Upon returning to Kaipo, Rosa is healed with the Sand Ruby. She rushed to Kaipo in order to warn Cecil about an attack the Red Wings were going to unleash on Damcyan and Fabul. Unfortunately falling ill prevented her from being able to deliver her message in time to save Damcyan.
Since there is still hope for Fabul, the party decides to go there in order to warn the inhabitants about the upcoming threat. When they get to Mt. Hobs, they find the road obstructed by a large block of ice. Being the sole black mage present, it should be up to Rydia to melt it. Much to everybody’s surprise, Rydia hasn’t learned any fire-related magic, a lack that means a lot. Considering Rydia’s age and what she has been through, she is quite a brave girl however there is one thing that really scares her: fire.
Fear of Fire. Throughout history, fire has always ranged among the greatest fears of men: conquering it was a long process and even after, controlling fire wasn’t trouble-free. In antiquity, houses were normally made out of wood or contained a lot of objects which caught fire easily. Even excluding war contexts, fire was the main cause of destruction and even the smallest distraction could have disastrous consequences1.
Fire also had a negative connotation. Many creation myths present fire as a sin or as something which creates trouble. In Greek mythology for example, Prometheus steals fire from Zeus to give it to men, an act that will bind him to an endless punishment. In the real world fire was used as a form of punishment as well. Political or religious dissents, like Joan of Arc, and people accused of witchcraft, the vast majority of which were women, were burned alive.
Being a child Rydia perceives things differently from adults, and what does not frighten an adult can look scary from a child’s perspective. The “normal” fear is worsened by the fire of Mist. It was fire that robbed Rydia of her family, her friends, her home. Except from her own life, the flames that engulfed Mist took away from her everything she had. It is understandable that she is reluctant to release that kind of power.
Rydia’s reluctance in learning fire has many reasons. The most obvious is that she doesn’t want to have a power that, in her mind, only brings destruction and hurts innocent people. Using fire will also bring back to memory those awful moments in which she lost everything she had. Her fear is so strong it blocked her from learning even the most basic fire spell.
- Many are the examples found in ancient history, one of the most famous fire would be the Great Fire of Rome, which occurred in AD 64. It lasted around six days and only four districts out of fourteen weren’t damaged. The Great Fire is remembered not only for its destructive power, but also because of the rumours around it. For a very long time, emperor Nero was wrongly blamed for it and the fire was considered an example of him being a cruel tyrant. [↩]
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