The chamber pulsed with ancient breath.
Ember staggered back, eyes fixed on the ash-figure whose hollow gaze now burned with fire. A faint glow spread from its eyes down its arms and torso, threading through the brittle cracks like veins rekindled after centuries of silence.
Then, slowly—impossibly—the figure moved.
Its voice was dry, rasping like wind over charred leaves. "You answered the flame, Solara. And so… we awaken."
Ember's breath caught in her throat. "Who… what are you?"
The figure stood, and one by one, the other five thrones stirred as well. Embers danced within their forms, sparks leaping like memories. Together, they stepped down into the circle surrounding the dark brazier.
"We are what you will become," another said. Her voice was softer, tinted with sorrow. "Or what you might have been. Flamebearers. Once chosen. Once bright."
"But we failed," a third added. "Each of us burned for the wrong reason. Each of us answered the flame with self. And it consumed us."
Ember took a step forward, her heart thundering. "Then why am I here?"
The first figure turned to her. "Because you might be different."
The brazier in the center flared for the first time, though no flame had touched it. A whisper filled the chamber—not from the ash-forms, but from the brazier itself. Not words. Emotion. Memory. A question.
What do you burn for?
It wasn't the first time she had felt it, but now the question burrowed deeper—past her strength, past her pride. Past her pain. Ember closed her eyes and saw every choice she had made. Every life she had failed to save. Every time she had chosen to fight when she could have listened, or to burn when she could have healed.
I don't know, she thought. I don't know what I burn for anymore.
The flames inside the council figures flickered uncertainly. The brazier dimmed.
But then she spoke aloud, her voice trembling. "I burn for what remains. For what can still be made right. I burn… so no one else has to."
The brazier blazed. Not violently—but with a calm, golden light that warmed without searing.
The Council paused. Then, one by one, they bowed.
"You are not yet what we could not become," the first said. "But you are the first in an age to take the next step."
He turned and raised a hand toward a forgotten wall. Glyphs ignited, revealing a hidden door of obsidian and light.
"Beyond lies the memory of the First Flame—the truth that even the Circle fears. You must see it."
Ember took a breath. The fire inside her burned low but steady.
And she stepped into the unknown.