đ After the Duel
The Ember Academy hadn't stopped shaking.
Not physically â but in whispers. In silence. In glances between students who no longer dared to speak Rael Soren's name without reverence⊠or fear.
Kael Draven had been carried out with hollow eyes and burned nerves. His flame was intact, but it no longer answered him.
Rael had done something ancient.
Something no one understood.
And Lumiera?
She was furious.
---
đŻ The Confrontation
She found Rael in the upper cloister garden, sitting by a flamefruit tree, feeding fire to a tiny wyrmling curled on his lap.
He didn't look surprised to see her.
> "You channeled her," Lumiera said without preamble. "Velisandre. I felt it."
Rael met her gaze. "She offered. I accepted."
"You almost burned the veil between realms."
"She stabilized the circuit. I didn't lose control."
"You didn't ask me," she hissed.
Rael stood. "I don't need permission to survive."
---
đ„ Sparks Between Them
Their auras flared â hers golden-rose, his crimson-gold.
> "You think just because we shared an oath, I'll let you slip into what you were before?" Lumiera said.
"What was I before?" he asked. "A martyr? A broken prince? Or a fool in love with someone already promised to death?"
She stepped closer.
"You were mine," she whispered.
Silence.
Then:
> "And now?"
> "Now," she breathed, "I don't know who either of us are."
---
𧿠Flash Memory: The Red Garden
Lumiera staggered back suddenly â her eyes glowing gold.
A vision struck her like lightning.
> She stood in a red garden.
The same as before.
Only this time, she wasn't holding the crown.
She was holding a dagger.
A body at her feet.
A man she'd just killed.
His blood soaked the roots of the Flame Tree.
His name: Therion.
> The man who had betrayed them both.
She gasped â and collapsed.
Rael caught her before her head hit stone.
---
đ The Recovery
Later, in Rael's hidden chamber, Lumiera awoke in his bed, clutching her chest.
"I killed him," she whispered. "Therion. The one who betrayed us."
Rael sat nearby. "I wondered if you'd ever remember that part."
Her eyes widened. "You knew?"
He nodded.
"He was your cousin. You spared him the first time. I didn't."
"And I never blamed you," Rael said. "He turned the Academy against us."
"But Iâ" she choked, "I enjoyed it."
Rael's voice dropped.
> "You were never soft, Luma. You were a Queen made of fire and vengeance. That's why I loved you."
---
đ„ The Echo Awakens
Her palm began to glow â involuntarily.
Not with gold.
But silver fire.
Rael stood, startled.
"That's not mine," she said.
"It's not Velisandre," he replied.
"No," Lumiera whispered.
> "It's something older."
The fire danced into a rune neither of them had seen before â and cracked the flame circle on the floor.
Velisandre stirred within Rael's chest.
> "The Echo has begun," she hissed. "And even I do not know what she is now."
---
đ Final Scene: Eyes in the Flame
Elsewhere, in a room lined with obsidian mirrors, a cloaked woman watched the moment unfold in a burning scry pool.
She turned to a shadowed figure behind her.
> "Elarys has awakened."
> "Not Elarys," the figure rasped. "Something else is wearing her."
> "And the boy?"
> "He's no longer crownless. He's becoming the crown."
---
End of Chapter 17