The Fire Spirit hadn't always been a part of her life, but once it showed up, it was like they'd known each other for her whole life.
Sylvia first encountered it in the courtyard, when she was raking up leaves, shortly before her sixteenth birthday. One second she'd raked them into one big pile; the second, she'd been aware of someone watching her. She looked up to see a wispy black figure, vaguely human shaped, beckoning to her. She stepped forward, and the figure spoke to her in a deep, raspy voice.
"Are you a child of fire, too?"
Sylvia nodded.
"Excellent. I've been looking for someone like you. Someone who can keep the flames alive as they bring forth a new age to this filthy land."
Sylvia nodded again, more enthusiastically this time.
And just like that, the Fire Spirit became Sylvia's friend.
A psychiatrist would explain to her, many years later, that sometimes her hallucinations and delusions could be directly related to one another, but at this point in time Sylvia didn't know that. She was just glad to have a friend who truly understood her.
Around the time the Fire Spirit showed up, she began to see and hear things that, logically, shouldn't be possible. But this was a view only held by outsiders. To Sylvia, they weren't illogical or impossible, because they were happening right in front of her. The things she saw, they simply were. They are. They will be.
She heard screams and whispered conversations when there was no one else around. She saw figures moving in the darkness when everyone else was asleep. She saw curious oddities that would scare anyone else.
These things, however, were just part of her life. She lived from day to day with these occurrences, the Fire Spirit being the most common, as well as being her favourite.
One day, the Fire Spirit whispered to her, one day this world will burn.
And when it does, Sylvia whispered back, I'll be watching it happen. It's going to be fantastic.