A Phoenix First Must Burn

by Patrice Caldwell

“No. Lawmen won’t fix this. They cause more trouble than they cure, and you know that’s true. We’ve got to do this ourselves.”

I cried for the child they had never let me be.

But true gods do not care or rely on us. And the kazerach were bound to us as we were to them. Our health was theirs, our disease was theirs, and our disregard and corruption meant their ruin. Remember this, for I did not.

How little I knew of love, and yet how much.