"Huh? Burn out—what do you mean—"
Before she could finish, the flames behind the first flickered as if stirred by invisible wind. Their colours swirled, merging and splitting, the air trembling with light. One by one, each flame swelled and twisted until they grew wings of fire.
Her breath caught.
The flames were turning into phoenixes?
Dozens of them... Hundreds!!
Each one was different in form—some glimmered like glass birds filled with starlight; some bore feathers etched with lightning; some moved like rivers of molten gold, others like storm clouds of silver flame. They circled her in vast spirals, filling the darkness with a symphony of screeches and rustling wings.
Their eyes gleamed with pride and... purpose!
She never imagined there could be so many phoenixes, each so unique, each alive with its own kind of eternity.
"What's going on here?" she whispered in utter shock, voice trembling.
Then came the reply—slow, echoing, and full of authority.
"We are you."
