The Citadel

Flurry Heart quickly turned around looking everywhere trying to locate where the mysterious voice came from. Backing up against the wall she took a defensive stance limiting where an potential attack could come from.

"Hello." she tried to not let her voice shake as she spoke.

"Well hello to you too little one." came the reply back. "You know it's adorable how you try to look so fierce." The voice said with a small chuckle.

The mocking comment was coming from somewhere right in front of her but she still couldn't see anyone. Flurry took a defiant step forward trying her best to not show fear "show yourself!"

"Oh but you can already see me." The response confused her as she shifted her eyes around the room until finally locking on the blue flame in front of her. Relaxing her guard slightly she slowly moved a little closer to it in the center of the room.

"Is this you?" she asked.

"Yes it is." The flame flickered a little with the reply.

Unsure of what to do next she had never heard of a talking fire before maybe it was some sort of sentient elemental. She could feel a powerful magic energy radiate from it, even if it was very little of it. Somehow it could also speak her language which was a bit odd but maybe she could get some information from it since it didn't appear hostile, at least not right now. Flurry moved forward until she was standing next to the small pond surrounding the rock lantern still ready to defend herself if need be.

"So, who are you?" she asked carefully.

"I am just a fellow prisoner just like you." The fire answered nonchalantly.

"Why do you assume that I am a prisoner?" Flurry Heart said while crossing her arms a little disappointed with the reply she got.

"You may not be locked in a cage but everyone in this world is a prisoner." The voice stated.

Flurry did not like the implications of that statement as it strengthen the theory that she may not be in her own world anymore.

"But" the voice continued "since you took the time to come all the way here to visit little old me, may I ask who you are?" The voice put on a more friendly tone as if trying to soothe her, and it worked as Flurry relaxed a little. And because of her royal upbringing she did not think twice before jumping into her formal introduction that she used for diplomats and other important people. "I am princess Flurry Heart of the crystal empire and heir to the crystal throne." She spoke with confidence and finished with a small curtsy.

The flame was quiet for a second before letting out a small chuckle making it flicker again. "Well that is bold of you, giving me both your full name and title."

Flurry was a little perplexed by that response and she got the feeling that the small blue fire was grinning at her.

"But since you have been so courteous to me you may call me Zyzix." It said gleefully.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them before Flurry Heart spoke up again.

"you said that everyone here is a prisoner, what did you mean by that?"

"Do you know where you are?" The flame asked, Flurry shook her head slowly. "well then princess let me tell you that you are very far away from home." it said matter of factly.

Her heart sank and her frown deepened as that was one of the last things Flurry wanted to hear.

"I can see it on your face that you are troubled by that information." Zyzix said softly.

"But know that every prison can be escaped from no matter how impossible it might seem." It continued in a smug tone like she knew exactly what Flurry wanted to hear.

That sentence sure enough got Flurry's attention "Are you saying that you know how to get out of here?!" she exclaimed with hope in here eyes.

"I do, yes." came the short answer.

Flurry Heart was almost about to jump with joy when a thought hit her. "Wait a minute, if you know how to escape then why haven't you done so already?"

The flame flickered again before answering "I did say I know of a way yes, but it's not an easy one and it is impossible for me to do alone."

"Why is that?" Flurry asked.

"Simply put princess, I am currently to weak and I am locked in a cage." The reply was as dry as the sand outside almost making Flurry blush from how silly that last question was.

There was a moment of awkward silence between the two before Zyzix spoke again. "Anyway, if you are willing to help me then I can show you how to leave this world."

The offer was very tempting and she was leaning towards accepting it. But she didn't know if this fire creature could be trusted yet, it could all be a lie to trick her into releasing it. It might be dangerous and attack her or escape on its own and just leave her here. Then again this could also be her only ticket home and she didn't want to risk losing that, she needed to be sure.

Crossing her arms and looking directly at the flame she spoke "How do I know you are not lying to me?"

Zyzix let out a small laugh "I like your scepticism, it's a good trait for a royal to have."

"Of course you should not trust me on one promise alone, but if you are willing to hear my story then maybe I can convince you."

"Fine." Flurry said after thinking about it for a second.

"Excellent!" the blue flame said in an excited manner.

"You see I am a primordial energy birthed at the beginning of everything in the deep void of space."
"For eons I drifted trough the cosmos until a consciousness formed within me and I awoke as a being."
"Now with a mind of my own my travels was not aimless anymore, so I set out to discover what the universe had to offer."
"And I found many unique and interesting things." Zyzix's voice almost sounded nostalgic.
"I have visited countless worlds each more spectacular then the next with creatures you could never even imagine."
"I have also witnessed the raw power of the universe and learned to wield it as my own."
"With this power I could travel to other realities and different dimensions giving me even more to explore, experience and learn from."
"That is how I eventually found this world."
"When I first arrived on this planet it was nothing like what it is now, it had oceans, jungles and was full of life, but that was not what drew me here."
"The inhabitants here where highly potent magic users and the powers they wielded was very similar to my own."
"I was intrigued by this, never in all the eons of my existence had I seen anything like it."
"I wanted to explore closer so I assumed a physical form and eventually made contact with the natives."
"They where primitive and believed me to be a god which I at the time thought very amusing so I decided to humor them and play the part of there deity."
"For many generations I stayed among them sharing my knowledge and watching there civilization grow and prosper."
"I helped them conquer there enemies and in return they constructed a grand citadel for me to use."

Flurry Heart stood silently with her arms still crossed listening to what was being said by the blue flame, much of it sounded way to fantastical for her to believe but then again it had been a pretty strange day today. But there was one thing that she had a hard time figuring out and needed answered.

"Excuse me" She interrupted "but if you are so old and powerful as you make it sound, then how did you get locked up in a place like this and why can't you escape?"

Zyzix let out a small laugh. "Ah yes my imprisonment, I was getting to that rather embarrassing part of the story."
"like I said before I shared my powers with the inhabitants of this world, I let them taste the endless magic of the universe without thinking what it might do to mortal beings."
"At first there was nothing special happening other then there magical abilities increasing, but some of them wanted more and I gave it to them."
"Eventually a sort of priest class grew from the descendants of these very powerful magic users and every generation asked for more, and I continued to give without thinking about it."
"You see with such vast power comes hubris and even an eternal being such as myself is not immune to it, so I thought myself untouchable and did not see the plot to trap me and steal all my power."
"Since I am basically just energy they manage to create a seal that locked me out of my own magic more or less crippling me."
"After that it was easy for them to imprison me down here and drain me of almost all the magical power I had, leaving me but a whisper of what I used to be."

Zyzix paused there was a sadness in her voice almost like she was feeling sorry for her jailers instead of anger.

"What happened next?" Flurry asked.

"Greed." came the reply in a somber tone. "Greed and delusions of grandeur, the priest lords that took most of my power wanted more, there thirst was unquenchable."
"With all of there newfound magic they started experimenting, warping both things and creatures around them into monstrous magical abominations, they even started to enhance themselves."
"But there blind pursuit for more magic was ultimately what destroyed them in the end when they began to open portals into other realities."
"You see they already controlled all magic on the planet but they wanted more so the plan was to drag powerful magical creatures and artifacts trough these portals and absorb them."
"They created a huge prison within the planet to keep and drain them of there power, and it worked for a time."
"Understand this princess they could only absorb so much magic at a time any excess magic was stored within the planet itself, like a giant sponge."
" And when that sponge eventually overflowed it caused a enormous magical storm that washed over this world burning everything it touched with magical fire before casting itself into a space between realities killing almost everything."
"The once that where not killed became horribly mutated by the arcane winds."
"Ironically I survived because of my imprisonment here."

Flurry Heart's mind was racing with thoughts after hearing all of this, it felt like she had a million questions and yet could hardly think of any to ask, it all sounded so alien to her it was hard to believe. She tilted her head down as she rubbed her forehead trying her best to process all the information. As far as she understood it she was for some reason on a world cast into some sort of pocket dimension by a cataclysmic magical event caused by the reckless natives and now she was talking to there trapped deity.

"Woah..." was all she manged to say at first before looking back up at the blue fire. "You sure know how to tell a story."

"I'm just happy that you where willing to hear it princess."

"Although I do have some questions." Flurry stated.

"I will answer them as best as I can." Zyzix replied.

"Do you know how I got here?" Flurry's first question was straight to the point, she had wondered this ever since she woke up here.

"Ah that is an easy one, you see some of the portals they opened here are still active and are maintained by a construct, and sometimes things with great magical power gets pulled trough."

"Do they just bring things trough at random?" Flurry asked with a puzzled look.

"Pretty much yes, you see the portal acts like a searchlight scanning multiple dimensions at once and when it finds something of interest it tries to drag it here."
"If successful whatever is pulled trough will end up in one of the vault prisons, but as you are here with me you must have managed to escape it, you are a crafty one ain't you." Zyzix ended with a snicker.

If what the fire before her was saying was true then that was one mystery solved at least, but she wanted some more questions answered before she decided what to do next.

"How can you know all of this if you have been locked up in here for so long? and how is it that you can speak my language?" Flurry Heart was sure she would know if Zyzix was lying with these questions.

"Technically I am not speaking, I am manipulating a small stream of magic towards you and your mind is interpreting it as me speaking."
"As for the other question, my energy is spread all over this world and that enables me to sense what it happening out there even if I can not interact with it."

Like before Zyzix's answered without a stutter or hesitation making it more likely that she was telling the truth in Flurry's opinion. And if that is the case then it would also mean that her talking about knowing a way home for her must also be true. Helping this being might be her best chance to get home again and so far she had not gotten any real reason to distrust the flame. It appeared to be mostly friendly at least so maybe it would be foolish to decline the help it was offering. After having a small debate with herself she looked back to the cage in which the blue fire was flickering silently awaiting more questions.

"If I release you can I be sure you won't attack me?" Flurry was a little nervous on what the answer would be.

Zyzix let out a small laugh making the flame flicker before replying "If you help me out I give you my word that I will not do anything to hurt you, and before you ask yes I will show you how to get home."

Flurry Heart let out a sigh figuring that this was as good as it was gonna get. "Alright, how do I let you out then? I don´t see any way to open it anywhere."

"Do you see that sword behind you?"

Flurry turned her head "Yes, what about it?"

"That used to be my weapon, I am giving it to you now and we will use it to get me out."

She blinked a few times looking at the massive sword before turning back towards Zyzix. "How am I supposed to use that, its like five times my size." She stated.

"Put out your hand for me please."

Flurry did not question it and stretched out her hand towards the cage. The fire started to glow slightly brighter as Zyzix began to mumble in a strange language. A tiny ember floated from the cage and landed in her hand making her pull it back as it burned her.

"Ouch! What did you do that for?" She said with a scowl.

"Sorry about that princess but it was necessary, now try touching the blade."

Flurry rubbed her hand and walked over to the oversized weapon and placed a hand on its hilt. In a matter of seconds the thing shrunk down to the size of an arming sword both the grip and weight felt tailor made for her use. Moving it around in her hand she could feel the excellent balance in it while marveling at the craftsmanship put into it. The blade was made from some sort of dark crystal very akin to obsidian while the hilt had a more bronze colouring to it with a red gem in the middle.

Zyzix's voice brought her back from admiring the weapon. "Beautiful is it not, now bring the blade over to me and I will do the rest." She said with excitement.

Still a little nervous of what would happen Flurry steeled herself as she approached and carefully extended the sword over the water towards the cage. As the edge of the blade moved past the bars of the cage and touched the flame Zyzix again uttered a few strange words and as she did the blue fire started to flowed into the weapon. The room got noticeable dimmer as the light got absorbed into the sword until it was all gone. When the flame went out Flurry Heart slowly pulled her arm back, holding the sword in front of her face she could see the blue fire swirl around inside the crystal blade.

"Excellent work princess." Came Zyzix's gleeful voice again this time from the sword. "My sincerest thanks to you."

"I didn't do much but you are welcome I guess." Flurry said while scratching the back of her head. "Why are you inside the sword anyway, I thought you wanted to get out."

"To put it simply, I am to weak and needed something to anchor myself to and this blade was the perfect vessel for me to do so."

"Right so." Flurry continued "are you gonna show me how to get home now?"

"Yes of course I will, but not here." Zyzix said, the fire still dancing around in the blade as if trying to get comfortable.

"why not?" Flurry questioned.

"Because interdimensional portal magic is very complex and I am not powerful enough in this form to do so, but don't worry for I have a solution." Zyzix explained.

"Do you remember the portals I mentioned before?"

"Yes, but how is that relevant?" Flurry got the feeling that there might be some time yet before she could go home.

"You see my dear, if you can bring me to where one of them are I will be able to use it to power up enough to create a portal of my own back to the place where they took you from." Zyzix explained in a way that made it sound so simple.

"But I don't know where they are or where to look for them." Flurry complained.

"Do not worry little princess, I will guide you to the right place." Zyzix chuckled.

Flurry sighed and lowered the sword as she headed towards the stairs. "I sure hope so..." she grumbled.