The fire was supposed to destroy everything.
It spread around the orphanage home in minutes, wood collapsed,iron warping, glass melting into floor.
Inside there was no scream anymore.
Only cracking flames.
By the time it reached the nursery, nothing should have remained.
Yet in the corner of the room. Untouched by the flame. Stood a crib.
The fire bent away from it.
They parted.
Inside was a child of a few months, wrapped in blankets that should have turned ashes long ago. His eyes widened open, unblinking.
Outside the burning orphanage, hidden among the gathering crowds and emergency sirens. Several figures watched in silence.
"This was not an accident," one of them says. "The seal has been broken."
"A purge?" Another asked.
"Yes, every child in there was marked," the first man answered.
At that moment, the firefighters searched the ruins but only found one thing.
A child.
He lay in the rubble, blanket dirty and his eyes wide open. Unharmed–not a single burn on him.
Everyone was shocked.
And he was called a miracle.
But the world will come to know the incident as a gas leak. A fire incident. Closed case.
But within the hidden circles that run the night, the whisper of the child spread faster.
A survivor.
A child who could resist flame.
A child of the flame.
Then the Crest fall assassin clan arrived to collect him. The baby did not cry.
Instead the fire beneath the rubble, flickered one last time.
Acknowledging its master.
This child was later known for being the last Emberborn
Kian was three when he realized the adults were scared of him.
Now five. He still can't figure out why they were scared of him.
"His temperature has risen. This is worse" The woman in a white coat said softly,she adjusted the monitor clipped on his finger.
He was in a white room, With a rhythmic beeping monitor, he sat on the elimination table. Feet dangling, hand resting on his room.
He felt warm, pleasantly. But he knew the people around did lol pleased.
The woman's eyes flickered to the monitor. "Fourty degree Celsius, he should be dead" she should murmured.
He didn't really understand what she had said but he had learned to understand when people are pleased and not.
"He will be stable. He always gets back to normal"another voice said, it was a man. His voice was calm and measured.
As if on cue, his temperature dropped back to normal.
"This is not good" the Woman exhaled slowly.
"Yes," the man agreed. "It is not."
Kian looked at the man who had talked, The man was wearing a dark coat. Different from the rest from the people's whitecoats in the room.
"Do you know me?" the man asked.
Kian shook his head.
Kian didn't know a lot of things, his toys melted his hands. Why was he giving toys after that like the other kids?
Why was he isolated from the kids here?
"What is your name?" The man asked.
"Kian" Kian's small voice came out hoarse and cracked. He doesn't speak much, he never had reason to.
"Kian" The man said as if testing his name on his lips, the Man studied him for a while.
The facility was something different on the inside. To the outside world it is an orphanage home and a place for children that has survived disaster unexplained disaster.
But to those inside, it was something else entirely. Kian had learned that quickly.
He had woken up to screams and chants. Not his.
But another child's, the air always felt wrong. He never knew what was going on.
And now the same thing.
Kian hugged his knees, breath coming fast.
The screaming stopped.
And the chants too.
Days later, The man in the dark coat returned.
"You caused an energy spike last night" the man said casually. They were in the cafeteria,The man sat across from him. "Do you know that?"
"No," Kian shook his head. "Did I do something bad?"
The man did respond immediately, "Bad and good things are complicated" The man started. "But you are different from any other child here. That makes you valuable."
"To who?"
"To people who hunt monsters, so that the rest of the world can sleep."
Kian wasn't fazed. He was scared but surprised.
"Monsters are real?"
The man leaned closer, "Yes, some wear claws and some wear human faces…and some born of the flame" The man said.
"What am I?" Kian asked.
"A survivor" The man stood up. "And if you leave long enough, you will become an assassin."
"When will I see you again?" Kian asked.
The man paused at the doorway. "Soon."
But far below the facility, in the sealed underground. Files were updated.
SUBJECT: Kian
CLASSIFICATION: Emberborn.
STATUS: Unstable.
RECOMMENDATION: Transfer to crestfall Assassin academy soon.
Beneath it was to keep an eye on him.
Danger.