He was loath to admit it, but after many complaints to wise mares he had to admit that they were right. Disliking the magic that pulsed through his blood wouldn't make it go away, and avoiding to use it would not make matters any worse. And as Fajira didn't hesitate to tell him, he didn't have to like it but leaving all this power to its own devices was downright dangerous. He had already found that things tended to start burning when he got angry, as if the heat of the fire within began to leak when his emotions weren't held down.

It had to be addressed, and so the reluctant mage ventured to the central parts of the land where he found that he could do the least amount of damage. After all, what impression could a few explosions have on a landscape that was continuously exposed to the heat of Helovia's heart, the boiling pit of glowing magma that scorched the landscape and continuously breathed out its pillar of black smoke, ash and steam.

"Isn't there a better place?" he couldn't help but complain to the dragon as they approached the ashen plain, the gray coat already stone-hued and damp from the sweat that oozed from every pore. The day was hot, a brilliant sun beating down on the suffering mortals with merciless amusement. Not a cloud could be seen on the sky, and Lace desperately longed for a deep, cold lake to submerge himself in.
"Stop whining" she retorted, utterly unconcerned by the brutal heat where she flew beside him. "Focus."

"Yeah yeah" he muttered and gave her a wry look before he began to head in a different direction, stepping out of the tall grasses and further out on the ashen field where gems and crystal dust glittered over the ground.

But focusing was easier said than done. For hours the stallion repeated the same routine of clearing his mind, gathering the heat of the magic before letting it manifest in a pulsating orb of fire that emitted a scorching heat not unlike that of it's giant cousin in the sky. That part was easy. The hard thing was to maintain the orb, to manipulate the flow of time that according to Fajira had to weave around it; somehow her senses seemed more attuned to this magic than his, perhaps because of her own attachment to the element. No matter how many times she explained it to him in words and passed the sensation she claimed should be there across their bond, the flames kept imploding or bursting in searing, dangerous cascades of uncontrolled fire.

Finally Lace had enough. He was tired, thirsty, had a headache worthy of a god and his body was littered with burns, cuts and bruises from all the times he had been knocked over by the force of his own incompetence. In a fit of uncontrolled frustration he reared with a scream and slammed the front hooves into the ground with such force that the teeth rattled in his mouth, his mind releasing a large uncontrolled fireball that only lasted for a second before it exploded. Fire burst out all around him, enveloping the entire area in its scorching embrace - nearly singing the tail of the shocked dragon and relentlessly burning anything and anyone who hadn't been wise or quick enough to move away.


@[Tandavi]