The Ember didn't sleep.
Lucien learned that on his first night in the Crucible.
Even after training, after the sweat and bruises, after the ache in his limbs had worn him into something barely human — he couldn't sleep. Not because he was in pain. Not even because of the low, ever-present hum of energy beneath the base.
It was the fire. The flicker in his chest that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Every time he closed his eyes, it sparked.
Every time he tried to breathe deeply, it flared.
He sat up in his bunk, wrapped in shadows, watching the slow glow of molten veins pulse through the walls of the underground haven. His room was bare. A stone floor, a cot, and a sealed door. They didn't exactly offer hospitality here. Comfort was not a priority. Survival was.
And yet, for the first time in his life, Lucien felt like he was somewhere he belonged.
He could still hear Seraph's voice from earlier that day.
"Now you learn how to use it."
But how do you learn something that's alive inside you? Something that moves with your breath but dances with your anger? Something that feels like both a gift and a curse?
A soft knock pulled him from his thoughts. It was brief. One knock. Then silence.
Lucien got up and opened the door.
Seraph stood there, arms folded, a faint smile playing at her lips.
"You're up," she said. "Good. Grab your boots. You're coming with me."
Lucien blinked. "Now? It's—what, 3 a.m.?"
"Exactly," Seraph said. "The Ember doesn't sleep."
The tunnels twisted deeper into the earth than Lucien thought possible. Seraph walked ahead with a lantern made of dull, flickering flame, casting strange shadows against the ancient walls.
He didn't ask questions this time. He just followed.
Finally, they arrived at a massive gate. Ancient stone. Ember runes engraved into its surface, barely visible under centuries of wear. Seraph pressed her hand to the center. The stone lit up—pulsing red—before grinding open with a groan of forgotten machinery.
Inside was a chamber.
But it wasn't like anything he'd seen before.
The walls were covered in murals — painted in a style Lucien didn't recognize. Scorched reds and blacks, swirls of gold and charcoal. Scenes of people wreathed in fire. Cities burning. Hands raised toward the sky, pleading to stars that answered with flame.
At the center of the room was a pedestal. Upon it sat an obsidian bowl filled with black ash.
Seraph stepped to the side.
"This is the Memory Pyre."
Lucien frowned. "Memory what now?"
She gestured to the bowl. "Everyone who becomes Kindled comes here eventually. You can't control the Ember without understanding where it comes from. This... lets you see."
"See what?"
She locked eyes with him. "The first fire. And maybe... the truth about yourself."
Lucien hesitated, stepping forward. The ash shimmered, strangely reflective — like oil swirling in darkness.
"I just... touch it?"
Seraph nodded.
"Don't try to force anything. Just let it in."
He took a breath and plunged his hand into the ash.
At first, nothing.
Then—
Pain.
Not physical. Deeper.
It was like someone reached into his soul and flipped it inside out.
The world melted.
He stood in a field of fire.
Not smoke. Not ruin.
Fire.
It danced around him but didn't burn. It hissed like whispers, flickering with words in a language he didn't know, but somehow understood.
Above him, the sky cracked open — not with lightning, but with something older. A line of red light tore across the heavens. Through it came something massive, something burning with purpose and hunger.
He saw men and women kneeling beneath the breach, arms open to it, their eyes alight with devotion.
And then—
A boy.
Alone.
Small.
Hiding in the shadows behind a crumbled temple wall. His eyes wide, terrified, watching the fire consume the world.
Lucien stepped toward him.
And the boy looked up.
His own face stared back at him.
But younger.
No more than eight years old.
Lucien gasped.
The vision cracked like shattered glass, and he stumbled back from the ash, breath heaving, heart racing.
He was in the chamber again. Seraph steadied him.
"What did you see?"
Lucien shook his head. "I don't... I don't know. Fire. A sky tearing open. People worshipping it. And... me. A younger me."
Seraph's face darkened. "The Ember doesn't lie. It doesn't show dreams. It shows truth. Memories buried in your blood. Traces of your lineage. Maybe even echoes of a past you don't remember."
"I've never been there," Lucien said. "I would've remembered something like that."
"Not if it was sealed," she murmured. "Some of us carry Ember echoes — memories not from this life, but from bloodlines long forgotten. A connection to the first Kindled."
Lucien paced, rubbing his temples.
"You're saying I saw a past life?"
"Maybe," Seraph said. "Or maybe a prophecy. With the Ember, sometimes the past and future bleed together."
He turned to the murals.
"Who were they? The people in the paintings?"
Seraph looked at the wall solemnly. "They were the First Bearers. The ones who called the Ember from the sky. They were revered, at first. Until they were feared. And then... hunted."
Lucien stared. "And what about the people trying to tear it away now? The Vanta Order?"
Seraph's voice dropped. "They were Kindled once too. But they chose control over harmony. They believe the Ember should rule — that only the powerful should wield it. The Order wants to remake the world. Burn away the weak. Replace freedom with obedience."
Lucien clenched his fists. "So they kill anyone like me."
"They fear what you represent," Seraph said. "A free Ember. A bearer who can't be owned."
Lucien looked down at his hands. The faint glow was gone, but the warmth remained.
"So what do I do now?"
"You train," Seraph said. "You learn what's inside you. And when the time comes... you decide what to burn for."
Lucien nodded slowly.
But deep down, the vision still haunted him. That boy. That fire.
That sky.
Later that night, alone again in his chamber, Lucien stood before a cracked mirror on the far wall.
He looked into his own eyes.
And for a moment, they flickered — gold and red, like embers.
And he whispered:
"I don't know what you are... but I'm going to find out."
End of Chapter 4