All Chapters of The Healer’s Ascension: Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
47 chapters
Chapter Nine: The Breaking Point
Jason’s arms trembled as he held the dagger, sweat rolling down his temples. His scar pulsed against the hilt like a second heartbeat.Elias circled him, sharp eyes never leaving his form. “Focus. Draw the shard’s power through the blade, not your body. The conduit carries the flame, you guide it.”Jason gritted his teeth, lowering into a stance. He willed the heat inside him to move. The glow surged down his arm, into the dagger. The etched runes lit like molten veins.Jason felt it, energy streaming, controlled, contained. For the first time, it didn’t burn him alive. He exhaled, relief loosening his chest. “I think… I’ve got it”The dagger flared white. Too much. Too fast. “Jason, stop!” Elias’s command snapped too late.The dagger erupted, a shockwave tearing through the chamber. Stone cracked, glyphs shattered, shards of light ripping outward. Jason was hurled across the floor, skidding hard against the wall.When his vision cleared, smoke filled the chamber. Half the far wall ha
Chapter Ten: Whispers in the Council
Jason stood stiffly in the chamber of the High Circle, a cold pit twisting in his stomach. The chamber was vast, circular, lined with towering pillars carved with runes. Shadows clung to the cloaked figures seated around the edges, their faces hidden beneath deep hoods.He felt like a bug on display, Elias stood at his side, arms folded. His presence was the only anchor keeping Jason from bolting. The eldest councilor’s voice rasped from the darkness, ancient and dry.“Jason Miller. Bearer of the shard. You stand accused of recklessness and endangerment, having destabilized the Arcanum’s foundations during training.”Jason’s mouth went dry. He opened it, but Elias placed a hand on his shoulder. Don’t speak, Another voice cut through the chamber, smooth and mocking. Jason recognized it instantly.Kael.“With all due respect,” Kael drawled, “this was not a minor accident. The boy unleashed uncontrolled force strong enough to collapse a reinforced chamber. If Elias hadn’t contained it, w
Chapter Eleven: Shackles of Fire
Jason’s wrists itched under the iron bands they clamped around him.They weren’t ordinary shackles. The runes etched into the metal glowed faintly, thrumming against his skin. They didn’t just bind, they drank. The shard inside him recoiled, hissing like a caged beast.Elias stood grimly by as the enforcers locked the final clasp. “These are focus restraints,” he said flatly. “They’ll bleed off excess power before it burns you alive. Or us.”Jason flexed his hands, the bands heavy, uncomfortable. “Feels more like a leash.”“That’s exactly what it is,” Elias said. “The Council made their terms clear. One mistake, and they’ll bury you in chains far worse.”Jason swallowed. The thought of permanent containment made his stomach turn.The training yard was different this time. No apprentices, no audience, only Elias, the scorched stone, and Jason. The council wanted no witnesses if he failed again, Elias tossed him the dagger. “Let’s see if you can channel while the restraints are active.”
Chapter Twelve: Ash and Shadows
The restraints bit into Jason’s wrists as he staggered back to his quarters. Every muscle screamed, and his scar still pulsed with aftershocks of fire.He pushed the door closed and collapsed onto the cot, staring at the ceiling beams. His breath came ragged. I can’t keep this up. They’ll break me before the shard does.A knock echoed. Sharp, deliberate.Jason sat up, wary. “Who is it?”The door creaked open without waiting for an answer. Kael stepped inside, eyes gleaming in the torchlight. Jason’s hands curled into fists. “You.”Kael smirked, letting the silence stretch before he spoke. “Word travels quickly. Shackles already? Impressive. Usually, they wait until the third incident.”Jason forced himself not to rise. “What do you want?”“To offer perspective.” Kael’s gaze flicked to the glowing restraints. “You’re a prisoner wearing the illusion of a student.The Council doesn’t trust you, Elias barely keeps you afloat, and the shard? It’s eating you alive.”Jason’s jaw tightened. “
Chapter Thirteen: Feeding the Fire
A beam of searing flame exploded outward. The dummy disintegrated in an instant, reduced to molten slag. The shockwave blasted Jason back, slamming him into the yard wall.He lay stunned, ears ringing, chest heaving. His scar burned bright, but for once… it didn’t hurt, The shard purred inside him, warm and sated, like a beast that had finally eaten.Jason sat up slowly, staring at the ruined dummy. His hand shook, not from pain, but from awe. It worked. Then a voice cut through the smoke. “Well, well. Feeding the fire, are we?”Jason froze.Kael stepped from the shadows, arms crossed, satisfaction written all over his face. “I didn’t expect you to actually try it. Bold. Dangerous. Suicidal, even. But effective.”Jason’s stomach knotted. “You were watching me?”“Of course,” Kael said smoothly. “You’ve proven my point, the shard isn’t a chain to be resisted. It’s a storm. You don’t block the storm. You ride it.”Jason struggled to his feet. “And what happens when the storm throws me of
Chapter Fourteen: Fractured Trust
Elias’s voice dropped, low and fierce. “Do you think I don’t know the price? Every time you indulge it, you let it root deeper. You give it leverage. And when the moment comes, Jason… it won’t be you holding the dagger. It will be the shard.”Jason yanked his arm free, chest heaving. “Maybe that’s the only way I can survive!”The silence after was sharp as glass. Elias’s expression hardened, pain flickering behind the steel.“You sound like Kael.”Jason froze. Elias stepped back, his voice colder than the morning air. “If you walk his path, I can’t protect you. Not from the Council. Not from yourself.”The words cut deeper than any blade. Jason opened his mouth, but Elias turned and strode away, leaving him alone in the ruin of his choices. The shard pulsed inside him, hot and eager.Jason pressed a hand against his chest, shaking. “What… what are you turning me into?”The shard offered no answer. Only heat. The Council chamber reeked of incense and judgment. High arches framed the ma
Chapter Fifteen: The Trial of Chains A
The Council chamber reeked of incense and judgment. High arches framed the marble dais where five robed figures sat, their eyes cold and sharp as blades.Jason stood below, wrists still bound in the siphoning restraints. The weight of their gaze pressed heavier than the iron.“Jason Miller,” intoned the central councilor, a hawk-nosed woman named Varis. “You are summoned here not as a student, but as a liability. Twice your power has breached containment. Yesterday, you destroyed academy property without sanction.”Murmurs rippled through the chamber. Jason clenched his fists. Kael must have told them. Or maybe Elias did.Varis’s voice cut through the whispers. “You will undergo a controlled trial today. Prove you can wield the shard without catastrophe, or you will be removed from the academy and confined under permanent seal.”Jason’s stomach dropped. Permanent seal. A living tomb, Elias stood at his side, expression grim, hands folded behind his back. He didn’t meet Jason’s eyes.T
Chapter Fifteen: The Trial of Chains B
The Council chamber was colder than Jason remembered. Not the drafty chill of stone halls, but something deeper, woven into the marble itself, like the air had been carved from judgment and sealed with finality.High arches loomed overhead, etched with sigils that glowed faintly in the torchlight. The ceiling soared into darkness, making Jason feel small, like he was being swallowed whole by the very structure.He stood at the center of the chamber floor, his wrists bound by the siphoning restraints that hummed faintly against his skin. The bands drained at his core with every breath, a slow, gnawing ache that left his limbs heavy. The weight of silence pressed on him, heavier than the chains.Above him, seated on a crescent dais of white stone, the Council watched. Five robed figures, their eyes sharp and merciless, each draped in the authority of centuries. Jason had seen them before from a distance, but never this close. Never like this, as the accused.“Jason Miller,” came the voi
Chapter Seventeen: Inferno’s Edge
The dagger rose like a second sun. Jason’s chest heaved as he leveled the blade at the Council. The fire around him bent inward, shadows stretching long against the chamber’s white stone walls.The black-violet flames clung to the dagger’s edge, hungry, alive, whispering in a tongue he didn’t understand but felt down to his marrow.The chamber, once resplendent in solemn grandeur, had become a furnace. Marble tiles were cracked and blackened. Gold filigree along the pillars dripped like molten wax.Sentinels staggered to their feet, armor scorched and smoking. The smell of charred steel and burning leather filled the air, thick and suffocating.The Council, twelve figures robed in authority, sat transfixed above. Even they, so long untouchable, had flinched back in their seats. For the first time, their thrones looked fragile. Jason’s voice was raw but steady.“You think you can judge me? Seal me away? You don’t see me at all. You only see fire.”His arm shook. Not from weakness, but
Chapter Sixteen: The Breaking Point
The world narrowed to the dagger’s glow. Jason’s chest rose and fell in ragged bursts, his arms trembling as though his own bones no longer belonged to him.The fire coiled along the blade in ribbons of white-orange heat, crackling with a life of its own. Smoke licked the marble floor beneath him, curling upward in lazy spirals.Around him, the Council chamber pulsed with voices. Gasps, commands, the quick shuffle of armored boots, but Jason heard none of it clearly.Everything was muffled, drowned beneath the roar of blood in his ears and the thunder of the shard in his veins. They wanted to cage him. Bind him. Seal him away like some dangerous relic. But he had won.The hellspawn was ash. The trial, passed. He should have proven himself, earned their recognition. Instead, Varis had condemned him the moment he showed his strength.Jason’s jaw clenched, teeth grinding. They don’t see me. They only see the fire.The first sentinel lunged. A staff of black steel swung down, its head cro