The wind had shifted by morning.
From their camp high in the Cradle of Cinders, Emberlyn could see far across the valley—jagged stone teeth rising from ancient fault lines, and the faintest curl of smoke beyond the horizon.
The Circle was moving.
They had struck first with stealth. Now they would strike with fire.
But that wasn't what troubled Emberlyn most.
It was the dream that had haunted her through the night—no longer just visions of the past, but something deeper. A memory not from Seris… and not from Emberlyn. Something older. Something beneath.
She stood near the cliff's edge, arms crossed, when Mira approached.
"Can't sleep either?" Mira asked quietly.
"No," Emberlyn said. "You?"
"I don't sleep. Not really." Mira sat beside her, hugging her knees. "Too many layers in my mind. Too many voices."
They were silent for a while, listening to the wind whistle through cracks in the cliffside.
"Do you ever wonder," Emberlyn asked, "if they put something in us we'll never be able to undo?"
Mira looked down. "Every day."
Emberlyn turned to her. "You've changed."
"You made me see things differently," Mira said. "When I was with the Circle, I thought power meant obedience. Now I'm not sure what it means."
Emberlyn's gaze was steady. "It means choice."
Mira nodded slowly. "Then I choose not to be their weapon."
---
Inside the cave, Arenya gathered the others. Kael stood with arms folded, Luri leaned in the shadows, Tessar sat cross-legged over rune-etched stones, and Havren stood sharpening his greatsword with slow, deliberate strokes.
"We have two options," Arenya began. "We run, regroup, try to reach the northern resistance—"
"No," Emberlyn said, entering. Her voice cut through the chamber like a blade.
"They'll expect that," she continued. "They'll want us to hide. It gives them time."
She looked around the room. "They're preparing something terrible at the Ember Cradle. A ritual to merge Mira and me. If they complete it, they won't just control fire. They'll be it."
Tessar spat. "So we strike first."
Arenya nodded, but Kael frowned. "How do we even reach the Cradle? It's buried in flame-choked ruins and surrounded by warded lands. You'd need a guide who knows the cursed paths."
"I do," Emberlyn said quietly.
Everyone turned.
"I've seen the map in my dreams. It's not a memory from Seris. It's something deeper. Something older than her. The flame inside me remembers… and it's calling me back."
Mira stepped forward. "Then I'll go with you. If I'm part of this ritual, I want to end it."
Kael didn't like it. Neither did Havren. But Arenya met Emberlyn's eyes and simply said, "Then we move at dawn."
---
That night, Emberlyn slept fitfully. Dreams came again.
But this time, they were not memories.
She stood in a cathedral of fire, the walls shifting with molten stone. In the center was a throne of black obsidian, pulsing with red veins. Upon it sat a being shrouded in ash-smoke—formless, ancient.
Its voice was neither male nor female, but all tones at once.
"You seek truth. I am truth.
The Flame is not a gift.
It is a curse."
Emberlyn stepped forward in the dream. "What are you?"
"The First Spark. The one who burned the sky before the world was shaped. I passed through Seris. Through you. Through all who dared to bear my fire."
She shuddered. "Why me?"
"Because you resisted. Because you did not submit."
The being leaned forward, and Emberlyn saw eyes—hundreds of them, opening in the smoke.
"The Circle fears you because they almost succeeded.
You are the one vessel who walked through their forge… and did not become their blade."
Emberlyn's breath caught.
"What happens if I reach the Ember Cradle?"
"You will face me. And you will decide:
To bind the flame…
Or unleash it."
---
She awoke at dawn, heart pounding.
Around her, the others were preparing. Weapons checked, supplies packed. Mira stood nearby, watching her with calm determination.
Emberlyn touched her chest. The fire inside pulsed—not wildly, but steadily. It was no longer a prisoner's fire. It was hers.
As the group began their descent from the Cradle of Cinders, Emberlyn paused and looked back. The sun had begun to rise, casting golden light across the jagged world.
She could feel the path ahead like a heartbeat.
The Circle had kindled the fire in her.
Now, they would feel it burn.
---