A shadow crossed the door.
Then came the knock.
Polite. Controlled.
She sighed softly. "That's new."
"Again, stay back," She said to Kael.
She moved to the door, positioning herself slightly to the side rather than directly in front of it. Her posture relaxed; not careless, but open, unthreatening, calculating her choices.
"Yes?" she called.
The pause that followed was just long enough to confirm intent.
"Apologies for the hour," a man's voice said from the other side. It sounded calm and educated. "We're looking for someone who assisted in a Cinder incident earlier this afternoon."
Seris tilted her head. "You'll have to be more specific."
Another pause. Then: "A young man. Dark hair. Carries himself like he doesn't know how dangerous he is."
Seris felt Kael stiffen behind her, but her voice remained even. "You have the wrong place."
"That's unfortunate," the man replied. "We were hoping to keep this civil."
Seris reached for the latch.
Kael's pulse spiked. "Seris...?"
Then, she opened the door.
The man outside was unremarkable in the way professionals often were. Medium height. Neutral clothing. No visible insignia. His eyes were sharp, assessing the space in a single sweep before settling briefly on Kael. Briefly enough to confirm his target.
That was enough.
Seris moved.
She stepped forward and to the side simultaneously, disrupting the man's line of sight and striking his balance rather than his body. He reacted quickly, pivoting away, but not quickly enough to avoid being forced back into the corridor.
The others moved immediately.
One lunged from the shadows, blade flashing in the low light. Seris intercepted with a short, efficient motion, redirecting the strike and pinning the attacker against the wall with minimal effort.
The third didn't engage.
He smiled.
Kael felt it then; a subtle shift in the air, a tightening of pressure aimed not at Seris, but through her.
Kael moved without thinking.
He stepped into the space between Seris and the smiling man, aligning himself instinctively. The heat hit him like a wave, but instead of resisting, he absorbed it, felt its shape, its intent, and bent it away.
The man's smile faltered.
"Well," he said softly. "That confirms it."
Liora was already acting. She struck the wall with her palm, muttering something under her breath. The floorboards creaked under them and glowed slightly like fire would burst out of them. Then, just around the spaces the attackers stood, they lost their footing just long enough for Seris to send searing waves of heat at each of them and knock them down.
When it ended, two men lay unconscious. One fled down the stairs, boots pounding in retreat. It was the first; the one who had knocked.
Kael stood there, breathing hard.
Seris turned to him slowly. "I told you not to intervene."
"You were in danger," Kael replied. "I helped."
She studied him, then nodded once. "Thank you."
As they ran downstairs, Kael remembered their third companion. He stopped in his tracks, and asked Seris "What of Liora? We can't just leave her there."
Seris looked back at him, and spoke with a tone that brooked no arguments. "I understand that we've been traveling together, but your safety is something I've been tasked to oversee, and I won't fail."
Kael looked at her incredulously, wondering if this young lady was loyal to anything but her cause. "I'm going to check on them anyway," he said, and rushed to the room Liora and the Cider occupied. Seris sighed and followed after him, keeping her lips tightly shut.
As he burst into the room, all that greeted him was the night breeze coming in through the window and an unoccupied bed. He stared in confusion for a few seconds, before Seris spoke coldly beside him and said the obvious fact. "They already left."
"We need to leave." Seris was on high alert, and Kael could feel her tension. Sighing, he said "Lead the way."
They ran downstairs, breezed past the inkeeper on duty, and were about to finally step out under the night sky when they both felt precise jabs to the bottom of their necks, and their vision faded into nothingness.
When Kael finally opened his eyes, he felt so out of place. His body felt so strange to him, and something else felt different. His connection to the Flame he had been getting used to for the past two days. It was suddenly stronger. He tried to move, and then looked down in shock to find himself in the body of a full grown man. He couldn't do anything but watch.
From the lips of the owner of the body, he heard a loud war cry, and then finally decided to look around. He was kneeling in the middle of a huge space within a building, with Emberborn and Dominion Inquisitors fighting all around him.
An Emberborn knelt beside him, and put their hand on his shoulder. "The fight isn't over yet, Solus. We need you. It's almost done. You led us to take down the last stronghold of the Dominion, and it would be an incomplete victory if you aren't with us. Rise."
Kael, watching through Solus, felt the Flame blaze within him, and stood. A giant claymore standing in the ground was gripped tight in his hands, and as he pulled it out, Kael was amazed at how much the Flame seemed to breathe raw power into the man. "Step back, Corvus, everyone!" the man said to his friend and all the Emberborn on his side.
As his allies retreated behind him, Kael felt the man reach deep within himself, invoking a surging wave of raw power from Flame. He raised the claymore clean above his head, and as the sword was bathed in a blinding blaze of fire that no other Emberborn but the Catalyst could wield, his war cry filled the air, and the sword came swinging down, destroying everything in its path. Inquisitors in their heat resistant armor melted away, and the ground became a gleaming pool of magma.
Kael watched the spectacle, and felt the man's connection to Flame. As the man stabbed his claymore into the ground once more, and his allies rushed forward to destroy what was left of the Dominion stronghold, Kael felt his vision darkening.
He opened his eyes again, but this time, what brought him to consciousness was the splash of cold water against his face. He struggled in futility against the abrupt sensation, and found himself bound tightly to a chair.
He decided to calm down, and looked around him after taking a deep breath. He was in a dark room, with no windows and one door. The only other occupant of the room was a man who sat on another chair, hunched over a table, seemingly in thought. The empty bucket was by the man's side.
"It came to our attention that a young man helped rid our town of an imminent threat," the man started, "and for that we are quite grateful. But we are very curious, Sir, how you managed to quell the danger of a Cinder that has been laying waste to our soldiers for the past week."
"I'm giving you this information because I expect some in return. That Cinder has been attacking our town every night for some time now, and although we don't know how she managed to enter the city, multiple witnesses know you were the man who seemingly controlled her outburst. Who are you, and how did you do it?"
"Since I helped your town avoid such a great threat, shouldn't you be treating me more hospitably?" Kael asked. " After all, a Cinder that could take out multiple soldiers was about to go wild within the walls."
He stared at the man now, his eyes getting used to the darkness of the room. His interrogator was aged, probably in his forties, and carried an air of control about him. He was not Emberborn, Kael sensed. Still, Kael felt he should be careful around the man.
He tried next to wield his Flame. To his dismay, he couldn't. It felt like he could call to it, but getting it to answer was suddenly impossible to do. The connection was there, but it was a one-way bond.
"Don't try," the man said, still looking at the table. "I have friends in many places, and obtaining an Aether Dampener or two is not that difficult."
Kael stared in confusion. The man finally looked into Kael's eyes, and smiled a mirthless smile. "So you don't know much about Dominion equipment," the man noted. "That means you're not high profile. At least, not yet. In the spirit of generosity, I'll let you know. Dampeners emit null-frequency fields that disrupt the resonance of what your kind calls Flame. They could be made to look like anything, but I digress. Your identity."
Kael shifted uncomfortably. This situation made him feel human again. He had suddenly gotten these abilities, and he felt he was invincible for a moment, but this was an eye opener for him. The Dominion had created equipment specifically to combat the threat they perceived to be Emberborn.
"Information, son. I've given you a lot, and you aren't reciprocating. I don't like people that take advantage of me." The man's tone was becoming less pleasant as he spoke. Kael figured he could throw anything at the man, while he figured out how to get away from here and find Seris.
"I honestly didn't know the Cinder," Kael started, "but I did help her calm down."
The man looked pleased to hear this. "How did you do it?" He asked excitedly.
"I spoke to her," Kael said with a straight face. "I made sure to communicate that whatever was happening with her could get people hurt, and she calmed down after that. That was all."
The man looked at Kael incredulously, and then burst out in uncontrolled laughter. "You think I'm a fool?" The man bellowed. "Calm a Cinder down with words and reasoning? You must really think I'm slow. If that's the case, I'm going to make my own assumptions."
"You entered the town with the Cinder. You put on a public show to cause unrest amongst our people. You are nothing but a lying, deceiving brat who toyed with forces greater than himself. And for that, I'll make you pay."
As the man stood, picking the bucket by his side, Kael struggled in futility against the metal bonds that restrained him to the chair.
It was going to be a long night, he thought.