Varohn’s hand still smoldered, lazily curling black fire around his fingers like smoke made solid, reaching for the wagon. Kaelen didn’t waste a breath. His boots blazed to life, as blue fire roared beneath him, and he flipped through the air, hurling a circular ripple of flame.The ring of azure fire spun low across the sand, whistling like a blade as it cut toward Varohn’s arm. It struck with a violent crack, sending the dark blast wide, tearing into the space beside the wooden cell cart. Sand exploded into the air, raining charred splinters down. The wagon groaned in protest but still held.“Not today,” Kaelen hissed through his teeth.Varohn only smirked, unbothered, sliding his eyes past Kaelen. His gaze sharply locked on Zaria.Zaria stiffened where she stood with Yareni, blanching her face in the firelight.“No!” Kaelen’s chest lurched. His voice tore out hoarse and raw with panic. His eyes widened, dilating his pupils against the blaze, and instinct took over. Blue fire er

The weight of those words dragged in the air. Kaelen clenched his jaw, betraying the sting of truth with his silence.Then, slowly, Sahrak turned his head toward the horizon, to the distant canyon scarred and blackened from the earlier blast. His cloak swayed against the rising heat, and the red-gold light of the dying sun caught in his silvered beard, making him look as though he stood between ages—one foot in the past, one in the future none of them were ready to face.“Well…” Sahrak said at last, neatly folding his arms behind his back, with his eyes ever gazing on the smoldering horizon. His voice was calm, measured and almost too calm. “A red flame wielder… is three times stronger than a full-powered dark flame wielder.”The desert fell silent. The guards shifted uneasily. Rokhen froze, catching his breath in his chest and Zarias’s hand unconsciously tightened onto his hand as her knuckles whitened.The silence after Sahrak’s revelation lingered like smoke after a battlefield—th

The chamber pulsed with heat and the molten veins carved into its clay walls throbbed faintly, glowing like a furnace breathing in rhythm with Varohn’s rage. Gold coins rattled in their chest as the vibration of power trembled through the floor.Varohn burst out a torrent of blackened fire from his arms, wrapping the flames around and up to his elbows like gauntlets forged from the abyss. His fists curled tight, creaking his knuckles under the strain. His eyes never left the figure before him—familiar, yet warped in a way that made every instinct scream wrong.“Mahn…” Zhaedor muttered, tilting his head as though studying an animal behind glass. His voice was low, whispery and threaded with mockery. “What a violent warrior you are.” His lips curved into the faintest smirk. “Can’t you just—for once in your miserable little life—try to… settle things peacefully?”Varohn’s nostrils flared. He rolled his eyes, crackling the fire louder around his arms. “Says the guy who dragged me here

The desert wind screamed across the dunes like a beast with no face, carrying grit sharp enough to bite the skin. The night was heavy and its silence was broken only by the dry hiss of shifting sands and the low hum of fire flickering in Kaelen’s hand. The blue flame swirled weakly in his palm, casting ghostly light across his jawline, while searching around using his restless eyes.“It was around here… I think,” Kaelen muttered, as the desert's night wind swallowed his voice. He raised his hand, circling his finger vaguely at the crater ahead. The blue fire in his palm sputtered, as though struggling to breathe in the cold desert air.Sahrak’s sharp and unblinking eyes didn’t follow his finger. They stayed locked on Kaelen’s face instead, measuring him. “What exactly did you see?” he asked, using a flat tone, devoid of sympathy and almost accusing.Kaelen exhaled sharply through his nose, furrowing his brows. “Well… uhm…” He closed his eyes, trying to piece the memory back togethe

The fire-lamp above swayed lazily, spreading its glow like molten gold across the tick leathered walls. Each time the desert wind pushed against the tent, the shadows shifted, stretching like black claws over the sand-dusted floor, fluttering the edges of the maps sprawled wide across the wooden table.Sahen’s gaze was fixed on one of those maps, softly clinking his chains each time he shifted in the iron chair. His face, pale beneath the flickering light, seemed carved from both defiance and exhaustion. Finally, he broke the silence, using a low voice that was steady enough to cut through the hum of the lamp.“Varohn… he… he’s not the kind of bad person you might think he is.”Serakai leaned against the pillar near the edge of the tent, crossing her arms tight against her chest, letting out a cocktail expression of irritation and boredom. Rokhen, sitting opposite Sahen, listened without blinking, resting his elbows on the rough wooden table, and moving his fingers together.“To b