She arrived without warning.
No entourage.
No banners.
Only a single iron staff bound in forgotten runes.
Her name was Master Orenna of the Pale Tether Sect, once a high judge of flame rights during the collapse of the Divine Court.
She had trained six sect founders.
And broken five.
Now she walked the edge of the hills where Tenji's spark still flickered quietly in the ash-pit.
Tenji looked up from his flame.
The wind shifted slightly.
But he didn't speak.
He had no name for what she was.
No title for what he was.
Only fire, still burning.
Orenna sat beside him like they were equals.
Which they weren't.
Not by training.
Not by law.
Not by power.
But something in Tenji's quiet stillness made her hesitate.
Still, she extended her hand over the flame and said gently:
"That's a rare fire."
"It has no script. No tether. No wheel."
"Let me help you bind it before it burns too far."
Tenji looked at her.
"Why bind it?"
Orenna smiled like a patient teacher.
"Because fire that isn't bound is dangerous."
"Not to others. To you."
"Without structure, flame forgets who it is."
Tenji replied:
"I didn't forget."
"I just never knew."
Orenna's smile faded slightly.
She pressed her hand closer.
The flame pulsed.
Her soul-thread flared gently with green-white light as she murmured an ancient anchoring rite:
"Thread to thread, soul to seal…"
"Let spark know shape, and shape hold name…"
"So no flame burns beyond itself…"
She reached to link her soul to the spark.
And that's when it happened.
The flame hissed.
Then shivered.
Not in fear.
In refusal.
It pulled away.
Not rejecting her.
Rejecting definition.
Her eyes widened.
Her hand trembled.
"That's… not possible."
She reached again, stronger this time, flaring a second soul-thread—one older, more dominant.
The flame pushed back harder.
And for a second—
It looked at her.
Not with eyes.
But with intention.
Tenji placed a hand between them.
Softly. Calm.
"I don't want it named yet."
"Not by you."
"Not by anyone."
Orenna stepped back, slowly rising to her feet.
Her voice held no anger.
Only confusion.
"Who are you?"
Tenji smiled faintly.
"Someone who said yes… before knowing what to say yes to."
She didn't argue.
She didn't bow.
She simply walked away—
And whispered as she vanished:
"If that fire finds others like it…"
"The world won't survive unchanged."
Back at the Soul Flame School, the archive slate updated again:
🔹 External Contact: Pale Tether Sect
🔹 Result: Flame Unclaimed
🔹 Status: Unbindable
🔹 Comment: "It refuses to be owned."
Wei Lin read the line twice.
Then looked to Lao Yun and Shen Tai.
"It's becoming something more than a spark."
"It's becoming a mirror."