The door shuddered under the force of the next knock — not a request anymore, but a demand.
> "Kael Ashbourne," came the voice again. "By order of the Ember Crown, surrender yourself."
Kael backed away from the forge door, heart pounding. How did they know his name? His full name? That parchment — the seal — had it been watched?
Another knock. Then silence.
He moved toward the back exit, past cooling blades and hanging tools. If he was lucky, he could reach the stables behind the tannery—
> CRASH.
The front door burst open in a storm of embers and splinters.
Two men stepped in — clad in black leather lined with red runes. Their swords glowed faintly, not with fire, but something colder, more precise. The Ash Blades. Kael had heard whispers: they tracked the forbidden. They didn't leave survivors.
"Where is the boy?" the taller one growled. His face was scarred like melted wax. "We saw the fire die. Only one kind of magic does that."
Kael didn't wait. He grabbed a hanging blade — unfinished, unbalanced — and sprinted through the forge's side door into the alley.
"RUNNING CONFIRMS IT!" the second shouted.
Boots pounded behind him. Kael tore through backstreets, dodging carts and crates, leaping barrels. The pain in his legs was nothing compared to the burning in his chest — the pulse again, stronger than ever, like a drumbeat of panic and power.
Then—
A cloaked figure stepped from a shadowed archway and grabbed his wrist.
Kael flinched, ready to swing.
"Stop," the woman whispered. Her voice was firm, urgent. "You want to live? Come with me. Now."
He hesitated. Then followed.
She moved fast, cutting through narrow alleys he didn't know existed, ducking behind walls, avoiding lantern-lit streets. The Ash Blades fell behind. Only when they reached a stairwell beneath a crumbling bell tower did she finally stop.
Kael collapsed against the wall. "Who—who are you?"
She pulled back her hood. Her eyes were storm gray, her hair streaked with silver despite her youth.
> "My name is Thalia," she said.
"And if you really are the Ember King's heir… you've just declared war on the Five Kingdoms."
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