The descent burned. Every step seared through Ethan's boots as if the molten stairs themselves were alive and aware, feeding on uncertainty and fear. The walls surrounding them pulsated with a deep red glow, veins of living magma coursing like blood through black stone. He clenched his jaw and pressed forward, sweat breaking out along his brow. Behind him, Lira's breath came slow but steady, her eyes glowing faintly, and Callen's silhouette moved like a wolf's shadow, lean and sharp in the shimmering heat. No one spoke. Words felt unwelcome in this place, as though language itself feared what lay below.
The staircase ended abruptly at a vast cavern, the ceiling lost in smoke, the floor a lake of solid obsidian reflecting a blood-colored sky that did not exist. In the center of the cavern, an altar of jagged basalt rose from the ground like the broken tooth of a fallen god. Flames coiled around it, not red or orange, but white-hot, nearly invisible in their intensity. Ethan stepped closer, shielding his eyes. The heat radiating from the altar wasn't natural. It reached inside him, stirring memories, regrets, truths he'd buried too deep to speak of. A voice echoed through the chamber—not with sound, but with thought.
One soul must ignite. One must surrender to the flame.
Lira stopped beside Ethan, her voice tight. "It's the Trial of Ember. I've only read about it in the Flameborn tomes. One of us has to bear the core of the Sovereign Flame. It will choose. And it will test." Callen circled the altar, his eyes narrowing. "And what happens to the one it chooses?" Lira's silence was answer enough.
The fire roared upward suddenly, reacting to their presence. Ethan raised a hand, shielding his eyes again, and saw images within the flame—visions flickering like dying embers. A battlefield. A ruined temple. A woman, cloaked in gold, screaming as darkness consumed her. Then nothing. Only heat. He stepped forward instinctively, drawn by something he could not name. The fire reacted instantly, coiling into a long arc and shooting toward him. It stopped inches from his chest and hovered there, suspended, waiting. Lira grabbed his arm.
"Don't," she said. "It's not just fire. It's memory. Power. Pain. It will carve everything from you that you hide. If it chooses you, you'll be changed."
Ethan met her gaze. "If this is what it takes, then I'll face it." Callen moved to his other side. "You don't have to do this alone. We got here together. Let it choose."
The fire pulsed once, then twice. Then it split into three separate flames. Each flame hovered before one of them, spinning slowly. Ethan's heart pounded. The flames moved in unison, rotating between them, scanning, sensing. Then one flame flared brighter and dove into him. A scream tore from his throat before he even realized it was his own. The world shattered.
He stood in darkness. Not the darkness of night or shadow, but of nothing. There was no ground beneath him, no sky above. Only emptiness. Then a flicker. A single candle appeared, hovering in the void, its flame steady. A voice followed.
Who are you, Ethan?
He turned, trying to find the source, but there was no body to face, no sound to track. The voice came from everywhere.
"I'm… no one. I mean, I'm just—" he stopped himself. That wasn't true. Not anymore. "I'm trying to be someone better. Someone who doesn't run. Someone who protects."
The candle flickered once, and the darkness pulled back slightly, revealing a hallway. He stepped into it without hesitation. As he walked, doors appeared on either side of the hall, glowing faintly. One opened.
He saw himself as a boy, kneeling beside a broken body—his brother's. Blood on his hands. Screaming for help that never came. He staggered back, gasping. The door shut.
Another opened. He was older now, in the other world, the one he'd left behind. Standing over a dying officer. Again, blood on his hands. Again, too late.
Another door. A girl. A smile. A promise made and broken.
He kept walking, each door peeling away a layer he'd buried. He began to understand. This wasn't a test of strength. It was a reckoning. The Trial of Ember showed you everything you feared to face—and then asked if you still had the will to stand. The hallway ended at a mirror. He approached it slowly. His reflection stared back at him, older than he remembered, eyes hollow, mouth set in a line of quiet fury. The flame hovered beside the mirror.
Will you burn away the lie?
He looked at the reflection again and nodded. "I will."
The flame rushed into him again. But this time, there was no pain. Only heat. And light. And fire. The mirror cracked, shattered, and the void imploded.
He was back in the cavern, kneeling before the altar, smoke rising from his skin. His heart still thundered in his chest, but he was whole. Changed, but whole. The flame above the altar bent toward him, and from within its heart rose an object—small, glowing, and pulsing with life.
A fragment of the Sovereign Flame.
He reached for it and the fire parted, letting him take it without resistance. The moment he touched it, the cavern trembled. Lira rushed forward, catching his arm.
"Ethan. Can you hear me?"
He looked up at her, eyes glowing faintly now, golden light dancing in his pupils. "I'm here. It chose me."
Callen stood behind them, silent. Watching.
A path opened behind the altar—a long corridor of red crystal that pulsed with living fire. No one needed to say anything. The next step had revealed itself.
They walked it together, the heat less intense now, as if the mountain itself recognized them. As if the power within had accepted Ethan.
The corridor led to a small chamber with a stone basin at its center. Runes glowed on the basin's rim. Lira moved forward to read them.
"To awaken the Flame's memory, you must give of your own. One truth. One lie. The basin will keep them both."
Ethan touched the flame shard in his pocket. "It's a price. What do we give up? What do we keep?"
Callen stepped forward. "I'll go first."
He knelt before the basin, placed both hands on the stone, and whispered words they couldn't hear. The basin flared, then dimmed. Callen stood and stepped back.
Lira followed. Her voice trembled, just once, then steadied. She stood, wiped her eyes, and said nothing.
Ethan stepped last. The stone was cold beneath his fingers. He took a deep breath.
"I left my world behind. I thought it was because I wanted a second chance. But the truth is, I was afraid. I didn't believe I could change. That's the truth. The lie…" He paused. "The lie is that I've forgiven myself."
The basin pulsed, then released a thin line of fire that flowed into the shard in his hand. The chamber brightened.
"You're ready," Lira said softly. "The Flame remembers now. And you're its bearer."
Callen placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let's end this."
They left the chamber behind, stepping once more into the mountain's depths. The world beyond was waiting. But so were the enemies who had followed them. And somewhere, the power of the Sovereign Flame burned brighter than it had in centuries.
Ethan didn't know what waited ahead. But he no longer feared the fire.
He had become part of it.