Faira scarcely had time to look to Rosaline as she spoke before the invisible attacker lashed out, its attack creating a moving gap in the flames. Faira’s scream caught with a grunting groan as whatever limb the monster used knocked her away, her flames dying as quickly as they had come to life.

With a shout, Faira’s back hit the nearby wall, and dark spots freckled across her vision as she slid to the floor, gasping as she tried to make her lungs work properly again. Marianne’s voice droned on in the background, slowly turning Faira’s terror into rage. As the woman spoke, Faira’s gasping breaths blew through clenched teeth, and her gaze darkened as she glared at Marianne from beneath her brow.

She stood, letting the pain from her landing fuel her anger further.

“How [i]dare[/i] you speak as if we’re worthless!” she growled, taking a couple steps forward, her heart pounding in her chest, and flames flickering menacingly in the air around her. “And you actually want us to [i]pay[/i] for your help?” She snorted, her attention turning to Adrian as he attacked the creature, her awe at his power dulled by her hatred and anger. “You know,” she looked back to Marianne, hoping Adriane had killed the beast, “I’ve had enough of this place, enough of [i]you[/i]!”

More flames spread around her, and darkness lapped at her feet like a living thing. The feel of her powers caressed her, as if searching for a way out, begging to be released at its leisure.

With the fleeting thought of releasing what of her control she had over the elements, the power flooded through her. Faira’s eyes flashed black, and her body, moving beneath the control of the magic, raised one hand, the motion serpentine. A stream of darkness rose with her hand—the snake to its charmer.

“You want payment?” Faira began, just conscious of the words leaving her lips, a dark echo in her voice. Panic spread through her as she realized her movements were no longer her own, and tried to regain control of magic and emotion, the sensation of the untamed power leaching her strength a dull, and quickly growing ache. Like a body of water, the darkness congregated around her feet, lazily pooling out in cracks across the floor immediately around her. “I’ll give you [i]‘payment.’[/i]”

[i]Stop, stop, stop![/i] she shouted mentally at herself as her body spread her arms toward Marianne against Faira’s will, the girl town between wanting the element to collide with the woman, and desiring it to stop. [i][u]Please…[/u][/i] she finished half-heartedly.

The darkness fulgurated across the floor toward the woman, weaving above and below the floor despite Faira’s mental screams. The element formed around Marianne’s feet and rose in hundreds of black, solid tendrils intended to ensnare the woman as Faira stepped yet closer to the woman, her muscles threatening to give out with each apparently elegant and strong stride as a pillar of flames rose to join its companion element.