The village was gone.
Ash fell like snow. Blackened beams jutted from scorched earth, skeletal reminders of what had once stood. The smell of smoke lingered thick and bitter. Kairo stood at the center of it all, fists clenched, heart burning—not just with power, but with fury.
Elin moved beside him, eyes wide, hands trembling. "They did this… for what? Just because someone like us lived here?"
Virella knelt in the dirt, running her fingers over the charred glyph carved into the ground. "This wasn't just a purge," she said darkly. "It was a message."
Sera looked at the horizon, her voice low. "The Order is escalating. They're not hiding anymore."
Tenn cursed under his breath. "We're running out of time."
Kairo wandered through the ruins in silence. His mother's journal felt heavier than ever in his satchel, like it was absorbing the weight of what had happened here.
He passed the remains of a small home, its door still swinging on rusted hinges. Inside, the outline of a child's drawing was still visible on the back wall—crude figures drawn in charcoal. A house. A sun. A family.
Burned now. Gone.
And for what?
He didn't even hear Sera approach.
"We can't save everyone," she said quietly.
"I should've been faster," he whispered. "Stronger. If I'd gotten here—"
She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then you would've burned with them."
He turned, eyes blazing. "That's not good enough."
Sera met his gaze. "I know."
That night, they camped farther down the road, tucked in a hidden grove under thick trees. No fires. No light. The Order was near, and they had to be shadows in the dark.
Elin sat across from Kairo, hugging her knees.
"Do you ever wonder why us?" she asked.
Kairo thought for a moment. "I used to."
"And now?"
"Now I wonder why them," he said. "Why anyone would hate something just because it's different. Or powerful."
She nodded, quiet.
After a long silence, she said, "I think I'm more afraid of losing control than I am of the Order."
Kairo understood that. The flame inside could be a gift—but it could just as easily become a weapon that turned on everyone around him.
But before he could answer, a twig snapped.
Everyone was on their feet in an instant.
Tenn signaled from the trees. Someone was coming.
They moved like ghosts—six figures clad in silver and black, Ashen Blade assassins. But these weren't scouts. They were hunters. Elite.
The Circle melted into the shadows. Virella gave a hand signal: ambush.
Kairo crouched behind a tree, his heartbeat a drum in his chest. He reached inward, feeling the warmth pool in his core, slowly, steadily—not too much. He needed control.
The lead assassin paused just feet from him, head tilted like an animal sniffing the air.
> "I know you're here," the assassin whispered, voice cold and smooth. "We followed your fire."
Kairo held his breath.
> "You've grown bolder, Awakened. But your flame is still young. Still breakable."
Then Sera struck.
She came from the trees like lightning—fast, precise. Her blades flashed in the moonlight, and the first assassin fell without a sound.
Chaos erupted.
Tenn slammed into a second with his shield, crushing them into a tree. Jorran roared and sent two flying with a swing of his axe. Virella's arrows moved like streaks of gold through the air.
Kairo stepped forward—his flame burst alive.
He faced the lead assassin, who removed her mask with eerie calm. Her eyes glowed faintly red. Burned once, long ago—but not Awakened. No, this one had been altered.
> "You don't even know what you are," she hissed. "But I do."
She launched at him, fast as flame. Her blade sliced the air—Kairo barely ducked, flame shielding him instinctively. He struck back, fire lashing from his palm—but she rolled through it, twisted, and drove her dagger toward his chest.
The focus band flared—absorbing the impact.
Kairo gritted his teeth, spun, and released a controlled burst of energy that launched her back ten feet.
She hit the ground hard, dazed.
He stood over her, fire swirling in his palm.
> "You follow shadows," he said. "I'm done running from them."
But before he could finish it, she grinned—and vanished in a puff of black smoke.
A retreat.
They regrouped. Two of the Ashen Blades were dead. The rest had scattered into the night.
Tenn wiped his blade clean. "They're testing us. Measuring our strength."
"And they'll report back," Sera added grimly.
Kairo stood silently. He could still feel the echo of that woman's voice in his mind.
> "You don't even know what you are."
He looked at his hand, the flame dancing softly across his skin.
"What am I?" he whispered.
Later that night, unable to sleep, Kairo opened his mother's journal again.
One page stood out.
A map—not just of Vaults, but of something older. Hidden deep in the heart of the Emberlands.
At the center: a symbol he'd seen only once before.
In the crystal.
A flame within a spiral.
Beneath it, a single word.
Solareth.
He brought it to Virella.
She stared at the map for a long time. Then she whispered, "No one's spoken that name in a hundred years."
"What is it?" Kairo asked.
"Not what," she said. "Where."
Sera's voice was hushed with awe. "The city of the First Flame. The cradle of all Awakened. Lost since the Sundering."
Kairo felt the pull deep in his chest. The same pull that had drawn him to the Vault. To Elin. To the fire within.
"I need to go there."
Virella nodded slowly. "And we'll go with you."
Far away, in the highest tower of the Order's fortress, the woman with the red eyes knelt before a figure cloaked in silver flame.
"He's stronger than expected," she said. "And he's heading for Solareth."
The figure turned slowly.
"Then we'll meet him there."