Phoenix and Ashes

'Oh, yes,' softly, yet somehow grimmer still.

She made another two turnings; the faces in the walls were set in frozen expressions of despair. 'Can I free them?' she asked. Not that she wanted to, but—

But nothing should suffer if it doesn't have to.

The Fire Elemental stopped, looking at her with an expression of utter astonishment. 'Why would you desire to do that?' he asked.

'Because if I can, I should,' she replied, knowing that this was the right answer. Not the most expedient, and perhaps not the wisest, but the right answer. 'This—this is wrong. If I can make it right, then it's my duty to. I have power, and power begets responsibility.'

And the walls began to murmur.

She shivered at the sound, which carried something of the tone of those revenants in it. But the Fire Elemental straightened, and spread his arms wide, the little flamelets that danced over him rising from his outstretched limbs. 'Hear, my lesser brothers of Earth? Do you hear this child of Flame? You are in thrall to a Dark Master of Earth. She is not bound to you; she has no responsibility to you, and yet—she would free you.'

A single, enormous face formed on the wall immediately in front of her. The eyes were closed and remained closed; she was just as glad. She had the feeling that if those eyes opened and looked at her, she'd be sick with fear.

It wasn't an ugly or deformed face; in fact the features were quite regular. But there was something about it that made her wish she wasn't looking at it. Something dark and cruel, something that loved pain, and was bargaining with her only because it had no choice.

'We hear,' said the chorus of voices, which now came from the single face, although the lips didn't move. 'Why?'

'Because,' the Fire Elemental replied, with pride welling in every word, 'she is better than your mistress.'

The face in the wall did not react one way or another to this statement.

'How can I free you?' she asked, her voice trembling, yet determined.

'Break her defenses, and you will free us,' came the reply, in a low and ugly rumble. 'Swear that you will!'

Be very careful what you promise] came the thought. This is the Elemental world, and words have more weight here than in the real world. If she promised—and failed—there would be a different sort of price to pay, and there was no telling what that price would be, only that it could be very expensive.

And you do not want to owe an unknown penalty to a negative Elemental.

'I promise I will try,' she said instead. 'If you will give me the key to this place that holds me.'

The face became very still for a moment, as if all of the creatures speaking through it were consulting with one another. Then it spoke again. 'Follow the Tree,' it said, 'The counter-Tree. The Tree of Death.'

And it faded back into the wall again, but Eleanor knew exactly what it meant—it was a riddle, probably given to her in that form because she had not promised to do anything but try, but not a very clever one. She was to trace the opposite path of the Tree of Life; fortunately, the Tree of Life happened to be one of the major Tarot layouts as well as the key to the Kabala, or she wouldn't have known what the face in the wall meant. Mentally she retraced her steps from the center of the maze, and realized with relief that she would only have to go back and change her last turning.

'Why are you here with me?' she asked, as she set out on the new pattern, greatly relieved that she was no longer going to have to touch those walls.

'Because, although I cannot help you directly, I have a function I can perform for you,' he said, and tilted his head to the side, expectantly.

A function he can perform for me— Abruptly, she realized that he already had.

'You—you are an intermediary!' she exclaimed, stopping dead in her tracks. 'You can negotiate with the other Elements!'

He nodded, gravely. 'That is my function. And if you can make your way from this place—'