The sun rose slowly and blood-orange across the broken peaks. Surya stood at the edge of the ridge, letting the wind tug at his cloak. The flame within him was quiet, but it no longer felt like it was hiding.
It was observing.
Kaelen joined him, arms folded. "You feel it too?"
Surya nodded. "Someone's near."
Kaelen tilted his head. "No pulse in the leyline, but something's watching."
They waited. Minutes passed.
Then, movement.
A figure approached from the east, walking alone across terrain no scout should've been able to cross unnoticed. She wore no sect robes, no sigils. Just a cloak the color of stormclouds and boots worn from travel.
Surya's flame flickered.
She stopped twenty paces away and lifted her hand slowly.
"I am called Aeyra. Scout of the Spiral Sanctum." Her voice was clear, with a measured calm. "I come seeking the one who awakened the dormant Flame Shrines."
Kaelen didn't move. "Why alone?"
Aeyra met his gaze. "Because the others would've come with bindings."
Surya stepped forward. "You came to take me?"
She shook her head. "I came to see if you are worth taking."
Silence.
Kaelen narrowed his eyes. "He's stabilizing. Barely."
Aeyra pulled a crystal shard from her belt—no larger than a thumb—and crushed it.
A ring of force rippled outward.
The flame within Surya surged in alarm. He dropped to one knee.
"What—what did you do?"
"A resonance trigger," Aeyra said. "It's harmless—if your bond is true."
Surya gasped as his core spun wildly, then slowed. The flame didn't lash out. It tightened, refining itself into a singular point inside his chest.
Then silence.
He stood, breathing hard. "It responded."
Aeyra nodded once. "Then it's real."
She turned to Kaelen. "You've trained him well. But the Sanctum will want more than wild fire."
Kaelen didn't reply.
Aeyra turned back to Surya. "You're not ready for the Academy. Not yet. But you've been marked. The Sanctum will prepare a path."
She started to leave, then paused.
"There's something else. Rumors from the northern coast. Veiled agents interrogating travelers. Asking about a fire-wielding boy and a man with a sword of emberlight."
Kaelen's jaw clenched. "It's begun."
Surya's hand hovered near his shard. "Let them come."
Aeyra gave a faint smile. "They will."
Then she vanished into the mist.
Far away, the Veiled Hand stood before a black mirror rippling with red.
"He made contact."
A voice from the mirror replied, "Then send the Revenants."