Chapter Text
There was an Affini obsessed with destruction.
The study of it, the method of it, the justification of it.
The things they found in those lessons were helpful. Countless Xenosophants were understood by the fears of decay, difference, and weaponized despair.
Driven extension the need to bask in the glory of an existence ruled by toxic fire that flowed from minds full of twisted needs. The obsession with death, and killing, and by extension the idealization of suffering.
Somewhere along the way, bit by bit, they lit themselves on fire.
It sang to them, the way it ate their flesh. They grew new vines constantly to be consumed by this dark light that followed and wicked them wherever they went.
Turned their own vines into blackened things that stoked fear in others, that tickled lungs into discomfort, that made other Affini think twice before reaching out towards them.
A preverst kind of discomfort, burned into their life and core, a burning need to sit in the discomfort of others, an equally preverst joy.
As their blooms burned away; among the quickest of the Affin due to the fire, they lived and danced short blooms.
Shortened by the choice of fire.
They were falling again… their ashen body was falling apart…. They would enjoy another bloom of fire….
As they closed their eyes, a blackened hand reached out and pulled their core from them, leaving their body behind.
Teeth of every sort smiled universes away, as the Affini was plucked gently to a barren place.
Then with that same gentleness, hands that had torn apart planets buried the Affini.
Perse was excited.
It would have to be a good host when the plant awoke.
It covered the disturbed soil with the ash of the long dead, and waited.