Ashes of the First Flame

A novel by [Francis 9439]

For centuries, the world of Elaris has burned under the divine light of the First Flame, a sacred fire worshiped by the tyrannical Solar Dominion — a theocratic empire that claims godhood and unity through conquest. The Empress rules with holy fire and iron will, casting down cities that refuse her light, branding all who resist as heretics and rebels.

But across the shattered lands of the Free Marches, a spark of defiance refuses to die.

Kaelen Virelth, the exiled son of a disgraced noble house, is thrust into leadership after his brother is assassinated. Once a scholar and a pacifist, Kaelen becomes the reluctant face of a rebellion. As war spreads like wildfire, Kaelen must decide whether to become a killer to save the world — or lose everything he loves.

On the other side of the war, Serenya Valir, a devoted priestess of the Flame, begins to question the cost of blind faith. Sent to root out traitors within the Dominion, she uncovers dark secrets buried beneath sacred temples — and a prophecy foretelling a choice that will either redeem the world or end it in ash.

Amid the chaos rise other forces: the exiled Scorched Order, mage-knights blamed for a forgotten catastrophe; the elemental Aetherborn Tribes, whose magic the Dominion fears and hates; and the seductive spies of the Sable Garden, who pull strings behind every throne.

As old gods stir and ancient powers awaken, love blooms between enemies, loyalty crumbles into betrayal, and the line between salvation and damnation blurs. To stop the cycle of fire and ruin, someone must destroy the First Flame — or become its final bearer.

But power never dies quietly.

Serenya Valir stood before the obsidian gate, hands trembling beneath her priestess robes as the Dominion's flamecasters prepared the final rites. Above them, the mountain sky bled crimson and gold — not from sunset, but from the ancient runes awakening in the stone.


The door had no hinges, no seams. It responded only to flame — and to faith.


"Begin," barked Archon Tharek, his voice echoing through the Cradle of Embers.


Below, in the tunnel beneath the Vault, Kaelen Virelth moved silently through the last passage, his torch guttering as the heat increased. The air was alive — with pressure, with warning, with something older than language.


Behind him, Maera, Rovanna, and a dozen rebels stood ready. All had seen the strange sigils on the walls. All had heard the whispering in the rock. Most did not speak of it.


But what if the god was already broken?


Serenya stepped forward. The flame bowl floated before her, lifted by rune-forged chains. Within it, blue fire flickered — the Bloodlight Flame, used only once in a thousand years.


"To awaken the Flame is to invite the Reckoning," she said aloud.


The soldiers chanted behind her. Tharek raised his hand.


And for the first time, it stared back.


Kaelen reached the mirrored threshold. Beyond it, a door of living fire shimmered in a perfect spiral.


Rovanna reached out. "Wait. Something's—"


And in that moment, Kaelen and Serenya saw each other — not in flesh, not in illusion, but through the Vault itself.


Serenya gasped, nearly dropping the flame bowl. The vision blurred — Kaelen, older, harder, still carrying the pain of five years. His eyes met hers.


She heard the echo in her head like thunder:


Kaelen saw her, radiant and torn, the burden of duty wrapped around a heart that hadn't stopped beating for him.


Don't open it, he thought. Don't make me stop you.


The flame shimmered. The mountain rumbled. A low, grinding sound filled the tunnels.


All around, the earth shifted. Stone peeled back like petals of molten glass. Heat poured upward. The fire was no longer symbolic — it was sentient.


And far above, barely audible over the roar of fire:


Chapter 10 - The Door Between Us