Each time it hooked a savage claw through a piece of her soul, she managed to tear away.She wanted to die, but she’d take the mystic with her. She saw the orange smoke, saw it spiralling from him. Evil reaching out and seeking to control her. She fought it even as she screamed in panic.The flame flared but she didn’t care. It would burn her, sear the flesh from her bones, and that was all right. She would welcome it. Her spirit would finally be free and she could fly to safety.But when she leaped into that fire, reaching for the dark mystic beyond, instead of the flames licking at her skin she’d felt something else. Cool as water, fresh as snow. It surrounded her, a white light that pushed the shadows away and subdued the orange smoke inside her. She felt it try to draw away and hide, pulling back, spiralling from her body, slipping back through her organs, bone, flesh and skin, screeching from the light and back into the shadows beyond and into the hellish body of the dark mystic.The white light was so safe, filling her with peace, and she could only gaze in bewilderment as she suddenly found herself on one knee on the floor before the fire.
