Flenelle
Izus pulled the dagger softly free from the young boy’s chest. He had ended the child’s life so swiftly, that the dark-haired boy seemed to sigh into a deeper slumber.

The bedchamber was quiet. The house was quiet. The brown-cloaked man’s work was almost finished.
He wandered idly through the family’s library. A frown creased his face when he saw that the father’s heartblood had sprayed over a rather fine edition of Tonics and Tinctures of the Altan Greenspeakers.

So wasteful, he thought. But no matter…

Izus stepped carefully over the dozen bodies that littered the hallway. The house guard had been quite fervent in their defense. The brown-cloaked man casually ran a finger along the wall as he walked – a ripple of green and purple flame following. The stone began to burn.

Why had he left the boy for last? Chance? Perhaps to lengthen his last dream.

The mother’s body was slumped in the doorway, gushing blood onto the steps. Her form was wedged in front of the door, so Isuz sent one last gout of strange flame, reducing her to ashes.

He shut the door behind him.

Izus Torrosian turned back only once, as the green and purple inferno began to consume the manor. The estate shared the street with several other fine homes. His flame was beginning to dissipate into honest fire, but he could see it licking through the grass, hungry to burn. This whole tier of the city could very shortly be ablaze.

Wasteful, he thought. But no matter…

A flash of golden feathers, and the roc landed before him. The brown-cloaked man pulled himself up onto Bird’s strong back, and sent him skyward with a thought. In a moment, they were winging through an open space in the walls, leaving the spreading flame behind them.

The brown-cloaked man’s work was finished.

The brown-cloaked man’s work was only beginning.