The sky above the palace turned bronze as evening settled in, thick with anticipation. The Second Choosing had ended, but its echoes still clung to the stone walls like smoke.
By morning, the whispers had changed.
"The stone chose again."
"It chose both."
"Or neither."
Inside the royal court, the Empress convened an emergency session. Nobles gathered, advisors murmured. King Theron sat silent on the throne, his jaw clenched.
"It cannot choose twice," the High Priest said, sweat dotting his brow.
"Then perhaps it hasn't," Elara said, standing at the edge of the dais.
Kael leaned beside a marble pillar, arms crossed. "Or perhaps tradition fears what it cannot control."
The Empress rose. "Let the flame speak again. In combat."
Gasps rippled.
Elara stepped forward. "You want a duel."
"A test," the Empress corrected. "You carry its fire. So does he. Let the flame decide who burns brightest."
The Arena of Ancients was readied before the sun rose. Word spread faster than arrows through the capital.
Elara versus Prince Kael.
The Flamebearer versus the Flamechallenger.
It wasn't war. It was spectacle.
And the Empire craved it.
Elara stood at one end of the arena, robes stripped for mobility, hair braided tight.
Kael mirrored her from across the stone circle, blades strapped to his back, but no armor.
M watched from the upper tier. So did Isla. So did the Empress.
The Fire Beast lay curled in the shadows, watching.
A horn blared.
And the duel began.
Kael moved first and fast, fluid, a strike aimed to test.
Elara dodged, spun, countered with a flicker of heat.
Their blades clashed, not to kill, but to command. Sparks flew. Magic sizzled across the stones.
She summoned a wall of flame.
He sliced through it with wind.
She turned the air to smoke.
He danced through it like shadow.
They fought without speaking, breath mingling, sweat shining, fire burning not just around them but within.
And then,
a pause.
Both circled.
Breathing hard.
Kael smiled. "You don't want to win this."
"I already have," Elara said.
She dropped her blade.
And held out her hand.
To him.
To the fire.
The Fire Beast rose.
Everyone stood.
The creature approached slowly then, split in two. One flame curled at Elara's feet. The other coiled around Kael.
Two fires.
Two bearers.
The silence that followed was not fear.
It was history being rewritten.
Later, in the dim quiet of the palace halls, Elara sat alone by the reflection pool.
M appeared.
"You changed the rules."
She looked at her reflection, then at the twin flames still dancing in the water.
"No," she said. "I reminded them the rules were never theirs to make."