Asta had reached the door now. His hand gripped the handle, and he pulled it open with more force than was strictly necessary. Without looking back, without saying another word, he stepped through and let the door swing shut behind him.The sound of his footsteps echoed down the hallway, growing fainter and fainter until they disappeared entirely.The Black Flame Clan Leader stood frozen for a moment, clearly torn between his instincts to go after his godson and the practical wisdom of what old man Kael had just said. Finally, with visible effort, he forced himself to relax, to accept that this conversation was over for now.He turned back to face Kael, and when he spoke again, his voice had shifted to a different topic entirely. "Speaking of figuring things out... that Jabber boy. The one I asked about earlier."He moved back to his chair and sat down, his expression becoming more calculating, more focused. "It seems that his dragon has awakened, hasn't it? That's why you've been w

The stocky laborer continued staring at him for another few seconds, then reached out and grabbed a handful of his friend's shirt collar. "We're going to be late." He said, his voice carrying long-suffering patience as he started physically dragging the taller man down the hallway. "The next arena match is about to start, and you know how the commentator gets if we miss the opening announcements.""Hey! I can walk on my own! Let go of my,ow, okay, okay, I'm coming!"The two of them turned and headed toward the arena entrance, the tall one still protesting about the shirt-grabbing while the stocky one just kept pulling him along, their voices fading as they disappeared around the corner.Behind them, Asta continued his solitary walk through the facility corridors, completely unaware that anyone had tried to talk to him, completely absorbed in the spiral of his own thoughts.‘Would you really just sit back and watch another boy come in and take your place?’"I'm not watching." Asta

Marcus,the young man who'd been holding the flame torch earlier,had extinguished it minutes ago when they'd heard the beasts getting closer. Now they sat in complete darkness, relying on sound and feeling alone to tell them where the danger was.Sera was pressed against his side, her injured leg stretched out at an awkward angle that had to be painful but that she couldn't adjust without making noise. Her hands gripped Marcus's arm so tightly he could feel her nails digging into his skin through his sleeve, but he didn't complain. The pain kept him focused, kept him from spiraling into panic.They'd been running for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. When the flame beasts had finally caught up to them in that tunnel, when death had seemed inevitable, Lyra had saved them.Lyra was the team's specialist,a rare flame wielder whose ability wasn't about generating heat or creating fire for destruction. Her flames were about illusion, about manipulation of light and percept

Her voice was low, calm, carrying none of the heat or fury that had been saturating the tunnel moments before. "Breathe."It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order, delivered with the quiet confidence of someone who knew she would be obeyed.For a long moment, Cassian just stared at her, his chest heaving with angry breaths, flames still flickering along his arms. Then, slowly, the fire began to die down. The tension in his shoulders eased fractionally. His jaw was unclenched enough that he could probably speak without grinding his teeth.He took a deep breath,in through his nose, out through his mouth,then another. The flames extinguished completely, and some of the wild, desperate quality left his eyes.Kira waited until she was sure he'd regained control, then let her hand drop from his shoulder. She turned to face Marcus and Sera, and her expression remained calm, professional, but not unkind."Marcus. Sera." Her voice carried that same low, soothing quality. "Did you find the R

Kira immediately stepped forward, moving with the kind of purposeful efficiency that marked her as someone who'd done this a thousand times before. Her hands began to glow with a soft, warm light,not the aggressive orange-red of combat flames, but a gentle golden color that pulsed with soothing energy."Sit down." She told Sera, her voice leaving no room for argument despite its gentleness. "You can be as brave as you want, but you're not walking into a boss fight with that leg in its current state. Give me two minutes."Sera nodded and lowered herself back to the ground, this time by choice rather than from weakness. She extended her injured leg, and Kira knelt beside her, placing both glowing hands on either side of the wound.The healing flame technique was different from regular fire manipulation. Where combat flames were destroyed and burned, healing flames knitted and restored. It required a completely different mindset, a level of control and precision that most flame wielder