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Iansan knows she had a brother. Had, past-tense, she doesn’t know him. She knows they were twins and she knows that mom and dad had to give him up for her sake, they couldn’t take care of two children—especially in their current state of poverty. She knows that his name was very different from her own, because her dad wanted a forgien name and her mom wanted something traditional. When they had twins, they chose the forgien one for the boy and named Iansan well… Iansan.
Heres the things that Iansan knows about her twin brother she never got to meet: he was cursed, he was gave up so the family could survive, his name was a forgien one and he was left at the edge of the world. And she doesn’t need to or want to know more than that. Why should she dwell on someone whose not important, someone who might as well not exist?
However, she cannot help but think about her nonexistent twin brother as she clutches her fists together and digs her toes into the sand. He never got to live a life, and Iansan might never get to live past this if she doesn’t win this fight. Her parents will never be able to afford a meal again if she doesn’t win this fight, and if she doesn’t win this fight then was that decision made from her parents really worth it?
“Calm yourself, Iansan.” her father says, hooking his fingers through her long hair.
Her father was a large man, well rounded and strong. Apparently, he was a fighter back in his day, until he settled down with mom and had her. And, she’s been told this story too many times, then he lost a fight and had to give away all his money.
Which has led up to what Iansan is doing right now. At the ripe age of 15 years old.
You have to be 15 to challenge the Flames head on, because 15 is the age where the body can handle godly power being transferred into it all at once. You have to be 15 to try and defeat the God of War, the Pyro Archon. To challenge the god and come out a god yourself, is something only the best can dream of.
Only a select few have done it.
Iansan plans to be part of that select few.
“Thanks.” she says, standing up and cracking her knuckles. She doesn’t have a weapon, her family can’t afford one nor the lessons. However, she knows how to pack a good punch, a good kick and a nice hydro-infused crack of the neck– she only found out about that one when she accidentally killed that guy who cornered her in an alleyway on the way back home from school.
Funny, that hydro will no longer be a part of her if she wins— when she wins this fight.
She wonders what her brother would think of her.
Argh! She need to stop thinking of that stupid boy, who doesn’t exist mind you, and will only pull her down.
Iansan blows air through her lips as her name gets called from the speakers above. Its time.
—
Iansan grasps for her own breath as she rolls over, her back facing the wall. Huddled in on herself, hugging her gut. She really underestimated the power of a god, didn’t she?
The heat is searing and painful, she feels like she's melting. Like she's evaporating. The man of flames looms over her, a sneer on his face. The god could care less about her life, he cares about his seat on a throne. A seat he’s held for a few thousand years and doesn’t plan on getting off of.
It seems all humanity has left this man, leaving a dry husk in its wake.
Is that what will happen to Iansan if she wins? If so she’s not sure she wants to win– no.
She wants to win, why else would she be here? She needs to win.
The stupid god grins and the god looks so aggravating and stupid when he does so, the way his head of flames dances is annoying and so is the stupid smirk. He’s so much more experienced and so much more older than her, and she’s doomed. She’s doomed.
But Iansan is 15 years old, and has a vision for a reason.
The stupid god falls to the ground as the flames dissipate, leaving only a girl hotter than the sun in his wake.
A new era has fallen over Natlan.
(Somewhere, over a sea of ash, over valleys, rivers, and oceans, a boy in the City of Freedom feels something new awaken in his chest.)