The Phoenix and the Crow

Hallucinations

The air was cool as the group of seven walked down the old traditional house. Lanterns were hung outside and looked like fireflies from a distance. Everyone huddled around Toyla as he knelt on the ground and drew a rough layout of what the house would look like inside. "We enter through the front courtyard, antechamber, middle courtyard, main chamber." He said, pointing to each section.
"We sweep the entirety." Kaz walked to the front door to pick the lock, Wylan stepped forward and stood beside him. "How long will it take you to set up?"
Wylan bounced on the balls of his feet, "I can have the door open in about five minutes. And if Ohval trips it, we have two minutes before the firecrackers go off to get out."
"Even if she returned prematurely, we cannot leave without the blade." Inej's voice was stern as she stared at Kaz. He turned around to face her, "Yes, the future of Ravka and my payment depend on it. I'm aware." Jesper and Y/N shared an amused look.
"It's more than the future of Ravka at stake." Toyla spoke up, "If we fail, Shu Han, Fjerda, Ketterdam, and beyond, they will all feel the weight of the Darkling bare down on them."
Jesper shivered, "Way to up the stakes."
The click of the door opening drew everyone's attention to Kaz as he pushed the two heavy doors open. It flowed into a beautiful garden with more lanterns hanging above them. Y/N smiled to herself as she looked around, following the others to the next door. Wylan took off his backpack and got to setting up the trap at the front door, Jesper quickly went after him.
The metal click of the door lock was heard again as Kaz got the doors open, "Jesper, we're going in. Close the doors behind you."
Screen doors slid open into a small waiting room. "Spread out." Everyone walked in, taking up as much space as possible. Toyla's head tilted, "I sense a heartbeat."
"I thought the compound was empty," Jesper stated.
"It's faint. Further in the house." As he spoke he stepped on a tile and it shifted under his foot. Automatically both screen doors closed. Inej, Jesper, and Toyla all tried to pull them open again to no avail. Inej pulled out her knife and stabbed the screen but it made no cut, not even a dent. "It's impenetrable." Kaz knocked his cane on the frames of the room, "The frames are made of metal."
Jesper seethed, "They're durast-made."
A series of mechanical clicking from the left side of the room caught Y/N's attention. She noticed a sand timer hung on the wall. Louder machinery sounds followed the flipping on the timer. "That does not sound good." She muttered to herself. Pinkish-red smoke seeped through the roof of the room. "There's something in the air." Instantly everyone started coughing, the smoke taking their ability to breathe properly away from them.
"This is how we die." Jesper coughed before he fell to the floor.
Toyla sat in the opposite corner and tried to get his breathing under control.
Inej gasped and leaned against the screen walls, losing her balance and falling to the floor.
Kaz glanced over everyone in the room before letting his eyes make contact with Y/N's for a moment longer. Before he too fell back losing consciousness.
"Kaz." Her voice was hoarse and quiet as she fell to her side, still able to keep her eyes on him but only for a moment before she rolled into darkness.
~
Ravka. She'd recognize the air anywhere, it's what she missed most from her childhood. The scent of freshly plowed grass and apple blossoms. She opened her eyes expecting to be standing in front of her childhood home but frowned when she didn't notice the house she stood in front of. A large two-story house painted light blue with brown roofing and a well-used wooden porch. Large fields surrounded the residence, not another house within eyesight. An uneven stone path lead to the porch steps Y/N stood on. Unease settled in her mind at the unfamiliarity of it all but her body stayed relaxed, as if familiar with the place. Joyous screams and laughter echoed from the back of the house. She walked down the steps and followed the sound of children around the side of the building.
Two kids, one boy, and one girl, both with black hair and y/e/c eyes. "Mama!"
While confusion clouded a small part of her mind, she bent down with no control of her body and held her arms open for the children to run into. "My babies!" She placed kisses all over their small faces causing peels of squealing and giggles to fall from their lips, making her heart fill with a sense of love she's never felt before. She sent them off to continue playing while she stayed seated in the grass.
The obviously older boy picked up a wooden bow and ran away from the smaller girl who swung her wooden sword around carelessly. Shouts of how it was 'unfair' or 'you're running too fast' filled the otherwise empty field.
She sat there watching in wonder, she felt a smile settle on her lips but her mind was racing. She felt like she wasn't in her own body, it didn't feel like her. Her mind was vaguely aware of the poison slowly killing her, but her body felt so relaxed and blissfully unaware. Hallucinations.
She was brought out of her train of thought when her ears picked up on the clicking on a cane she had grown familiar with. Before she could turn around to confirm who it was black tendrils of smoke surrounded her and held her firmly planted in her place. The joyful sounds from the children quickly turned into screams of terror and she felt the unmistakable heat of fire from behind her. She watched in horror as the peaceful life she had been thrown into was quickly burning before her eyes.
"You didn't actually think you'd be able to keep all of this, did you?"
A chill ran down her spine as she was finally able to bring herself to stand up and turn around to see the Darkling standing on the back porch of the burning house. Her heart sunk to her stomach, a part of her still hoping to see the man with the cane she'd grown fond of. "What do you want?" Her teeth were clenched as she took a few steps forward while he walked down to meet her in the field.
"Nothing to my benefit." He moved to stand beside her and watched the roof cave in causing embers to flare up and dance through the air before cooling into ash. "This is what you're capable of."
"You don't think I know that?" Her voice was strained with frustration. "I know what you created in me."
"Do you? It seems to me that you've let them make you soft."
Her head snapped to the side to look up at him. She knew who he was referring to. Her new friends, the Crows of Ketterdam. "They have nothing to do with who I am today. You should've known that one way or another, I'd wake up from the trance you held me under. I'd see who you truly are and what your intentions were. You underestimated me."
"I never underestimated you, Y/N. I always knew what you were capable of and your potential. You can't blame me for making sure I wouldn't be on the receiving end of your wrath." He reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear.
She grabbed his wrist, "Don't touch me." She backed away from him and let out a humorless laugh. She felt the poison move through her body, slowly grasping onto her lungs. "My body is dying and you still can't leave me alone."
"This is your hallucination, Y/N. I didn't bring myself here." Kirigan took a step forward, trying to get closer to her again. "This... Found family you've stumbled upon. You think you found a home with them?"
She held out her right hand at her side summoning a ball of fire to sit there. 'Just in case.' "What's it to you? I left the Little Palace, I'm not your problem anymore."
"It's nothing to me, but I hope you remember that you'll outlive all of them. Grisha always live far longer than any otkazat'sya and you know that. You're setting yourself up for heartbreak all over again."
"A heartbreak like what? Like when you took me from my family? Like when you killed them? Like when I trusted you only to find out you were lying the entire time?" Her anger rose and her flame grew hotter to burn her hand just slightly.
"I did what I did for your benefit."
"You killed my family for my benefit? You better not be expecting my gratitude. I was a child, Kirigan! They were my parents!" She was screaming at this point, losing all control of her emotions.
"They were holding you back!" He yelled. "And you know that. Look at you now. If it wasn't for me taking you in and training you... If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be the most powerful inferni the world has ever seen." He watched her in wonder, nothing but pride in his eyes.
Without her realizing she let her rage get the better of her. Her back burned from where her wings of fire flared behind her. They moved with her anger, flaring larger on the sides and standing tall behind her. She fell to her knees and sobbed, her hands scorching the ground where they rested. "You stare at me as if I'm a Saint." Her eyes snapped up to his, "Look at me! You've made me a monster! If they were to see this, imagine the fear that would take over the people."
"Fear isn't an enemy. It's a powerful ally. You are the Phoenix for a reason." He walked to stand directly in front of her.
"I became the Phoenix because you wanted me to." Her wing's heat shifted, burning white hot where they met her back fading out to a bright blue before it changed back to it's traditional orange. They scorched the grass from where they fluttered against the floor. "Fear makes people do terrifying things. I would be hunted, never allowed to live a peaceful life." She looked back to the charred house with tears in her eyes. She was supposed to have a peaceful life. "How many times did you have to go into hiding? How many years have you lived, simply waiting for the life you've been crawling after? Kirigan, I don't want that life. I want-"
"What you want doesn't matter." He snapped at her, his hand coming down to clutch her jaw. "You have power and refuse to use it."
She gritted her teeth, "I didn't ask for this power." She grabbed his hand, his face contorting in agony as the heat from her hand burned his. "I am sick and tired of you telling me what I should want for my life." She rose to her feet, twisting his hand in her's so he fell before her. "You're somewhere out there and you're gonna regret turning me into the monster that I am. If not Alina, then I will make sure you pay for the terror that you've made rain over my country."
~
Y/N thrashed in her unconscious state causing Inej to frown as she noticed the scorch mark under the inferni's hand. She reached out to take her face into her hand in order to feed her the bright blue butterfly but gasped in surprise. "Her face... It's burning. I can't touch her." The wraith's words got the other's attention.
Toyla knelt down to place his hand on her forehead and recoiled instantly before checking her heartbeat. "We need to give her that butterfly quickly, she doesn't have much time."
Kaz shifted on his feet, clenching and unclenching his hands. He eyed his leather gloves for a moment before taking a deep breath in through his nose. "Move." He took the butterfly from Inej's hand, avoided making actually contact with her, and knelt down beside the squirming girl. He grabbed her jaw and shoved the butterfly into her mouth. Much to his surprise, he didn't feel the waters splash around his ankles. The heat from her skin was so strong, the contact didn't bring any memories of the bloated bodies or his brother.
After a few beats of silence, Y/N shot up to a sitting position, her arm out in front of her as fire escaped the clutches of her fist. The fire bounced off the screen wall making the girl catch it quickly before muffling it in her hand. "Sorry." Her throat was dry causing her voice to sound a bit rough. She turned to see Kaz still beside her, closer than he had been before. Her breath caught in her throat and she quickly looked away, trying to ignore the memory of the sound of his cane at the house in her dream. She caught Toyla's smirk and she shot him a burning glare making him raise his hands in surrender.
Kaz stared after her as he pulled himself up with a grunt. 'What is the worth of life if you have no one left to fight for?' His brother's words echoed around his mind while he watched over the group, all trying to get a hold of their barrings again, his eyes lingering on the girl who stood in the corner with her arms wrapped around herself. The image of her face above his in the water plagued his mind. She pulled him out of the water in his hallucination and then performed a miracle by keeping his waters at bay with her touch. All without her knowing.
"Is everyone alive?" Wylan's voice was muffled through the small hole in the screen door.
"We're alive," Inej answered. Toyla stared at her with gratitude, "I owe you my life." She stuttered and nodded to the door, "It was Wylan. He saved us."
Jesper gasped, "Wylan did?"
"You're welcome!"
The zemmini pulled himself up, "We almost died, didn't we? Same time... I had the most incredible hallucination." He looked around the room, "Did anyone else get lulled into a comforting sense of joy?"
Kaz turned away from the group, "I didn't see anything." His breathing was heavy. None of the others answered and for a moment there was a weighted silence in the room.
"Alright, what's the plan?" Toyla asked, clearing his throat.
"You said there was another heartbeat in the house." Kaz turned to face the taller man.
"Southeast corner. The heartbeat's weak."
"I suspect she built all of this to protect that heart. Along with a different way in to get to it."