"That has *got* to be bad juju," Polaris said matter-of-factly.

In front of them stood a brazier, aglow with bright blue flame. At his words, its colour shifted, burning a bright crimson for a moment before returning to cyan. If he had to guess, Polaris would have said he'd offended the brazier.

"Sorry," he said, in case he had. The brazier flashed green. Polaris made a mental note not to say anything else the brazier might find unsatisfactory.

His comment stood to reason, though. Here they were, standing in the semicircular black marble annex of a particularly difficult-to-navigate area of the Furnace's extensive ivory halls, and here was a magic, sentient-seeming brazier that burned blue and turned the room cold. Bad juju all around. Despite that, Polaris felt himself enjoying the coolness of the room. It was a welcome respite from the constant, searing heat of the rest of the Furnace.

Next to him, Cairn shifted his hooves uneasily. The chill in the room had unsettled him, as had the colour-changing antics of the brazier. He could see the ancient runes etched into the marble surface of the chest-height stand it sat on; they seemed to glow independently of the flame.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could bring something like this around the furnace? Keep us cool, light the way- not that there isn't enough light," Polaris said. "And no offense, brazier. We don't actually intend to take you anywhere."

The brazier, which had been slowly taking on a purplish hue, simmered down to its default colour again.

Cairn looked skeptically at Polaris. "I don't think we should even be talking to it," he whispered. "Maybe we should just go."

"Hold on," Polaris replied. He rummanged through his satchel and pulled from it their package of food from the surface.

They didn't have much food from aboveground left after two weeks in the dungeon, but Polaris was clearly looking for something specific. After a few seconds, his head came back up and he placed a small parcel on the ground in front of the brazier.

"This is the last of our candied fruit from the surface, brazier," Polaris said. "It revitalizes us when we've had a long day or a particularly difficult battle. Please enjoy it." He picked up the parcel again and dropped it into the flickering blue flames.

There was no reaction for a moment, and Polaris wondered whether he was going insane, offering their final treats to a bowl of flames. Given that the coals in the brazier still looked to be in perfect condition, he wasn't even sure that the flames *were* flames; what kind of fire didn't burn away at its fuel?

Suddenly, the brazier's bright blue hue disappeared. The flames ceased, and the annex was cast into darkness.

"What did you do?!" Cairn's voice was a harsh, terrified whisper in the darkness.

A pillar of white flame erupted from the brazier, and both Coursers dropped their heads, eyes screwed shut against the blinding light. A strobing, flickering light danced across their eyelids, and when the Coursers opened their eyes again, the brazier's flames were circling in every colour of the rainbow.

Polaris' jaw dropped. In front of the brazier lay a torch, its flames flickering a bright blue. He inched forward, nosing cautiously at it. Its handle was cold to the touch, and when Polaris picked it up, he could feel the beautiful chill the brazier emitted coming from the torch, too. He slotted the torch into the shoulder loop on his harness.

"Thank you, brazier. Or, erm. whatever god you're actually an offering pyre to," Polaris flicked an ear in farewell.