The world flickered to red.
Karl stood at the center of a vast obsidian ring, surrounded by walls of shifting fire. They moved like living things — not wild, not angry.
Just… watching.
A voice, low and formless, echoed through the heat.
"You stand in flame, bearer of silence. Will you burn or become?"
He didn't answer.
The trial didn't wait.
The fire surged inward — a massive pulse that threatened to swallow him whole. Karl raised his arms instinctively, but it wasn't the flame that struck him.
It was memory.
The room changed.
The fire collapsed into images.
His mother's voice, singing in the kitchen.
His father's hand on his shoulder the night before he left.
And then—
A laugh.
Light. Unmistakable.
"Karl! You forgot your pendant again!"
His little sister's voice.
Rae.
He turned—she wasn't there. Just flame, mimicking what he remembered, taunting what he missed.
His chest ached—not from heat, but from longing.
"I promised I'd come back. I promised I'd keep you safe."
The fire shifted again, faster this time. Images of power, war, and collapsing skies danced around him.
"You are not whole. Not yet."
One flame split off—forming the shape of a beast. A wolf. No—
A shadow with eyes like stars.
Raiven.
But it didn't strike. It stood. Waiting.
Another flame rose beside it.
A serpent, scaled in ember and coal, coiled in judgment.
Karl's hands curled into fists.
The mark on his chest pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then it opened.
Blue and violet light surged outward — a dome of pressure forcing the flames back.
Not destroying them.
Matching them.
Karl's voice cut through the heat.
"I won't forget who I am."
"I won't forget who's waiting for me."
The flames roared. Then stilled.
The trial… ended.
And as the world around him faded, he heard one last whisper in the smoke:
"Balanced flame. Bound to echo. The world will know you."
When Karl opened his eyes, he was back at the courtyard's edge.
Steam rose from his shoulders. His cloak burned at the edge.
And the instructors were watching.
But none spoke.
Only one student whispered:
"Did you see that? His mark lit up through his shirt—"
Karl looked down. The glow was gone. The pressure, silent.
But somewhere inside, Raiven was pacing.
And fire?
Fire was no longer a stranger.