Private Embers of the Past

It has been nearly a week now. Soosei and Ivana together have come with a plan to combat the fox deity's, and all was going well... Except this one specific day. Every two months, she would spend one whole day within the forest, no one bothered talking about it, those who have seen... After all... It was a quite mundane sight.

Close to the waterfall there was a circle of small stones recently assembled, just enough to prevent a wildfire from happening, and within the circle a single candle stood, with a white flame slowly consuming it. Seated right before the pale candle was a fox man, or maybe woman, in the lotus position, facing both the waterfall and the candle, wearing a white and black kimono that symbolized Soosei's duality. However even in such state...

They were still well alert.

@Zora

They have been meditating for how long? Soosei didn't seem to track time, but the moment Ivana's voice, their eyes opened and searched for her. Once her localization has been found, they called out "I am here.", with a voice that was between the male and female selves. Shouldn't be hard to spot Soosei, either by their voice or their clothes.

"Ah, hello there, Ivana...", Soosei was in a good mood, from the tone of their voice, "Surely I've been feeling well. It's just this is a little of a ritual of mine I like to relive ever since I first created these divine flames...". Their eyes went back to the candle, and soon they remarked "Beautiful, isn't it?"

"About every two months, sometimes I do it a little sooner or later. I'm ashamed to say, initially I made these Heavenly Flames to punish an arsonist, however while trying to come up with it the most important aspect for me was its ability to do good as well: it should be able to erase harmful fire, become harmless when needed, become helpful when needed.", Soosei explained their smile fading.

For a moment, the wind stirred the grass and leaves, but the flame barely waved to it. "That was the only time I used the flames for "evil", but ever since I only used for cooking, heating, and to put out fires. In other words, I had my lesson back then: exacting revenge felt empty, led to nothing.", their voice had sadness seeping into it.

Soosei gave a slow nod, gradually letting go of the sadness that crept into them. "Yes. I have the firefighters to thank for the kinder and protective nature that I added to my flames... Because they saved me when I lost it all, I had someone to look up to. Amusing, isn't it? A minor deity looking up to humans.", they gave a small giggle.