Her name was Miran.
Or at least, that's what they had called her.
She had lit her Everkindle flame six moons ago.
The initiation had been painless.
Effortless.
She had been told:
"You are accepted."
"You are safe."
"You are fire."
But she had never been asked:
"What do you burn for?"
Now, walking through the valley between the Everkindle Pavilion and the Soul Flame School, she felt something unfamiliar in her chest:
Weight.
Not fear.
Not shame.
Just… gravity.
A center returning.
At the Coalspark gates, she was not stopped.
No guards.
No conditions.
Only a question carved into the wood by a student's hand:
"This place is for the flame you don't understand yet."
Wei Lin met her near the southern forge.
He didn't ask who she had been.
He didn't ask what she believed.
He simply said:
"Sit."
She did.
He didn't offer instruction.
He offered a question:
"What does your fire want to protect?"
Miran blinked.
No one had ever asked her that.
In Everkindle, fire was about belonging.
In Coalspark, it was about becoming.
Now she had to ask herself:
"Do I remember a time I burned for something real?"
She closed her eyes.
Breathed.
And waited.
A flicker formed over her palm.
At first it shaped like Kasai's spark.
Then it broke.
Flickered.
Formed again.
And this time it wasn't perfect.
It pulsed unevenly.
Like a heartbeat.
Tears slipped down her cheek.
"I… I think it wants to protect people who feel like they don't deserve to be protected."
Wei Lin smiled.
"Then that's where we start."
And behind them, on the forge slate—
A new path shimmered into view.
It bore no full name yet.
Just a placeholder.
"Unknown Flame – Miran"
And one line beneath it:
Intent detected. Shape forming.
She whispered to herself:
"I'm not fire because they lit me."
"I'm fire because I remember why I wanted to burn."