The Phoenix's Cradle

A Phoenix's Fervour

[Trigger Warnings for violence & swearing + Spoilers for the first two books.]

One

Under Altan’s gaze her muscles strained beyond compensation, poised in a vigil begging to be freed from the ravenous clutches of flame.
How could one harbour so much resentment?
Did he also feel that ancient, foetal heartbeat in the crook of his neck? Urging him to destroy relentlessly until the only thing left to destroy was nothing but himself? Despite the pain her heart softened a little at the prospect. He was a broken boy who'd seen the last of his kin succumb to destruction. Losing control of their very beings, in the throes of a god that craved their life essence like the opium that kept them sane, butchered and abused. He was alone. And now, he couldn't stand his own kind being weak, a pathetic excuse of a Speerly.

Altan's searing scarlet eyes loomed like disembodied spirits in the haze of fire and in her tunnelling vision she found a shred of clarity. And so, she reached somewhere deep inside of herself, drawing the phoenix's fervent whispers from the spiteful abyss in her stomach.

The flames bled outwards with an unbridled vengeance, wrapping their blistering palms around Altan's neck, trailing blazing licks along his spine whilst the Phoenix admonished her-
"Fuck your morals Little Speerly," a keening laughter, "Destroy the boy."
She was a whisper away from destruction and she dared to breathe her inclination.
"Burn."
Altan smirked. Foolish Bastard.
Altan brought out the worst in her. How she loved him. How she despised him. It was perfect.
The familiar inferno was settling in her veins, a burn that craved blood and ashes.

Memories of the South, bits and pieces of her identity which she'd spent severing throughout her time in Sinegard reared their hideous heads, resurfacing in the back of her mind, bleeding from the compartments she'd curated in her brain-candles branding burn marks across her palms as she studied for the Keju, Kesegi's toothy smile, Auntie Fang's acid-tongued remarks-a maddened swirling.
She shall not be terrorized. She won't crouch in fear. She hadn't traded one prison for another.

"You can stop now," Altan said.
Rin was apt at defying authority, but the Phoenix eluded her. The god forced a flaming fist around her skull, sending tremors crackling down her legs. Why couldn't she rein it in? Ribbons of reds and oranges continued spilling from that horrible place somewhere deep inside of her.
Fuck.

She ran.

White-hot anger pulsed behind her eyes. Was it hers? Or was it the Phoenix relishing her misery.
Their desires coalesced and coursed through her veins and they all were intent on ruination.

"Go out for fuck's sake!" This would have her confined in the Chuluu Korikh, she was certain of that. Banging her head in a tree didn't help, it only set the branches aflame leaving a charred stump behind. Why the fuck hadn't Altan followed her?
She had shown him the flame. Was that not enough? Had he gone to get her a wad of opium, perhaps? Highly unlikely. Chaghan had prohibited her from taking hallucinogens whatever the case.
Fuck him and his Commander.

"You're my child," murmured the Phoenix. "You absurd, difficult child. My child."
It was a god's amused sigh, and she, another marionette in its hands.
Through the crackling flames she thought she heard the susurrous hiss of what felt like the waves. It intensified into a crescendo of breathless whispers.

"Rin!"
Cerulean mist clung to Nezha's curls shrouding him in the rushing waves. Behind him lingered a translucent silhouette; scales twisting in intricate swirls, billowing into a massive dragon. Lightning unfurled in thick coils splintering the sky. Amidst the clamour he levitated, serpentine waves ready to strike.
Water's child. Nezha.
"Nezha, don't-"
"Shut up."

The hideous gash deep in Rin's gut widened-"The boy is walking to his own death," retorted the Phoenix, as arrows of magma whizzed towards him.

They exchanged blows, dancing a deadly dance, crossing lines between civility and what might be deemed inappropriate.

Rin saw everything from a scarlet prism, colours bleeding into one another, a blue smudge of a boy her only tether.
Nezha's eyes teetered along the edges of insanity-was his god just as rash as hers? Planting her feet firmly on the ground, she closed her eyes, willed the fire to ebb away.
With slow, deliberate steps Nezha drew near, ensnaring Rin in his embrace, waves swaying to the rhythm of his gentle hands as they held onto her waist.
"You're burning me," he tried to quip.
"That's the point," the Phoenix drawled in her mind, sending another swell of heat throughout her body.

Hands as soft as water threaded themselves through Rin's-pulsing with a promise to never let go. Nezha brought their foreheads together as the waves tangled them in a welcome respite.
The flames dissolved into nothingness, but the Phoenix remained. It'll always remain.
"Fuck you Little Speerly," it screamed. "Fuck you."