Aaren stood with his hands on his knees, breathing hard. His shirt clung to his chest, the mark of Withered Flame's symbol faintly glowing through the sweat-soaked fabric.
Levitine and Withered Flame stood at opposite ends of the training pit, watching him. Lenara leaned against a stone pillar, her arms folded, a smirk tugging at her lips. Koro, as usual, had one gauntlet halfway on and a piece of bread in his mouth.
Withered Flame finally broke the silence.
"Aaren," he said, voice low but sharp, "you have no idea how much of me you're holding back."
Aaren looked up, chest still heaving. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," Withered Flame said, stepping forward, "as my link, you're the channel through which my full potential flows. And right now, you're a dam, not a river." His eyes burned with an ember's heat. "Until you can handle my power, I can't unleash even half of it."
Lenara grinned, tilting her head. "Guess that makes you the weakest link in Emberbound, huh?"
"Emberbound…" Koro said between bites, "still sounds like a spicy breakfast to me. Makes me hungry every time someone says it."
Aaren groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Alright, I get it, I'm holding you back. So what do we do about it?"
Levitine stepped forward, his eyes like polished steel. "We make you strong enough to handle him — and to stop being an anchor."
---
The Training Begins
They started with endurance. Levitine pushed Aaren into drills that involved running the length of the pit with weighted bands strapped to his legs. Every time Aaren slowed, Withered Flame hurled small bursts of fire at his heels.
"Move faster!" Withered Flame barked.
Lenara called from the sidelines, "Hey, Aaren! If you keep running like that, Koro's going to lap you… and he's still eating!"
Sure enough, Koro was jogging alongside Aaren, gnawing on his bread and waving. "Gotta keep the carbs up for battle, my friend!"
By the fourth lap, Aaren collapsed into the dirt, sweat dripping into his eyes.
"This," Withered Flame said, crouching down, "is why we can't fight at our best. You're the reason I can't push harder against the threats in this world. You think the Upper Chamber's dangers will wait for you to get in shape?"
Aaren clenched his fists in the dirt. "Then push me harder."
---
Withered Flame's True Power
Levitine glanced at Withered Flame. "Show him a fraction. Just enough to make him understand."
Withered Flame stood, his hand engulfed in deep crimson fire. But this was different — darker, heavier, almost alive. The air around them shimmered with heat. The ground beneath his feet cracked as the flames spread outward, eating into the stone.
"This," he said, "is what I'm capable of. My real fire — the kind that can burn through worlds. You haven't even tasted it yet because you'd be ashes before you could draw a breath."
Aaren's eyes widened. He could feel the heat from meters away, the weight of it pressing on his chest.
Koro leaned in to Lenara and whispered, "I think I just cooked my bread by standing here."
Lenara smirked. "Perfect. Saves me from having to watch you burn breakfast again."
---
Pushing to the Limit
The next phase was combat drills. Aaren had to hold the symbol on his chest, drawing just enough of Withered Flame's power to keep up with Levitine's sword strikes. If he drew too much, the energy burned him from the inside; too little, and he couldn't block.
Lenara jumped in between rounds, calling plays like a commander at a festival game.
"Alright, Koro, distract him with your weird laugh. Aaren, try not to die. Levitine, maybe don't decapitate him. And… go!"
Koro's "weird laugh" turned out to be an obnoxious cackle that somehow made Aaren swing too early and get knocked flat on his back.
By the end, Aaren's arms shook so badly he could barely lift his training sword. He sat in the dirt, chest heaving, staring at the glowing mark that bound him to Withered Flame.
"I'll get stronger," he said, almost to himself. "I'll make it so you can use your full power. I promise."
---
The Bond of Emberbound
That evening, they gathered by the campfire at the edge of the training grounds. The air was cooler now, shadows stretching across the rocks. Aaren sat with his sword resting against his shoulder, the others scattered around him.
"Y'know," Koro said, lying on his back, "most groups I've been in don't last this long. Either someone dies, or they split over who gets the last piece of bread."
Lenara tossed a pebble at him. "That's because you keep eating the last piece of bread."
Aaren looked around at them — Lenara with her sly grin, Koro pretending to nap, Levitine's calm watchfulness, and Withered Flame's ever-present fire. They were mismatched, strange, but they were a team.
"No," Aaren said quietly. "We're Emberbound. And we're going to make this world answer for everything it's done."
Withered Flame's eyes glinted in the firelight. "Then you'd better be ready to burn brighter than you ever thought possible."
Koro sat up, brushing crumbs off his armor. "And maybe eat brighter too. You can't save the world on an empty stomach."
Lenara laughed, tossing him another pebble. "Pretty sure that's not how that works, Koro."
But in that moment, even with the weight of the training, the shame of being the link holding Withered Flame back, and the dangers still waiting in the Upper Chamber, Aaren felt something he hadn't in a long time — certainty.
---
That night, as the fire burned low, Aaren lay awake staring at the faint glow on his chest. The road ahead was long, but he'd carry it — the weight, the link, the fire.
Because Emberbound didn't