Chapter 52: The Fire Within
The days after the battle blurred into haze.
Le Wai drifted between waking and sleep, his body bound in bandages, his wounds stitched by trembling hands. He remembered faces leaning over him—soldiers, healers, comrades who whispered prayers that he would not slip away. But he barely heard them.
Because when his eyes closed, the ember was waiting.
It was no longer a flicker. It had grown.
In the darkness of his dreams, he stood within a sea of fire—golden waves stretching endlessly, swallowing the horizon. The air was thick, heavy, alive. Every breath seared his lungs, yet every exhale left him stronger.
And always… there was a voice.
You claim me. You defy me. But I am not yours to wield. I am older than you, older than kingdoms. I am hunger eternal.
Le Wai clenched his fists. His dream-body bore no wounds, no scars. Here, he was whole—yet weighed down by the suffocating presence of the flame. "Then why do you let me use you?"
The fire shifted. Faces appeared in the blaze—men, women, warriors. Each of them bore the ember's glow in their eyes. Each of them burned, their forms consumed and scattered into ash.
Because they all said the same.
The heat surged, pressing down on him like chains.
They fought. They resisted. And in the end, they were nothing but fuel.
Le Wai roared, slashing his dream-sword through the fire. The golden flames parted, but only for a breath, before closing around him once more.
"I am not them!"
The voice rumbled, deep, amused, endless.
Then prove it. Show me you are not prey, but predator. Burn… or be burned.
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Le Wai jolted awake, gasping, sweat drenching his body. His chest seared with pain, the ember pulsing violently beneath his skin as though eager to erupt. The healer tending his wounds recoiled, fear flashing in her eyes when golden cracks of light rippled across his veins before fading again.
He clenched the sheets, struggling to steady his breath. It's trying to take me…
But even as terror gnawed at him, a darker truth stirred in his heart.
Part of him—buried deep—wanted to surrender. Because in those moments when the ember surged, he felt invincible. Whole. A god among men.
And that temptation was more dangerous than Kael, more dangerous than any shadow.
He stared at his trembling hands, the faint golden glow flickering beneath the skin. His voice was barely a whisper.
"How long… before I can't tell where I end… and it begins?"
The ember pulsed in answer, steady, patient, like a predator waiting for its prey to stumble.