The scent of burning amber and sweetroot drifted through the evening air as the three of them moved through the festival-lit streets.
Lanterns swayed overhead, strung like fireflies between ancient towers and merchant awnings, their light enchanted to flicker with warm reds and deep golds—each one ignited in honor of Empress Lysandra, the first bearer of the flame, the uniting founder whose reign had forged the Empire from dust and fractured thrones.
The Festival of the First Flame had always been equal parts reverence and spectacle, and this year, with the Academy's Candidate Trials being broadcast for the first time during the holy week, it felt less like coincidence and more like ceremony dressed in armor.
