Snow drifted through the cavern, sending chills through the air. The room Alucar had given Lumi was massive for such a small fox. Despite it being deep within the dungeons, it felt as real as ever. The first half still had snow, but it was decorated with two beds, a human-sized one, and a fox-sized. A dresser off to the side of that, with a vanity. The second half was a massive area, so big you couldn’t see the end. It was filled with small game, trees and piles of snow. Normally, the area was pure white; however, on this day, crimson stained the white. Blood was splattered across the entire cavern. Dead rabbit parts were thrown around randomly. Intestines decorated the tree’s as if it were Christmas. There was not a single living thing left, except for Lumi. Her body was tangled in silks, hanging from the ceiling. 

Her petite body was intricately wrapped in the silks. One wrapped around her leg while the other wrapped around her waist. She hung upside down; the ends of her black hair touched the ground. Her three tails swayed back and forth, and her ears twitched with each blow of the wind. Her fingertips dragged through the snow, the skin of her fingertips stinging with the cold sensation. Lumi hadn’t been to the cavern once since her master had shown it to her. She had been at his side since she decided to bond with him. Their bond became inseparable, or so she had thought.

The flashes of their war with the undead and the lich king flashed through her mind, plaguing her with memories. She could still feel the way he had devoured her magic, pulling everything from her body until she had lain lifelessly, and the last thing her eyes caught sight of was her enraged master. Next, her waking up in a strange place, the woman named Niamh showed her the death of her master, at the hands of none other than his own father. That memory warmed her body with rage. Her blood boiled. She could remember the feeling when he died. How their bond snapped. She couldn’t feel his magic, his malice; it was gone. 

The void that had been left in its place was unbearable. When she had come to the second time, her mother had put her in a cage that suppressed her powers. All Lumi knew how to do was scream. She screamed to be let out. She screamed for her Master back. She screamed for death. For days on end, she screamed until her throat was raw, and she couldn’t scream anymore. She was broken. It hurt for Lumi to go back and think about it, her heart ached in a way she couldn’t explain. She didn’t want to remember, but she couldn’t forget.

Her body swayed and twirled, readjusting herself in the silks as she swung back up and slowly unwrapped herself until she fell from the silks and landed on her feet. She gazed at the carnage around her and sighed. Why had she done it again? Why? She couldn’t remember. No, she did. Vivid memories of Alucar torturing her clone flooded her mind once again. Lumi had been let go from the shackles of her sadness when she felt her bond with her master had come back, but stronger. His darkness, his malice filled her, making her closer to him than she had ever been before. The dark thoughts of his flooded her mind, shattering what had been left into the smallest pieces until they were sand.

Lumi couldn’t stand the thought of someone taking her master from her again. Not again. She wouldn’t allow it. She happily stabbed her father for touching him with his lips. She would do it again. But it was when her master willingly did it to her father did something snapped inside of her. Alucar was Lumi’s. She had lost him, and then she had him. No one else was allowed to have him but her. That was how it was supposed to be. Her blind rage turned into something that shouldn’t have happened, and in a result, she felt each agonizing moment her clone had gone through.

Her stomach turned into knots as she forced herself to remember. The pain that coursed through her body as she felt the dull spoon carve into her flesh, cutting her open for her insides to be let out. Her master’s fury knew no bounds, and this had been the first time Lumi had experienced it. Something she never wanted to again. She could still taste the way her blood coated her tongue. The lack of air left her dazed as her intestines were shoved down her throat. She could feel life drained from her clone. It felt all too surreal. She felt like she had on the night the Lich had taken her life. 

That’s why she had ran away from her Master, why she was here. Why, in her rage, she had killed every living thing her eyes had caught sight of. A frustrating scream left Lumi as she fell to the ground. Her hands bawled in the snow as bloodied tears started to leave her eyes. Lumi didn’t understand why these things were happening. Why did she have to die? Why did she relish the pain her master gave her, and why did she want more? Her thoughts conflicted with each other. Nothing made sense in her shattered brain. 

Her rage, her sorrows, everything that had been bottled up within Lumi slowly started to seep out as a scream left her lips. Her tails twitched, igniting in their blue flames. Her ears did the same, her fur turning into spirit flame as her eyes shifted from red to amber. The flames on her body did not stop, nor did the screams. The blue flames grew hotter, and the intensity slowly started to melt the snow in proximity. The flames moved from her tail, slowly crawling upwards, engulfing her back in flames. They seared at her human flesh, melting the skin at the fire's intensity. Lumi’s human body wasn’t equipped to deal with the inferno that was starting to consume the kitsune. Her screams of rage mixed with ones of pain, but they fueled the growth of her blaze.

Slowly, the flames continued to consume the rest of her body. It spread from her ears to her scalp, melting her dark hair off of her body. The scorched pieces falling off. The flames along her back spread down her hips and towards her legs. Her clothes seared off, her skin continuing to melt. Each second that passed, the flames grew hotter, more uncontrolled. More and more of the snow within her cavern started to melt, leaving the concrete showing. Where Lumi sat, she was now replaced by an inferno of blue fire. She looked like a ball of it. Her melted body was fresh meat that only burned, and healed, and burned again. The smell of her flesh contaminated the air, leaving a foul and charred stench.

At this point, Lumi’s screams could be heard at every point of the dungeons. The heat could be felt radiating from the doors of her room, but none would be able to help Lumi at this point. Her fire grew twice in size, turning into a bigger inferno. The ball filled the room, growing hotter and bigger each second. Lumi’s screams mixed in with the sound of the inferno and the sizzles of tree’s lighting on fire. More of the snow melted, quicker and quicker, until there was nothing left of it. Her bed’s burned, and so did the remaining furniture within her room. The only thing left within her cavern was Lumi and the tree’s that continued to burn. 

The pain that had filled Lumi slowly started to fade. It turned into something else. The feeling of being born anew. The flames had melted her previous skin, but helped for a new one. It had burned at her soul, and forged a new one from her raged sorrows. Lumi wasn’t broke, she was how she was always meant to be. A fox of death, a raged princess of fire. This is who she wanted to be. This new, darker version of her is what she needed. She would relish in it. 

Slowly, the flames started to disperse, only begging to take the form of an unbloomed flower. Each petal was formed from her blue flames, delicately curled in on one another. Ever so slowly, each petal began to uncurl, and the Aeonia began to bloom. Slowly, Lumi could be seen, her new delicate body curled up in the center. Her body unfurled like the flower had and slowly rose from it. Visually, Lumi looked the same, but her hair had grown longer, the ends now touched the ground. Her tails had grown in size, longer and thicker now. The real change was inside Lumi.

She had turned the anger, her sadness, her confusion towards herself. She didn’t want to be the Lumi who had allowed herself to die. She didn’t want to be seen as weak or frail in the eyes of her family or her Master. She turned it onto herself. She had burned the Lumi she had been before, and in the flames of her fire, she birthed something new.