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[ when the girl had spoken to them from the edge of the scaffolding—when fire surrounded them on all sides, filling their lungs with smoke and burning their eyes and blocking any escape—fiammetta felt cut to the bone by those words. she knows fury, hatred, and anger well. is this why she feels further from what she's looking for? is this what it means to "surrender to the maze?"

it's only a brief thought. all three of them fight for their lives, for each other, before they're reduced to nothing.

and then they wake up. fiammetta is covered in soot, and the inside of her chest and lungs burn hot. she coughs too, tears in her eyes as she squeezes them shut. they pop open once she hears the two of them near her among the charred rubble of the gallows.

fiammetta pushes splintered wood away and forces herself to her feet, looking around for them. ]

Reirin! Lemuen!

[ more coughing as she works her way towards them. ]

Are you hurt?!

[Reirin nods, albeit slowly, as if she's not sure. Shouldn't she be hurt? She can still feel the scorching heat on her skin, before she had passed out from the smoke inhalation. Had they... died then? She can't put an answer to the question in her mind, and she doesn't know if she wants to.]

I am alright. [she replies, and despite all of her efforts, the tremble in her voice comes through anyway] The girl... seems to be gone.

[she takes another look around, except without much hope. isn't this how they usually go? these explorations. they see things that were there at the time, only to vanish after.

if only the heat of those flames could vanish too, and the heaviness in her heart.]

[ sorry can't talk rn she's trying not to cough up a lung. also im on mobile, sniffles

she is clutching something on her lap, though -- an emaciated handmade doll that the unnamed girl was holding before she disappeared into the hellfire. ]

[ how dare you use this icon blair... with lemuen coughing up a storm in her chair, fiammetta leans her forward and pats her back. she stifles her own few coughs into her fist. her throat is incredibly dry and sticky as she swallows. ]

I don't see her.

[ she narrows her eyes. that heaviness and heat in her chest seems swells a little. who was she? why did she burn them all, even when they were trying to save her?

fia sees something sticking out of lemuen's lap. she kneels down to grasp it. ]

Wait... Is this... her doll?

[As Lemuen holds the doll in her lap and Fiammetta reaches for it -- it's almost a shock to see it perfectly intact after that raging inferno. It should be a shock, but it sends a pang of grief through Reirin instead. She knew nothing about that girl and her story, but... the fire she had set, the hate she felt. It reminds Reirin so much of another girl,]

...She may have left it behind on purpose.

[especially if she had the power to burn everything and everyone... she puts a soot-covered sleeve over her mouth and coughs,]

We should head out.

[ all she can contribute to the conversation is a couple of nods, followed by another cough that's a little less violent-sounding now that fiammetta's helping her through it. but just because she can sort of breathe again doesn't mean the feeling of anger has evaporated in her heart -- a completely rare feeling for her, now that she thinks about it. ]

That... that girl...

[ she tightens her grip on her chest, but not too tightly - she still needs to breathe, after all. ]

I could've sworn I felt it just now. The same kind of rage she has for the townsfolk... [ cough ] I can't blame her for all this.

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