The stars shimmered faintly above the forest clearing where they had made camp. The fire crackled low, casting flickering shadows on the trees. So-Ri had long since fallen asleep, wrapped in her cloak, her breathing soft and steady beneath the blanket of starlight.
Sun-Ho sat with his back against a tree, eyes half-lidded.
The fire of the five elements no longer scorched his veins—it whispered. Flickers of gold and red danced silently over his palm.
Fssh...
He studied the flame.
It danced. Twisted. Then shifted into the shape of a lotus.
> I didn't do that.
It felt like memory, not magic.
---
The Dream
That night, sleep took him like falling into a warm pool—and pulled him under.
He found himself beneath a cherry tree in spring bloom. Petals drifted through the wind, and the scent of plum tea curled in the air.
He was younger—17, exactly.
His robes were finer, shoulders broader, posture regal.
A girl sat across from him on a sun-warmed stone bench. She smiled with an ease that shattered him. Her hair was tied in a loose braid. Her voice was soft as rain.
And she looked so much like So-Ri, it hurt.
"Sun-Ho," she said, teasing, "stop pretending you're meditating. You're just avoiding the sparring match."
He laughed—young, unguarded.
"I've already beaten you twelve times. I thought giving you space to recover was noble of me."
Her smile curled. "Noble? Or lazy?"
They laughed.
She reached for her sword and stood.
Then the dream flickered.
---
Ash and Flame
The garden burned.
The blossoms caught fire.
Woooosh.
The girl stood between Sun-Ho and a collapsing pavilion, blade drawn, breath ragged.
"Go!" she cried.
"I won't leave you!"
"You have to! You're—"
The flames roared louder.
He tried to move, but his legs were rooted.
The fire consumed her. Her silhouette lingered, reaching out.
"Protect it better next time…"
CRACK!
He jolted awake.
---
A Promise Reforged
Sun-Ho sat up, breath heavy.
Hhhhh...
The fire had not gone wild—but his chest burned with a pain that wasn't physical.
So-Ri stirred beside him, her brow furrowing. "Another nightmare?"
"No. A memory."
He turned to her. For a moment, her face overlapped with the girl from his dream—her posture, her fire, her defiance.
He swallowed.
"I think... I failed someone once," he said softly. "Someone like you."
So-Ri blinked, caught off-guard.
"She fought beside me. Laughed with me. Believed in something better. And I think… she died because I didn't act soon enough."
A long silence passed between them.
"I'm not her," So-Ri said finally.
"I know."
He looked at her—not through her, not past her. At her.
"But I won't fail again."
---
Fire as Will
He rose and stepped into the clearing.
The fire responded before he called it.
Fsshhh...
It curled up his arms, wrapped around his waist like a sash of light.
He breathed in.
Then out.
The flame flowed into a perfect arc, forming a whip, then a spiral.
He wasn't controlling it anymore.
He was moving with it.
Whrmmm...
Each motion felt like dancing with memory—movements his body hadn't yet relearned, but the fire remembered.
---
So-Ri Watches
She sat up quietly, watching him from beneath her blanket.
The way the fire didn't burn him.
The way his expression softened—not cold or distant, but clear.
He looked like someone who had lost everything once.
And wouldn't let it happen again.
She didn't say anything.
But her hand drifted instinctively to the hilt of her blade.
If he walked through fire… she would walk beside him.
---
[End of Chapter 14]