They bring him out. The gardener. Your friend. The one who tells you gentle stories of the goddess of the lost, Ranya. You do not know what to do. What to say. Why is he here?
“Let us test this one’s faith!” shouts Saradis, and she is talking about the gardener, but she is looking at you and in that moment it is clear to you.
They know.
He is made to walk the fire. He walks and you watch and you hope that the god will spare him. But you know he will not, because the gardener does not believe in Zorir. He does not like Zorir, he tells you stories that run opposite to everything Zorir says.
The gardener is not one with the fire.
And yet he walks.
You watch him walk.
You watch it begin to hurt.
Somewhere, in the back of your mind, you are suspicious, the firewalk is so much longer than any other. Why? Why would that be? As the gardener passes, he looks at you, just for a moment, only long enough to mouth two words at you.
We can help him.
But you are scared, so very scared.
Then the gardener’s face contorts. Pain runs through him. His long robes catch light and he is a pillar of flame. But still he walks. He walks on and on and on without making a noise or screaming or anything. Until he falls and is silent.
But someone is screaming.
Someone is screaming.