Available in the second edition of Daughter of Molten Flames, the bonus scene takes place at the end of Seraphina and Raiden's stay in Moane, when they are about to head into Sefare.
Raiden and Seraphina were half a day’s trip away from reaching the border between the water and air territories, but the sun had set, and the wind was chilling, so they stopped to set camp for the night.
They settled on a soft spot on the grasses surrounding an enormous, clear lake so still it could have passed for a mirror. Seraphina made a fire and unrolled their camp beds on the short grass. Mountains encircled them, giving her the impression that they sat in the middle of a great bowl. The sight was breathtaking. The vegetation was rich and multicoloured, and the sky was open and clear, offering a view of smudged purples and fading orange in the distance. The lake in front of them was calm, and the air was so pure that she could’ve bathed in it. She let the wind, curious and exploring as it was, roam over her skin and hair and kiss her eyelids closed.
Raiden watched her as he unpacked the berries, cheese, and dried meat that were in their packs and set about making their small dinner. Then he took to boiling their water and making them cups of steaming tea with the herbs he’d found along the way. Audacious insects came over to investigate them and their belongings, but thankfully, as soon as they sniffed or tasted the balm Raiden had coated their skin with, the little creatures scurried off without another thought.
As soon as the tea and food were ready, he passed them over to Seraphina. She nodded in thanks and proceeded to devour everything quickly and silently. He could hear her stomach growling with dissatisfaction. She wanted more food and needed more to sustain herself properly, but neither of them had the guts to hunt for game, and the closest village was still a day away.
She drained the tea in seconds, even though it was hot enough to burn the tongue, set the cup aside and got up.
“Wanna go skinny-dipping?” she asked, a mischievous smile lighting up her face.
Raiden gulped loudly and looked down at the arms he’d draped over his knees.
Seraphina shrugged. “I won’t look if you don’t want me to, but I’m gonna go. I need to wash urgently.”
Indeed. Both of them stank from days of uninterrupted walking under the warm sun. Although they had stopped at several streams and pools of water to wash their faces, hands, and armpits, they’d been in need of proper washing for a little more than a week and a half.
He got up slowly and tentatively lifted the hem of his shirt. He blushed under her shameless stare. She smiled knowingly and turned away to undress. He did the same.
Without turning, he asked, “Shall I go in the water first, or will you?”
“Me!” she screamed and squealed as she ran into the lake and plunged underwater. She jumped up almost immediately and gasped. “It’s so freaking cold, holy shit.”
Raiden laughed heartily before saying, “Look away, here I come!”
He did the same as her and regretted it instantly. If the water was cold to her as a Kar, then the water was near freezing to him. His nipples hardened and his teeth chattered as he hugged himself, trying to keep some semblance of warmth within himself.
“I might be able to help with that. Hold on,” Seraphina murmured as she willed herself to stop shaking and focused on the elements around them. A moment later, her body glowed a faint golden-orange and the water heated slightly. Enough to stop Raiden’s trembling without disturbing the life living in the lake. Enough for him to relax and sink into that weightless pool that began to soothe his worried mind and sore muscles. He swam further in and drifted.
Seraphina stayed close to the shoreline, watching Raiden from a distance. Then, she started to wash herself as much as she could without a bar of soap, avoiding her braids in the process. But she had already jumped into the water once and didn’t have her hair products with her to take proper care of them. She’d need to undo them soon, as she had never learnt how to re-do them herself. Her adoptive parents hadn’t stopped to consider how the knowledge might benefit the contents of her bank account from dwindling. For this trip, Dhara had given her the courtesy of braiding her hair.
She smiled. She had grown fond of Dhara. Missed her, if she was being honest with herself. It felt good to have a friend like her—someone down-to-earth, queer, Black, and Latina. She hadn’t realised until living with the girl how much hanging out with people who shared the same experiences as one healed the soul. For the first time in her life, she was beginning to feel like she truly belonged somewhere, and it was in large part due to her new friendships.
Seraphina glanced again at Raiden. He had certainly been unexpected, and she liked him…really liked him. It was the way he observed and understood. The way he looked and talked and moved. Easy. It was easy to be with him, enjoy his company, and want to have it for the rest of her life. She hadn’t really admitted that to herself, but now that she’d thought it, she realised that it was true—that nothing had ever rang truer.
She understood then that it was her grief and anger that had overshadowed their early tension; that she had felt uncomfortable because he made her confront her darkest parts, the ones she didn’t like and was afraid no one else would either.
Raiden called out to her to tell her that he was going back to the shore, and thirty minutes later, they lay side by side on their camp beds, looking at the jewelled sky. She’d dried them both with her powers and put out the fire in their camp so that they could watch the stars fly by. Crickets, frogs, and other creatures were composing a full orchestra behind them when she asked him why he’d chosen to be a nurse. He was silent for a long moment, considering his reply, before he gave her an answer.
“I’ve never been very brave, but my father is. He was a firefighter for many years, then a first aid responder. Watching him work, how good he felt after helping, how much more confident he became…those were the ideas that first pushed me to study medicine. I thought that perhaps I could do something similar but less risky. I wanted to help others immediately, though not actively put myself in danger. Additionally, I did not want to be the one in charge of decision-making. That burden is simply not for me.
“However, the more I studied, the more I genuinely enjoyed it, and as soon as my internship in the hospital began, I realised that it was not about me. It’d never been. It was about them, the people I care for, the children who get to grow up with stronger bones, the mothers whose babies will survive their first months, and the elderly who get to live another day thanks to our services. I’ve devoted myself thoroughly to the practice ever since I understood that.”
Seraphina melted at the words and the sincerity in them—the selflessness. Here was a man who cared wholeheartedly for others and what happened to them. Someone who was kind and did not expect anything in return. How wrong she’d been about him when they’d first met.
She turned her head to him and asked, “Do you wish to do or study anything else in the future?”
He turned his head to look into her amber eyes and replied a bit breathlessly, “I would like to write one day.”
“Write?” Her eyebrows shot up along with the corners of her mouth in surprise and delight.
“Yes,” he chuckled, his own face reflecting her joy. “I have written a novel already, as well as many short stories and a collection of poems.” He shook his head and returned his gaze to the winking stars. “Nevertheless, I lack the courage to publish them.”
“No! But you should! You absolutely should,” she exclaimed.
Raiden only shook his head again, an unfazed sort of resignation marking his features.
“I’m serious,” Seraphina tried again, raising herself up on her elbow and leaning her cheek on a fist to look down at him. “What scares you about it? Let’s get to the source of it.”
He closed his eyes and his eyebrows twitched slightly towards each other as if he was annoyed by her insistence. It only made her want to pursue the matter further.
“Tell me what scares you. Why won’t you put yourself out there?”
He turned his face to stare at her hard in the eyes, analysing and calculating the look on her face.
She glared right back, her mouth set in a tight line.
He sighed in defeat. “To write is to rip oneself open and give all of one’s parts to the reader—the good, the bad, and the unspeakable. It is such a vulnerable, rebelling act. I feel exposed whenever someone reads what I’ve written because if they don’t like it…then they don’t like me. Everything in a story is some part of myself, so to enjoy it or not directly correlates to others’ view of me.”
Seraphina’s gaze was unflinching as she asked nonchalantly, “So you’re afraid of judgment? Of what others think?”
Raiden whined, covering his eyes with the palms of his hands, and Seraphina laughed.
“It sounds so vain when you put it like that.”
“Trust me, it’s not vain. It’s human nature. Perfectly normal, really. Most people care what others think.”
“Somehow you don’t seem to, even though I know deep down you do.”
“Yeah,” she replied simply. It was her turn to sigh and fall back on the camp bed.
“How do you do it?”
“Well, for one, I’m confident in myself in spite of my insecurities. People’s words only affect you if you believe them to be true in the first place. And because I know my worth, others’ judgment hardly registers. It only does when the words reflect the internal wounds I have, the shit that I think about myself on my bad days.”
“I’ve heard once that most people do to others what they secretly want done to themselves or think they deserve.”
“An interesting theory. I think it might be true.”
“Our subconscious does act in odd ways. I think we might be the most self-destructive species on this planet.”
“Oh, that’s a fact. We love destroying each other. Ourselves especially. Like, look what’s happening right now in Padma.” She licked her lips anxiously. “The matter of who is allowed to love whom is so silly. The government is clearly just scared.”
“For a good reason,” Raiden replied, though his answer lacked conviction.
“Tell me about it,” Seraphina challenged patronisingly.
Raiden glared at her, his face almost solemn. “It’s the law, Rey.”
“Just because it’s the law doesn’t mean it’s right, Raiden. You’re not that naive.”
“It would change everything—”
“That’s how life works, Raiden,” Seraphina interrupted. “Through constant change. The moment we stop changing, we become bitter and cruel. Movement is life. Movement is evolution. Without it, the pressure is too great. Avoiding change only ever caused self-harm, and you know I’m right.”
Raiden was silent for a moment, unsure how to continue the argument. She had a point. He had once read a similar speech in a newspaper article on Martin Luther King Jr. and unjust laws. Laws could be wrong because people wrote them, and humans could be petty, selfish, greedy, and territorial.
Scared.
Many people were terrified of the different and what it could mean. Because to make space for it meant an inevitable shift in how things currently worked, which was uncomfortable. Change had never come without pain, and pain was what most truly feared.
Raiden was one of these people and was acutely aware of how much of a coward it made him to be so scared of getting hurt. After all, as Seraphina had put it, it was part of life. Unavoidable, really.
And absolutely necessary for growth.
Nothing grew without some degree of pain. Nothing could bloom without rain.
Raiden looked up to the stars for guidance but found none. The world continued its rotation the same way it had yesterday and would tomorrow, but his world had shifted. She had shaken it awake.
This time, when he looked at her face, the constellations in her freckles were the ones that guided him. The ones who listened and were unafraid.
If his parents had once fought for her parents, the ones who had believed the same thing she did and had procured a better and fairer life for all…then so could he. He could try, at least.
He would try.
For him. For her.
For everyone who was just as afraid as he was, and those who didn’t have someone to fight for them.
Them.
It had always been, and it would always be, for them.
Ohhhhh I loved!I loved it… it shows them more real… talking like friends do… I loved it! I loved it!