Phoenixes were divine creatures.

Sev supposed he should have seen that coming. It wasn't something he'd thought about—there was the passing knowledge in his mind that there were species out there that belonged to the divine planes, yet were not gods themselves. Angels were one such example. Dragons were another, though he hadn't sensed those threads of divinity around Vex when he'd transformed in the fight against Irvis. Something unique about his style of transformation, maybe.

Phoenixes were a third. They were creatures intimately linked to the divine, and Sev could sense that even now, with the way every thread of divinity in the vicinity suddenly lurched and pulled toward the amber-colored stone that was the [Flame of the Phoenix]. He had to scramble with [Divine Manipulation] to prevent the effect from stealing away the Blessing he'd placed upon Solar; a second later, and the sun elemental would have scorched them off the roof.

Well, probably not, actually. Misa was still there watching over them. But it would've been a very uncomfortable few minutes, and Sev would rather avoid it entirely.

He watched with a detached sort of curiosity as the phoenix began to lay claim on all the divinity surrounding it. He didn't fight that claim, except to maintain his own spells and Blessings—who knew how fighting it would disrupt the healing process? Sev didn't want to think about what a newborn phoenix would be like if detached from its own divine nature.

There was, however, a resonance in the link he shared with his gods. Like they all recognized something important was happening. None of them reached out to him—not yet, anyway—which was a surprise, but maybe they were simply waiting to see what happened, or they didn't want to potentially interfere or disrupt the link the baby phoenix was forming with the divine.

It took a solid five minutes. Divinity gathered, then contracted, drawing in streams of mana with it. Sev felt the healing spell draw on his power more and more, until the center of the roof was a knot of potential...

And then it happened, almost too quickly for Sev to see. He thought he caught a glimpse of a glimmering pool of pure possibility sitting beneath the [Flame of the Phoenix]. It was a multifaceted fractal of color, barely visible in the sunlight and almost immediately washed away by the pulse of power that came with the final burst healing—

For a moment, it was like the world itself was holding its breath.

And then the stone cracked in two, and there was a little chirp.

"By the gods," Misa said. She sounded utterly delighted. "It's so cute."

"I almost feel like it's too cute," Sev muttered, staring at the baby phoenix.

It was definitely too cute. His visual senses warred with his divine ones; on the one hand, he could see the tiny bird with wet feathers and too-large eyes, looking around at the world with open curiosity. It hopped out of the little stone that had served as its egg, stumbled a little on the floor, then caught itself by awkwardly flapping its wings and sending a wave of heat along the floor.

Sev just barely remembered to pull up a divine barrier just a split second before that wave of heat would have hit him. He wasn't sure he wanted to take his chances with the raw power of a divinely-empowered baby bird.

Anyway. On the one hand, he saw a cute bird. On the other, he saw something that almost bent reality around it, just by existing; the little phoenix was subconsciously laying claim to everything it touched, declaring all things its domain. It wasn't doing it on purpose, but if it were allowed to run wild...

Sev grimaced a bit at the thought and quickly ran forward to pick up the little baby phoenix.

The phoenix didn't fight his grip, at least—it seemed to find comfort in his hands, if anything. Sev felt the way it relaxed and stopped trying to claim dominion over everything around it. Reality unbent, bouncing back into shape, and Sev let out a sigh of relief.

The little bird purred in his arms.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Solar stared at it, evidently enraptured by its appearance. "It is beautiful," the sun elemental told him, walking up so he could peer over Sev's shoulders and into the bird he held in his arms.

"It's adorable," Misa declared. She kept a still-respectable distance away, apparently reluctant to get any closer. "I want to pet it."

"Why don't you?" Sev asked, amused.

"I have to be respectful," Misa said. "I can't just steal the baby phoenix from its dads."

"Wha—"

"I am not—"

Both Sev and Solar spoke at the same time and over one another, and they stopped almost immediately as Misa began cackling with laughter.

"I'm just kidding, guys," she said, snickering. She walked over, giving the baby phoenix a small smile. "I've been waiting to make that joke ever since you told me you were gonna heal this thing."

"Of course you were," Sev grumbled.

"Do we know how it's gonna help us?" Misa asked. "I mean, not that it has to, obviously. It can just hang around and look cute for all I care. But is there a chance that it could?"

"I think so," Sev said. "But I don't know how."

"Yet," Misa said.

"Yet," Sev confirmed. "I'll look into it. I think it can help us. We just need to figure out where all the pieces fit together."

They stayed on the roof for another two hours in total. As long as it took for the sun to finally go down over the horizon, and for day to turn into night; even this, Solar was fascinated by, though his presence alone lit the rooftop up like it was daytime.

"It has been a long time since I have seen this," he said quietly.

"Is it weird for you at all?" Misa asked. "If that isn't too much to ask, I mean. I'm just wondering. Since you're a sun elemental."

Solar seemed more amused by this question than anything else. "It is not 'weird', as you put it," he said. "My connection with the sun is different from what you believe it is."

"I just figured you were a piece of the sun or something."

"And you are not the only one to make such an assumption," Solar said. "We are... an embodiment of what the sun represents. Life-giving energy, to a degree. Light. Fire. Warmth. Many things, all in one."

"When we met you, you were burning," Sev noted. He reached out, noticing that the Blessing he'd placed on Solar had weakened—and yet the sun elemetal's power hadn't begun to overwhelm them again. There was no wave of suffocating heat associated with the Blessing fading away. "Now you're..."

"Now I am calm," Solar said. "Or perhaps that is not the right term for it. I am at peace, I suppose."

"Glad we could do that for ya," Misa said. "It ain't worth it, you know. Being scared. Things are pretty seriously messed up right now, I'll give you that, but there's too much to miss if you spend all your time afraid of what's out there."

"Perhaps you are right," Solar said. He gazed out over the rooftop and into the city of Anderstahl. Sev followed his gaze—this was a first for him. He hadn't actually paid attention to Anderstahl even once he arrived in the little basement-workshop setup, partially because he'd been led there via a series of tunnels and hadn't actually gotten the chance to look at Anderstahl's landscape.

And when they got to the rooftop he'd been kind of distracted by the sunset. And the presence of a sun elemental.

But now Solar approached the edge of the roof, and Sev followed him, staring down at the Prime Kingdom proper. Anderstahl, like many other places, presented him with a sense of aching familiarity — but this was even worse than it normally was. Sev winced a little, stepping back from the edge of the roof and feeling suddenly dizzy; concerned, Misa grabbed on to his elbow and steadied him.

"You alright, Sev?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine," Sev said, trying to shake off the wave of sudden dizziness. "It's just so familiar. It's jarring."

He'd lived here for years, in one of his previous lives, but Sev didn't think that was what triggered his nostalgia. No, the answer as to what this reminded him of was much simpler.

It reminded him of Earth.

His memories of his old home were still locked away to him, though for an aching moment he thought that perhaps this sight would be what finally trigggered what remained of his memory to unlock, to give him back those memories of his original home. Yet nothing happened. His mind balanced on that razor's edge of recollection, like a word he'd forgotten was resting just on the tip of his tongue, but... there was nothing.

"You look sad," Solar noted.

"It's nothing," Sev said, smiling a weak smile. "Just some old memories."

Or lack thereof.

In his arms, the little phoenix chirped, having woken up from its slumber. It wriggled about, then chirped again, this time a little more demandingly. Solar's attention was thankfully quickly drawn to the little bird.

"I believe it is hungry," he said, and then, before Sev could stop him, the sun elemental coalesced a scale of pure fire-aspect mana on his fingertip. The phoenix chirped once happily, then shot forward and swallowed it whole.

Sev stared.

"Is that how we're going to have to feed it?" Sev asked after a moment.

"I believe so." Solar looked up at him. "Why do you ask?"

"Solar, have you ever thought about adopting a pet?"