The city's noise usually blended into one endless hum for Aubrey, but tonight it was different. Every sound cut sharper, like his senses had been dialed up too high. A car horn cracked like thunder. Footsteps behind him echoed louder than they should. Even the neon buzz of a broken sign felt like it was crawling beneath his skin.
He kept moving, hood drawn low, trying not to look like prey.
Varric's words wouldn't leave his head. Someone's gonna come looking.
It wasn't paranoia anymore. He could feel it — eyes following him through alleys, across rooftops. Not the usual gang trash. These were colder. Patient. Professional.
Aubrey slipped into a side street, pressed against the wall, and waited.
For a moment, silence. Then — the scrape of boots on gravel.
He spun, Bloodfire sparking faintly along his fists. But the figure that emerged wasn't charging him. It was watching. A woman, tall, wrapped in a dark coat that moved like shadow. Her face was hidden beneath a hood, but her stance told him everything — disciplined, dangerous.
"You're careless," she said, voice smooth, low. "Leaving bodies in the street. Setting half a block on fire. Do you want the city to see you?"
"Who the hell are you?" Aubrey demanded.
"Someone who's been waiting for you to slip." She tilted her head. "And you finally did."
The air between them tightened. Aubrey's hands trembled as the Bloodfire pulsed, begging to be unleashed. But something in her tone — not mocking, not fearful — held him back.
"Why are you following me?"
She smiled faintly. "Because you're not the only one burning."
Before Aubrey could answer, a crash split the night. Across the street, a building's windows exploded outward in a shower of glass and smoke. Screams cut through the dark. The woman's gaze flicked toward it, then back at him.
"Decision time, kid," she said, stepping back into shadow. "Save them… or chase me."
And then she was gone.
...
Aubrey didn't think. He ran toward the fire.
The building was old, three stories, the kind families rented when they had nowhere else to go. Flames curled from the windows, smoke choked the air, and voices screamed from inside.
He didn't stop to question it. He tore through the front door, heat slamming into him like a wall. His Bloodfire reacted instantly, sparking along his veins, shielding him from the worst of the flames.
"Help! Please!" a woman's voice cried from above.
He bounded up the stairs, each step cracking under the weight of fire and ash. On the second floor, he found them — a mother clutching two children, trapped at the end of the hall by fallen beams.
"Back!" Aubrey shouted, thrusting his hands forward. The Bloodfire surged, wrapping his arms in crimson light. He struck the beam, fire meeting fire, and the wood splintered apart.
The woman's eyes widened, but she didn't hesitate. She pulled her children close and rushed past him. Aubrey guided them down the stairs, shielding them from falling debris until they stumbled out onto the street.
Cheers rose from the crowd gathering outside. But the moment Aubrey stepped into the open, the cheers faltered.
Eyes widened. Mouths gaped. People whispered.
Monster.
Demon.
Weapon.
The words weren't spoken out loud, but Aubrey felt them, sharp as knives. The glow still lingered on his fists, casting him in red light. He quickly shoved his hands into his jacket, chest tight.
And in that split second, he saw her again — the woman from the alley. Watching from the rooftop, hood lowered just enough for him to catch a glimpse of her eyes. Cold, calculating… but not cruel.
She gave a nod before vanishing into the night.
...
Later, in the silence of his apartment, Aubrey sat with his head in his hands.
The memory of the fire still burned in his mind. The look in that mother's eyes — relief and fear tangled together. The crowd's silence after. The woman's words.
"You're not the only one burning."
His fists clenched, the cloth Elara had given him still wrapped tight around his knuckles. He wanted answers. About her. About what was happening to him. About why this power had chosen him.
And he knew now he wouldn't get them by hiding.
Someone out there had been waiting. Watching. Testing him. And the longer he stayed in the shadows, the tighter the net around him would close.
For the first time, Aubrey felt the weight of it — not just survival, not just fighting gangs in alleys. Something bigger.
Something darker.
The fracture was widening.
And he was standing at the edge.