The Sable Stone compound loomed like a scar—ancient black walls etched with faded symbols of a forgotten age.
It had once been a Celestial Compliance Temple during the era when the heavens still enforced fate by blade.
Now, it held something far more dangerous.
A girl who chose her own flame.
Wei Lin and Shen Tai crouched beside a cracked wall in the eastern sector.
Behind them: eight Coalspark students, cloaked in soft flame, feet silent, hearts steady.
No flags.
No declarations.
Just intention.
Wei turned to the group:
"We don't destroy. We retrieve."
"We are not here to conquer."
"We are here to bring back what was taken."
Inside the compound…
Lao Yun sat, her wrists still bound in soulsteel cuffs.
But her flame hadn't dimmed.
It had grown.
Because she was doing what Coalspark taught her:
Burning in place, without permission.
One of the researchers turned, annoyed.
"Still stabilizing?"
Another nodded. "Her flame resists suppression. We may need to extract the soul core instead of suppressing it."
A third technician added quietly:
"It's evolving. But not alone."
Just then—
The walls pulsed.
Not with alarms.
With heat.
Wei Lin stepped through the front gate.
Not hidden.
Not masked.
He walked like the flame he was.
Shen Tai entered behind him—eyes sharp, no weapon drawn.
The guards moved.
They stopped.
Because the flame in Wei Lin's chest wasn't flaring.
It was resonating.
"She's not yours," Wei said simply.
A Sable Stone overseer stepped forward, wrapped in black robes lined with silver command thread.
"Your path isn't authorized."
"You have no founding law. No seal. No permission."
Wei raised his hand.
His flame flickered.
And dozens more rose around him.
Students.
No rank.
Just resolve.
Shen Tai's voice was cold:
"We didn't come for approval."
"We came for family."
Suddenly, the walls behind them cracked.
Not from attack.
From inside.
Lao Yun stood, cuffs melting away as her flame bloomed outward—soft and gold, touched with a silver edge.
But—
At its core…
A flicker of gray.
Wei's breath caught.
That wasn't Coalspark.
Shen Tai turned sharply.
His voice dropped.
"They've been trying to rewrite her spark."
"They're grafting in old Devourer fragments."
Wei's eyes hardened.
"Then we're not just here to retrieve her anymore."
"We're here to remind the world—"
"You can't shape what you didn't light."
The Coalspark students stepped forward together.
And the forge they carried—quiet, personal, chosen—
Finally roared.