All was dark in the cave after the girl vanished into the light, nothing left to prove she was here in the first place. The empty cave filled Neha with emptiness and seemed to push her toward the beckoning daylight outdoors which her skin had longed to feel for days now.

As she reached the end of the cave, her eyes gazed out over the entirety of beautiful Merveille. The place was truly breath-taking and perfect in every way imaginable on the outside, yet she felt that what happened to lay inside all those doors and hearts of Kellestri was truly not as perfect as its beauty.

The child knew not of Asaliah's circumstances just yet, so her spirit as her healed wings took her to the air and up and over the picture-perfect houses of Merveille soared. Staying clear of the Nostro Lumine's blaze, Neha soared directly over toward Asaliah's house--hoping to find her friend before the light carried her back to her mission.

Neha landed gently on the threshold of Asaliah's estate and approached the large door, and as she did so, she could hear the gentle hum of whispers behind her that were given to the air by any Kellestri who caught sight of her flaming-red hair.

Not bothering to knock on the door first, Neha entered the house and made her way down the dimly-lit, somewhat-familiar hallways.

Left then right, then left again, up and down stairs and across the wooden floors of long corridors, Neha walked, not slowing for a second. Although her legs still felt slightly weak, she continued to speed-walk down the halls, simply minding the pain instead of ignoring it like the previous time.

The image of Charmeine fading into the crystal light still glimmered in the reflection of her eyes, yet Neha pushed that memory aside as she found Asaliah's bedroom door.

First knocking, Neha waited outside the door. When she found no answer, the child pushed slightly on the wood and the squeaking hinges of the door allowed it to open. As her feet silently drifted across the floors, Neha entered the large room.

The air inside the place was musty and stale, its warmth gave the room a sticky sort of feeling that made Neha uneasy inside. Her eyes first drifted from the curtains blowing about from the wind of the open window to the messy bed sheets where Asaliah's body lay.

"Asaliah," Neha whispered as she slowly walked toward the bed. Her sweet voice filling the empty room. "It's me: Neha. I just wanted to say hi before I left again," she smiled, as she now stood by the side of the bed.

Something about how still Asaliah laid caused Neha's stomach to turn. Then, as Neha placed her hand on Asaliah's shoulder her heart skipped a beat. The child pulled the woman flat on her back and had to withhold a squeak that pressed to escape her lips.

Asaliah's body was cold as marble and the whites of her eyes nearly matched her deathly pale skin tone. Something was terribly wrong with the woman, yet Neha had no clue. She appeared to be breathing yet was cold as ice.

"So, you've found our queen, Ms. Neha," an unfamiliar voice from behind her called and Neha jumped by the sudden noise.

Turning round, her eyes met a pair of gray Kellestri eyes she indeed did not know, "Who are you and how do you know my name?" Neha said, backing slightly away from the boy and toward the wall.

"Don't worry about it, Neha. We all know your name. Aren't you the 'GiRl Of FiRe' who was supposed to 'iNsPiRe' us?" the boy laughed, biting his fingernails as he leaned against the wood of the walls.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Neha said, her eyes burning as she attempted to keep back tears. Was she not allowed to have one minute to cry for her friend... or mother?

"Oh, excuse me, Ms. My name is Incendah, I just want you to fulfill what you were meant to do. I don't think you see what is going on and your importance to us. You left on your mission before you save the lot of us and we need you to finish," he spoke.

"What do you mean? What was I supposed to do? You people nearly threw me into that light after all!" Neha laughed, crossing her arms at Incendah.

"We want you to burn with the fire the Nostro told us you had, Neha. We want you to fix this mess that it dragged us into. We are sick of this never-ending captivity! I want to go home! I want to know where home is! You were the one who was supposed to change all this! You do not understand how long we waited and how much we wished someone would get us out of this mess!"

"Look, Incendah, it is not getting out that you need. Escaping and breaking the rules will not get you out. You need to let her send you on your mission in her own time and then you will be sent home safely without any harm."

"But the people say you helped Raziel escape..." Incendah's voice trailed off, looking into Neha's gray eyes as her face paled.

"Oh my... he... actually did it?" she spoke softly, her eyes filling with terror.

"You mean you know what he did?" Incendah smiled, looking at the girl as if she were about to tell him all the world's secrets.

"Yes, but it was so wrong of me to share that with him. What have I done? The poor boy!" Neha spoke, her brow creased as she scratched her wings in fear.

"What do you mean? You helped him escape! You gave him what he wanted!" Incendah laughed as if Neha were a dumb ox.

"No, Incendah, you must understand. I got him sent home without help. Now he will live his life without the saving grace that the Nostro Lumine is offering to us all. You people treat that light as if it is truly the enemy when in reality it is simply a force that wants to help your human lives! You spend your time here moping about how you want to go home when your home is a shipwreck. She does this to you so that you may fix other's lives and learn how to fix your own! She is not the true enemy and you have to understand that! The fire, me apparently, did not come to burn but to enlighten." The words rolled off her tongue as if she had scripted that even though she herself did not know what she was speaking.

"Well... if she is not the enemy, then who is?" he asked, his question so child-like that Neha smiled.

Letting out a sigh, she attempted to find a way to state this that the dull boy would understand and take to heart, "You are. Your minds are what create doubts and fears that lead you to destroy and stress. They build hatred and anger. They take down what is real and instead replace it with a mess which we blame on other things. Just look how you are thinking! You are willing to follow some girl who you do not know to who knows where so that she might get you out of a beautiful world. Be patient, nothing good ever came from rushing into anything. Trust me on that, Incendah," Neha said, her eyes never once leaving his.

The boy stood by the door, not speaking a word as he stared at Neha. He opened his mouth several times just to close it again, his words never truly forming on his tongue.

"Now if you do not mind, I have to let the Nostro take me back to my boy, Leo, so that he might be saved and I eventually."

As Neha started to head out into the hall, Incendah grabbed her wrist. "Wait, I have one more question," he spoke, his eyes wide as marbles.

The girl nodded as Incendah dropped her wrist. "When you get sent to your mission, how are you supposed to save the person? I do not understand. If we do not know what to do in our own lives, how are we supposed to know what to do in theirs?"

As she smiled, she began, "Sometimes you just need to step out of the water to see the whole ocean. When you are drowning, you do not notice anything around you rather than the very water that chokes you. Instead, you need to look farther and see what you had refused to beforehand. From what I have learned so far in my mission though, is that the only real way to get into people's heads is not by words, but by example. Show them the good person you are at heart and they will imitate you. Love them through their faults and mistakes and never give up. The only way to save a broken soul is by love."

And with that, Neha turned and left the boy in Asaliah's room. He stared at his queen's still, pale body, unsure of whether she was dead or simply something else.

Although he had followed the girl with flaming hair to try and talk some sense into her, he had gotten quite the opposite. For in fact, a fire does not burn out when fed, but only burns brighter, taking into its flames whatever is thrown its way.

As the boy himself walked out of the open doors of Asaliah's house, he had, inside himself, a fire he had never truly known before. It brought him happiness, yet he sensed its power.

For the first time in his Kellestri life, he understood. She was not just a flame that burned, but she was also a light that shone to others.

The girl had not been perfect or at all like they had expected, but she had certainly left a blazing forest fire behind her, one that would not burn out before it shone its light into every wooden house in Merveille. That forest fire was Incendah now, the one boy who had taken the spark and now was going to help it burn this whole wooden world to ashes.

That night, he went home to the house he shared with two older Kellestri, not a word spoken off his lips. Instead, he sat quiet and pondered the words Neha had given him.

Yet at the end of the meal, after the two other Kellestri had chatted the entire time, he raised his gaze from his plate.

Looking into the one's eyes and then the other's, he spoke as clearly as he could muster. "We were all wrong this whole time. Wrong about the girl of fire, the Nostro Lumine, and even our purpose," he spoke, pronouncing each syllable.

His words were so abrupt that the two other Kellestri stopped clearing the table so that they could turn to face him. As the both of them looked him up and down, he spoke again.

"I met her today--Neha that is. Oh my, she truly is a fire yet not in the way any of us expected."

The two Kellestri came to sit back down in their chairs now, listening to his every word. "She doesn't burn like a flame yet enlightens like a candle."

"What do you mean, Incendah?" The first asked, incredibly confused as he sat back down at the table and put his head in his hand, staring at Incendah as if he were a book that the boy could not quite read.

"I mean that we need to call a meeting, there are some things the other Kellestri must know as soon as possible," the boy spoke.

And With His Words, All Grew Dead-Silent.