The fire flickered low as Veilstorm poked at the dying coals. Cryst sat quiet for a while, staring into the flames before finally breaking the silence. "Hey, you wanna know where I'm from?" His voice was soft, almost lost in the crackling fire.
Veilstorm looked up, surprised. Cryst didn't usually talk about his past. He stayed quiet, waiting for him to go on.
"I don't remember much," Cryst said slowly. "Just bits and pieces—fire everywhere, screaming, and a woman calling my name. I was just a kid, maybe three."
Veilstorm didn't say anything. He just listened.
"I was from a tribe called the Flame Breathers," Cryst went on. "We weren't normal. We could breathe fire, control flames with Fantasia. It wasn't just heat—it was like the fire was alive, part of us."
He gave a small, bitter smile. "Sounds crazy, huh?"
Veilstorm shook his head. "No. I believe you."
Cryst's face got darker. "The royals heard about us and wanted our symbol—the Fire Emblem. They sent soldiers who burned everything and killed everyone. They didn't care about mercy."
He closed his eyes, the memory painful. "I remember the fire—the bad kind. Smoke and screams everywhere. Then a man showed up and took me away. After that, everything's a blur, like a bad dream."
Veilstorm stayed quiet, waiting for the rest.
"That man… he wasn't good," Cryst said. "At first, he fed me and taught me how to survive. But later, I found out he kidnapped girls and sold them. Locked them up like animals."
Veilstorm's face tightened. "What did you do?"
Cryst looked him in the eye, steady and serious. "One night, when he was asleep, I killed him. I opened the cages and let the girls go. Some ran, some stayed. I didn't wait around—I just ran."
They sat in silence for a moment.
"I never told you before because I thought it didn't matter. But I'm not that scared kid anymore," Cryst said quietly.
Veilstorm nodded slowly. "You're not."
Cryst gave a small smile. "You should know who you're trusting."
They sat quietly again, the fire crackling between them.
Then Cryst's voice got firm. "I didn't just run from my past. I have a goal—to get back what was stolen from my family, the Fire Emblem."
Veilstorm raised an eyebrow. "The one the royals took?"
Cryst nodded, eyes burning with determination. "Yeah. They didn't just take a symbol. They took our honor, our name—everything."
He looked at Veilstorm, voice low but strong. "I swear I'll get it back. Not just for me, but for everyone we lost." Veilstorm clenched his fist. "That's a heavy promise."
Cryst smiled, steady and fierce. "It is. But it's mine. No more running. No more hiding."
He stood up, brushing dirt off his clothes. "We'll find a place that's ours. But first, I need to know why my family mattered. Why the royals feared our flame so much."
Veilstorm nodded. "Then we fight."
Cryst grinned, sure and sharp. "Yeah. We fight."
Cryst looked at me, his eyes sharp. "Honestly, I don't know exactly where the Fire Emblem is now. The royals don't just keep something like that lying around—they hide it somewhere really safe. Maybe deep in their castle, or locked up in some secret vault."
He clenched his fists, voice low and serious. "I've heard people talking, old guards, traders saying it's guarded by powerful magic and soldiers. It won't be easy to get to. Gonna have to be smart, sneak in, avoid traps, and fight anyone who tries to stop us."
Cryst gave me a small, grim smile. "But I've gotten stronger. I'm not the scared kid I was before. And with you by my side, maybe we can find others who want to help us—people who know things, or have skills we don't."
He looked me right in the eyes. "We'll take it slow. First, we find out everything we can. Then, when the time's right, we make our move. That's how we get it back."
All I could do was smile, I saw it, the flicker of hope in his eyes