Sam met my eyes with all seriousness, though at any moment I hoped he would burst into laughter, admitting how ridiculous his ambition was. But there was no laughter. Sam had truly concocted some reality in which I would aid him in dueling with a pyre for whom I held no true disdain. Though I had to admit I endured a high level of annoyance from the pyre’s dealings, I certainly did not mean for him to fight anyone.

Both pyres present, Rosemary and my dungeon rescue, looked on as if the habits of humans were always this irrational—with slight amusement and general apathetic bewilderment—as Sam pulled me aside. “Aurelie, you  must help me, as I am fighting to defend your honor. What is the pyre’s secret skill. Do they not all possess some…some wizardry? Some devil’s talent? Hallen warned of the danger of this particular pyre, and so I must know what harm he could cause me. Besides, what look would it be if you did not aid me as I am aiding you? I would look the fool!”

I tried to stare very deeply into his impassioned green orbs to see if perhaps I could detect the disconnected part in his brain, dangling there, wishing he noticed it as well.

Sam sighed. “Oh, I forgot. You will not speak to me, no matter how perilous the situation or whose honor I defend. Have you never thought, Aurelie, that perhaps it is  selfish  that you do not speak to me? I pour my heart out to you time and time again, yet you give me nothing in return. It is a rather one-sided…friendship.”

I waited until he finished complaining. And then I pointed toward his downhill home, willing him to go to it. To go to his aging mother and tend to her needs. Perhaps she needed a duel set in her name. Perhaps she had another selection more suited to her son than I.

“I cannot simply abandon this effort. I have already said aloud that I will duel and so I must. And….” He cleared his throat. “Perhaps win your hand in the process. If you see how valiant my defense, you might understand how passionate….” His voice trailed off, and his blood flooded to his already ruddy cheeks. “Has he a weapon?”

A weapon? I had never seen a pyre wield a weapon in a fight. What made Sam think this pyre would have one? Did most men toddle about with their eyes closed? Did they not possess basic powers of observation?

“Very well, if you will all be silent, Aurelie, I shall fight bare-fisted!”

The unnamed pyre tilted his head to Rosemary, and I thought they might make a handsome couple. This caused a daring and unfamiliar pang in my chest, which I promptly and heartily ignored.

<<What is happening to the human>>? the pyre meant to Rosemary.