12th day of Winter, 509 AV
"Fire. What is fire?
No matter how you look at it, fire is different from anything else in the world. Fire does not even fit in nicely among the other three canonical elements. They are permanent in a way fire isn't. Earth is always going to be there. Water may transform, but it never stops being. Air is invisible, but the wind, indeed our own breath, are evidence that it exists. Fire is unlike all of them.
Where does fire come from? Where does it go once extinguished?
Fire a mystery. Perhaps that is what I find most attractive about it. You can't touch fire, but fire can touch you. Fire just happens under the right conditions and just as quickly disappears. It does its job and rides off into the sunset. I always wanted to be like that, too."
Leo Varniak stood barefooted in the snow. The thin carpet was melting under him from his abnormal bodily heat. He joined his hands, deep in thought, the outskirts of the Cobalt Mountains unfolding before him.
"What is fire? What am I? Fire is transformation. Fire is simplification. Breaking complex things into simple. Analysis. Separation. Judgment. I."
Leo held his hand out and opened his Res pores to emit a little of the primal essence from his palm. He ignited it and stared at the diminutive flame for a while. It struggled to keep going in the snowy weather, but it wasn't going to give up anytime soon.
"Am I truly a human being? Or more along the lines of a force born for a specific reason, and destined to be extinguished like a fire once I have fulfilled my purpose? Our lives are fickle things, it takes nothing to crush them."
He clenched his hand into a fist, crushing the tiny flame with it.
"But fire doesn't give a damn that it's going to die. Fire accepts its own fleeting nature. Fire understands that it's not going to last forever. Fire knows that new life will sprout from under the ashes. Fire is a warrior philosopher. So am I."
His eyes shot open, and a bright flame flared all the way from his palm to well over his head. It only lasted an instant, but Leo enjoyed the sight. The difference between a good wizard and a great wizard was that the good wizard knew his field intimately, but the great wizard became one with it. Leo didn't have such lofty ambitions as being remembered as an epic Reimancer, honestly. He just had to grow into one if he wanted to stand a chance.
"And to see Mother again…" he murmured, and prepared for the next exercise.