"Princess?"

"Why surely you knew? Bah! No matter! Please sit down, its a long story."

J sat down gingerly, intrigued.

"Asteria's tale is a sad one. It began when she was about 9 years old," The witch waved her hand and J saw an image of a small child. This must have been Asteria as a child. "She lived in a volcano along with her mother, father, big brother and little sister." One by one more people appeared in the image. "Asteria had been announced as the Princess of the Burning Embers."

"This was back when Asteria had just gotten her new fire abilities. She had trouble controlling her powers and had to be put into a room just for her, to train and stabilize her powers. But then something terrible happened to her..."

"What happened?"

"One day, when Asteria was agitated, her family came to visit her. Just as she had been harnessing and controlling a fire ball, the door opened and her family yelled out 'Happy 10th Birthday, Asteria!' The yell had startled her and she dropped the fire ball that she had been working on for hours."

"She was so frustrated that her hair began to expel smoke and her hands had caught fire. Her eyes, usually a beautiful hazel, were an evil shade of red and she lost control of her powers. Fire spread from beneath her feet and lava poured down the walls. The family tried to open the door but the door handle had melted from the heat."

"By now her fire, instead of red, had become black, from her frustrations. She was trying to stop - to reign it inside of her but nothing was working. She chanted spells but none had any effect. She was desperate to stop the flames, so much she called for help, from a boy named Toxic,; he'd been part Crobat. He tried to bat away the flames but instead they only increased in size."

"Before she knew it there'd been a terrible scream and she saw her mother, flesh burned off and her father, charred beyond recognition. The flames began to spread to her siblings... her last family members and she called onto her only other friend, Angel; the family pokemon who was a shiny Gardevoir."

"Asteria ordered Toxic to take away the infant sister and told Angel to teleport away with her brother, in hopes to save them from her destruction."

"Her friends obeyed her with reluctance, her sister and brother screaming for her to not do this, but before long, both were taken away, saved at the cost of Asteria's safety. As the smoke rose above the girl, she began to sway and fell to her knees and blacked out. When she woke up, her home was utterly destroyed."

"Asteria left her home, her castle, and only the melted tiara she wore was evidence of her."

"And that was when I had found her, shivering inside of a hollowed tree, cold to the point of having blue skin and ice covering her body. I had transported us to my home where I put her into a coma to treat her. There was little to no food in her, not a single drop of water she'd drunk and she had completely run out of embers to keep her warm."

"I took care of her for several months until I had heard someone pounding on my door and saw the Bastard himself, Jeremiah!"

"I'd asked him what he wanted and he said to give him the girl. Hah! Not in this lifetime! He vowed to one day take her as his bride and to steal her powers, strength and even her soul."

"S-soul?"

"Yep. He wants her soul. To devour it and consume her entire being. Only then will he leave her alone. It will give him enough power to do whatever he pleases. But enough of that."

"Where is Asteria anyways?"