Penny Sattely's Story

It was rare, no unheard of people spoke of my mistress in such reverence actual respect and adoration. In truth, I stood up and spoke to her, maybe it was unwise, but one who respected my undulating beauty clearly could be trusted, correct? Nonetheless even my addled state of being of ecstasy and euphoria I spoke to her, "Beautiful yes, gorgeous beyond compare. Necessary absolutely, my Mistress has spoken, no sung to me that her radiance must be known. I mere lover and concubine to her actions. She rules me, I obey without question. But my love is more than mere worship, it is truest and more passionate intimate desires one can crave."

Perhaps it seemed like I had not heard properly, nonetheless, I continued returning my duty, "Without my beloved, my soul mate, my body become ice. Frozen unholy madness lain upon me with pain and anguish. She is my every pleasure from tingling of each sensitive nerve. I will one day give myself to her holy warmth and yell out in pure rhapsody as she devours my body."

Finally, I replied to her obvious question, "A way to be my beloved always? Surely you are playing games, my body can never touch her because it will be taken into her and left in my screams of bliss... I crave her, and she sung to me, sung that this place, this symbol of hubris and decadence needs to be the first torch to announce her coming. I am her acolyte and lover. I am her servant. I will watch and crave those flickers and embers to embrace and caress me... I will sing... sing... for all... ALL MUST BURN!"

"Then my dear." The large woman with hat in hand spoke softly whilst still smiling like the devil. "I might just be so willing as to help you become one with your lover, your reason for life."

The witch walked ever closer to the deranged fanatic only to reach deep within her massive hat and produce a rather odd thing. It was something that should not have been able to fit easily within but seemed just as likely to exist within as it did. The heavy set woman held in her right hand a strange bronze staff gripping a blood red ruby whilst her left hand placed her hat back atop her head.

"What if I could persuade your lover to accept your touch so that you could be intimately closer with its warmth?" The witch smiled as she began to lightly rub the red gem atop her staff. "I could only imagine that the warmth of such a beautiful pyre would bring to your soul and mind."

It was with the witch's left hand extended that the smile faded and was replaced with a stone cold stare.

"I am Forna Big-Hat. Master of the arcane and shaper of the world around us. Your chains are mine to break if you so please and your destiny so easily molded to fit what could rightfully be yours." Forna kept her hand outstretched for the woman to take.

"Fire is your destiny girl, your rightful duty to the powers that be, you could be Queen of the Pyre and Lady to all things that Burn." Forna's words ebbed with powers that sent the earth bellow to tremble and shake. The sky above grew darker as clouds began to blot out the stars above.

While most would be surprised how such a staff was removed from such a hat. I simply raised my eyebrow before speaking, If what you offer is possible. And it is entirely possible for me to be one with my beloved without suffering follies of mankind weaknesses. Then I shall drink of this Ambrosia and say yes... I wish all of that. I wish to be inseparable from my beloved. I never wish to feel cold ever again even in temperatures beyond frozen. I desire to be able to embrace my beloved and never be alone without her again. I crave to see her undulating form and join her ecstasy filled dance and sing the same songs she whispers in dizzying reveries. I wish only to see all things burn and to be with her, my Mistress, my Goddess, my lover... To feel her caresses without any burns and instead, feel invigorated by such radiance and untold splendour."



The clouds appeared to grow darker and if I was not addled and lovelorn I may have thought something amiss, but I am a hopeless romantic and sooner I could feel cold no more, sooner I would be free.

Forna took hold of the girls hand sealing a pact that was beyond nefarious. Old magic ran through one and into the other as a set of bracers appeared upon the arsonists wrists. They glowed with red gems which seemed to flicker like fire itself and an unnatural warmth radiated off from them and flowed into the wrest of the young girls being. What cold once chilled her now suddenly felt swept away in a wildfire of emotions and jolts of energy that roused even the dullest of pains. True euphoria had never been reached in such a manner.

"Can you feel your destiny child?" Forna released her grip upon the young woman only to cackle. The petulant woman's laugh was enough alone to break the spell but luckily nothing of the sort happened. Forna rested her wait upon her staff and smiled like a alley cat who was about to pounce upon her prey.

"You are Queen of your Pyre child. Your will and those bracers will ignite your flame and your passions." Forna pointed to the pathetic flame the woman had tried to stir to life earlier. "Focus your will girl. Accept your title, Pyre Queen..." Forna cackled once more as she pointed to the dwindling flames. "Allow your rage to burn and command the fire to live!"

Forna had every intention of staying to watch her little project grow into a success. Soon when she had all the pieces on her side her revenge would be complete. The old man would suffer horrible for his actions and she new it.

Power, yes. But most of all I could feel her warmth close to me now, I knew what I must do. Now the biting ice coldness did not affect me, my soul felt incandescent and impossible to smoulder and burn out. I felt her close. Though, the comments of how weak the fire was brought a dark grin to my face, "I had and have many methods to create shrines to my beloved. All fire needs love and all fire must be unleashed.

With that I turned to the Mansion now abandoned at once let loose all my passion and desire. As I did so, my body began to change, at first I noticed nothing, but as the embers leapt up the old wood, my voice grew more demented and full of ecstasy. Still, I kept increasing the rage and euphoria within this. My mistress had spoken, sung to me...



NO...

SHE WAS SINGING NOW, I COULD HEAR HER VOICE PERFECTLY, I COULD FEEL HER CARESS, HER HOLY RADIANCE...

Still far more energy, my love knowing no bounds... I finally could join her in this melody and bring her forth, and thus I did...

A great undulating spirit of untold, beauty, such majesty and wonder...



Truly, I was taken back in awe, but I continued the inferno, increasing the fervour within my action. Fuelled by love and wishes of my love now made enduring and real. Singing in crackles and stepping to and fro creating destruction and wonder with each step. My love made lasting. I now could keep her forever within my confines, never feel without her. I was her one and only, her truest love and as the fire shone on my now red locks I laughed... laughed...

Cackled...

BURN... BURN... ALL MUST BURN...

And I heard her speak back, "Yes my love... ALL SHALL BURN!"

As she fully embraced the enchanted braces and her new persona Forna simply smiled and watched. The witch was not fearful of her own life being wasted away by such flames or even if the young Pyre Queen turned her fiery gaze upon a new target.



Forna's voice came to a crescendo as her words did not just fall deaf on silent ears. The opulent witch in her purple finery and massive hat began to cackle sending chills through the air and dampening the heat from the fiery tempest of a woman. The witch brought the butt of her staff against the cold slabs. More deathly chills filled the air as negative energy flowed across the realm they both stood.

"I cannot have you ignoring the gift giver." Forna smiled as she continued to press her weight against the staff she carried. "I've given to you what can easily be taken away. Never forget who brought you the bliss you feel but remember...." The heavy witch began to cackle sending more chill over the field before her. "You should not betray the one who blessed you with such love, my child."

At once I felt a cold unlike anything, worse than the frozen the ice of my body. No, this physically caused agony and the fire, started to die down, smoulder. No. No, but it was too much to even communicate the true anguish in anything. My throat felt raw, unable to even speak words of any sort. I could only flail, although my beloved rushed to me, rushed to my aid and snarled her voice of song replaced by the inferno growing around, "SHE'S MY PLAYTHING. SHE'S MINE!" I blushed, I could not believe she was so protective of me. Nonetheless, I whimpered and felt her beautiful hands caressing my chin and cheeks, so wonderfully. So truly untold...

That being said, I managed to choke words out, with great struggle, "I... owe... her... she freed me..." my wonderful beloved nodded but still glared and I had still not put two and two together. No, in my eyes I had not fathomed what this really must mean.

Behind, the great fire igniting Damodred's Mansion continued to burn, the crackling and undulating embers almost hypnotic in their sways.

Forna did not look directly upon the girl. The large witch leveled her gaze upon the fiery visage of the flames themselves who cling to the young girl who was now Pyre Queen. All that could be done now was to simply slam the butt of her staff once more sending out another wave of chilling icy death.

"Silence forlorn queen. Your words no long hold sway. From your dying grasp I have ignited another's embers." Forna smiled as she suddenly recalled all of the ice and cold allowing her own ruby atop her staff to glow fiercely. "The Pyre Queen serves me now Lady Ignis, you need only be her warmth and guidance." It was only then that the witch ignored the fiery presence and turned her gaze back to the young girl whose fire simply needed air to breath back to life.

"Pyre Queen." Forna's voice was firm a s she approached the young flaming girl whilst the manor continued to burn in the backdrop like a simple scene from a long lost poem or story. "You belong to me. Though you are volatile like your lady you have something she doesn't. Would you care to guess?"

The Witch offered her hand once more not afraid of sudden backlash or heat. Forna was old and powerful and to her will all things either bent or broke.

I watched as the exchange took place, hearing more than a song in my beloved was unexpected I had never fathomed her voice as anything but a melody nor even heard her name or imagined she possessed a body, but here she was real as can be. I was awe-struck, like someone meeting their hero. Starstruck. Pure worship. Completely enamoured, lost in reveries. Because of this, I almost missed the voice of the woman who had given me such a gift.

The cold had now vanished, replaced by that invigorating heat that coursed through my very soul, "my Ignis, my Lady... she is beyond compare, beyond radiant, such majesty and strength. I never imagined, or believed she could be seen outside of the fire that undulated, but she is real. She is beyond everything I ever fathomed... Yet you are saying there is something I have she does not?"

At once, the song began again as I heard her speak, "Very well, Witch... If you ever harm her, I will show you just how powerful I can be. I am the flame that was given by Prometheus, I am the fire that burned down London. I am the ember that ignited the Hindenburg, the spark that blew up the Challenger Shuttle and the destruction of the Blitz"

A borosilicate bulb on a retardant metal cable was the object that shattered a distant window. Inside a mixture of marshmallows and vegetables bounced across the floor. Very small holes around the anchor let the sweet smell out and kept dirt from getting in.

Outside, Smudgie a creature wrapped in a fire-retardant blanket took up some of the cable by a winch on his giant metal fishing pole. He might not be a good stabber but he still has good strong arms! Couldn't roast the food without drying out Smudgie's wings. He had to keep his distance! Food had to be up close. He had a solution!

"YAY FIRE! COOK SMUDGIE'S DINNER! FIREFIREFIREFIRE! MARSHMELLOWBROCCOLI!", yelled the plated high-octane creature his blood currently on fire with its own naturally produced narcotic. Though their metabolism burnt hot it was built to take the punishment.

Forna smiled as she took the Pyre Queens hand. Her threat was as empty and yet how could she know? How could the now empowered arsonist know that it was only a simple matter to remove what was given with such ease that it was almost comically sad.

"Then child I shall let you play for now." The opulent witch in purple chided whilst ruefully smiling. "But as for....." Forna suddenly trailed off as something offputting seemed to catch her attention. Her eyes began to search the endless web of entangled fates and possibilities only to find herself gazing upon the image of a strange looking creature. Though she was not present to see the excited emotion of the overly sized bugs joy there was only one thing she could say in order to make sense of this event.



Forna turned his attention to her staff and gave it two light taps upon the ground before suddenly vanishing from sight. She had many places to be and little time to get all of her work done. She was going to need to raise a small army if her task would ever be accomplished, that or a few good men and women.

In the distance, a Chimera Transport refurbished with a cryogenic liquid rushed over to where they responded to a fire emergency. The crew was a standard 12 man squad, however a Sactioned Psyker was also with them after the city was invaded by a demonic threat. As the crew arrived, the Psyker could feel a presence, the familiar feeling of Tzeentch.

Chaos was responsible for the fire. And with that he warned the others as they were busy putting out the fire. "Beware...I...I can feel chaos nearby!....I can hear it!..." The psyker warned. The guardsman uneved by this kept watch as they put out the fire.

Smudgie started reeling in his meal as the firefighters arrive. He didn't want to eat all that liquid stuff they put out fires with! The whirr of the winch buzzed as his fast arms reeled in the ball as fast as they could. There already was a guard giving him an evil eye.

Antennae shot up along with a shotgun explanation from the speaker strapped to the bottom plate of his head behind the mandible. The voice had the compression of shouting the stimulant-fueled bug couldn't regulate his volume this excited, "I DIDN'T BURN IT. WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO PLAY WITH FIRE! ISTILLWANTHOTFOOD!"

The VREEE of the rapid winching continued even as Smudgie wasn't looking at what he was doing. The ball bounced and skidded across the lawn a black translucent ball with some green and brown material inside. A thin steam emerged from holes near the top.

Now I was empowered I was drawn to more than the flame, but a way to strengthen the flame, bring her to even more beautiful prominence, no longer did her kiss, her loving caresses scar my body. No instead her licks over my body spiralling me into utter delightful ecstasy were intoxicating. Though with power thought once unfathomable, you learn and like a flame are drawn to the growing spectacle. The hypnotic transcendence that begged to be craved. It could bring forth more infernos and engulf the whole world in flames of torment and despair. A family, a race. Let them grow and flourish.

Thus when I arrived my hair as red as the fire and embers that danced around my body, my glowing orange eyes, and I sensed a being. Something intangible, there was a beauty and grace to this appearance. A rage, a burning attraction. Even before I witnessed such astounding grace. I could sense, my mistress jealousy growing. For years she has been my only one, but what if now I could replace her? Though I had not seen this person, I knew they were like me.

I spoke through her fire my voice like a whisper of salacious seduction, "Come hither darling and witness a Goddess." I chuckled to myself and sat near the explosion of chaotic energy awaiting her curiosity to drive her to my place. My body was no longer cold, but I loved the flame, the coursing dancing fire, great infernos formed in the inner mind. I may be free, but I would always be enraptured and in love with the burning, artistic Ballet of Fire.

Selena eyed the woman before her as the portal closed behind her. Her words made little sense to her. Did the woman speak of herself or the flames that clung to her?
"I have seen many who claim to be goddesses...All have fled from my flame..." Selena said with a sly smirk.

As if to prove her point flames shot forth from her back forming into leathery demonic wings the color of dark ashes. Her hands burst into flames as her claws grew. " I am fire!" She boasted giving a flick of her hand imps appeared and danced around her.

The imps began to sing and cackle "To dance in fire is our one desire! Mistress, mistress, shall we place her on the prye?"

There was a mocking chuckle as I grinned with sardonic malice, "Never have I fled, or hid from the flames. But once they hurt and scar my body, destroying beauty, but creating ecstasy. Now, the flames merely caress and touch my flesh, like a lover does. Sensual and orgasmic in its splendour. Once, I felt cold without her embrace, her gentle, flickering embers shadowed over my naked body. Now, I am one with her, I am the fire, the inferno, and she is me. No one is the flame my Mistress, my unobtainable love. Now it is my essence, my existence. My meaning. I was Penny, a girl born with a condition where my... my body never heat up naturally... Now I am free, but so deep in rapture and love am I with her, I can never leave her." nodding I whispered like the soft thick smoke, "All that burns, all that dances, is part of me. I am the fire, the fury."

Pausing, I took her in, with curiosity before exclaiming, "You are not pure fire. You are merely the darkest of fire. I am the light and darkness. I am not good or evil. I am merely the destroyer and creator. I am the Volcanic Eruption and new Islands, I am the embers that ignite in vast towering infernos. I need no demons, for fire is pure. I need only my Mistress. My meaning."

"Light and Dark...Good and Evil... Meaningless....all of us have light and dark and one would be a fool not to use the dark and the light." Selena spoke as she moved closer to the woman. " So you where called Penny? And a mortal? A mortal that was given a gift..."
Selena looked into Penny's eyes as she pulled close to her only a few inches between them. " You intrigue me Penny or whatever you call yourself now...I wonder what draws two beings of fire to the same point. What fate brings us together?"

I considered what she said tilting my head and quirking my eyebrow, with a twinkle of amusement dancing lightly over my features with intrigue. Of course, I must not wear the truth instead I had to play like my Mistress and entrance while hiding my true face. Wearing faux features, be an enigma, unclear and without clarity. Be like her, act in unpredictable ways when allowed to roam and grow. Be the inferno, be the blaze, "Mayhaps it is not the Fate, but the flame. I was drawn to here, so I could scorch the world in a never-ending conflagration that scours chars everything. As to why we met, perhaps the flame speaks whispers we dare not utter or listen too. For to listen would drive us into pathetic insanities. Hear her sing, her whisper, sing such sweet melodies. Imagine songs she would sing if such power was tapped and unleashed. Imagine the choruses the blaze would utter while we straddle the pyre of corpses unable to withstand or handle her beauty, her breathtaking radiance. The fire chose us, we must spread the gospel and continue with the grand spectacle."

I nodded my face displaying, maddening ecstasy, while I swayed to the undulating energy ringing in my mind. Crashing, and banging, chaotic, yet wholly promising. Whispering to me of fire that could engulf and completely end all existence. Of power that surged and shone, fire as hot as the stars and as beautiful. The abyss surging with ripples ragged, jagged bolts, and spinning in an infinite spiral, drawing the fire and drawing the clueless.

I was neither, but was she?