Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
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"Helia, my daughter." Nova kissed her forehead and leaned away just enough to look her up and down. "You're so big, and so beautiful." Her mother trailed her hands down Helia's robes, and Helia couldn't help but blush as her mother ran her fingers over the embroidered flames. "You've become a fine mage as well. I can feel your magic so strongly." Though Nova started the statement with a smile, it faded and her eyes dimmed. "You must fight as your father and I did."
"I do," Helia lowered her hands to hold her mothers', squeezing gently as she composed her racing thoughts and mind. "That is my duty as the leader of the Cinders, to fight when necessary, but I am trying to change us from the hostile house we used to be. I am also forging alliances and making friends with mages who work with the vampire-mage alliance. It's not quite as much as the other houses have committed to, but it is a start to the slow process of changing old stubborn minds for a new way."
"You are leading our house? What of Pyre? Horus?"
"I am here, Nova." Pyre came into the room, and Nova regraded him near as nervous as Helia had her.
The moment Nova saw Pyre, tears filled her eyes, but they were nowhere near the volume of Helia's. They also dried up as her mother took in Pyre's arm in a sling and his cold yet tired mahogany eyes. No amount of Cinder robes nor pride could hide that he was no longer fit to lead their house.
"You are injured. Was there not a healing mage to attend to you?" Nova almost seemed like she was offerings, but Pyre held up a hand to stop her.
"It is as healed as it's getting, Nova. The injury was too grave and I lost the use of my arm. Horus is alive and well, though angry with you for leaving, so he did not come with us. Our people look to Helia for guidance and leadership in my absence. They would not accept Horus. He is not a leader. There is not much more to it."
"I see." Nova's voice sank as she released Helia and took a shallow step back. The hurt was clear as her shoulders sank. "You must also resent me." Nova found the ground at Pyre's feet, and her father shifted uncomfortably in his robes."
"No, Nova. I understand. I just like the use of my remaining arm, so I will not be approaching you with those two ready to take it." Pyre lifted his chin to direct attention behind her mother, and Helia got her first look at the dhampirs.
All she'd been able to see when she'd entered the cave was her mother, after all the years of longing and searching. It was shameful as a mage to get so caught up in emotion that she hadn't thoroughly assessed the threat of the dhampirs behind, but her father would not admonish her here. With him and Vice, she had feared nothing.
Two full-grown men flanked Nova not a few yards behind either shoulder. With wavy, churning red hair, they screamed Cinder as much as the rest of them. One had eyes deep like blood and his lifted lips showed his fangs as he focused on her father, but the other remained calm and contemplative. Dark magic filled the air around the more dangerous looking one where his mellower twin was all light.
