Flame is not just light.
It is memory.
It is will.
And when you silence the fire
It doesn't die.
It waits.
⚔️ When Fire Fails
The moment the Nullborn raised his hand, I felt it.
Not a surge of power.
Not an explosion of magic.
Just the absence of everything.
My flames, always warm and thrumming beneath my skin, were snuffed out like a breath over a candle. My magic recoiled. My senses dulled. Even the sound of my own heartbeat felt… distant.
Eira gasped beside me, her hand trembling around the Scorchspire. Its usual glow, a soft and divine ember, flickered violently—then darkened.
"I… I can't feel it," she stammered, dropping to one knee. "It's like it's gone… like I've gone cold."
Rion cursed and tried to draw his swords, but even they seemed heavier, duller, resisting him. He stared at them in disbelief.
"What is this?" he hissed.
The Nullborn stepped fully into the chamber, his silver cloak brushing the stone. No face. No emotion. Just emptiness. His presence was a black hole in the fabric of the world. A void wrapped in flesh.
"You came seeking the fourth," he said, his voice calm and nearly inaudible. "But you brought the storm with you."
He lifted his hand again.
I collapsed.
Not from impact.
Not from fear.
But because my connection to everything had been severed.
🕳️ The Depths of the Void
I was somewhere else.
Nowhere.
Everything.
The moment his spell hit, I was pulled into the Void, the Nullborn's magic swallowing my consciousness.
No light.
No warmth.
No sound.
Just a suffocating, endless silence.
And in that silence… I began to forget.
I forgot my name.
I forgot Kael.
I forgot the faces of Eira and Rion.
I forgot what it felt like to burn.
But even in that suffocating dark, one tiny flicker remained.
A whisper.
"You're not alone."
It was Taren's voice, the fourth flameborn.
I felt it again: a soft, trembling heat. A flicker of ember deep inside my chest, as if my soul still remembered what my mind had lost.
And then
Flame.
Not mine.
His.
Taren's fire, flickering in defiance inside the cold.
The boy… had reached into the Void to pull me back.
I reached toward the ember and gripped it tightly.
And with a scream, I tore myself free.
🔥 The Flame Rekindled
I fell back into my body like crashing through layers of ice.
The cold was still there but something had changed.
The flame in me was no longer a quiet companion.
It raged.
Wild. Hungry. Unbound.
I gasped, eyes glowing white. Sparks crackled off my fingertips, and the chains around the containment circle groaned as heat radiated from my palm.
Taren, still sitting within the ring, met my eyes. His lips were dry, but his gaze burned with fierce clarity.
"You're awake," he said.
"So are you," I answered.
The chains around him glowed red, then white, then shattered.
🔗 The Fourth Flameborn Awakens
Taren's collar split down the middle with a flash of golden light. He rose slowly to his feet, the air around him shimmering as if the very world had been holding its breath for this moment.
His hands trembled. Not from fear but power long denied.
"My name…" he whispered, "is Taren Velis. Son of Leera. Born under the eclipse. Taken by the Circle at age eleven."
His voice gained strength with each word.
"I was not made to be a weapon. But I became one."
The circle beneath him exploded outward in a ring of molten flame, disrupting the Nullborn's null-aura.
And just like that magic returned.
Eira gasped as the Scorchspire reignited in her hand, light flaring along its runes. Her eyes shimmered with grateful tears as she gripped it tightly and stood.
Rion grinned.
"Finally."
⚔️ The Flames Strike Back
The Nullborn turned sharply. His mask shimmered as if reacting to pressure. Though he spoke no spell aloud, the room warped again an invisible wave of silence crashing toward us.
But this time, we were ready.
Taren raised both arms and unleashed a spiral of white-hot fire Soulflame. Not the kind that burns flesh, but the kind that scorches spirit.
The wave of silence trembled. Cracked.
"You took our voices," Taren shouted. "But now we scream!"
Eira hurled the Scorchspire forward like a spear. It struck the Nullborn squarely in the shoulder, slicing his cloak open. Silver runes hissed and burned away.
Rion moved in a blur, slicing into the exposed shoulder, forcing the Nullborn to stagger back.
I joined them, chaining the Nullborn's feet with white fire, anchoring him in place.
"You wanted silence?" I shouted. "Then listen to this"
Eira slammed her foot into the ground.
The Scorchspire returned to her hand in a burst of ember-light.
"Let it all burn."
And together we unleashed it.
All four of us.
Four flames, one purpose.
The resulting explosion shook the underchamber.
The Nullborn was torn apart not burned, but unmade. Like smoke pulled into a void. Like silence that finally surrendered to sound.
He let out one gasp.
And was gone.
🕊️ A Shadow Left Behind
In the aftermath, silence returned.
But this time, it was peaceful.
Not empty just still.
And then, from the edge of the chamber… she stepped out.
Nyx. The spy. The Raven.
No longer hidden behind her mask. No longer pretending.
She stared at the scorched stone, the shattered chains, the glowing flame of a boy who had once been a prisoner.
She said nothing.
Until Eira approached.
"Why?" Eira asked. "Why did you let us live?"
Nyx looked down at the bone mirror in her hand and shattered it against the wall.
"Because once… I was just like him," she said. "And I couldn't let him die alone."
Then she vanished, melting into the shadows.
Not as a spy.
But maybe… as something else.
🌄 The Ashes of Victory
We rested in the ruins of the chamber, the flames dying down.
Taren leaned against the wall, breathing deeply.
"They told me I was dangerous," he whispered.
"You are," I said. "To them. And that's what makes you powerful."
Rion smirked. "Welcome to the rebellion, kid."
Eira placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You're not alone anymore."
He nodded, emotion caught in his throat.
And then I checked the Pyra Compass.
Its core pulsed brightly four steady lights now glowing together.
But I noticed something else.
A fifth flicker.
Distant. Faint.
But real.
"There's… another," I whispered.
They turned to me.
"Five?" Eira asked.
"Maybe more," I said. "The Circle has been hiding them. Or breeding them. Or worse."
We stood together Taren now among us.
And we all knew:
This was far from over.