-- Lilith POV, Skyview Monastery --

  It was amazing!

  After weeks of waiting they had finally fired up the forge for the first time. John was working the bellows and she could see the coal glowing. Red first, then yellow. Then almost white.

  She held her hands over the burning coal. Bituminous coal, John had called it, and let her know it was very good for forging. To her, it just had looked like a sort of black and glossy rock. Not unlike her claws actually, now that she was thinking about it. And now the coal was burning.

  She felt the fire with her hands. This was different fire. Different from the wood fires she had known so far. Stronger fire. Denser fire. Yes, denser it was. Not neccesarily hotter but denser. More like, liquid fire. She felt it flow over her hands. She approved. She even nodded. Definitely, this was good fire.

  Without thinking, she picked a coal from heap. It had dark spots but it was encrusted in bright yellow ember. She immediately loved it. She blew on the coal and a spot turned almost white in the glow. She blew it again and the white glow spread. Yes!

  "Lilith", she heard Johns voice like from a huge distance.

  She could not look away from the coal. So gorgeous! She blew on it again. A shower of sparks rose, remained in the air for a moment and fell to fade.

  "Lilith, you are holding a burning coal." John's voice again, closer this time.

  "Isn't it pretty?", she smiled and presented it to John who took a step back.

  "Huh, careful!" he rose his hands defensively but soon gave a quick nod towards her hand, "Lilith, how's your hand?"

  Her hand? How could he ask about her hand now. The burning coal was so pretty!

  "My hand?"

  "Yes. You are holding a burning coal." He paused, "How does it feel?"

  "It's so pretty. I never held a burning coal before, I think." Her looks were fixed on the coal, then she realized she had been asked something, "Hand's fine. It burns, but in a good way. Not like the holy stuff burns. That's bad. This. This is good fire." She rose the coal a bit higher, to emphasize how good it was. "I think some day I want to bath in burning coal. That will be the best flame bath I ever had."

  Then she looked into his eyes and saw him smile, "Can you make me a bath of burning coal?"

  "We'll need a bigger forge for that, but I'll try to make a fire bath for you." He pointed at the coal, "I'm glad you like the coal. Some of it is now about as hot as liquid steel. I don't think we must worry if you can handle glowing metal, if you can hold a white hot glowing coal and tell me it feels good. We don't even need that much heat for rune carving. Red hot will be enough already."

  "I like this coal", was all she could say. Then she blew on it again to refresh the fire.

  "Lilith." His voice moved into an indefinite distance again while the glowing coal filled her perception, "I'll heat up a steel rod while you enjoy the coal."

  Yes, that was fine. Everything was fine while she had the burning coal.

  Well, nothing lasted forever. The coal had crumbled and turned to ash and embers, which soon lost the glow as well. John had kept her from picking another coal though. "I need you to focus on the next test. It might be dangerous, and I don't want you to get hurt. You can pick another coal later, alright?"

  First she had been disappointed not to get another coal, angry even. But she knew he was right. So she had tried to resist and focus on what they had planned for today. The idea that she could have another coal later helped. Something to look forward to, tell her fire addiction it would be fed again soon. Just to have to rest for a little.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  John pulled a rod of steel from the forge, holding it with massive tongs. The one end was dark, dull grey, then came a range of colorful bands and at the very end it glowing almost white hot.

  "Alright, Lilith, careful now. The dark end is safe to hold for you I think. Take it with your favorite hand. Just in case something goes wrong."

  She grabbed the rod at the dark end with her right hand. It was quite heavy, yet not too hard to hold this way. John took the tongs away.

  "Now, put your left hand over the rod. Don't touch it yet. You held a glowing coal, but this is metal. It might be more dangerous to you than coal. Start at the cool end, then move your hand slowly to the hot end. Do not touch the hot metal yet. Just hold your hand near it a and tell me how it feels. Keep talking to me so I know if you are alright, or if I must rip this out of your hands."

  She did so. The cold end was well, cold. "It's cold. I don't feel much here." But as she moved her left hand slowly over the rod, "Now I feel the heat. This feels different from fire. It's hot but it's not fire. Well there is some fire in it, but only very little. Much heat though. The coal felt better."

  John nodded, "Thought so. Does it hurt?"

  She shook her head, hand still hovering over the glowing end, "No, but it doesn't feel good either. It's not really fire."

  "Be careful. Now comes the real test. Move he left hand to the cooler end again and hold it. Then slide the hand very carefully towards the glowing end. Don't try to be brave. Let go if it begins to hurt. And keep talking, tell me how it feels. So I know that you are alright."

  She did so, started to slide her left hand slowly from the cold end towards the hot end of the rod. It wasn't glowing so brightly anymore now, more orange than yellow-white.

  "Hot. Unpleasant. Heat without fire. But no pain." She kept moving her hand towards the glowing end and could feel the metal softening up under her touch, "I can feel the metal getting softer here. It wants to bite me now, burn me. But it can't." She didn't want to tell John it was painful to hold the glowing metal. "I am stronger."

  In a decided move she squeezed the glowing rod in her hand, but had to let go immediately as pain stung through her fingers, "Damnit!"

  She shook her hand, then inspected her skin, the rod still held in her right. Her left palm was dulled. The skin appeared rough. It took a while till her skin smoothed and the usual light gloss returned. The pain faded.

  "Hey! I told you to be careful." Johns accusing voice reached her.

  "Ya", she admitted in a small voice. "I am still stronger." This she said with pride and held the rod up to show the groves that her fingers had left in the glowing metal. "See?"

  "Still. You were hurt. No need to hurt yourself. You need your hands, Lilith! We need your hands." He put special emphasis in the 'we' part.

  She ignored the accusation. To hear she was actually and for once included in the 'we' part felt good and took the sting from Johns initial words.

  "Can't hold it like that for long though." She admitted. "The stuff is mean. It's brutal. It's not like fire, even that it's hot like fire."

  John pointed at her, "And you are a fire demon. So listen to me and be careful if I say to be careful. Hear me?"

  With a slightly angry expression John picked the rod from her hand with the forge tongs and submerged the hot end in a bucket of water. It hissed sharply and a small but dense cloud of steam rose from the bucket, just to disperse into thin air after a moment or two.

  She remained silent.

  John tried again with less anger in his voice, "See, I just want you to be safe. It will be good enough if you carve the runes into the hot metal. Doesn't even need to be that hot."

  She nodded slowly, then a new smile grew on her face as she looked at him. "I can do the runes, John. I'm strong."

  Then she looked him in the eyes and tried to stand tall with confidence, "I still want to see if I can shape the metal with my hands. I heal quickly."

  "No, you will not do that. I do not want you to hurt yourself again with such experiments. So no, we don't do that. Only rune carving and a light touch to infuse the runes with power. I'll make sure the metal isn't even as hot as this rod was."

  She crossed her arms and kept staring at him. He stared back for a while, then a grin rose on his face, "How do you feel about making a flame blade?"

  She relaxed her stance, "A burning blade?"

  "Yep. A blade covered with a flame. One can ignite them."

  Oh, yes! She had to try that. "Can we make one right now?" She stepped closer to John and grasped his hands, "Please?"