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= The Song of the Flame's End =

'''The Song of the Flame's End''' is a ballad or epic poem that tells of a sorcerer and a succubus who pass together beyond the mortal realm into the Infernal. The work survives only in fragments. The best-known fragment describes the crossing itself and is often quoted in connection with [[Elara]] and [[Virilian Steadmane]], who left Faeloria for the Infernal in the aftermath of the Return of Alcor.

== Provenance ==
No single manuscript contains the full song. Versions of the fragment appear in bardic collections, in chronicles of the Faefall era, and in oral tradition in and around the Free City of [[Ix]] and the northern trade routes. The title suggests a theme of conclusion — the end of one flame or one chapter — and of passage. Scholars place its composition in the early decades after 0 TRA, though it may have drawn on older motifs of love, exile, and the crossing of thresholds.

== The Fragment of the Crossing ==
The most widely circulated passage reads:

: ''"And thus the sorcerer and the succubus passed beyond the veil of flame, hand in hand, where angels fear to tread."''

In longer recensions, this line is preceded by verses that speak of "the world that would not hold them," "the choice of the heart," and "two who turned their backs on the dawn." The fragment does not name Elara or Virilian; it refers only to "the sorcerer" and "the succubus." The identification with the two who left after the restoration of Alcor rests on chronology, on the image of a mortal and an infernal-born crossing together, and on the echo of the same theme in [[Elara's Diary]].

== Other Attested Lines ==
Other fragments speak of "a haven in the wastes," "one of blood, one of starlight," and "the laughter that carries on the wind when the stars burn red." These have sometimes been grouped with tales of Erelune's Hollow and with bardic accounts of two interlopers who built a refuge in the Infernal. No single source preserves the song in full.

== Performance ==
The fragment of the crossing is still sometimes sung or recited in Ix and in towns along the pilgrim roads. It is often included in medleys of Faefall-era ballads and in performances that commemorate the Ascendance of Natsuko and the deeds of the fellowship.

== See Also ==
* [[Virilian Steadmane]]
* [[Elara's Diary]]
* [[Chronicles of Faeloria]]

[[Category:Literature]]