object of his hunt.

"Blaise, she took all of my knives and sharp tools so I couldn't keep on doing it. That's why she showed me the 3:00 room when she did because I was going bloody mental," said Draco yanking his arm away from his only other friend in the world aside from Hermione.

Blaise was looking at his friend's arm in shock. Draco caught the glance and looked at his own arm then back at Blaise. "What's got your knickers in such a twist Zabini?" he joked hoping to avoid the questions which were coming.

"How long have you known about this?" he was still in a right state of shock.

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Hermione had made it out to the pitch not seeing anyone flying yet so she guessed they were all in the locker rooms getting changed. (She was a bit earlier than she usually was for practice anyway, so they wouldn't be expecting her quite yet.)

She quietly slipped into the changing room and heard the shower running. 'Strange, people don't usually take showers before practice, do they? It kind of defeats the purpose of it.' "Hello?" she asked quietly.

Hermione felt as though something was amiss with this situation in general (and it wasn't just the fact that the air was thick with steam.)

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Blaise was just leaving Draco's room when he saw Padma walking towards him in the hallway. "Hey Blaise," she said nonchalantly passing him by to go into her common room.

"Hey," he said in return finding it odd to converse with her even in the simplest of formalities. It wasn't until he caught sight of the lone figure walking towards the quidditch pitch that he remembered Padma was on the quidditch team. "Hey, doesn't Ravenclaw have practice tonight for quidditch?"

"No, it was cancelled since Su is sick, why?" she said peeking her head out the door, which she had been about to shut.

"Oh, are you sure?" said Blaise feeling a twinge of anxiety in the back of his mind.

"Yeah, otherwise I'd be at the pitch right now. Why do you want to know?" she inquired suspiciously with narrowed eyes.

"Shit!" he cried unceremoniously. "Get Draco and tell him I need to see him please. It's urgent."

"Whatever," she said disappearing into the Head common room.

Blaise didn't have time to wait around and find out if she had done what he'd asked. He needed to get to the quidditch pitch because something seemed very wrong about the given circumstances.

He heard someone running behind him and could only assume that Draco was following him, which was confirmed when he heard, "Blaise what's going on?"

"Something's not right . . . I think she's in trouble."

"Who is?"

"Who do you think you dunderhead?"

"Shit!"

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Hermione heard the water turn off almost immediately after speaking aloud.

Suddenly the room went dark and Hermione could feel a very bad presence in the room. "Who's there?" she attempted futilely. She could feel her phoenix personality beginning to take over and gladly let it. "Come out you bloody coward . . . whoever you are."

Hermione could vaguely feel the presence moving around the room hastily like it was trying to throw her off, but they weren't going to be able to get to her that easily. "Lavender, if that's you, I'm going to kill you!" She could feel her blood heating up at a rapid pace.

"Lavender? Ha! Oh that's rich! Hermione, you honestly think that twit is smart enough to lure you out here like this? She's the one who went and got herself caught by that oaf you call a brother at the very start of the mission! But not me, you haven't even suspected me from the very beginning even though every indication was there that I couldn't be trusted, but you never paid me any mind," said the mystery girl.

Hermione could feel her extra power kicking in and could finally see through the darkness with the light emanating from her body as it became enveloped with her inner fire. "Where are you at?" asked Hermione, not seeing the presence of the girl anywhere, but still feeling it. "Show yourself!" she commanded. Seeing that no one would be moving anytime soon, she got very angry.

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Draco and Blaise arrived in time to see one of the locker rooms lit by a sickly reddish-orange glow that was very apparently unnatural.

Both assuming the worst, rushed in to see that Hermione was not in trouble as they had assumed, but looked as though she were being engulfed by flames and very angry, and truth be told, quite unlike herself.

Neither would have recognized her were it not for the phoenix tattooed across her back as she was now encompassed in what looked to be robes of pure fire. Her hair was reminiscent of light with a silky smooth texture. She would have looked exceptionally picturesque were it not for the look of complete and total repugnance that crossed her face.

Something wasn't right about this scene though. They both felt as though she looked ready to kill at that moment, which would in turn get her expelled, sent to Azkaban, or even killed herself (if she wasn't careful.)

They called out to her asking her to stop.

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In her enraged state, a heat wave spread through the room and she heard a shriek of agony coming from one of the changing stalls paying no heed to the shouts she was hearing from Blaise and Draco, which were completely drowned out by the feminine screaming.

Her eyes narrowed in the general direction of her would be attacker, and she shot another heat wave in that direction as she began walking towards the person. Hearing another satisfying shriek, Hermione shot a much stronger heat wave this time around causing the room to look as though it were melting from the intensity of the fire.

But Hermione didn't hear that satisfying shriek as before.

She finally peered around the corner that was separating the two of them and to see a large shield of glacial water, but before she could see anything more, the shield was thrown at her and she howled in pain with the frigid water encompassing her body as the inner fire in her was vanquished in an instant leaving her completely defenseless.

The strange thing was though, that she was completely dry (with the exception of her hair, which was back to its normal colouration brown with red and blonde highlights, just completely soaked) . . . but there was a massive amount of steam coming from her body.

"Thought you could beat me did you?" asked the mystery person finally walking out of the shadows to Hermione's horrified gasp. "You didn't consider one thing though . . . I'm an elemental! A water elemental if you want to get more specific. It's so easy to render a human phoenix incapacitated if you can stop their inner fire once it gets hot enough."

The person turned to leave, but turned back with a cruel sneer on their lips.

"I could easily kill you right now if it weren't for my orders to leave you alive and helpless and just let you die on your own. Because, funny fact, did you know a phoenix can't use it's powers if it can't keep it's blood warm enough; and if you can't get your temperature back up soon, you can very easily die because your body will be in major shock because it can't heat itself up fast enough. And judging by the state you're in right now, I'd say that won't be very long now."

She turned her back and just as she was about to disappear through the door she said, "See you in Hell Granger." And with a maniacal laugh, the figure of her newest enemy disappeared from view.

Hermione felt like the very life force from her body was dying as she lay on the ground gasping for air and shivering as the mist continued to seep out of her body. She had the distinctive impression that she would be dead once the vapors stopped, and prayed that it would just happen soon so she wouldn't continue to feel the immense and painfulthrobbing she was feeling at the moment.

Now she understood how Draco felt when he would cut himself. It was a strange sort of peace that filled the body, and all of the pain would just subside for a moment of mental, emotional, and spiritual clarity unlike any she had ever felt before. It was then that she realized that she had almost killed someone just because she had felt threatened. She would never have done that if her temper hadn't gotten the better of her, even though the other person was clearly out to kill her.

Her thoughts then shifted to Draco. She had caused him so much pain, and to top it off, their entire relationship was based on a lie. Even if she did realize that she cared for him now as more than a friend, he most certainly wouldn't feel the same if he knew of her deceit towards him.

It was in that moment that Hermione closed her eyes and gave up on living any longer . . .

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Draco and Blaise waited to make sure that the new villainess would not see them move before they went to Hermione's side.

It was almost cliché, the scene they had just witnessed . . . a tragic heroine falling to an enemythat everyonewas completelyunaware she even had; and then just being left there to die like some insignificant speck of dust.

Bothof them grabbed one of her hands and observed the bluish tinge that had overtaken her skin. Neither of them thought that she felt very cold, but then again, they knew she was always much warmer than the average person.

"What are we going to do Draco?" asked Blaise as they both watched her slowly losing her will to fight to stay alive.

"I don't know Blaise. I didn't even know that she was that vulnerable to the cold."

They both stared helplessly at Hermione as her breathing became shallower by the minute.

Neither of them had noticed the fourth presence which had arrived. "Perhaps, I can be of some service to you?" voiced someone they immediately recognized.

"Professor Snape? What are you doing here?" asked Draco who was still in the dark as far as most of Hermione's secrets went.

"That is of little consequence right now. What I need to know is what happened here?" he said taking quick strides to reach his only niece.

Blaise answered, "A water elemental attacked her. She was a member of the Black Widows that even I didn't know about."

Snape looked in concern as the billowing smoke clouds began thinning out considerably. "Both of you go to Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick now and tell them what has happened. Tell them to get to the hospital wing immediately and get Professor McGonagall and Sprout, they'll be with either of them." They looked at him as though he were crazy at the mere suggestion of leaving. He grew impatient, "NOW!"

That did the trick as they both leapt to their feet and ran as fast as they could to get to Dumbledore's and Flitwick's offices.

Snape looked down at Hermione, "Hold on child. You must fight or we won't be able to save you." He deftly scooped her up and raced into the hospital wing.

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Blaise made it to the gargoyle statue in record time and shouted the password, "Butterscotch!"

"Headmaster Dumbledore! Professor McGonagall" said Blaise hunched over to collect his breath. "Hermione was just attacked by a water elemental. Snape took her to the hospital wing and asked you to meet him there. She's about to die!"

They needed no further explanation and, with expediency far beyond their years, rushed to the hospital wing followed closely by Blaise.

They were soon met by Draco and Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout, all of which were rushing as well in the same direction.

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No pleasantries were exchanged upon reaching the hospital, just a nod between the five adults who stood in a circle around Hermione (who was laid on the floor and barely holding on.)

Draco and Blaise just stood on the sidelines and watched what was about to unfold, held back by Madame Pomfrey rather needlessly. The five clapped twice and began an intricate kind of ceremony that consisted of moving their arms in elaborate patterns demonstrating four very different styles of fighting, yet staying completely in sync with each other. The air tensed as silence reigned in the room. In a final motion, the adults grabbed each others' hands and raised them and began chanting in a strange language that neither of them (Blaise and Draco) had ever heard:

"Wij nodigen de elementen uit, sparen haar leven

Wij nodigen de elementen uit, bescherm haar ziel."

Dumbledore continued with, "Breng terug het levens kracht."

"Breng terug de energie van brand aan haar bloed," added McGonagall.

Then Flitwick said, "Breng terug de sterkte van aarde aan haar lichaam!"

"Breng terug vitaliteit van wind naar haar mening," was Sprout's addition.

Snape finished with, "Breng het reinigen aan haar geest met water."

They all spoke in unison again:

"Wij nodigen de elementen uit,

Zuiver de kwaden die haar hebben geraakt.

Wij nodigen de elementen uit,

Spaar haar leven!"

And with the silence that echoed following the chant, Hermione began to glow. And then something neither of them (Blaise and Draco) had expected, she caught fire. The adults dropped their hands to their sides and watched in the ever present silence.

This shocked Blaise and Draco and they were about to intervene, and then they noticed that the teachers were now looking at them oddly. Apparently they had made quite a protest and they hadn't even realized it.

"Gentlemen, I can assure you that Miss Turoe is going to be fine. You may come back tomorrow if you wish to see her then," said Madame Pomfrey, shooing them from the hospital wing.

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Blaise and Draco looked at each other questioningly. "What the hell was that?" they inquired at the same time.

"That, dear boys, was an elemental healing ritual," said Professor Dumbledore from behind them.

Dumbledore chortled as the two jumped at the sound of his voice.

"An elemental healing ritual?" questioned Draco flatly.

"Yes, it requires four master elementals, one from each element, and an overseer, who can control all of the elements," seeing the questioning looks on their faces he elaborated, "That chant that you heard in there is one of the oldest and most powerful elemental rituals known to wizarding and mankind alike. It originated in the Netherlands but has only ever been performed one other time in history sincethen. Therehave only been four other master elementals before the four Heads of House. And that was by the Hogwarts founders while they were still getting along. Of course they were overseen by none other than Merlin. You read about that in History of Magic I'm sure. But the point is this: to save any elemental that has been attacked by another elemental, they need to be temporarily infused with all of the elements so the imbalances in their body can be realigned."

"They're elementals?" both were stunned never having expected there to be so many elementals in Hogwarts.

"Yes."

"Professor, she will be all right . . . won't she?" asked Draco not knowing whether to fully believe Madame Pomfrey's words or not.

He looked down at them with sad uncertainty, "I'm afraid that is something that even I could not tell you Mr. Malfoy, as I don't know. It's up to her now as to whether or not she'll survive. Now, I must ask you a very important question. I need the identity of the water elemental that attacked Miss Turoe."

Blaise responded, "Well, at first we thought it was Lavender Brown, but it was someone far more powerful than that. It was . . ."

A/N: I know, I am completely evil, cruel, and sadistic in taking so much pleasure out of a cliff hanger like that one, so sue me! Just make sure you review and I'm happy.

So what is it that Draco knows about? And 100 brownie points if you can figure out whom the water elemental attacker was in your reviews . . . any ideas? I don't know if anyone will get it, but good luck! Here are a few hints though, it isn't Ginny, or anyone in Slytherin, it's obviously not Lavender, and no, the person isn't using Polyjuice Potion!

Just for reference, McGonagall is a fire elemental, Snape is water, Flitwick is air, and Sprout is earth, and Dumbledore can control them all (the elements that is,) but not to the degree of mastery like the other four can. Now I bet most of you are wondering what on earth that spell meant in English. Well, here's the translation from Dutch to English:

"We invite the elements, save her life

We invite the elements, protect her soul

(Dumbledore) Bring back her life force

(McGonagall) Bring back the energy of fire to her blood

(Sprout) Bring back the strength of the earth to her body

(Flitwick) Bring the vitality of wind to her mind

(Snape) Bring cleansing to her soul from the waters

We invite the elements,

Purify the evils that have touched her.

We invite the elements,

Spare her life!"