The rebel camp was quieter at night—fires dimmed, voices hushed, but the tension never truly slept. Elira sat alone at the base of the watchtower ruins, the cracked stone still warm beneath her. The obsidian mirror's vision haunted her, replaying again and again behind her eyes.
She touched the spot over her heart, where the second heartbeat now thudded in time with her own. Flameborn. Rebellion. Destiny. All words spoken like prophecy. But none of them asked if she wanted any of it.
A soft rustle in the leaves drew her attention. Auren approached with a satchel in hand.
> "Food," he said, offering her dried bread and berries. "And something else."
He pulled out a bundle wrapped in cloth—inside, a pendant shaped like a flame, forged from copper and sunstone.
> "It belonged to one of the First Flame," he explained. "The rebellion kept it hidden. They think it should be yours now."
Elira turned the pendant over in her fingers, the firelight catching in the stone like a living ember.
> "It's heavy," she said quietly.
Auren met her eyes. "So is power."
---
Deeper in the forest, danger stirred.
Lady Seraphine's spies moved like shadows across the kingdom—merchants with too keen ears, travelers who asked the wrong questions, and soldiers in plain clothes.
One such figure crept through the rebel woods, watching the watchtower with a glint of steel beneath his cloak.
> "They're here," he whispered into a rune-carved stone. "The girl and the prince. Alive."
Miles away, the magic stone flared to life in Seraphine's palm. Her lips curled into a cold smile.
> "Then let the hunting begin."
---
At dawn, a council of rebel leaders gathered. The camp buzzed with unease.
> "We can't stay here much longer," said Garran, the scarred warrior. "The Crown will sniff us out."
Another rebel, an older woman with grey-streaked hair and fire-lined eyes, added, "We must strike first. A message. A warning."
All eyes turned to Elira.
She stood slowly, fingers clenched around the pendant.
> "No more hiding," she said. "If they want war... then let them see who they've tried to burn."