The Glorious Flame (#2)

Chapter 22

Inferno

Memory...

     "Please, I am hungry!" little Inferno cried out as she was thrown out of the bakery. She winced when she caught her slight weight on her palms against the rough gravel. 

     "I don't give a demon's ass!" the scrawny man hissed through his green-tinted teeth. He jutted his boot out, making contact with her ribs. "You little shit, I'll show you what happens to thieves in this town!" 

     Inferno was so incredibly tiny that his boot slammed into a great portion of her. "I'm sorry," she sobbed, "I only wanted to try it!" The terror in her heart seemed only to multiply. After surviving Charles, she didn't have much else in her in these few months following the attack. 

     "You stupid, hizor!" she rolled away as he attempted to kick her again. "I'll take your hand for this!" 

     "No! Please, don't," she screeched when he snatched her twig arm. "I won't do it again! I promise!" 

     "A thief's word means nothing, damn pixies are all worthless!" he growled, uncaring as the jagged rocks tore into her clothes, slicing the flesh off her skeletal physique. She wailed the entire time, begging for help from anyone or anything. 

     "Please!" Inferno screamed at the top of her lungs, which threatened to burst as the sight of the knife lodged in the tree stump ahead. 

     She tried to struggle, but she had learned months back with him that a creature of her current size had no chance at victorious defense. She couldn't believe she was surprised at this insane display of cruelty against a child. Shock should not have even registered, but it did. Her age didn't matter as she assumed it would, not as her treatment made that very true reality evident in the last year. 

     She sobbed, noisy enough for the gods to hear. Her body shook as he forced her arm onto the jagged surface and snatched the knife from its imprint in the wood. "Somebody, please help me!" she screeched as she looked wildly around to find a missing audience. 

      "If you don't watch!" he screamed in her ear, "I will cut off your other hand!" Her eyes were glued to his crushing grip on her arm in horror. Her bones threatened to burst into dust at his brute strength. The sheer pain alone promised to cause her death. 

     "I'll do anything!" she begged, struggling to no end, "please don't, please don't, please don't!" 

     "Stop!" Inferno's eyes were drawn to a figure few feet away. It was a woman with long black locks and wise green eyes. Her tanned skin was smooth, though on the brink of breaking with elegant wrinkles. 

     "Why?" he hissed with the blade raised high. Inferno kept her eyes shut, ready to feel the devastation of the blade. 

     The woman's voice was thick like honey, yet held the authority with power as old as time. It was the kind of voice used to tell stories of glory and wonder. "Believe it or not, but if you do this, it very well may be the end of all you know."

     "You a Seer? You could be lying!" he scoffed, causing Inferno's trembling to worsen. 

     The assertion in her tone deepened. "I am Flaria, I do not prove anything. If you do not release the child, I will tell the exact date and time in which you die. It sounds incredibly simple, but trust me, that sort of knowledge drives most to... madness." 

     His hold loosened, though Inferno dare not breathe. "The Flaria? The most powerful Seer to ever exist?" he quieted. "Tell me one thing, and I will happily-"