Aaranya's POV
I couldn't sit still.
Not after that.
Not after my entire identity shattered like cheap glassware on a marble floor.
I'm not hers.
I'm not even from here.
I was glowing when she found me. Glowing.
Like some radioactive angel baby dropped from the sky with a post-it note stuck to her forehead.
"Protect her. Don't tell her anything unless she asks."
Signed by no one. No god. No king. No explanation.
Just me.
Just me standing in the kitchen, arms numb, mind on fire, and a glowing mark spiraling on my wrist like it had always known I didn't belong.
I told Mom I needed air.
She didn't stop me. She just stood there, still as stone, like she'd been holding that secret in her bones for twenty years and now that it was out, there was nothing left inside her.
I stepped outside into the garden. The moon hung low, dull silver behind heavy clouds. The grass was wet. My breath came fast. Too fast.
Was I an alien? A prophecy? A science experiment?
Was I even human?
I stumbled toward the old swing in our backyard and dropped into it. My knees felt like melting wax. The metal chains creaked as I rocked back and forth, hands gripping the edge of the seat like it was the last real thing I had.
My mind spiraled.
Why now? Why me?
Why Flameborn?
Flameborn.
The word echoed again, deep in my chest. Not in my ears — never in my ears.
It was like something ancient was trying to remember me... or make me remember it.
And then — the pain started.
Not normal pain. Not headache pain. Not cramp pain.
This was deep, ancient, burning. Like my blood had been laced with lava.
I screamed.
The spiral on my wrist ignited — not metaphorically. Literally. Flames, glowing red-gold, burst from the skin, twisting up my arm like a ribbon of fire.
I should've felt it. I should've burned. But I didn't.
I just felt heat... and something else.
A pull.
Like gravity reversed. Like the universe had spotted me on Earth and said, "You. Yes, you. It's time."
The world around me began to bend.
The trees wavered. The clouds split.
I stood up, panicked, backing away from nothing and everything all at once. My vision blurred and sharpened at the same time. Shapes shimmered where there was nothing — a circle of air, folding inward, like water going down a drain.
The spiral on my arm flared.
The wind picked up, rushing around me in a cyclone of dry leaves and sparks. My hair lifted. My skin glowed.
I heard a voice — no, voices — whispering in a language I didn't know... but understood.
"She returns. The flame remembers."
"Aryavarta calls its daughter home."
"Let the veil part."
My chest caved in on itself. My knees buckled. My feet left the ground.
And then—
Then the world collapsed inward.
A snap.
A breath.
And nothing.
I gasped.
I was flat on my back in a field of lavender. At least, I thought it was lavender. Purple flowers stretched endlessly in every direction, swaying in a breeze that didn't exist in the world I knew.
Above me was a sky that shimmered — not blue, not gray. Gold. Like a thousand suns trapped behind a translucent curtain.
The spiral on my arm was still glowing. But now... it was quiet. Dormant. Like it had done what it needed to do.
And in the distance — rising high, ancient, carved into a mountain — was a temple. Black stone. Firelight flickering through windows. And a staircase, winding all the way down to the fields like a thread connecting heaven to earth.
I sat up.
The air shimmered. The ground burned with ancient symbols beneath my feet.
Above me, a sky bled gold and ember. Around me—silence, as if the cosmos was holding its breath.
And then—
A voice.
Not loud, not soft. Just... final.
"Welcome home, Flameborn. We've been waiting."
The fire knew me.
*****