Some truths are weapons.
Others are chains.
And the deepest ones are both.
Kael Varos was about to uncover a truth that would reshape not just his destiny—but the origin of the fire that cursed his bloodline.
---
The Trial Begins
The Moonborn had many forbidden rites.
But the Trial of the Forsaken Flame was the oldest.
A sacred ceremony once used to test the worth of would-be Flamebearers—and punish traitors who misused the sacred fire.
Kael was neither.
And both.
He stood barefoot inside the Ashspire Circle, a ring of obsidian stones inscribed with lunar runes. In the center, a pit of sleeping fire—black as tar—waited.
Sylah tightened his arm wraps. "Are you sure about this?"
Kael nodded. "If I don't stabilize the flame, it will consume me."
Lina stepped forward with a crystal vial. "Drink this before you begin."
Kael took it.
Liquid moonlight burned down his throat.
The fire awakened.
---
Descent into Flame
The moment Kael stepped into the circle, the pit erupted.
Black flame engulfed him.
He didn't burn.
He sank.
Down into memory.
Into blood.
---
A World of Fire and Bone
Kael opened his eyes in a place without light.
Ash rained from a red sky.
He stood in a ruined temple, flames licking the walls, and bones arranged in patterns that screamed.
A woman stood before him.
Clad in red robes.
Eyes of molten gold.
His mother.
Alive.
Young.
Powerful.
She turned to him.
And smiled.
> "So you came back to where it began."
Kael stumbled forward. "This isn't real."
She circled him like a wolf.
> "Isn't it? Don't you want to know what I did?"
> "Why you were born with the flame?"
He clenched his fists. "Because I was chosen."
She laughed.
> "No, child. You were the price."
---
The Pact Revealed
She raised her hand and summoned an image.
Her, kneeling before a throne of lunar stone.
Before her stood a Revenant King—not the one Kael knew, but an older one. Wreathed in shadows.
> "I made a deal," she said. "A pact of protection."
> "Your flame… was borrowed from the first Revenant to ever rebel."
Kael's chest ached.
> "You made me… from a Revenant's fire?"
She nodded.
> "To keep your father alive. To win a war."
> "I offered my womb. And he… offered a fragment of his soul."
Kael staggered.
> "So what am I?"
> "A Moonborn?"
"A Revenant?"
"A weapon?"
She touched his cheek.
> "You're a key."
> "And now… the door is open."
---
The Trial Turns
The vision collapsed.
Kael fell through fire.
He landed in a realm of shifting glass and screaming wind.
The flame on his chest split—part silver, part black.
One pulsed with Moonborn light.
The other bled Revenant shadow.
And they were fighting.
Sylah's voice echoed distantly: "Kael—come back!"
Lina's chant burned through the void.
Kael grabbed both flames.
They scorched his arms.
But he didn't let go.
> "If I was born from both…"
"Then I'll master both."
He slammed the flames together.
They screamed.
He screamed.
And then—they fused.
---
The New Flame
Kael opened his eyes.
The trial circle was in ruins.
Lina and Sylah knelt beside him, eyes wide.
His chest burned with a new mark—a circle split in half: one side silver, the other black.
Kael sat up.
The Fang of Varok lay beside him, glowing with both colors.
He stood.
Stronger.
But changed.
---
The Cost
Later that night, Kael sat alone in the temple.
Lina approached, voice low.
"What did you see?"
He didn't answer at first.
Then: "I was made… from a lie."
She frowned. "Kael—"
He looked up.
Eyes burning like dusk and dawn.
"I was born to end a war my mother started… with the enemy's blood."
> "I am Moonborn.
I am Revenant.
And I will burn everything that tries to control me."
---
The Revenant Throne Stirs
In the deep dark, the Revenant King snapped his head up.
He felt it.
The fusion.
The flame becoming something new.
He stood from his throne of bones.
> "It has begun."
> "The Ashfang awakens."