"My lord, you..."
The armored wizard's voice came from overhead, but quickly trailed off.
Ruger smiled faintly. Knowing the other man had spoken out of surprise, he did not respond immediately, instead watching the tiny flame. At the edge of the pit, the armored wizard fell silent and watched just as intently, without releasing the slightest ripple of mental power.
The tenacious little flame flickered. Ruger knew that if he spoke just once more, he could achieve an even stronger effect, but he remained silent.
The intertwining of life and death.
Emberfolk.
That name had not been chosen at random. As he sensed it, the more contact he had with it, the more fitting the name seemed. It had been coined by a sensitive wizard with powerful perception. Though he had never met the person who named it, he understood the intent behind the name. It had been discerned from the aura this strange creature gave off. It was burning, brimming with life, yet it was an ember.
Poof!
The tiny flame radiated utter terror, shrinking little by little until it went out completely.
The sharp, slender fragments of stone scattered across the bottom of the pit, like canine teeth, gradually lost their color as well, until all their warmth was gone.
A gain?
Ruger raised his brows slightly and glanced at the stone fragments littering the ground.
He sensed them quietly, then slowly closed his eyes as something stirred within him.
Just as that questioning thought arose, he sensed something extraordinary. It was invisible to the naked eye, but faintly perceptible, as though something before him was departing, slowly drifting away and dissolving, like dust carried off by the wind. Yet there was no wind at the bottom of this pit, only another kind of invisible rhythm.
Ruger's brows