Zira Morn's eyes flickered with recognition and calculation. She hadn't aged a day in Kael's memory, though memory was still a fractured mirror for him. Her cloak shimmered with neural threads as she stepped out from the smoke, a sleek pulse-blade strapped to her thigh.
"You still breathe, so I suppose the Ember hasn't devoured you yet," she said, folding her arms.
Kael took a step back, uncertain. "Do I know you?"
"Not anymore," she replied, coolly. "But we ran together, once. Back before the Rift Wars erased half the stars and your memories with them."
Jinzhen appeared behind Kael, staff raised defensively. "Who are you?"
"Zira Morn," she replied without flinching. "Mercenary, former Syndicate. Now unaffiliated." She eyed Jinzhen. "I'm not your enemy. If I were, Kael would already be ash."
Kael glanced between them. "She… helped me escape once. Before I woke up near the Riftfield."
"She did more than help you," Jinzhen said quietly. "But that's for later. We move. Now."
They didn't argue. The Syndicate would send reinforcements, and the Sky-Market wouldn't survive a second wave.
_____
*Two Days Later — Emberpath Temple Ruins, Sector Delta*
The temple was a half-floating ruin suspended between broken gravity plates. The architecture fused ancient stonework with remnants of cybersteel scaffolds, once sacred, now forgotten. It was a place the Syndicate couldn't trace.
Kael stood in the center courtyard, bare-chested under the shifting sun. The mark, the Void Seal glowed faintly, feeding on the Ember Core's energy. Jinzhen circled him with slow, deliberate steps.
"The Emberpath is not a martial art," Jinzhen explained. "It is a discipline of will. Fire does not obey strength. It obeys intent."
Zira sat cross-legged nearby, half-watching, half-cleaning her blade. "Don't bore him to death, old man. He needs results. The Syndicate won't wait for enlightenment."
"He needs control," Jinzhen snapped. "Not recklessness."
Kael stepped into the first stance, Ashen Repose. His breathing slowed. The Emberfire stirred in his chest, licking at his ribs like a living thing. He remembered the assassin's blade, the fire that had exploded from him in panic and how close it came to consuming them all.
"Channel. Don't contain," Jinzhen whispered. "Guide it, like wind guides flame."
Kael moved into Flicker Step, and this time, the Ember responded. Flames traced the soles of his feet, shimmering just above the stone. His arms glowed, patterns of energy spreading like molten veins.
Zira raised an eyebrow. "Well, damn. Maybe you are the one the Ember chose."
"Chosen or cursed," Kael muttered, stepping into Kindling Spiral, the fire arcing upward from his hands. "I just want answers."
"You'll earn them," Jinzhen said.
But before Kael could complete the form, a sudden ripple spread through the air, a distortion.
Zira jumped to her feet instantly, hand on her weapon. "We've been pinged."
A hum grew louder, not a ship, not a Rift but something smaller.
"Drop droids?" Kael asked.
"No," Zira said. "Worse."
Three cybernetic assassins warped into view, phasing through the dimension veil. Sleek, silver-bodied, with digitized tattoos etched into their armor. They moved like ghosts, eyes pulsing with violet energy.
"Drenn Valis sends his regards," the lead assassin said in a distorted, dual-toned voice.
Jinzhen snarled. "Silencers. Fall back!"
Kael instinctively raised his hands, but the Ember surged on its own. Fire exploded from his palms, not in panic this time, but purpose.
He entered the form again, Ashen Repose. The flames wrapped around his arms like twin gauntlets. The lead Silencer lunged.
Kael met the strike, Emberblades crackling against alloy. The impact sent a shockwave through the temple. Zira joined the fray, her blade a blur of precise counterstrikes, dancing around the two remaining Silencers.
Jinzhen channeled a burst of kinetic Ember into his staff and swept one assassin aside.
Kael screamed, spinning through Kindling Spiral. Fire arced around him in a full circle, slicing through the lead assassin's chassis. Metal tore, sparks burst, and the Silencer collapsed in a heap of flaming circuitry.
Zira threw her blade like a spear, impaling the last one just as it attempted to cloak. The ruins fell silent.
Kael fell to one knee, breath ragged, but the fire inside him had calmed, for the first time, it hadn't fought him. It had followed him.
Jinzhen exhaled. "You've opened the first gate of the Emberpath."
Kael looked at the scorch marks around him, then at the Void Seal, now glowing faintly with a second ring.
Zira stepped forward, wiping blood from her brow. "Congratulations, Emberboy. You've just declared war."
_____
*Far above, within the orbital Sanctum of the Syndicate…*
Drenn Valis watched the Silencers' feed go dark. He didn't flinch. He merely turned to a row of command officers.
"Activate Project Riftborn. The Ember Core has awakened."