THE HIDDEN FLAME OF LUTHERCHRIS

CHAPTER 3: Journey to Veylar

The morning after the battle with the Earth Wraith came with heavy skies and a restless wind. Collins stood outside his house, staring at the faint smoke still rising from the forest. His heart was torn between two worlds — the quiet life he’d always known, and the unknown path that awaited him beyond the mountains.

He tightened the strap of his bag and took one last look at the little brick home. The cracked window. The squeaky porch. The smell of pine that always lingered after rain. It was everything he’d ever had — and now he was leaving it behind.

“Ready?” Seraphine asked gently. She was already mounted on her horse, her violet hair tied back beneath her hood. Beside her, Master Alden adjusted the reins of his sleek black stallion, while the silent guard followed behind with a pack beast carrying supplies.

Collins nodded quietly.

“I guess I am.”

“Then let’s move,” Alden said. “We have a long road to Veylar.”

---

The journey began through the winding forest paths of Elderwood, where the trees stretched tall as towers and their roots curled like serpents. The air shimmered faintly with magic — Collins could feel it, like an invisible heartbeat all around him.

Every now and then, a strange bird would cry out, or a glowing insect would dart past. Magic lived in the very soil of Elyndor, but now it felt more alive than ever before — as though reacting to him.

Seraphine rode beside him most of the way.

She was quiet but observant, her eyes always scanning the shadows between the trees.

“Does it always feel like this?” Collins asked at last.

“Like what?”

“Like the world is breathing.”

She smiled faintly. “For most people, no. But once your inner gate opens, you start feeling the pulse of elements — the Fire in heat, the Water in the air, the Earth under your feet, the Wind in your breath. It’s the mark of awakening.”

Collins looked down at his wrist. The flame symbol glowed softly beneath the leather strap he’d tied around it. “It’s strange,” he said. “It feels alive.”

“It is,” she replied. “Elemental energy isn’t just power. It’s life itself.”

---

By midday, they reached a small clearing where Alden called for a stop. The group dismounted, and the guard — whose name Collins learned was Rovan — began preparing food over a portable flame crystal.

Alden spread a map over a flat stone. “We’ll pass through the Whispering Hills by nightfall,” he said. “If luck’s with us, we’ll reach the River Varn in three days.”

Collins leaned closer. “Is Veylar far beyond the river?”

“Far enough,” Alden answered. “But once we cross it, we’ll be in mage territory. Safer lands. For now, stay alert. The power that woke in you has surely stirred others from their sleep.”

His tone was grim. Collins didn’t ask more.

---

After they ate, Seraphine offered to help him practice. “You can’t keep calling fire by accident,” she said, standing a few feet away. “You need control.”

“I don’t even know how I did it,” Collins admitted. “It just… happened.”

“That’s how most awakenings start,” she said. “Close your eyes. Breathe slowly. Feel the mark on your wrist. Imagine the flame within you — not outside.”

He hesitated, then did as she said. He inhaled deeply. The world around him grew quiet.

He could feel warmth deep in his chest — a spark, pulsing softly with his heartbeat.

“Now,” Seraphine whispered, “let it answer you.”

Collins raised his hand. A faint glow appeared — flickering gold — and then burst into a small flame that hovered above his palm. He gasped, nearly losing focus, but Seraphine stepped closer.

“Steady,” she said. “Don’t fight it. Guide it.”

The flame steadied, dancing gently in the air. Its light reflected in his wide eyes.

He smiled for the first time in days. “I did it.”

“Yes,” she said softly, smiling back. “You did.”

But before the moment could settle, Alden’s sharp voice cut through the clearing.

“Enough! Someone’s watching us.”

---

Rovan instantly raised his staff, and Seraphine’s hand went to her dagger. Collins turned — but saw nothing. The forest looked still.

Alden muttered a spell, tracing symbols in the air. A faint shimmer revealed three shadowy figures hidden among the trees — cloaked, masked, and moving silently. Their presence was dark, unnatural.

“Shadow Scouts,” Alden growled. “They’ve found us.”

One of the figures hissed, and black mist swirled around them. The air grew colder. Seraphine’s eyes blazed blue as she raised her hand, forming a shimmering barrier of frost. The shadows struck it, hissing, as the barrier crackled.

“Collins!” Alden shouted. “Stay behind us!”

But Collins’s instincts flared. The mark on his wrist burned. Without thinking, he reached out — and the earth beneath the attackers burst upward, forming jagged stone spikes. The ambushers leapt aside just in time, two of them vanishing in smoke. The last one was caught and impaled, dissolving into ash.

When the air cleared, silence fell once more. Only the wind stirred.

Alden turned slowly toward Collins, his expression unreadable. “That was Earth Magic. You just used another element.”

Collins stared at his hands in disbelief. “I didn’t even mean to…”

Seraphine’s voice trembled slightly. “Two elements… Fire and Earth? That’s not supposed to be possible.”

Alden folded the map and gave Collins a long, heavy look. “Boy,” he said quietly, “you’re not just an awakened mage. You may be what our legends call an Elemental Bearer.”

“Is that bad?” Collins asked nervously.

“Bad?” Alden’s lips tightened. “It means your power could save this world — or destroy it.”

---

They broke camp and continued their journey in silence. The forest slowly thinned as they climbed the rocky paths toward the hills. The wind grew colder, carrying whispers that only Collins seemed to hear.

Heir of the Flame… the shadow hunts you… awaken the four, or the world shall burn.

He tried to ignore the voices, but they lingered in his mind like smoke.

By the time they reached the top of the hill, dusk had painted the sky in red and violet. Ahead lay the vast plains beyond which the city of Veylar shimmered faintly in the distance — towers of glass and gold rising like a dream above the horizon.

Collins stopped to stare, awe filling his chest. “That’s it?”

Alden nodded. “The heart of magic. Where your true training begins.”

Seraphine’s voice softened. “Welcome to your new life, Collins Lutherchris — the boy who carries fire in his veins.”

---

But behind them, deep in the forest they had left behind, black smoke began to rise again. The ashes of the fallen shadow scout twisted, reshaping into a floating ember of darkness.

Far away, in the depths of the Shadowlands, Lord Kael Duskryn opened his eyes and smiled faintly.

> “So… the heir walks the road to Veylar. Let him come. The flame that rises… will also fall.”