Page 18 - Folio Only

I’ll live another thousand years, and you’ll have all the fire you want again.
You’re welcome very much.”

“You’re -- thinking of the phoenix.”

“I wasn’t. But I am now. What about the phoenix?”

“Same thing. Burns itself and rises from its own ashes.”

“Well, I’m the one who first thought of doing that.”

“But it isn’t true.”

“Of course it’s true. My first immolation was way back, before the
Egyptians. The phoenix didn’t come along and mimic me until well into the
First Dynasty, and it’s only because she wanted to made sure she had her
portrait painted in the hieroglyphics, vain thing. I was too shy to pose. But I
was the one who --”

“No, I mean the whole thing isn’t true. You. The Phoenix. Bursting into
flame. That’s just a myth. That doesn’t actually happen. She’s just a bird.
And you’re just a lizard.”

“Rest assured, I’m no lizard. I am fire. And you’re stupid.”

“I’m going.”

“No, wait. I’m sorry. I’m sorry! You’re not stupid. I understand. It’s
hard to believe: a salamander being fire. Look, usually I don’t have to convince
anyone to help me; every thousand years I just build a nest and get it over
with. I don’t have to bother anybody. Just three, two, one, phloom!, flicker,
flame; screaming, screaming rising, agony; sinking; death. But then smolder,
smolder, ashes; regathering, ashes closing in, hardening, pulling together, shell,
shell, shell; cook, wait. It seems like an eternity, the waiting. Maybe it’s only a
second or a minute, but time is weird inside the shell; it’s all warped, time is,

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