The searing heat of the flames was nothing compared to the cold weight settling in my chest as darkness swallowed me whole. Pain blurred into nothingness, and then — silence.
When I opened my eyes, the world was not as I remembered. The pyre had long burned out, but I was no longer in the courtyard. Instead, I found myself in a shadowed cavern, walls damp and cold, the faint scent of earth and ancient stone filling my lungs. Chains, broken and scattered, lay at my feet.
"How?" I whispered. The question echoed, empty and desperate.
A voice — low and smooth — answered from the shadows.
"You still breathe, villain."
I spun around, searching for the source. Emerging from the darkness was a figure cloaked in black, face hidden beneath a hood, eyes glowing faintly with an unnatural light.
"Who are you?" I demanded, voice hoarse but rising with a flicker of strength.
"A friend," the figure said, stepping forward. "Or perhaps the last chance you'll ever have."
"What do you want from me?"
"To offer you power. To reshape your fate. To become what they feared: the villain they created."
I clenched my fists, memories flooding back — the betrayal, the broken trust, Elaine's cold gaze. They had cast me into the fire, but I was not yet ashes. Not yet dead.
"Why should I trust you?"
The figure smiled beneath the hood, a flash of sharp teeth. "Because without me, you die forgotten. With me, you rise from the ashes — not as a pawn, but as a king."
The fire inside me stirred, no longer a victim, but a force of reckoning.
I nodded slowly. "Teach me
The figure extended a hand, and the shadows around us seemed to pulse and writhe like living things.
As my fingers closed around that hand, I felt a surge of cold power crawl up my arm, a promise of strength and vengeance.
The path of the villain had begun.