The sun hadn't risen yet.
I could still taste the night air—cool, sharp, unsettled. It clung to the skin, humming with something I couldn't name. Even inside the house, even after hot tea and quiet conversation, it never left.
Something was coming.
Aria and I hadn't spoken since we came back from the Edge. Not really. She sharpened her blades in the hallway, eyes flicking to the windows every few minutes. I pretended to sleep, but the weight in my chest kept pressing down.
I felt like a lantern—lit from within, but not in any way I could understand.
More like something leaking.
Breaking.
When it happened, it was just past dawn. Not a sound, not a warning. Just a stillness—so complete it silenced even the crows.
And then, the world… folded.
A ripple moved across the field behind the house like glass shattering without sound. A shimmer in the air, like oil on water.
Aria was up in an instant.
"They've found you," she said, quietly, almost reverently.
My breath caught. "Who?"
She didn't answer.
Just opened the door.
The sky wasn't the same anymore.
It pulsed—like a great eye blinking behind the clouds. The grass shifted underfoot like it was holding its breath. And above the field, suspended in a dome of pure white light, was a figure descending slowly to earth.
Wings.
Armor.
A sword trailing starlight.
When her feet touched the earth, the world went quiet.
A veil shimmered across the trees, locking everything inside. No escape. No help. A sacred space.
I couldn't move.
Not because I was afraid—but because I felt seen.
Exposed.
Like everything I had ever tried to hide was being held up in front of me and judged by something far, far older than I could comprehend.
"You are the Flameborn," she said.
Her voice echoed—gentle, but unyielding. Like winter wind through a cathedral.
"And this is your reckoning."
She wasn't asking. She wasn't giving me a chance.
Just… announcing it.
Aria stepped forward. "He's not ready. This isn't a trial—it's a setup."
"I am not here for permission, seraph exile."
The Champion looked only at me.
"You will stand in your flame. Or perish by it."
The veil around the field grew tighter, thicker—like glass hardening in the heat. I felt it wrapping around me. Sealing me in.
"Wait—!" I stepped back, panic clawing up my throat.
Too late.
The sword moved.
And light exploded.
I couldn't fight her.
I tried.
The blade Aria gave me shattered on the third strike. My shoulder burned from where her sword grazed me. My legs gave out under the pressure of her presence alone.
She didn't scream or shout or gloat.
She just pressed.
And I cracked.
The ground beneath me split open. My blood hit the dirt and hissed like oil in fire. Something moved in my chest—coiled, ancient, and furious.
"No more hiding," the Champion said.
Her blade rose above her head.
"Burn, or be erased."
Pain lanced through me.
And then—fire.
It surged from somewhere I didn't know existed. Black-blue, shimmering like stars on water, rushing through my limbs, my spine, my teeth.
It didn't ask.
It took.
I screamed.
Aria was shouting—words I couldn't hear.
The Champion stepped back, light coiling around her, eyes narrowing in something close to... awe?
And me?
I lost everything.
There was only flame. Writhing. Devouring. Not just the field—but the air, the sky, the world.
I felt my skin ripple. My eyes burned with stars. My breath was molten.
I was no longer Kai.
I was fire incarnate.
And then—in the middle of it—a voice.
A man's voice.
Soft. Calm. A whisper, not a command.
"The flame is not only destruction.It is warmth.It is life.It is choice."
I saw him.
Not clearly.
Just a figure in the fire, walking through the chaos untouched.
Eyes like mine.
And he smiled—not cruelly.
But like a father seeing his child take their first step.
"Breathe, Kai.The fire does not own you.You own it."
And suddenly…
I could see it.
The fire wasn't rage.
It was memory.Fear.Loss.Grief.
It was me.
And I reached out—hands trembling, heart raw—and pulled it inward.
Not to cage it.
To hold it.
To understand it.
The fire calmed.
It didn't vanish—but it stilled. Like a wild animal crouching low, watching.
I looked at the Champion through eyes still rimmed in burning blue.
Her sword dipped.
"You held back the fire," she said.
I nodded once, breath shaking.
"I chose to."
She stared at me for a long time.
Then turned her blade.
"This trial is concluded."
And just like that, she vanished into light.
The veil broke.
The world rushed back in—air, sound, birdsong, frost.
I collapsed to my knees.
Aria ran to me, caught me before I fell completely.
"You idiot," she whispered into my hair. "You almost burned yourself apart."
"I almost burned everything."
"But you didn't."
She pulled me close.
"I saw you in there," she whispered. "You were the flame. But it didn't take you."
I looked up at her, voice rough.
"It almost did."
We didn't go back inside for a long time.
Just sat there, under the bleeding sky, smoke curling from my skin in slow, fading tendrils.
Something had changed.
Not just in me.
In the world.
The fire had answered.
And now... it was listening.