Ashes of the First Flame

A novel by [Francis 9439]

For centuries, the world of Elaris has burned under the divine light of the First Flame, a sacred fire worshiped by the tyrannical Solar Dominion — a theocratic empire that claims godhood and unity through conquest. The Empress rules with holy fire and iron will, casting down cities that refuse her light, branding all who resist as heretics and rebels.

But across the shattered lands of the Free Marches, a spark of defiance refuses to die.

Kaelen Virelth, the exiled son of a disgraced noble house, is thrust into leadership after his brother is assassinated. Once a scholar and a pacifist, Kaelen becomes the reluctant face of a rebellion. As war spreads like wildfire, Kaelen must decide whether to become a killer to save the world — or lose everything he loves.

On the other side of the war, Serenya Valir, a devoted priestess of the Flame, begins to question the cost of blind faith. Sent to root out traitors within the Dominion, she uncovers dark secrets buried beneath sacred temples — and a prophecy foretelling a choice that will either redeem the world or end it in ash.

Amid the chaos rise other forces: the exiled Scorched Order, mage-knights blamed for a forgotten catastrophe; the elemental Aetherborn Tribes, whose magic the Dominion fears and hates; and the seductive spies of the Sable Garden, who pull strings behind every throne.

As old gods stir and ancient powers awaken, love blooms between enemies, loyalty crumbles into betrayal, and the line between salvation and damnation blurs. To stop the cycle of fire and ruin, someone must destroy the First Flame — or become its final bearer.

But power never dies quietly.

Not winter-cold, not death-cold — but ancient. A kind of air that hadn't been touched since the world was young.


They crossed the high ridgelands at dawn.


No maps guided them. No flame lit the way.


Only memory, and the name that kept echoing in Lira's thoughts:


"What does it even mean?" Trellen asked as they hiked the last slope.


"Someone who no longer wants the answer," Ansha replied.


Davin walked behind them in silence, still watching the skies. He'd seen something during the night.


Something that wore a man's shape… but wasn't.


The ridge broke into a sheer plateau of jagged grey stone. No birds. No grass. Only a flat expanse that looked more like a scar than land.


At the center stood a single monolith — shaped like a question mark turned to stone, or a doorway that had forgotten what it opened into.


It was the first place she'd stood in weeks where the First Flame did not reach.


And Lira stood in a world between questions.


Her mother's face, forgotten in fire. The child she could have been, before the Emberbrand. Ashrel's hand in hers, the moment he turned away. Kaelen, unbroken, whispering her name in a language she no longer remembered.


"Because you are no longer the Flame's vessel."


Ansha caught her before she hit the stone.


Lira looked up. Her eyes glowed faintly with an echo of the stone's void-light.


"The Remembered… they don't want war."


And on the horizon, a city rose from dust.


One that had been burned out of existence a thousand years ago.


Chapter 30 - The Stone of Unasking