Firestorm

Chapter 4

Lilith remained in the darkness for what seemed like an eternity. One with the universe. She was every burning star, every swirling galaxy. Suddenly she saw a light up ahead. A doorway. Slowly, Lilith drifted towards it. She knew where it led, and she did not want to return there. She could be free in this realm. Free from pain and free from responsibility. Lilith struggled and fought as hard as she could trying to change her course. But the pull of the light was too strong. The pull of life. She was dragged through the doorway kicking and screaming into the realm of the living. The realm of pain and suffering as she saw it.

Lilith knew that most people would think that when they died, they would probably give anything to turn back into the warmth of life. But you'd be wrong. At least in her opinion anyway. The freedom she felt in the other realm was something she never wanted to give up. But it seemed, she didn't have a choice.

As Lilith's soul reconnected with her body, the pain hit her. She began to gasp drawing in deep gulps of air. But it seemed only water would meet her lungs. It took her all of five seconds to realize what was going on. Lilith slowly opened her eyes. The sunlight that met them seared and burned them painfully.

"Fucking hell!", she half screamed half gurgled with the water in her mouth and covered her burning eyes.

Water rushed over her face just as she tried to breath once more. Lilith opened her eyes just enough so that she could see around her. Lilith lay on a white sandy beach. She lay just at the water's edge, the surf continuously washing over her face as the waves broke. She hauled herself out of the water and crawled up onto the white sand.

'Pain, being drowned. Great being back in the world of the living!', she thought to herself sarcastically.

Lilith looked around her. The beach was unlike any she'd been on be to, before she was in the other realm anyway. It was obvious that the tides had dragged her far from where she used to live. Lilith shivered violently from the cold. It was still the dead of winter in Eirnmore. She looked up at the cloudy sky. Even though it was the middle of the day the sun was nowhere to be seen and dark rain-filled heavy clouds filled the grey sky.

"Typical "glorious" Eirnmore weather ", she groaned hauling herself achingly up from the sand.

As she trudged along the beach trying to keep warm, she thought about what the last message of the Lady of the Tides had implied. 'Figure it out'.

'Extremely helpful advice', Lilith thought bitterly. She wasn't even sure if what she'd seen had even real. Could it have all been a dream? It must have been. But if it wasn't, what had the goddess meant about "I give you control over the elements." That was magic she was talking about. But surely magic couldn't be real. No one could make things happen at will. Only those con-artist magicians, palm readers and mediums, whom everyone knew were bogus charlatans, even dared to claim they could.

Lilith had heard of people calling themselves witches and practicing witchcraft. She'd always laughed and called them crazy. Surely it couldn't be true, there was no way. Just then, another bout of shivers took over her body. She tightly wrapped her arms around herself.

"God damn it!" She shouted in frustration. " Dry already!".

As Lilith said those words, a warm feeling rushed over her skin, not burning exactly but a light stinging sensation. She looked at her arm and was amazed to see steam rising off it in a steady plume. Lilith looked at her fingertips, where the stinging was as its fiercest. She was horrified when she saw small flames flickering on each tip. But these flames were no ordinary flames, they were a deep purple in color. 

Lilith gasped and fiercely shook her hands, trying to extinguish them. The fanning did not help at all. It really made the situation worse. The flames grew and spread up over her hands and forearms. Lilith screamed in terror and ran towards the water. She plunged my hands into the surf, but to her horror the flames were still burning fiercely and spreading. She ran in circles, flapping her arms as she ran.