{ love's living flame, tenderly you wound

[Hrodvitnir Ulf]

love's living flame, tenderly you wound
my soul's deepest center...

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The Players:
Avalon Sinclair [20], Midland Witch, Fire Elemental
Ioan Firefox [32], Member of the Dragon Circus, Fire Dancer
Claudia Sinclair [24], Sister to Avalon

Born into a human family, Avalon Sinclair has been forced to keep her magical gift contained and tamed. Without a friend or family member learned in the magical arts, Avalon has learned to control her magic completely on her own. However she still cannot understand her fire's full potential. Her family life is only enriched by the atmosphere of their home, the Wall Marketplace. Raised behind a trader’s booth, Avalon became enamored with new things and old things all mixed together into a fabulous work of living art moving before her eyes. Wall is a very real dream come to life for her and yet she cannot truly be a part of the place she calls home. The busy life of the Wall Marketplace is the only thing that keeps her sane while her father and elder sister despise her. Magic is hated in her household, for it is considered to be the cause of her mother’s passing.

Avalon’s sister Claudia has grown into a spiteful and proud young woman who enjoys the control her beauty and wit brings her. Their family's standing as a well respected trader in Wall feeds Claudia’s desire for respect and power. Her only weakness is the fact that she is jealous of her sister’s unique beauty and gracefully quiet manner that contradicts her own nature. Claudia uses her power as an older sister to keep her younger sibling in submission, taking everything she can from Avalon to keep for herself. Their father Anduin favors Claudia over Avalon and Claudia uses this familial favor against Avalon at every opportunity. It is not uncommon for Avalon to find something special she desires to keep for herself and the moment Claudia sees its hold over Avalon’s affections she wants it for herself. Claudia will use their father or her own strength against her seemingly weaker sister to take away Avalon‘s happiness. However she has learned from a frightening experience of the growing power of Avalon’s magic and has not been pushed to violence against her sister since that fateful day Avalon’s gift came to the surface. Even through all her silent torment and heartache, Avalon manages to survive. She waits on the edge of her life’s prison, looking through the bars at the world beyond and waiting for a chance to find out what its like to be in the world and of the world she worships from afar.

Ioan Firefox was raised by the Dragon Circus, which has traveled from end to end of Magnum Terra and made a well known name for itself. He was born to circus parents, both loving and caring artists who taught their son the skills he needed to become one of the Dragon Circus’s finest Fire Dancers. His skill with the flames of his trade is being made into legend by the awed stares of his audience that follow his every move as he spins swords of flame into bright golden blurs of light or sends a blooming burst of sparks and orange flames into the air from his lips. In the eyes of the younger spectators of his art he appears to be a magician, but in reality he is simply a man who learned his unique craft through practice and many trails. While he is swooned over by many women he has yet to find himself someone to be his true life companion. For no-one has shared or understood his addictive love for the life of the Dragon Circus and the fire he has learned to control. Over the years he has come to be known as a heartbreaker and his only friends are within the fold of the Dragon Circus. His ginger hair and fierce eyes, that glow bright in the flickering gleam of the flames manipulated by his bare hands, haunt the dreams of the few privileged women he has known over the years but left behind. In the end, every single one of his relationships has come to an end when he moves on with the traveling members of his extended circus family. Even his parents settled down in one of the villages they'd visited, letting their son carry on their legacy with the Dragon Circus alone. Ioan is a spirited man that loves his freedom and the thrill of his art that brightens the lives of everyone he meets. Now the Dragon Circus is moving back in closer to the Wall Marketplace. The fortune tellers are whispering of the many exciting changes and new prospects to be found in Wall. Ioan feels the center city calling him closer once again, a new audience waiting to become enchanted by the many ways he can bend fire to his will.

When Ioan arrives in Wall, he will meet a mysterious creature with bright red hair and a magical gift burning under her skin that she cannot control. Passion awaits Avalon and Ioan should they meet, but looming in the background is the tall imposing presence of the wicked Claudia. Her jealousy knows no bounds and she could easily take away the one thing that might bring Avalon freedom and happiness, Ioan Firefox. Avalon’s cage is tightly sealed, can she find a way into Ioan’s arms before Claudia crushes her last hope for a savior? Will Ioan be able to see beyond Claudia's skillfully woven web and into the flames softly burning in Avalon’s heart ? Is it fated for these two souls of fire to find love and companionship with one another? Avalon has never known the excitement and thrilling vitality that Ioan enjoys every time he steps out before a crowd of spectators. Ioan has never experienced the tender gentleness of a girl with a unique and undiscovered gift for being passionately in love. Avalon's gift also stands between her and finding love. Being unable to fully control her power, she cannot be sure of herself should she surrender to her emotions. Can she calm the deadly flames of her magical gift? Or will she be wounded by love's living flame?...