[AU] Commander Ardea's Breaking Point
[Ramble about what happens in the AU under read more]
Now, in the "Commander Ardea AU", nothing of this happens, as Ardea is the one who ends up in the Mists instead of Aurelia. The fahrar was the first line of defense into Plains of Ashford and, without her literal firepower, it becomes overrun so fast that the clouds of corruption follow the Branded and everyone exposed to them is turned into Branded (Adamas, Reeva and few others still survive, undecided if in the same manner). In the Mists, Ardea ends up becoming Glint's Herald, and that comes with a bunch of benefits, such as a much larger magic pool to draw from, which then grows tenfold after Aurene's ascension.
Now, her family's ritual spell? With all that magic at her disposal, it's indeed a handy little trick she could pull out in desperate-enough situations, though one that she knows would raise too many questions, so she decides to never use it. She's plenty powerful anyway, and she manages to make her magic appear "strong af but normal" throughout the story, with just two exceptions. The first time was when she unleashed the elemental form during the fatal fight with Balthazar, but given he was the god of fire and on a powerlevel of his own... it was not the best idea to waste her life force on fighting fire with fire, in retrospect. The second time it was inside Kralkatorrik, during the fight with his torment, and the link with Aurene made that form powerful enough to basically wrestle with it. Still, both times no one ever learned about it, as it had happened without witnesses and Aurene didn't snitch. [She was also about to use it against Joko when he trapped her, but Aurene took care of the problem before she could ignite.]
The first time the rest of Dragon's Watch discovers she can do that, it's when it comes out in full force after Bangar shot her. [first pic] For a moment she falls down, stunned by the power of the Jotun magic, then she stumbles back to her knees, steam and then flames coming out of her body as she rises and growls something under her ragged breath. With one flaming hand, she grips the arrow and pulls it out of her chest, calling Bangar a bastard. [second pic] On one hand, Ardea triggered the ritual on a semi-conscious level as an attempt to outburn the Jotun magic that's killing her, but she's also been through the emotional ringer for months at that point and Bangar in particular has always been a major source of rage for her, so she straight up loses control after that moment, lunging towards Bangar as her body becomes fully engulfed with flames (the starting phase of the ritual).
Ryland gets in the way and parries the first swipe of her claws, expanding flames still catching Bangar and making him roll to the ground, then he tries to attack her directly, but with another swipe she melts through his Flamesaw like butter and manages to hurt him as well. As she moves on the solid ground, her flames slowly turn into bubbling magma, but it's not a great idea while in an icy cave under a whole lake and the melting ice raining on her staggers her, the pain turning her rage completely blinding.
Bangar and Ryland take their chance to book it out of the cave, and Braham, Rytlock and Crecia aren't far behind, escaping the howling monster that is now single-minded in finding Bangar and burning him down to his molecules for everything he's ever done, that arrow being the final drop into an ocean lasted her whole life. By the time they emerge from the cave and Ardea follows them, she's a huge magmatic monster, ice around her sizzling into thick steam from the extreme heat.
To keep her from killing Bangar and Ryland, her friends provoke her to try and distract her. When she notices she's lost her target, Ardea turns against her friends. They don't want to hurt her, but without any other option they hurl fire spells at her and run from her, in hopes of tiring her out or something. After minutes of close calls and a dark line of burned ground and lava turned solid stretching across the lake's shore, the beast finally becomes sluggish and pained in her movements, magma growing darker and more solid. The little group thinks they're making progress, but then Aurene suddenly warns them telepathically that they have to find a way to put her fire out, otherwise Ardea will die if she's allowed to burn herself out (Aurene was unable to get to them and help, as she was entirely focused on stunting the flow of magic towards Ardea without stopping it entirely and killing her, which was a hard task in such a volatile state and without her being able to hear her).
Braham, who's been panicking at the idea of losing another mother figure (Ardea had stepped into Eir's role and that caused some friction between them, far more dramatic than canon) since the arrow from his bow hit her, finds the Wolf inside himself and transforms. The dark-red wolf (much like his mother) catches Ardea's attention and maneuvers her closer to the lake, then jumps and tackles the beast's head, causing it to writhe and fall back onto the lake's ice, his actual body mostly protected from the heat by the Wolf form and his own guardian magic. Ardea's elemental form quickly melts through the ice with Braham nearby, steam erupting so strongly that Rytlock and Crecia aren't able to get close. Once it dissipates, there's only bubbling water for the longest time, then they see Braham coming up for air. With his last strength, he had managed to break Ardea out of the rocky shell sinking to the bottom of the lake, and was now struggling to keep an unconscious Ardea afloat with him, so Rytlock throws himself into the water and Crecia helps fish them out.
Braham only got serious burns to his body that the Scrying Pool healed quickly, while Ardea reawakes in it days later, so drained and weak that she can barely summon a little flame, but she's alive and fine, with only a scar from where the arrow hit her (one more for the collection woohoo).
Lots of talks and apologies followed that misadventure, and Ardea became wary of using the ritual again (she probably did out of desperation, though idk when exactly).