The forbidden tunnels breathed like the throat of a beast.
Kael ran through them, ember-light flickering in the dark. The walls sweated with damp stone, etched in faint runes meant to keep intruders out—and secrets in. His blood left a trail behind him, drops hissing as they hit the ember-scorched ground.
The echoes of shouts still carried from above. The clan would hunt him soon. He needed to vanish. Yet the ember inside his chest pulled him deeper, like a compass of fire pointing toward some unseen truth.
At last, the tunnel opened into a cavern vast and cold.
Iron doors rose at the far end, carved with chains of runes that pulsed faint blue.
Kael's ember pulsed in reply. The seals flickered, cracked, and with a groan like the death of gods, the doors creaked open.
Chains rattled.
And Kael saw her.
She sat at the chamber's center, bound to an iron pillar by chains thicker than her arms. Pale skin shimmered in the dim light, hair black as ink cascading down her back. A veil of silver mesh hid most of her face, but her eyes—her eyes glowed faint, golden-silver through the fabric, too bright, too heavy.
Kael's ember flared instinctively. He felt it in his bones: those eyes were dangerous.
"You shouldn't be here," she whispered. Her voice was soft, fragile, yet threaded with something that made even the ember hesitate. "The ember always leads its vessel to me… but too soon. Far too soon."
Kael stepped closer, flames painting her chains crimson. "Who are you?"
Her lips trembled. "Lyra. The Seer."
The word hung like doom.
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Why did you call my fire destiny?"
Lyra's fingers tightened on the chains, her knuckles white. "Because I have seen it. Again and again. The ember burns empires. Thrones. Even the Heavens. It devours all it touches. But always—always—you are alone. Everyone else is ash."
Her voice broke at the end, the weight of a thousand visions pressing down.
Kael stood silent for a moment. His ember pulsed, hungry, merciless. Then he smiled, arrogant and fearless.
"Then your visions are wrong."
Lyra flinched. "What?"
Kael stepped closer until the flames of his ember reflected in her eyes. "You see me standing alone because you do not understand me. I will not burn for fate's amusement. I will not be a puppet of Heaven's decree. If fire devours all, then I'll turn it against fate itself."
The chamber trembled as his ember flared. Chains groaned, runes flickered, shadows danced.
Kael leaned closer, voice low, ruthless, every word a blade:"Tell your visions this: Kael Ashborne burns fate."
For the first time, Lyra's lips curved—not in scorn or despair, but in the faintest ghost of a smile.
"You speak like fire itself," she whispered. "Proud. Merciless. Untamed."
Kael tilted his head, arrogant fire dancing in his eyes. "Then you should decide, Seer. Will you hide behind chains and watch fate unfold? Or will you burn with me, even if it consumes everything?"
Her breath caught. The chains rattled as her hands clenched. For the first time, she did not look like a cursed prisoner, but like a goddess bound against her will.
And in that moment, Kael knew two things:
She was bound to his fire as surely as he was bound to her fate.
If Heaven feared the ember, then it would fear the union of ember and seer even more.
Above, the clang of metal echoed—guards breaching the tunnels.
Lyra's eyes widened. "They're coming. If they find us together, they'll kill you—and worse for me."
Kael turned, ember flaring bright enough to drown the chamber in crimson-black. His voice was merciless, arrogant, promising carnage.
"Then let them come."
The doors shook as fists and blades hammered them. Sparks of ember fire spread across the runes, burning the seals away.
Kael clenched his fist."They chained you for fear of what you would become. They cast me away for fear of what I already am. Together, we will be the fire that fate itself cannot smother."
The doors cracked. Light poured in. Shadows moved.
Kael smiled, savage and arrogant, flame roaring.
And as the first guards burst into the chamber, he whispered for Lyra alone:"Remember this night. It is the night Heaven's chains begin to break."