Yeah, it was predictable in hindsight. They are having a double session, the Starr twins, Aaron and Sawney sparring. Aaron with Alex, and there is a moment when Aaron pins down Alex down on the matt.

Aaron's eyes go wide before Alex himself reacts.

As soon as he hits the mat, it feels like his head fills with static- he can't breathe- there's someone on his back- white noise and screaming and nononono- the smell of burning flesh-

Yeah, that's definitely not a good smell.

"Move away!" Aaron tells the other two in the room before pouring using his health gift to enhance the muscles of his legs and black flip as fast as possible.

As fast as possible still leads to the smell of burning some burning flesh.

It's like an explosion, the fire blasting out around him in all directions- he screams- it chases Aaron out away from Alex's body, until it's spread out ten feet from him in all directions, burning hot and bright and growing slowly.

Jamie is far enough to avoid the immediate radius. He still falls back to the wall at Aaron's shout, turning to watch the inferno bloom around his brother with wide eyes- he barely notes Aaron flinging himself away from it, and then he hears Alex's screams-

"'Lexei!" He lunges towards the fire. 

Sawney holds him back. "No." He says automatically. "Alexei! Stop! Don't use your magic!" He says, trying to win over the roaring inferno while pulling the other twin away.

Aaron has landed on his feet, but he then skitters away from the growing fire.

He wouldn't be able to make sense of his words even if they could be heard over the roar of the flames. He curls into a ball on the ground, arms tucked between his torso and his knees. The fire keeps growing.

Jamie keeps struggling against him for a moment, and even when he stops he stays tense. "He can't hear," he says, "He's not here, Sawney-"

"We should leave the room. The wards won't let the fire spread further than this, but we need to leave." He says still pulling. "Aaron! Don't try casting, go get Topher!"

He just had raised his hands for that, but yeah, that was stupid to even consider. He runs out of the room, to grab his cold-producing brother.

He grits his teeth, but... yeah, he's probably right. He gives a nod which is more like a jerk of his head, and follows them out of the room. 

The fire keeps burning. 

They probably can't appreciate the leaps and bounds Aaron is taking to reach the upstairs as fast as possible.

"Do you think you can get his mind back? I can cast a fire ward on you, but it's going to take a few minutes. And Topher might just be faster at it."

"It- I don't know. He hasn't had one like this until now, with the fire and everything. Usually I just talk him through it." Of course they haven't run into this particular trigger before. "I don't think it would hurt to try?" 

"Okay, I think there isn't anyone else at the house right now. I will start casting."

By now, the Starrs are familiar enough with the protocol around ritual casting, they move further away from the door, no interruptions, don't distract the caster.

Topher runs up to them. No Aaron. He pauses upon seeing the two and the ritual casting and steps towards the door.

The fire kept growing - it's at fifteen feet now and still getting larger. Alex is still curled up in the center, a just-visible shadow in the flames. 

He manifests his cold aura, it's not quite a wind, but it pushes outwards against the fire. Ice crystals form all over Topher and the floor beneath him freezes. He manages to approach Alexei, but not quite touch him yet. "Alex! Can you hear me?!"

Sawney finishes casting the fireward. "Done."

Alex doesn't respond. At least he's stopped screaming, though. 

And Jamie dashes into the room after Topher. He stops at his shoulder, taking in the scene, and then grimaces, "Can you- calm him, somehow?" He asks. "Normally I'd just talk to him, but... we need to snap him out of this quickly, and that would take too long." 

"Pushing calming memories might help. Can you use you wind to push away the flames? My cold is not intense enough to let me touch him."

"Okay. I can do that, yeah," he does that, the addition of his wind control to Topher's cold leaving a clear path to Alex.