TALENE

Talene called in lamentation, her tears sizzling over her beak and falling hot to the ground. Her mother's lifeless form lay still beside her, still beautiful, black and red feathers moving softly with the breeze. The demons had come and though her mother had been able to push them back, they had been too many. Talene had never known such agony. She had never seen another of their kind. Her mother had told her that they were the only two left, a race on the verge of extinction. All they had was one another. This was isolation. Even so, she would carry out the rituals as proscribed. When an Obsidian Finch died, their bodies didn't simply return to the soil as with the other peoples of Esperia. The intense heat that smoldered within them went cold, true, but their forms remained unchanged. Only when given to the Solaran Furnace, the ancestral home of their people, could the body of a Finch be returned to the land. Usually the journey to the Furnace was a solitary one, called "the flight of return", taken by a Finch nearing the end of its life. Her mother had not been able to make this journey, so Talene would have to take her instead. The journey, even by flight, took many days. Talene was slowed further by the burden she bore. She traveled in silence and reflected. This was the first time in her life that she had experienced silence for such a long stretch of time. There was nothing but the sun, the clouds, the wind, and her thoughts. She recognized the strangeness of the circumstances through her grief. The very last of a race that had soared since the age of dragons. A wise and ancient people, gone save one individual taking her mother on her flight of return. She looked out over the vastness before her leading to the plumes of billowing smoke from the Furnace, still leagues away, and made her decision. The heat of the Furnace was incredible, even from this height, even for Talene. She plunged down toward the source as cinders rose skyward, swirling around her. The acrid smoke singed her lungs as she dived ever closer and her feathers began to singe. She was the last. There would be none to take her on her final journey as she had taken her mother. She would have to go with her into the Furnace. Her wings were aflame and still she held on to the body. With a final call punctuating the existence of her people, she disappeared into the flaring crevice. She opened her eyes. The flames danced around her on a lake of molten rock. The heat now was warm, comforting. Sparks danced upward to dark, winged silhouettes. Finches, more than she could possibly imagine. Among their outlines she spotted her mother. These were the ancestors. The entirety of her lineage, stretching back to the beginning. A joy unlike she had ever thought possible washed over her, and a voice came from the swirling mass of Finches above. "Our child. Here at last. All of us together, but it is not yet time. The age of Obsidians has passed, yet the age of many others has not. They must persist until each of their threads reaches its conclusion. They cannot persist alone. We are gone, but still we are needed. You will return in new form. You will help them. You will return to us when the others are safe. We will always be Esperia's children, and we will always send aid when She calls. Arise again in flame." The power of generations of Finches flowed into her. Her blood became lava. Her wings radiated the heat of a sun and the air shimmered and waved around her. She shot toward the heavens in her new form, a celestial. Fire trailed behind her in an orange streak, warmly illuminating the very land she would save. "Flames to warm the good and purge the evil" Yet Talene had no hesitation. Carrying the net where her mother's body rested, she plunged into the crack. Comparing with other creatures, Finches had a greater tolerance of heat, yet as Talene travelled further down, even her started to find the rising temperature suffocating. The net, made from vines, also started to crack under the heat. Talene had to get rid of the net and gripped her mother with her claws as she descended. The temperature kept rising. The heat quickly drained Talene of her energy. Her feathers smelt of burnt. In extreme exhaustion, Talene's wings were unable to keep her in balance. She tipped over and fell into what seemed like a bottomless hole with the body of her mother. When she woke up, she found herself amidst a borderless sea of flames. Strangely, she did not feel the heat at all. Rather on the contrary, the warm flames made her feel calm, peaceful and secured. Then she heard the singing of birds. Following the sound, she saw numerous Finches, whose bodies were made of flames, hovering above her. Among them, she saw her mother. "That must be the souls of my ancestors. This is the burning furnace." Talene realized that she had completed her mission. "My child, the last blood of our kind," said a voice from the above. It was her mother, and her voice was echoed by the voices of all the ancestors: "From this moment, you are on your own in this world. But don't be afraid, my child. We are always with you. Flames will rebuild your wings and give you eternal life; flames will be part of your blood and bless you with divine power. It will be your mission as a Finch to use this granted power to protect Esperia. The brightness of the flames will nourish every good thing in this world; the power of the flames will burn down every evil thing in this world. We believe one day you will be welcomed by all living things in this world." The hovering Finches let out a loud cry together, and flied towards Talene. They surrounded her and then dived towards her. Their bodies, made of flames, penetrated into Talene's body and into her veins. Talene's form began a metamorphosis. Her claws and beak were disappearing, and her wings growing bigger. She transformed into a totally different form: a human-like creature with burning-red wings.

In eternal flames, I am reborn!

"To cleanse the world of evil filth with purifying fire, this is the lifelong duty of all Obsidian Finches, passed to us since ancient times."

Has visit scenes with Astar and Khazard.