Cinder confronts Salem and her enforcers, with Glynda caught in the middle.

Shan't we begin?

Chapter 59

Cinder's mind wasn't really doing much thinking as she stared at Salem, with her arms spread, looming over her enforcers. Glynda was between them all, in the single most dangerous spot.

Whatever they planned to do, Cinder would have to stop it.

That led to her primary question, however.

"What are you doing!?" She practically demanded.

"Cinder, dear, what have I told you about measuring your tone?" Salem tutted, shaking her head. "You must keep better control over yourself."

"I'm in no mood for games!" Cinder screamed, feeling vitriol and flame – literal, actual flame – emitting out of her mouth. "Tell me what's going on!"

Salem's expression gradually began to dim, until the gentle smile she'd been wearing before was replaced by an almost cocky grin. It had all been a fake, anyhow. Salem always wanted to pretend she was kind, and caring, and motherly. But the moment anything inconvenienced her in the slightest, the veneer fell away.

"Fine, then, Cinder. We'll do things your way." The shadow spoke, miming stepping forward – the seer projecting her did its best to copy her movements. "I suppose you will recall the conversation that the two of us shared whilst we were back within the walls of Evernight?"

Cinder nodded.

"Back then, I knew of course that you were attempting to hide something from me. Such was obvious. You have always had a tell, Cinder. Still, I allowed it at first, thinking that your experiences in that children's school had perhaps changed you, but not overwhelmingly so. And yet, the more time you spent within our walls, the more I began to see that the opposite was true. You had changed, and far greater than any of us expected."

Cinder wished she knew what it was she'd done to tip them off. As it was, she didn't think she'd done anything particularly damning. She'd been horrendously depressed when she'd first arrived back at Evernight, barely sleeping, or eating, and rarely, if ever, showing her face.

And yet, when she thought in that moment of how she'd once acted amongst the other members of Evernight, she realized that she'd once been a rather combative person. She wandered the halls, strutted about like she owned the place, and gotten into petty arguments with Watts; the both of them far too proud to ever admit that they had any fault at all.

And when she'd come back, suddenly all of that had been gone.

Instead, that competitive attitude had been replaced by that of a recluse, one who was entirely unconfrontational. It wasn't hard to realize how they'd come to such a conclusion; that something had happened. Cinder herself would've done the same in their position.

"But I trusted in you, Cinder. After all, you had come back to us, had you not? You'd returned, and brought a new enforcer of your own. You possessed the Fall Maiden's power; you'd even slew Ozma's previous incarnation. You had succeeded. I was content to leave things as they were. But then, one day, Watts approached me with a rather interesting piece of information."

Cinder's eyes bugged out as she turned towards the man, whose smile was Cheshire as he met her gaze.

"He told me of a young woman out in Vale who he believed to have been your paramour. I must confess, Cinder, I found myself surprised. I did not believe you had it in you to open yourself up to another person in such a way. Most that I recruit have long since been dulled to such niceties. It was then that I accepted the truth; that place had changed you; perhaps irrecoverably. And so I tasked Tyrian with a rather simple mission. He would follow you in secret, and he would watch for signs of treachery."

Cinder wanted to scream. Actually, she wanted to scream, then crush Arthur Watts' head into pulp, grind the remains into the dirt, and then save Glynda.

"And what did he find, dear Cinder, but you plotting to run away with your lover." Salem cooed, as if she found the entire affair adorable. "To spend the rest of your days away from conflict, just the two of you."

"And so Tyrian acted as I had ordered him to. In the event that you were found to be disloyal, as we'd suspected you may be, he would take away your love, and use her to bring you here. Where we would stage an… intervention for you."

Flames flickered into and out of existence within her palms. She could barely control them at all. It was like the cage she was trying to restrain them within was growing thinner and thinner, letting more and more of the power through the cracks.

"…So what?" Cinder questioned, her teeth showing as she kept going. "Are you going to kill me, then?"

"Kill you? Oh, no, Cinder, you misunderstand. You are a valuable enforcer; one who has served me quite well for the past decade. You have… faltered somewhat. But that is no reason for me to slay you where you stand. No, I would welcome you back into our ranks as soon as you have proven that you are as committed as you once were."

It felt like a ball of ice had been dropped into Cinder's stomach as she cottoned onto what was happening then.

"…What do you…" She could barely speak.

"It's quite simple, dear." Salem said, even as she shrunk her form – going from perhaps twice Tyrian's size to just a bit taller than him – and ran an illusory hand down Glynda's face. "This one is responsible for you falling off the path. And so it must be rectified."

And then Salem smiled. That smile was the exact same she'd worn the day that she'd found Cinder in the snow. It was the exact same she'd worn as she'd offered Cinder power beyond that which she could comprehend, the day she'd seduced her to her side.

And Cinder could hear the bells again.

"Kill her." Salem said without any hesitation or inflection. "Kill her, and you will be–"

"No."

All sound in the surrounding area seemed to cease in that moment. The soft blowing of the wind, the insects calling out for mates; all of it simply stopped. It was as if nature itself realized what a momentous thing Cinder had just done.

Salem looked stunned. Cinder gathered that she had very rarely, if ever, been interrupted before.

"Oh?" She attempted to keep up the coy tone she'd had this entire time, but it was cracking about the edges. "You would deny me so quickly, dear Cinder?"

"I won't hurt her." She said simply. "Under any circumstance."

"You must understand that you have no options, child." Salem said, chuckling beneath her breath, as if she were dealing with a young child too stupid to grasp the full picture. "Watts, Tyrian, and Hazel are here. They have your woman completely at their mercy. If you run, she will die. If you try and fight, you will die, and then, when you have been killed, your lover will follow. It is either she dies, or both of you do. I believe you would be wise to consider my offer, my dear."

Cinder didn't hesitate. "No."

"Oh?" Salem cocked an eyebrow. "Then what will you do?"

That was simple. All she had to do was get Glynda, and get out. She didn't need to win this fight. She just needed to cause a large enough distraction that she could use as a smokescreen, and grab Glynda in the chaos. Then, with the Maiden's flames, she could make her escape.

None of the others could fly, after all, and though Salem was here in spirit, she was not physically present, so none of her magic could be used upon Cinder.

It would have to work. It had to work.

Cinder blitzed forward. Flame formed around her like armor, broiling along her arms and her legs in order to mask her movements in a haze of smoke and embers. She lashed out towards Hazel first, to try and remove him from the fight early, lest his semblance–

And then, before she could even make contact with Hazel, her entire body screamed.

She fell to the ground a moment later, skittering across the gray dirt beneath her. She slid to a stop a good four or five feet from where she'd hit the ground, and laid there, twitching, and writhing in agony. Without even meaning to, she let loose a bloodcurdling scream.

"Oh, Cinder, dearest," Salem's voice was barely audible over her torment. "Clearly I overestimated your intellect if this is the sort of display you mean to show me. Did you truly forget while you were in that school for children? I suppose you may've, after all, you were never required to use it."

Salem flexed a hand, and Cinder felt her insides shift. It was without doubt the most pain that Cinder had ever experienced in all her life, like something was ripping away at her from within her form.

"You might recall that I implanted a Grimm parasite inside of you. That was as much a method for you to gain the Maiden's powers as it was an insurance policy to… eliminate you if you became a hassle."

Cinder couldn't comment on that. She could barely think about it. She was too busy trying to grab her stomach, trying to reach in and pull the beast out from within her that was ravenously devouring her inside her chest.

"It's not too late you know." Salem said, even as she flexed her hand a different way, and suddenly it was Cinder's right leg that was aflame. "I'm sure your girlfriend would much rather you killed her than the others did after I ended you. You'd even survive. I myself would much prefer that alternative, Cinder."

She couldn't respond. Salem was too busy relishing the chance to torture her for her betrayal, for what she'd done. Cinder couldn't fathom much in that moment, but she heard a desperate cry somewhere between her own wracking sobs.

"Cinder, please!" Glynda screamed at her, even as Tyrian grabbed her by her hair and yanked her scalp backwards, causing her to let out a pained yelp. "Don't… don't worry about me! There… there isn't a way that we both get out of this. So please… please save yourself!"

And though Cinder hated herself for it, there was a brief moment of time where she legitimately considered such an option; such was the pain she was under. She would not be able to escape this, otherwise. She could not run. She could not take Glynda with her. There were no options, no escape routes.

There was the both of their deaths, or there was only Glynda's.

Fall urged her to choose the latter.

…

In that moment, however, at the cusp of her hellish agony, it was as if her mind somehow found peace. As if she'd entered the eye of the hurricane.

And suddenly time rewound, and she was–

–pushing herself against Glynda's body, trying to exist solely within that crook of her neck. She feels tears begin to gather in her eyes, and she knows why, even if she rails against them. But in truth, it's herself. It's her, telling her that she doesn't deserve this. It's her, telling her that Glynda doesn't care about her; that the only reason she's doing this is because she thinks Cinder might die. It's telling her that the fact she's crying, that she's showing such weakness, means all of this is true, and that she's weak, and that she's pathetic.

And then, despite it all, Glynda wraps an arm around her, and she cradles her closer to her bosom. She is like some goddess of love, the way she holds her then, and makes her feel completely at ease, despite the way her eyes don't stop leaking. It's all Cinder can do to want to combine with her, to seep into her being. She wants to do more heinous things with her, and yet, at the same time, she just wants to be close to her, to press a kiss into her lips, to tell her all of the things that she's too much of a coward to say.

But she's tired, and she loves running more than anything. So as her eyes begin to hang heavy on her face, she allows them to close, and for her body to sag. She suckles a tiny spot upon Glynda's neck, just to prove to herself, more than anyone, that she'd been here. Later in her life she will likely try and remember this as some impossible dream, but perhaps this mark, as inconsequential as it is, will let her remember reality.

Her breathing begins to even out. Her body – matted with sweat – begins to cool somewhat. Despite the dampness of her surroundings, this is the most comfortable she's ever felt within a bed.

And though Glynda likely thinks her asleep, Cinder barely hears the words that she says, just a few minutes later, as her consciousness drifts off into slumber.

"I love you."

She was back, then, and so was the pain. It didn't last too terribly much longer. Salem finally released her from her torment, likely only so that Cinder could give the eldritch woman her answer.

Yet if Salem said something, or really, if anyone other than Glynda spoke in the entire clearing, then Cinder didn't hear them. She was too busy pushing herself to her feet, managing to stand upon shaky legs.

Her stomach still cried for relief. It was not as if the being that had been eating her alive from within stopping meant she was healed. She wasn't sure how long she could survive being subjected to such torture again. She knew for a fact that Salem would kill her that way, if she decided to. It was simply her MO.

Perhaps it was that thought driving Cinder slightly past the brink of sanity, but she found herself letting out a little laugh as she shook her head, then, and looked up at the crowd ahead.

"No." She said, and she smiled as she did.

Glynda looked horrified. "Cinder–!"

"I'm not running." She cut Glynda off, shaking her head, even as the last vestiges of a smile on Salem's face were wiped away; as she realized that, well and truly, she'd lost her Fall Maiden. "Not again. Not anymore. Not…" Cinder breathed deeply. "Not with you."

Glynda seemed to understand the significance of that somehow. Cinder wished she knew how, but Glynda had always been so terribly adept at reading her.

Cinder shook her head, thinking back on all their little moments together. They felt simultaneously inconsequential and monumental. The smallest little nothings of her life were also the most important moments.

How oddly fascinating.

"It's funny," She found herself speaking, unsure entirely as to where such words were coming from. Perhaps she just needed to get this all off her chest. "I was always so scared. When I first figured out I had a crush on you… I raged against that fact like it was some horrid truth. It was the most alien moment of my life. I almost didn't recognize myself. In the end, when we got closer, I think… I began to believe that I didn't deserve you. That I wasn't worthy of you. But now I see. It's not about what I deserve. It's not about what I'm worthy of."

"No matter what I might think about it, or about myself, you love me. And despite my worries, and the voices in my head constantly berating me and ridiculing me for it… I… I love you."

Glynda looked like she might cry. Idly, as she waited for Salem to make her play, to say something or act, she studied the other enforcers surrounding Glynda; running through what she knew about each in her head.

Tyrian and Hazel were both powerful fighters. She could likely take either one-on-one, but in a group, she would need to use hit-and-run tactics. If she were ever caught, that was it. She would die.

Watts was a wildcard. He had access to many different methods of attack; even if none of them were particularly remarkable. He rounded out the other two rather well.

She didn't need to win. She just needed to get Glynda away from them.

They didn't need to win. They just needed to keep Glynda away from her.

It was odd. Glynda had told her that she would need to choose to stand by Salem, or against her. She had made it sound like such a terrible decision to have to make, and yet, when the time came to make that decision… she hadn't so much as thought about it. She'd simply resolved to save Glynda from Salem's clutches.

And when they were free… when they were free, she would stand beside her. She would stand with Glynda against Salem. She would work to save the world.

She wondered what it would be like, to be the good guy for a change? Mercury seemed to care for it, if his decision to stay behind with the friends he'd made was anything to go by. And judging by the way no one had truly questioned Emerald's presence as she cradled Penny back in Haven, she liked to think that she wouldn't have to do very much to win them all over.

She was taken from her reverie by Salem letting out an aggravated sigh. Despite one of her most powerful enforcers betraying her, she didn't sound overly upset. It was more as if the family dog had peed on the carpet, and now she'd need to spend twenty minutes cleaning it up.

"Such a shame, Cinder." Salem voiced. "But very well…"

"I shall give you the death you desire."

And then again, she knew agony.

Again, the creature within her ate away at her flesh. She could feel it pulling apart her innards, mangling them beyond repair. She needed to come up with something. It was all well and good that she'd come to an emotional conclusion about herself, but if she died immediately afterwards, well, that wasn't going to serve much purpose at all.

So she thought, and she reasoned. Time itself seemed to slow down, which Cinder imagined was her mind giving her as much opportunity as it could. It wasn't exactly a blessing; it would only prolong her suffering if she couldn't come up with something. As things were, her only idea was what her idea had always been when it came to insects; to burn them away.

And it was then, thinking on the nothing's of such a statement, that an idea surfaced inside of her head. It was perhaps an example of just how far gone she was that she tried reaching out towards the flame that flickered within her breast, to the strength of Maiden's long since dead and gone.

Burn it away. She told the Maiden's fire. This parasite devouring me from within. Burn it until it's gone.

You will be caught in this as well. The power seemed to answer her. You will burn with it. You will know agony untold, and you may not survive even then.

That's fine. She told it, bracing herself. Glynda's there… she's hurt, and she's been captured, and if I die, So will she. So I have to live.

I have to live, even if I must burn.

And the power seemed to hum.

Very well.

And then Cinder knew a suffering that somehow dwarfed everything that had come before.

She was lit aflame as if being burnt at the stake; a conflagration licking at her skin and, for once, harming her. Fire erupted from within her, pouring out of her lips, like she was some great drake bellowing along mountaintops. It was a scream, although her voice was gone; taken by the flame.

She felt like she was melting. Even as she felt the dying creature within her writhe in the same agony that overtook her, it was as if she could feel her skin falling down her body like rivulets of sweat.

And yet, as the last twitches of the chitinous beast within her ceased, somehow, someway, she was still on her feet. Her breaths were ragged and desperate; sounding as if she'd smoked a pack of cigars a day for her entire life. She looked down at her arms, and idly, took note of the fact that her left was bleeding rather terribly from where parts of her muscle had been exposed.

She would have to deal with that later. A pragmatic part of her pointed out that it was likely such a wound might require surgery now if she wished to keep the limb, but then, she didn't exactly have such an option.

Not when Glynda was still there; still in danger.

She forced herself to look up through foggy eyes, and stared at the crowd ahead of her. All of them stared back in varying degrees of shock.

The two most so were Glynda, and Salem herself.

She focused on the latter first, noting the way that Salem's eyebrows had risen on her head, and Cinder felt her entire body grow stronger at the sight. She wondered when it was that Salem, the veritable devil of this world, had last shown such an expression.

And then she focused in on Glynda.

To say she looked terrible was perhaps an understatement. Somewhere between Salem attempting to kill her and Cinder burning the parasite out of her, she had begun to cry. Or perhaps sob, if the red around her eyes, and the way that Tyrian had a solid grip on her was anything to go by. Even now, tears ran down her face.

Cinder was bothered by that. So despite the pain she was in, despite the way she couldn't really feel the fingers on her left hand anymore, she forced her lips to quirk upwards into a soft, reassuring smile.

"Don't worry," She spoke, and it was a sound akin to sandpaper being run down tree bark.

"I'll save you."

She heard Watts sneer, and decided that if she had the chance, she'd kill him first.

She made herself focus on such things. For if she didn't; if she allowed her mind to focus on the immeasurable pain that was coursing throughout her from having to literally set her body aflame from the inside, she was not sure she would be able to finish this out.

And she had to.

She took stock of things regardless, knowing that she needed to understand her own condition, and thereby her limits.

Without a mirror, it was hard to truly grasp the damage. Her skin was burning if the smell was anything to go by. One didn't utilize fire as one of their main methods of attack without knowing the scent of burning flesh; the acrid taste that assaulted the back of her throat and the insides of her nostrils. It would've been hard to focus on anything but that if her mind didn't once more helpfully supply that Glynda was still in danger. Still in harms away. Would still be killed if she didn't somehow make these three go away.

And it was just three. As much as Salem wished to project this all-powerful aura, she wasn't here right now. She no longer had dominion in this place at all, now that Cinder had shed her parasite.

But she was in rough shape. If she were being entirely realistic, she was likely actively dying. She had… maybe ten or twenty minutes? Perhaps longer if she could force herself to go on.

If she took too many hits, this was over. If at any point she was stopped, or knocked unconscious, this was over. But then… wasn't that the same as always? Her strategy was as it had always been.

Don't get hit.

She just had to be rather… exact this time.

So, she waited. Not long; she could not afford to. But she waited for a moment; a window, the tiniest in that she could find and abuse. Without making a show of it, she primed the Maiden's power into her limbs, and winced somewhat when she felt a pulsing lick of heat beneath her skin, as if the remnants of her earlier stunt weren't entirely gone. Or perhaps her nerve-endings themselves had been singed, and that was what she was feeling now.

She didn't particularly care.

And then, Salem spat out words of derision.

"So, you managed to eliminate–"

That was enough.

She blitzed forward, utilizing the Maiden's flames to form a kind of miniature explosion, and riding the blast to give herself a horrendous amount of momentum. She rocketed towards her opponents, and drew an obsidian blade from the ether, content to cut down Watts before the man had even realized what was happening.

And yet, as he'd always been, Tyrian was fast. He raised his twin blades up and caught her sword, breaking it along the edge. Cinder reacted faster than she ever had, turning her head towards the sky and pushing fire out of her lips as a means to propel herself downwards, using said motion to dodge Watts' shot, which fired off above her. She lashed out with her legs, tripping the man in question, but Tyrian managed to leap over them, laughing manically all the while.

She heard a footstep behind her, and moved.

Hazel's dust-empowered fists hit the earth she'd been stood upon a moment prior with a force that devastated the landscape. Instantaneously, rock was moved and parted, creating a crater in the spot.

Cinder understood that if one of those hit her, she was dead.

She would not get hit by one of those, then.

Tyrian closed the small distance between them in the following moment, his arms and legs and stinger creating an endless rain of blows that constantly sought the slightest of openings in her guard. If she ever allowed him to touch her, he'd carve a hole in her aura. If she was stung by his stinger after that…

She was dead.

Again, she would not get hit.

And then her instincts shouted for her to move, so she did, and a bullet whizzed by her. Watts took aim yet again, and in that moment, Cinder catalogued that Tyrian was moving to intercept if she tried to escape the bullets line of fire. Her mind was working on overdrive, and managed to calculate which of the two would be worse for her.

It decided that Tyrian's blades would be, so she tanked the bullet along her forehead. It knocked her backwards, but her aura kept her alive and standing, even if it had taken a substantial hit.

She wanted to check her scroll for her aura readout, but before she could make a move to do something like that, it was as if the Maiden's fire checked for her.

28 percent. It told her. The flames and the parasite took their toll already.

She acknowledged the words without comment or action, and kept fighting. It was not as if she had any other choice. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept an eye on Glynda. She was doing her best to haul herself fully to her feet after Tyrian had, seemingly, threw her to the ground. In her hand was her riding crop, prepared to fight if she had to.

Cinder was just waiting for the opportunity to grab her. She'd haul her up, and she'd fly them both away. She'd take them back towards Glynda's group; towards the children she'd come chasing after her with. They would take care of her.

Even if Cinder couldn't.

It was that tiny moment of doubt; of believing that she might not make it out of this at all, that proved to be her undoing. She swore mentally as a shadow passed by overhead, and she realized she'd lost track of Hazel.

She barely got a blade up in time, but all that could do was slow his momentum, and slightly divert the angle of the blow so that it knocked her forward instead of into the ground.

Even still, the blow was devastating. She felt a few of her ribs – Four – crack instantly, and as she was sent flying backwards and skittered to a stop, she catalogued the fact that her left arm wasn't responding to her anymore.

She looked down at it, and realized that at some point, the skin and muscle had given way almost entirely. She could see the bone within her arm.

She would've probably felt that more had she not been in a battle for not just her own life, but Glynda's as well.

…

She was losing.

By her own metrics, she had already lost. Hazel, Watts, and Tyrian were no tag-team, but when the chips were down, they formed a rather elite unit, covering a short-to-mid ranged battle almost effortlessly. Tyrian was the attacker, Hazel the area control, and Watts the one who shored up any holes.

There were none that Cinder could see. Even fully utilizing the Maiden's powers, she could not manage to weave her way past their guards. She debated the logistics of simply setting the entire area aflame, but thought better of it. None of them were the type to panic under such an assault. The move, when she'd last performed it, hadn't done a thing to dissuade Glynda as she made to catch her flying up the elevator to Ozpin's office.

And as much as Glynda was good, Watts was her equal, and Hazel and Tyrian were better.

Cinder was in a league all her own, but not to the degree she needed to be.

If she were stronger… if she were stronger, then maybe she could somehow outdo them. If she had more power, more fire…

Then maybe…

You do. The Maiden's fire, or… or perhaps something else entirely… spoke to her then. But it is a different power to that which you have grown used to.

What was that supposed to mean?

The surface level of the Maiden's Fire is a great power, but there are greater. With greater power, however, comes a price. A price not easily paid.

Cinder could almost laugh at the warning. To someone else, it likely would've meant something…

But as she was, in the situation Cinder was in? About to lose a battle to save not just her own life, but her love's life?

It meant nothing.

Give it to me! She shouted out to her own mind, and then almost laughed when nothing happened.

Because of course, she wasn't actually conversing with the mental manifestation of the Maiden's fire. She was talking to herself in her own head. She'd likely begun to disassociate from the pain. That was all this was.

And as she finally keyed back into the fact that she was in a fight for her life, she noticed the fact that Hazel's fist was poised to strike her head.

Ah.

She was dead. She was going to die.

For some reason, the absurdity of it all had her wanting to laugh. It had her wanting to crane her neck back and cackle to the sky. Oh, how horrible it had all been. How terrible a life she'd lived. And now it was to end, without a thing to show for it.

Nothing. She had–

"CINDER!"

…Oh.

Oh… that… that was right…

She had Glynda. She still had Glynda. She still had to save Glynda.

She couldn't die. Because she had to save Glynda.

If she died, then Glynda died.

So she would not die.

How do I not die? Cinder asked no one in particular.

And no one in particular answered…

Burn.

And really, in that moment, for perhaps the first time, life made sense to Cinder.

To say that flame erupted out from around her felt as if she were almost underselling it. No, the flame erupted out of her. She had become a geyser of molten magma, spewing it out of the earth and sending it up in great and powerful blasts. Hazel was blown back, and Tyrian and Watts both were forced to cover their faces, lest they be blinded by the light.

And within that light stood Cinder herself. She was the light, emitting that energy as if burning some ethereal fuel. Without even having been told what was happening, she knew exactly what she was burning.

She was burning herself.

Her skin was smoking yet again. Luckily for her, it seemed the power had chosen her already lost left arm to burn first. She could barely feel the pain coming from it, but she could see the way the entire limb was beginning to sag and break. More than that, she could feel her vision swimming on her left side, the flaming signature of the Maiden's, the flames that normally burned about their eyes, consuming the entirety of her left.

And she understood.

She would lose an arm. She already had. She would lose an eye. She hadn't yet.

She could very well lose more.

She wasn't sure why that didn't matter to her more.

Glynda.

Ah. Right.

And yet, as she went to focus in on Glynda, her attention was instead taken by Salem herself, who was regarding her with an entirely new look.

"Oh?" Her voice sounded terribly intrigued. "My, my. It has been an awful long time since anything of this nature has occurred. I assumed too much of Ozma's magic had ebbed away in the last few millennia for a Maiden to ever again call upon it like this, and yet…"

If she were in her right mind, she might've focused more on that. As it was?

She didn't care. Not at all.

What the power was didn't matter.

Why she had received it didn't matter.

She just had to win.

So she moved forwards. She was like light in her movements; faster than anything could ever be. She focused in on Watts first of all. She feigned a blow to his sternum, got him to move his aura, and then, the moment he dropped his guard, instead reached for his gun. She took it in hand and flexed the muscles of her palm.

The Metal melted and bent and became nothing more than a lump of material in barely a moment. It was as if she'd been kneading clay.

Watts was stunned, which was enough for Cinder to send her leg straight into his gullet. He was sent flying, and she imagined he wouldn't be getting up for quite some time.

Hazel dashed towards her, but where he wielded power in far greater abundance than she, he was slow. Far too slow, with what fueled her now.

She ducked beneath his initial blow, almost marveling at the way it sailed over her head so slowly, and struck his right pectoral. Hazel could not feel pain, but even so, the indentation in his skin sizzled and smoked. She wasn't quite sure just how hot her hands were, but they were white and broiling. Her left was burning away, leaving nothing left, but her right seemed shielded, as if the flames were orbiting her aura like a moon.

She dodged back against another of Hazel's blows, and this time, she chopped down on the man's arm. It snapped the joint at his elbow, and cut a decent way through the muscle. Though Hazel didn't feel it, it was evident that his fighting was affected. He swore, and then tried to kick her, but Cinder slid beneath his legs as he did. She conjured flame within her palms and then cast it at Hazel.

It caught the lightning dust that he'd injected into his arms, and then, with a terrible tremor, Hazel went up in a sea of sparking fire.

She didn't stop to see what happened to him. She instead focused in on Tyrian, the last of her opponents.

The others had seemed affected by her newfound power; shocked or bewildered. But Tyrian…

Tyrian was just laughing.

"Oh, Cindy," Tyrian giggled, shaking his head and holding a hand out to her. "Do promise me that you'll survive if you manage to escape today. I'm far too excited for our future battles for you to go and die on me now."

She didn't say a thing. She just closed the distance.

The fact that Tyrian could still match her in bladed combat, even as she was now, was almost ridiculous. His limbs were a flurry of movement. He matched blow for blow, counter for counter. And yet, Cinder had an advantage that Tyrian didn't.

The Maiden's fire could not be moved by his semblance.

As he tried, as he reached in and attempted to part her aura to open up a spot to attack her with, he was instead met by her flames. They traveled up his arm and set his form ablaze, and though Tyrian briefly screamed, such noises were quickly overtaken by manic, almost gleeful laughs.

"PERFECT!" He bellowed. "JUST PERFECT, CINDER!"

She was barely listening. She could see Hazel, somehow having survived the explosion, getting to his feet, albeit with some chunks of his upper arms blown off here and there around the clearing. She could see Watts, not in the best way from her kick, still managing to make his way back over, even if he was evidently limping.

She was running out of time.

But she still had a moment.

She was on Glynda in the next.

She didn't ask for permission in this single case. She simply turned Glynda in her arms, held her in a bridal carry, and then, without waiting, sent fire into her legs. It took her a moment to make to take off. Just a single moment.

And because of that delay, she nearly missed the Seer tentacle snaking its way towards her neck.

Luckily for her, Glynda did not.

The orb of the Seer's head was shattered by a shard of one of Cinder's conjured obsidian blades, which Glynda had manipulated with her semblance. It seemed even such an effort had taken nearly everything she had. Cinder had never been put under Tyrian's poison, but she'd seen its effects.

Still, she put such thoughts out of mind. As the Seer disintegrated, so too did Salem's form. Her body began to dispel into smoke, running upwards. And yet, even as she was defeated, even as Cinder made away with everything she'd wanted – as much as it had cost her – Salem still didn't seem upset.

If anything, she looked amused.

"Yes, run away, little Cinder." Salem spoke as the last vestiges of her form turned to nothingness.

"It seems it's all you ever do."

And for some reason, hearing those words from Salem's lips almost had her smiling.

Without any further delay, Cinder sent both herself and Glynda careening towards the sky.

/

"..inder… Cin… Cinder!"

She was going. She did not particularly know where it was she was going to, but she was undeniably going somewhere. The voice that called to her belonged to the person in her arms, who was shaking her, trying to get her attention.

She couldn't focus on her. She had to focus on keeping them in the air. More than that, she had to focus on staying conscious in the first place. Her mind kept veering off, trying to rest. But she couldn't.

At least not yet.

She had to save–

"CINDER!"

Whatever haze had caught her in that brief instance of time was blown away, and she found the two of them hurtling towards the ground. She yanked herself upwards, managing to skid across the Mistralian road as the two of them tumbled to the ground.

Her head was spinning terribly as she came to a stop, and she allowed herself a moment to simply breathe. To look up at the sky above her and take in the sights.

It was night at that point. They'd staged the taking of the Relic to take place around eight in the evening, and it had to have been an hour, at least, since then. It seemed almost comical that so much had taken place in such a short period of time, but as she laid there, she couldn't much find it in herself to laugh.

And then a figure was in her view, desperately looking over her, doing… doing something. She wasn't really sure–

"Cinder, please!" Glynda called, and she was lucid again. "Cinder, I need you–" Glynda looked down at her left side, and Cinder could see the moment that her countenance flickered for a moment, fear and sorrow briefly overtaking her. "I need you to focus on staying awake, alright?"

Cinder nodded absently, already feeling the pull of exhaustion in the back of her head, weighing down her eyes. Or… no. That wasn't right.

There was something wrong. She couldn't see much out of her left eye. And… the more time passed, the less she could see.

…Was it really so bad if she drifted off?

"I'm… so tired…" She mumbled, her eyelids briefly flickering closed.

"I know," Glynda choked out, biting down on her bottom lip. "I know, sweetie, I know. But I need you to stay with me, okay? Can you walk?"

Cinder tried to feel her legs. Her left responded, but something felt wrong about her right. She shook her head. Glynda took a shaky breath, but nodded her head.

"Alright, I'll carry you." She said, and she began to hoist Cinder to her feet.

Cinder went along with it without any fuss, her countenance foggy and her mind even more so. Everything was a blur. She could barely remember what it was that had caused all of this. She'd been burning… and she'd burned and burned until there was nothing left.

And yet she still had to keep going?

It didn't quite feel fair.

Glynda made to throw Cinder's arm around her shoulder, but made the mistake of initially reaching for Cinder's left arm. When she did, she found only the stump of what had once been her limb. It was cauterized, likely from the intense heat that had been filtering through it, but somewhere along the way she'd lost it.

Glynda choked out another sob, but simply shifted to Cinder's other side, so that her right arm instead could go around Glynda's shoulders.

"It won't be long," Glynda assured her, even as she took the first step, and nearly fell over, having to brace herself against a nearby house. "Fuck… fuck! The poison's still not…"

Glynda let out a noise akin to when she and Cinder had been fighting atop that tower, oh so long ago. That noise she'd made that had been the manifestation of her emotions, and nothing else. It felt the same, and Cinder, idly, wondered why it was she was making such a sound.

Brothers, she was so tired…

Even so, despite the way that Glynda was having a hard time moving, she inched them both along. Glynda reached down for her scroll, but found it snapped down the middle. Idly, some part of Cinder's mind supplied that such had likely been done by Tyrian while Glynda was being carted away.

Oh… that was right… Tyrian had taken her. Cinder had given chase.

She'd burned. She'd burned until she'd saved her.

And now… now she was a candle with no wick. Just wax, melted and pooling and entirely inert.

Her own scroll was probably a melted piece of metal that had melded with her leg at that point.

Which explained her right leg not functioning too well.

"Glynda…?"

"W-What is it?"

"I'm tired…"

"I know, honey, I know…" Glynda sobbed out, letting out a rasping yell as she dragged the both of them up a few old stairs. "I know you're tired, but I need you to be strong for me, okay? Not much further now."

"Mm… okay…" Cinder hummed weakly. "I trust you."

Glynda's breath stopped for but a moment, but she kept them moving all the same.

"You know…" Cinder found herself saying without really knowing why. "I think… I think the day I… I decided to go to Beacon early… the day I fought you in that bullhead and made that decision… I think that was my miracle."

"Don't… Cinder, we can talk about this later–"

Cinder shook her head. She wasn't entirely sure why, but…

Perhaps just in case, she didn't want to leave anything left unsaid.

"Nothing good had… had ever happened to me in my entire life." Cinder chuckled somewhat under her breath, although the amusement took energy from her that she hadn't really possessed. "And then all of a sudden… I had you."

Glynda's breath shook, and idly, Cinder could see tears running down her face.

It was terrible, some part of Cinder provided. She'd never wanted to let Glynda cry again.

And yet it was her fault, wasn't it?

Glynda brought the two of them to a building marked with a red cross, and pounded on the door. A few seconds later, and Glynda let out a rasping yell as she kicked the door down. Cinder found herself caught in the beauty of the motion. It was a nice distraction.

"Abandoned…" Glynda shook her head, breathing through her teeth. "Of course, it's abandoned… fuck…"

Cinder looked around as she pulled them back out of the building, and instead back on the path. They were constantly moving upwards, following a small incline that probably led to upper Mistral. They must've been in an uninhabited part of the slums at that moment, then. It explained the abandoned clinic.

It also explained why Cinder hadn't seen anyone besides them at all.

Suddenly a wave of dizziness hit her, and Cinder nearly fell to the ground, despite Glynda doing her damndest to keep her steady.

"Cinder!?" Glynda shouted too loudly, and her head ached at the sound. "What's wrong!?"

"…Tired…" Cinder said, as if she was a record player, broken, repeating the same line over and over again. "Everything hurts…"

"I know… I know…" Glynda spoke between sobs, even as she hauled the two of them uphill.

"…Glynda?"

"What is it?"

"Can you…" Cinder's breath caught. She felt weak and ineffectual, but… perhaps, if she were ever going to be entirely true to herself, this was the moment. "Can you call me… 'darling' again?"

I'll always be right here, no matter what happens. Goodnight, darling.

Glynda's visage of strength, which she had been maintaining for oh so long, finally broke at that. She sobbed openly, falling to her knees and taking the both of them down with her. Cinder rested on Glynda's shoulder, finding it harder and harder to keep her eyes open.

"I can't…" She sobbed out. "Cinder, I can't…"

That… that was fine, too.

"It's okay…" She said, wrapping her single arm around Glynda's back, and holding her as close as she could. "I'm just… a little tired…"

"No, no!"

"I just… have to…"

"CINDER!"

"Sleep… for a while…"

She'd done what she had to do, after all. She'd succeeded.

Glynda would be alright…

She'd be alright…

That meant… that meant she could rest now, right?

Yes… she thought, as Glynda's screams began to grow more and more muted.

That sounds… about…

…right…

…

..

.

End Chapter 59

Three chapters to go.

That is all.

See you next week!