The instant Kaela drew her blade from its scabbard, the air shook.
The Ember Throne priest floated towards her, his gold armor radiating like melted glass. Red glyphs swirled around him, each of them speaking strange incantations into the breeze. Behind him stood two more—figures in ritual robes, each entwined in soft embers.
"Do not struggle," the lead priest spoke. "You bear sacred flame. You are necessary."
Yuuto's flame raged in his veins, burning and twisted like a caged animal. He stepped over next to Kaela, half-anticipating flight, half-anticipating blaze. "I have no idea what you people want from me, but I am not joining the cult cosplay."
One of the shadowed priests lifted a staff. Kaela acted in an instant—her sword shone, and the staff broke apart with a shriek of shattered sigils. In one breath, Yuuto sensed something within him stir. His perception warped. His heartbeat attuned itself to something that was old.
The Brand is awake.
Kaela bellowed without turning around. "Stay behind me!"
But Yuuto was in motion already. Fire lashed down his arm like lightning. His body—unaccustomed to the power yet—struggled against him for dominance. The spell that coalesced in his palm didn't feel like it belonged to him. It felt like something born.
He sent it hurtling forward on instinct.
A bolt of compressed flame ripped through the alley, exploding with sufficient violence to send the two priests flying like autumn leaves in a gust of wind. The resulting shockwave shattered stone nearby.
Kaela blinked.
".That wasn't bad," she conceded.
The golden priest still lingered. Though his robes were charred, his expression showed no emotion. "You are untrained. Untamed. The Flame will consume you soon enough.
Kaela charged. Her sword flashed too quickly to see, but the priest lifted a hand and deflected the blow with a flash of searing runes. The air screamed with pressure as they met—steel and spirit.
Yuuto attempted to help, summoning flame once more, but this time the Brand refused to answer. It sputtered and spat, fighting him. Why now?
"Kaela!" he shouted. "It won't work!"
She didn't respond. The priest's arm flashed out, catching her wrist—then Kaela spun, using his own momentum to slam him into the archwork behind them. The rune-stone detonated upon contact.
They didn't hang around for round two.
Kaela seized Yuuto's hand and ran down a side street, disappearing into the twisting maze of Lysara's underworld. Steam vents, glowing glyphs, runic maintenance tunnels—this was the city's lungs, and it was gasping on tension.
They sprinted until their legs collapsed.
Only then, within a secret alcove far beneath a discarded alchemy shop, did Kaela utter a word.
"You fought like an idiot," she said.
"I saved your butt!" Yuuto barked.
She swiped blood from the corner of her mouth. "No, you attempted to. You were lucky the Brand didn't incinerate you."
He leaned against the wall. "Why's it so unstable?"
"Because you don't comprehend it yet." Her tone dropped. "And neither do I."
Yuuto glared at her, annoyed. "So why did you bring me here? Why Lysara?"
Kaela faltered. "Because someone here could. A Diviner. She was once in the Ember Throne's employ, before they became zealot."
"And you trust her?"
"No," Kaela replied without inflection. "But she knows the ancient fire tongues. She might be the only one who can read your Brand."
There was a long silence after that.
Then Yuuto spoke, "What if I don't want to be selected? Or awakened? What if I simply want to return home?"
Kaela regarded him, not ungentle.
"Then you'll die," she replied bluntly. "Because they won't desist."
That evening, sleep did not come easily.
Yuuto sat beside the subdued flames of their pilfered campfire, observing as they capered. The Brand on his shoulders glowed weakly—no longer a hurt, now more of an presence, a heartbeat in addition to his own.
He recalled the dream. The drifting sword. The black horizon. The voice.
You must burn before you become.
He had no idea what it meant. But he knew, somehow, it was already started.
Above, Lysara's lights shone like stars trapped in a storm. Tomorrow they would go to find the Diviner.
Tonight they were preparing for the fire.