3. Amor No More

As lightning struck the Forest of the Fallen, all sensible beings ran away from it. Alix the Alchemist, a weak and cursed fox, walked straight at it instead.

It was his turn to capture the flame and keep it alive. The previous one only lasted three days because a Gosti fumbled and dropped it in a puddle. This resulted in the events that reinforced the name of this cursed forest, and which Alix did not intend to repeat.

Perhaps it was his relationship with nobody less than a Goddess that gave him the reckless confidence. Perhaps the beautiful phenomenon of lightning was just—

“Fascinating.”

He ran straight at the smoldering embers, scattered around the location where the lightning had struck.

“Watch out!” called Feria, a pink fox and Goddess of Fauna, from behind. Her yell quickly turned to muttering: “Why can’t a smart brain like yours be smart and stop wagering your life?”

“Yes!” yelled Alix. His teeth held a long stick that was mostly untouched, but burning on one end. A torch, Feria called it. Her brother Ardex, God of Fire, had made many of these long ago.

But Feria had cut herself off from her family. She encouraged Alix, and all animals really, but Alix was clearly much cleverer than all of them combined, to discover things for themselves. Stand on their own paws. More and more, they were able to capture fire as it occurred naturally. Not create it yet, but Feria trusted that would be figured out soon after.

The heat from the torch dried Alix’ eyes. Feria had to look away too, but their child had no issue staring straight at it.

“This should keep burning for a while,” said Alix, already walking away. “Prepare your wood bundles. We’ll ignite even more torches, and before you know it, we have lots of fire under our control!”

“To use for …” said Feria, raising an eyebrow.

“Experiments. Warmth in the coldest of nights.” Alix looked around. The night seemed to never end. He had no clue where they were, but it felt as if they stepped through an invisible boundary a while ago, and everything had been dark and cold and depressing ever since.

The three foxes snuggled together. Feria sighed as she enjoyed the warmth of her family, until she realized the warmth also came from somewhere else.

“Aren’t you forgetting something, love?”

Love. Alix wanted to gaze at Feria forever. Contently fall asleep against her paws every single night for the rest of his life. And—

“Oh! Right!”

He turned around to discover multiple fires still burning. He’d only taken out the best piece of burning wood. It was fascinating how quickly such a small fire could grow, and then spread, and already engulf a few trees, and then—

He thrust his paws straight through the fire, touching the burning wood directly. He closed his eyes and muttered a spell, which was mostly for effect, because the real magic happened inside his brain and how he controlled his energy.

Heat? It was just energy.

Fire? Just energy.

Love? Energy too.

Everything was energy, Alix said as he woke up in the morning, as he watched his son capture another fire, and as he went to bed. He said it quietly now, though, for it had driven Feria mad after some time.

How do you stop a fire? You take the energy away. If it has no fuel for burning, then it won’t be burning.

Just as his paws started to hurt, Alix managed the trick again. To his mind, the fire seemed a living being, which yelped in surprise as it was suddenly forced to go out. One moment, the flames rose high and entire trees turned black, the next moment it was like Alix had sucked in all the flames like a reverse dragon.

“Magic still commences at his touch,” said Feria with a smile, holding her child close. “Yes, yes, also at your touch. Don’t think I can forget that, love.”

Love. It had arrived on Somnia, the same day that the Loveline fell and opened up the rest of the continent to the godchildren. The same day they founded a new city, which they proclaimed would be the beautiful, rich, cultural heart of all life.

Some day in the future, that was. Distant future. Right now, it was some backwater town with disgruntled wolves, where every home looked like an accident. The spot was strategically chosen, that Alix could understand. A bunch of easy-to-defend hills, with a fertile river running straight through it, and all of that in the heart of the continent. But well away from the treacherous coast, which would make it vulnerable to attacks from Ancient Turtles and the like.

The grandiose almost-town of Amor was also at risk of burning down.

Somehow, the legend had spread—and Alix had liked this at first, mythical as it was, but now came to see the downsides of it—that the fires extinguished themselves.

This was a lie, dear reader. It was Alix and his family, sometimes helped by friends for the godchildren, that manually put out every fire in the way Alix just demonstrated.

He’d been distracted by Feria’s beautiful eyes, and his fascination with thunder. The thunderstorm hadn’t obliged and stopped existing after one strike. It had struck multiple times, in multiple places, and their reaction was hopelessly delayed.

Alix’ child immediately raised his paws. He had incredibly short whiskers, unlike his father, but they glowed whenever he started to use magic. Real magic. Not tricks. He was a demigod, after all.

“NO! Not the moment,” yelled Alix. “Too risky. We’ll fix it the usual way.”

The fire caught the first shoddy, wooden cottage of Amor. Its inhabitants, a wolf family obviously, ran out howling.

Alix could extinguish it, though his paws were really hurting now, and his body screamed for food. More food. More fuel. More energy to perform the magic that commenceth at his touch.

By the time one fire was out, another had doubled in size. No home was safe now.

Feria’s magic couldn’t help with the fires. She could help the animals escape, though, by lending them strength, making their heart beat faster, and healing any wounds near instantly.

Most were happy about her presence. Some, especially the wolves, refused to be touched.

“Aaah,” yelled Alix, waving his paws to cool them off. Feria raced to him.

“Let me heal that for you, love.”

Love. It had grabbed Alix’ and Feria’s heart and never let go. Every time they grabbed each other’s paws, it felt like would never let go too. Even now, healing Alix involved a lot of kisses, asking if he was alright, and telling him to be more careful, as their tails intertwined.

Surprisingly quickly, the screaming and howling around them died down.

They had saved Amor. They had saved the dream of a big city here.

Unfortunately, in the process, and his endless fascinated distraction, Alix had dropped the torch that used to be between his teeth.

Amor stood on one side of the Forest of the Fallen. That side was saved now.

The other side, going deeper into the forest, ending at some overly large tree that Alix swore had eyes … well, even Alix the Alchemist could not put a positive spin on what was happening there.

The inhabitants of Amor crowded around the two foxes to watch how the Forest of the Fallen started to burn. They all silently agreed, with nods, murmurs and clenched teeth, that any rescue mission was hopeless now. Yes, very hopeless. Better get back into their safe home and pretend nothing was happening. Fire? What’s fire? None of our business! That’s Ardex’ domain!

Goddess duty forbade Feria from sticking her head that deeply into the sand.

Especially when she realized someone was missing.

“Permiox? Permiox!?”

Their son was a black silhouette inside the forest, casting eight different shadows all around him, and casting spells at will with varying degrees of success.

His parents leapt after him.