Spirit Academy – Two Days Later
Cracks had begun to form—not just in walls, but in people.
Top disciples broke down during meditation. Spirit cores destabilized. Teachers argued in hushed voices about wards failing.
And still… no one said the truth out loud:
> The Academy was haunted.
By something older than Void.
By something that remembered the First Flame.
---
Christian's Dream – The Arena of Ash
He awoke inside a circle of scorched stone.
The sky bled smoke.
The stars burned black.
Before him stood a figure of ember and shadow. No face. No voice. Just a presence that knew him too well.
> "You woke the Flame. But you carry the Abyss."
> "Tell me—do you burn for light, or to erase what you were?"
The figure lunged.
---
Spirit Realm Bleed-Over
In the waking world, Kien and Garran found Christian thrashing—unconscious, but spirit energy lashing out in chaotic bursts of both fire and void.
Garran shouted, "He's in a spirit confrontation! Get the warding stones!"
Kien knelt beside him, hand on his chest.
"Christian—come back."
Inside the dream, Christian heard her.
It gave him just enough clarity to counter the entity's strike. Their energies collided—sparks of colorless fire exploded—and both figures were thrown back.
The dream shattered.
---
The Aftermath
Christian woke coughing soot, his Mark glowing like fresh iron.
"It's testing me," he rasped. "And I think… it wants to know if I'm strong enough to be it."
Garran's expression was unreadable.
"Then it's not just some remnant."
"No," Christian said. "It's something that remembers what came before memory."
---
Kien's Discovery – Forgotten Scrolls
While researching ways to anchor Christian's soul more firmly, Kien stumbled on a buried name:
Alira Flamebinder.
A spiritweaver said to have faced "the Ember That Should Not Burn."
Her fate was unknown.
But her last words, etched in a scorched page, were:
> "If it ever awakens again… bind it with self. Or watch it take the soul it finds worthy."
Kien closed the scroll slowly.
"He doesn't need strength. He needs an anchor."
She looked up.
"I'll be that."
---
Final Scene – Elsewhere in the Academy
Behind locked doors, elite students met again. A vote was passed.
Christian would be summoned to a council hearing.
A judgment to determine whether he was still… himself.
And in the deepest parts of the school, far below the lowest floors, the flame door opened again.
This time, it did not close.
---
To Be Continued…