The ride became a lot more energetic after I spoke with Fire Phoenix, and He left off words to simply take joy in the moment, releasing emotions which had been pent up for literally thousands of years.

We swooped and dove, did hoops and spins in the sky, and generally Fire Phoenix was acting like He was courting His mate, while I was simply along for the ride.

It wasn’t the Mating Dance, but it was certainly a great display, and those Beasts who could appreciate it were definitely blessed by the sight of it.

I just had to put up with some absolutely incredible aerobatics by a Bird larger than a jumbo jet waltzing around as if He had the inertia of a hummingbird. Shaking my head, I just held on and enjoyed the washes of Phoenix Flame bursting over Him in carefully controlled amounts, sighing as my Fire Affinity went up and my hair turned redder and redder.

Well, there was literally no higher grade of Fire I could find on the planet, only equal it at best, so it wasn’t a lose-lose scenario, I just didn’t gain any real benefit from all the extra power since my Seed was now out of whack.

Magically, the Firelands stood out like a glowing hot light on a cool metal background. They had existed long before Europeans crossed the pond, and at least as long as the native tribal myths extended back. Like the existence of Thunderbird, Humanity didn’t recall a time when the Firelands and the Fire Phoenix were not here.

However, the Firelands were not cinderlands. They were ruled by a Phoenix, not a Dragon, and so the Charlands that were the Demesne of the Heavenly Fire Emperor were not what people were confronted with here.

Instead, you got a heavy northern deciduous forest, which instead of thriving on water and coastal rains like the Redwoods, thrived on Fire.

Sure, it looked like the land was on fire from a distance, but that was only because the leaves of the trees were the colors of flames all year round. Even the greenest plants were bright in hue, and bore gorgeous flowers in a variety of colors, surrounding those within in a rainbow riot of life that compared favorably to an active tropical jungle.

It was all incredibly deadly, of course.

The air temperature was stifling to a Human, the air saturated with heat and Fire Mana radiating off the ley lines and supervolcano below. The Fire Mana from here spread throughout the continent, but was naturally most intense here at the source, and everything that lived here had Fire Affinity in some form or another, and tended to be intensely magical.

It was this nature, and the sensitivity of the native creatures to anything ‘cold’, which made the place harrowing for any non-Fire user. Wielding anything other than Fire could blacken whole sections of the forest within seconds, attracting the attention of all the natives, especially the many, many Fire Avians who nested and flew about the area, their coloration as brilliant as their flames were deadly.

The one thing not to be found here were Dragons and Drakes. The presence of one would draw out increasingly devastating attackers, until Fire Phoenix Himself came down and finished them off. There was no land on the planet more desired by Dragons than the Firelands, especially when compared to the black hell of lava, firefalls, and magma rivers of the Charlands of Heavenly Fire Emperor.

These were the lands of a Phoenix Emperor, and with that came life!

To the utter astonishment of many outsiders, there were natural lakes in the region, snow-capped mountains, and rivers flowed and waterfalls crashed down. Many of them were not even heated, cool and refreshing, and when it rained, the Firelands dimmed to relative darkness, only to erupt once again in life and light when the rains had passed.

Fire Phoenix Emperor slowed down greatly as He approached His home, and eager Birds, Butterflies, Moths, and even Bats swooped in to gladly welcome the Emperor home. Many of them were trailing flames, and all of them were brightly colored. There were Pegasi, Griffons, and Hippogriffs among His escorts, too, all of fiery and proud mien, as well as other fantastic creatures of magic, and every single damn one of them looked at me in envy and confusion as I rode on the back of their Emperor.

Slowing down also gave me the chance to survey His realm by air, and He was making very sure I got a good view of it, since He was doubtless very proud of His Domain.

Precious few Humans had ever seen this, chased away by the fiercely territorial Fire Avians, and even recon satellites had been blown out of the sky with a glance from Fire Phoenix when they tried to survey the region, a common occurrence for the things daring to look down on any Emperor’s lands. I just sat back and enjoyed the view for what it was, my Seed gently fanned by the Fire Mana that dominated all other Elements... but did not chase them away, instead growing richer by their presence.

It was a very Enlightened approach to land management, which no doubt required an immense amount of time and skill to maintain. However, I could tell that much of the duties to do so were taken up by the more powerful Beasts who dwelled here, who were intensely proud of their homeland and worked energetically to maintain it.

Phoenixes were among the most beloved of Beast Emperors, rivaled only by Unicorns, and it was plain to see why. I listened to the howls of greeting and songs of adulation greeting Him on His return, something unrequired and given freely, rather than demanded by power and fear, and could only nod to myself.

There was a reason His Aura was biased to Yellow over Green, although such things were true of almost all of the Healer Bloodlines.

The Firelands did have active volcanoes, but these were not things that spewed ash and cinders, only Fire Mana and superheated air active with dozens of gliding Avians riding the updrafts and bathing in the Elemental power. The lava down there was at least a couple thousand degrees hotter than was natural, but no choking ash was belched out into the sky to befoul the area, the Emperor and the Beasts living here simply wouldn’t have it.

The largest caldera, shaped by thousands of years of Fire and magic, was several miles across, and bore a spectacular firefall on one side, flowing out into a radiant river of molten rock that lasted for at least twenty miles before plunging back into a crack in the earth. Around that river of molten rock grew the tallest trees in the whole domain, all of them over a thousand feet high, and those were the little ones. The bigger ones crowded up close to the rim of the caldera, huge displays of foliage that looked like gold and crimson maple leaves all aflame waving on them, and it only took a second to realize that they were indeed waving at Him.

Those massive Trees were definitely alive and sapient. The fact made me smirk, shaking my head at the thought of Humans trying to come here without invitation. Just foolhardiness on so many levels, not that many had tried, and some had even succeeded, if they were polite and respectful and knew Fire.

Ice users and thieves, not so much.

The lake of lava here simmered with even more heat than the other volcanoes, but it all seemed self-contained, locked within the molten stone that drained out to the south-east continually. My impression was that the Fire here didn’t dare intrude on the personal domain of Phoenix Flame, and restricted itself... the thought of which I found amusing.

Fire Phoenix’s nest was naturally in the middle of the Caldera, a massive construction of Fire-immune trees stacked up for nigh a thousand feet, welded together with lava and heat-eating Vines here and there. Some of the Trees were still alive and spouting leaves and flowers as they feasted on the purest Fire Mana in the Firelands here.

There were at least another dozen nests scattered about the edges, succoring other Phoenixes, doubtless His descendants, including another Emperor! Of course, it wasn’t the only other Emperor in these lands, as there was a Fire Luan, Firehawk, Firetoad, Inferno Wolf, Starfire Moth, and Sunfire Robin who had offered greetings to the Fire Phoenix, all of them Low Emperors. Each was naturally powerful enough to claim a territory of their own, but why do so, when they lived in the best Fire Territory in the world, with the most beloved Emperor of Fire?

Hells, if they moved somewhere else, they wouldn’t have any help dealing with the inevitable Dragons who would come to challenge them for the place...

“WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY HOME, HEALER FAE?” He asked, as we swept in slowly towards His Nest.

“Its beauty is renowned throughout the world, and satisfies the words of all who have praised it, Your Majesty,” I replied to Him. “But... it is a work in progress, is it not? Without His Majesty, how long would it endure?”

He favored me with a burning eye. “AH, SEEING RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER, WHICH SO FEW DO...” He chirruped, swooping in to the high point of His Nest, a polished area melted by incredible heat into an aesthetic that seemed to wildly pulse with molten fires that dared not break free of melded flamewood and stones, shot through with all sorts of living Vines of metals and crystals in a dazzling Formation of sublime beauty and power.

“... MOST impressive, Your Majesty!” I blurted out after seeing that organic circuit of power, even as He glided down onto His favorite perch.

He settled down with scarcely a bump on the jutting trunk of a Flamewood Oak that was still sending out shoots of green and gold leaves, its bark ablaze like a smoldering piece of coal. I stood up, slowly revolving to take in the unbelievably complex, ornate Formation that the Fire Phoenix Emperor had melted and molded into His Nest.

It was Eternal-rank, a Legendary Formation, and just looking at it made my eyes start to burn. There was no comprehending how it worked, and just trying to register it all was taxing enough given the power and understanding it represented.

And yet... and yet...

I exhaled as I realized it, shaking my head slightly. “It is missing something.” And I brought up the Holy Flames on the head of Noble with a flick of my wrist.

He brought His head down and around, staring unblinkingly at the silver, golden, and rainbow flames of Holy power for a long minute. Then He raised His head back up, and slowly turned it about, surveying this fantastic work of art and power He had made over the millennia.

He finally exhaled in a long, low note of wonder. “YOU ARE CORRECT...” His crest flared up once, fires pulsing through it. “I HAVE LONG KNOWN I WAS MISSING SOMETHING, BUT I COULD NOT DISCERN WHAT, REFINE IT AS I MIGHT...”

“It is also because His Majesty was missing something He could not feel. Thunderbird Emperor told His Majesty of the Words of Creation, did He not?” I asked, rising into the air myself so He would not need to bow or bend His Head to address me, but still staying below the level of His golden beak.

“From what I know of Phoenixes, there are three Words dearest to them. The first of them is TRUTH... in its aspect of Knowledge.”

The Word thundered out far more loudly than I had intended, something in the air catching it and magnifying it. The magnificent Formation around us blazed in sympathy, seeming to catch hidden meanings in the Word and magnifying them in a glory that was almost painful to behold, as if the three dimensions of the work now extended off into four and five and echoed into eternity.

I’d never tried to distill the Word to material, only the echoes of it in some of the Crafting I did. This was as close as I’d ever seen something come to doing so.

“The second Word close to the Phoenixes is HOPE, for a better world is what Phoenixes live for.”

With a roar, the whole lake of fire around us lit off, exploding up into the skies in a pillar of glory that would be visible for hundreds of miles. HOPE seemed to echo in every second of the momentous movement of Mana that surged forth for a greater place, and despite myself I rocked at the sight and sound of so much glory celebrating that one Word.

It was a long minute before the very unexpected column of Phoenix Fire faded from view, and I knew that reports of it would be coming in from Human lands, doubtless panicking at what it represented, despite those looking upon it only feeling a sublime awe and sense of comfort from the sight of it.

I had to Exemplar Surge for the last one, as it was not part of my nature, and it had been buried in His for far too long. “The last, of course, is Joy.”