Of Flame, Sand, and Gold
“I buried you,” the traitor whispered.
“Then dig deeper,” Kaelen replied, voice like sand on steel, “because I’m not done rising.”
Zaria stood behind him, the wind pulling strands of her hair like fire-dancers in the dusk. “Let them come,” she said. “We burn hotter together.”
The masked woman landed beside them, blades humming with heat.
“You still don’t get it,” Kaelen muttered, watching the desert pulse like a living thing.
“Get what?”
“This isn’t a fight for gold.”
“Then what is it?”
Kaelen smirked, cracked lips bloodied. “It’s the reckoning.”
Kaelen was left for dead in the scorching sands of Sutekh; stripped of his name, his wife, and the child he never met. But the desert doesn’t forget. It carves vengeance into bone.
Now, Kaelen rises from the ruins of betrayal as something more than a man: marked by ancient fire, hunted by his half-brother, and haunted by what he can’t remember. As he claws his way back through a kingdom built on secrets, one thing drives him: Zaria. His wife. Missing, maybe dead; or worse, weaponized by those who want to claim a legacy soaked in blood.
But Zaria is no victim. Imprisoned and pregnant, she holds the key to an empire long thought dead. And when her twin sister emerges from the shadows to seize that power for herself, love becomes war — and the price of legacy is life itself. In a world where loyalty is a lie and prophecy demands sacrifice, Kaelen must decide: will he reclaim what was stolen; or burn it all to the ground?
OF FLAME, SAND, AND GOLD is an epic fantasy of fire-forged vengeance, unbroken love, and the rebirth of a forgotten kingdom.
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Chapter: Chapter 25Sahen’s eyes twitched—not wide with fear, but sharpened with curiosity. And then came that wide and toothy grin that was far too pleased for someone about to get double-teamed.“Well,” he muttered with a flick of his wrist, “that explains a few things…”With a slow, almost theatrical pull, he drew the curved dagger from the sheath at his hip. In an instant, it hissed with black fire, spiraling up the blade like smoke being sucked into the night. Another flick of his other hand, and the second dagger followed, its edge licking with the same eerie, hungry flame.Across from him, Amara let out a dry, almost amused chuckle. “Heh… What a happy miscalculation.”She raised her mallet overhead, and in a flash, a surge of golden flame erupted from the head, dancing wild and hot, while the handle beneath her grip remained untouched with controlled chaos. Just like her.“Vael…” she grinned. “We’ll take him together.”Vael nodded without a word. His shoulders rolled back. His stance sank low. And
Last Updated: 2025-07-17
Chapter: Chapter 24“You’re nothing more than a baby child,” Amara snapped with a low razor-edged voice that was packed with venom. “Crying like a chicken croaking at dawn—screeching for everyone’s attention because you’re too damn afraid no one’s listening.”The words hit like thrown daggers.Zaria flinched slightly against her, but Amara didn’t waver. With a rough breath, she gently leaned Zaria into Saltana’s arms, never once taking her eyes off Sahen. Saltana steadied the terrified girl, holding her close, shielding her body like a cloak of calm against the storm building ahead.Amara’s fingers dropped to the hilt of her mallet.Then she let it fall.The weapon hit the sand with a hard thud, the weight of it sending a muffled shockwave through the ground. The mallet’s head buried itself slightly in the loose sand, disturbing the stillness and sending out small, concentric ripples of golden grains like a heartbeat trembling from the earth itself. A faint metallic hum followed, like it had awakened s
Last Updated: 2025-07-17
Chapter: Chapter 23“Here.”Zaria’s voice was barely above a whisper. The dry and restless wind tugged at her scarf, like it was trying to pull her back from remembering.“This is exactly where he… where he put me on the horse,” she said as she glued her eyes to the dust-scored ground beneath her. “Where he… told me to ride. To not look back.”Amara stepped forward and laid a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find him, Zaria,” she gently said, but her voice had steel under the softness. “We will.”Behind them, Saltana lingered like a shadow—silent, with parted lips like she wanted to say something but didn’t know which emotion to commit to. Regret? Guilt? Hope?The old tower loomed above them, battered and slouched like a drunk too proud to fall. Cracks split its stone spine. Its crown was half gone, blown off by storms or time or something worse. It looked dead. But the kind of dead that still twitched.Four guards stood spaced out around the base, looking around the barren expanse of desert. Every gust of w
Last Updated: 2025-07-16
Chapter: Chapter 22“Oh, there’s water,” Sahrak replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Water always finds its way. Even through a thousand tons of sand, it drips and seeps in.You’ll hear it in the cracks of the walls at night. You’ll wake to it trickling… like a memory.”Kaelen didn’t look impressed. “And food?” he asked, flopping his arms out in exasperation. “You got a stash of fruit trees in the basement too?”Sahrak chuckled. “Hard loaves of bread. Dried roots and herbs. Enough to last a while.”“So we’re gonna be the last two flameborn alive to see this place and die from carbs?” Kaelen muttered, looking up at him. “That’s the plan?”Sahrak’s eyes twinkled just slightly. “No, lad.”He took a few steps closer and dropped his voice. “Because now that you’re here— We can get out.”Kaelen blinked, sitting upright fast. “Wait. What? I thought you just said we’re stuck.”“We were,” Sahrak replied, his face now half-lit by the fire beside him. “But the flame doesn’t waste energy. It
Last Updated: 2025-07-16
Chapter: Chapter 21Sahrak stepped toward a smaller, dust-covered pedestal near the altar. He lifted a metal plate from its top and slowly turned it over to reveal a blackened crystal bowl, cracked at the edges—once beautiful, now heavy with scorch marks and time.“The source of a flameborn’s strength,” Sahrak said softly. “The core of our blood… as well as the truth of our origin.”Kaelen stared at it. “Mhm. Okay. You’re gonna have to explain that one a little simpler,” he said, raising his eyebrows and making little circle motions with his fingers. “Because I’m like... Definitely lost.”Sahrak didn’t smile this time. “A small, undying flame,” he said.The room suddenly felt warmer. Like the words themselves had heat. “It doesn’t flicker. Doesn’t fade. It just burns—quietly, constantly, like the heartbeat of the first flameborn.”“How did it get here?” Kaelen asked.“No one knows,” Sahrak answered with a grave voice. “The only sure thing is that it's sacred and it's alive. And for those with the right p
Last Updated: 2025-07-15
Chapter: Chapter 20“That… was when the rift began.”Sahrak’s voice settled on old bones that didn’t echo in the ever huge chamber. He didn’t look at Kaelen when he said it. He just turned his back and faced the stone wall carved with flame-wreathed warriors and spirals of broken shields.“It started with words. Like it always does. Whispers in corners. Heated debates around cracked hearthstones. The kind of disagreements families usually drink over.”He sighed. “But not here.”Kaelen listened, leaning against the cold clay wall behind him, still tender from his wounds, as he pressed every breath against bruises he hadn’t even counted yet.“The people split,” Sahrak said. “But not with blades. Not yet. Just… distance.Your father’s side believed in preserving strength and not flaunting it. They called it wisdom. And called it balance.”He motioned to the far left of the mural, where a group of figures was depicted holding their weapons pointed to the ground, with almost peaceful gentle flames that were e
Last Updated: 2025-07-15
