Wielder Of The Dragon Flame

Chapter 36

"Don't do that. Don't take their judgment and make it your truth. You're not weak, Jabber. I saw your flame today…it was incredible. Beautiful and powerful and yes, wild, but that doesn't make it less valuable. It just makes it yours.”

“And you controlled it when it mattered most. When it could have hurt us, you redirected it. That takes strength. That takes skill, even if it's instinctive skill.”

He shifted on his bunk, leaning slightly over the edge so his words would carry better down to where Jabber lay.

 "And you know what else takes strength? Surviving two years in this place without giving up completely. Continuing to get up every morning even though everyone treats you like you're nothing. Staying kind and decent even when the world has been cruel to you. That's not a weakness, Jabber. That's the opposite of weakness."

For a long moment, Jabber didn't respond. Then, very quietly:

 "Thanks, Asta. I... thanks."

"I mean it."

"I know. That's what makes it mean something."

They fell silent again, but something had shifted. The air felt lighter somehow, like a pressure valve had been released. Jabber had shared something real, something painful, and Asta had received it without judgment, without mockery, without dismissal.

This, Asta thought, was what guild mates did. What real friends did. They carried each other's burdens, witnessed each other's pain, and refused to let each other face the darkness alone.

"So what about the rest?" 

Asta asked after a while, his tone deliberately lighter, trying to move past the heavy moment. 

"You told me about your family and Cassian. What about here? These past four months. What's that been like for you?"

Jabber seemed grateful for the change in subject. 

"Lonely, mostly. I kept to myself,you probably noticed. Didn't want to get close to anyone, didn't want to risk more rejection. I just did my work, kept my head down and tried to be invisible. Thought that was safer."

"I noticed."

 Asta confirmed. 

"You were so quiet I sometimes forgot you were in the room. No offense."

"None taken. That was kind of the point." 

A pause.

 "But then today happened. You stepped between me and that official. No one's ever... no one's ever done something like that for me before. Put themselves at risk just to protect me. I didn't know how to process it. Still don't, really."

"You're my roommate." 

Asta said simply. 

"My guild mate now. Of course I was going to step in. What kind of person would I be if I just stood there and let him hurt you?"

"Most people would have."

 Jabber said quietly.

 "Most people have."

"Well, I'm not like most people. And neither are you. We're Ember Watch now. We look out for each other. That's the deal."

"Yeah." 

Jabber's voice was soft, almost wondering.

 "Yeah, I guess it is.”

Another comfortable silence settled over them. Asta found himself smiling again, feeling something warm in his chest that had nothing to do with flame and everything to do with connection. With friendship.

Then Jabber's voice drifted up from the lower bunk: 

"Your turn."

"Hmm?"

"Tell me about yourself. It's only fair. I shared, now you share."

Asta felt his smile falter slightly. His own story... Where did he even begin? How much should he share? How much could he share without revealing things he wasn't ready to talk about,like the shadow that had defended him in that alley, like the strange power he didn't understand?

"I, uh..." 

Asta started, then stopped. His eyes found the ceiling again, tracing those familiar cracks while he tried to figure out how to put his life into words.

He took a slow breath, still staring at the ceiling, and began to speak.

"I'm Asta Xavier." 

He said, his voice quiet but steady.

 "Son of Lord Ignatius Xavier and Lady Mira Xavier. Which probably sounds impressive until you realize I'm the family embarrassment. The heir who inherited nothing except a name I can barely claim."

He paused, gathering his thoughts, then continued. 

"My mother died the night I was born. Everyone says it was complications from childbirth,that she was too weak, that the labor was too hard, that these things happen sometimes. But I... I have memories. Fragments. Images that might be real or might be dreams or might be something I made up to explain what I don't understand.”

His voice dropped lower. 

"I remember blood. So much blood. I remember voices shouting. I remember... I swear I remember a man in a black cloak standing over the bed. I remember the glint of a blade. But everyone tells me that's impossible, that I was just born, that newborns can't form memories like that. So maybe they're right. Maybe I'm just crazy."

Jabber didn't interrupt, didn't question. He just lay and just listened, and somehow that made it easier to keep talking.

"My father..." 

Asta's throat tightened. 

"Lord Ignatius died when I was ten. Heart attack, they said. He just... collapsed one day during a training session. I remember running to him, trying to wake him up, not understanding why he wouldn't open his eyes.”

“The healers couldn't save him. The Xavier flame that had made him legendary couldn't protect him from his own body failing."

He swallowed hard.

 "After he died, everything changed. The clan that had tolerated me as the heir,even the flameless heir,suddenly saw me as a burden. A reminder of everything they'd lost.”

“My cousin Cassian started managing clan affairs because I was 'too young' and 'too inexperienced.' And every year that passed without me manifesting flame made my position weaker."

"How old is Cassian?" 

Jabber asked quietly.

"Twenty-two. Two years older than me. His mother was... well, she wasn't my father's wife, obviously. She was someone from the Eastern Provinces, not a major clan, not anyone important by nobility standards.”

“ She died when Cassian was young too. Some kind of fever."

 Asta shrugged, even though Jabber couldn't see the gesture. 

"My father took Cassian in, raised him alongside me. We were brothers, sort of. Or I thought we were. Cassian was always... complicated. Sometimes he was protective, teaching me sword forms, helping me with my studies. Other times he was cold, distant, like he resented having to share our father's attention."

"And now?"

Jabber prompted.

"Now he's the Xavier clan leader. As of tonight, officially." 

Asta's voice went flat. 

"I found out about the ceremony through rumors. Wasn't invited, obviously. Why would they invite embarrassment? The flameless failure?...”