Hey guys! Sorry for the tease, but this is just to assure you all that I am alive, I have not abandoned Council and I am hard at work on the chapter. Also, fun side note, I have a tumblr now! My username there is hereidinathoreauwrites. Please follow me! I would also love it if people would do fanart for Council, especially this chapter (once it is finished).

Have a small snippet from the upcoming chapter!

Theo made her way silently down the streets of the city she was to doom to ash. In her borrowed clothes and with her short hair, she was easily mistaken for a traveling man, alone and weary of the world. People hustled by her, hardly sparing a glance. They were more concerned with the Southern Isles ship that had arrived, the closing of the gates and the whereabouts of their queen. One additional stranger was hardly worth a second glance. Theo was bumped and jostled by the people she was to harm but she hardly felt them as they milled around her. She supposed, if she had been herself at this moment and not some kind of human-spirit hybrid, she would have been astounded by the diversity and prosperity of Elsa's kingdom. The people seemed well and optimistic despite the unease surrounding them. They continued on with their daily tasks, lifting and chopping and driving their animals to market.

To have a normal life…

Bound as tightly to Branna as she was, it was impossible to distinguish which of them had had that fleeting, wishful thought.

Theo paused at the doorway to the inn called the Snowflake Tavern. A small fire was burning in a metal grate just outside the door. It was meant for stable hands and weary travelers to warm themselves at if they only wished to stop for a moment instead of for the night.

It would be the source of Arendelle's destruction.

Theo stretched out her hand towards the flame, as if trying to thaw her fingers. But her fingers were never cold. They had never known the feel of true ice except for when they'd touched the Ice Queen.

I'm sorry Elsa…

The flames seemed to shrink lower and quiver in anticipation as they felt the proximity of Branna's power. Theo's jaw clenched in derision at its hungry desire to destroy. Fire was a weapon. Only when it was confined and enslaved did it ever seem good.

Am I the same way? Better in a cage? Where I can't rampantly destroy?

Do I crave to burn as well?

As she stood there, hand outstretched, the flames waiting in smoldering anticipation, the normal people passing by and not sparing her so much as a glance, the summer host remembered. She remembered the first time she had set something on fire and the hate that had been unleashed because of that. She remembered the heat that had led her only adult friend to his death on an icy lake and the crippling shame that still followed her from it. She remembered the fire that had destroyed an entire forest and nearly killed her Guardian and then the flames that had consumed him on his deathbed. She remembered the internal fire she had smothered by bonding with Branna, the flare of heat and passion she felt whenever she was close to Elsa.

Theo closed her eyes, concentrating deeply, trying to remember how that last kiss had felt, desperately wanting to bring those sensations to mind one last time before they ceased to matter. But it was impossible. She had no emotions anymore, not even her memories of having emotions could do it justice. There was only Branna's heat and smoke.

Back in the forest, Elsa had said positive emotion worked for her. Perhaps the opposite was true for the host of summer. Perhaps in the heat of the flames, only hatred and pain could be found.

Theo flicked her fingers upwards, feeling the power of heat that rippled through her expand to reach that of the dancing flame before her.

In a flash, Arendelle began to burn.