Later that night, as Rudra rested from his intense training, all was silent.
The fire around Rudra had quieted but still glowed with a gorgeous tint of crimson and gold.
He stood with one hand resting against the charred trunk of a broken pillar, gazing into the smoky sky above the basin.
Embers still floated like starlight, but none of them touched him now.
His flame obeyed. It flowed when called, swirled when focused, and wrapped him in its warmth.
But something gnawed at him.
"Your strength up close is excellent," Agni Igris had said to him once, after a particularly punishing training session. "But warriors who rely only on fists lose against those who can kill from fifty meters away."
"Don't neglect branching out in the future" Agni Igris said as he proved that point by holding Rudra in chains made of his Blood Ki.
At the time, Rudra had scoffed.
