Flame Divided

The air was electric with a low hum, as if the world itself prepared to weather a storm.

Ren crouched on the rocky outcropping outside their camp, his chest laboring, fists bunched at his sides. Blue flame burst from his arms in wild bursts, burning the earth around him. His breaths were gasping, ragged—like whatever was inside him struggled to escape.

Sera drifted a few feet back from him, uncertain. "Ren… it's happening again."

"I know," he snarled through clenched teeth. "I can feel him. He's in my goddamn head."

Kaela moved toward them, her staff clutched in her hand. "His presence—it's stronger than last time. The resonance is building in power."

"Ren, look at me," Sera inched forward, sitting down on the ground next to him. His eyes—formerly peaceful ocean-blue—now blazed fiery azure, as if aflame.

"I can hear him whispering," Ren muttered. "Ashborn. He's… laughing. Like he knows I'm slipping."

Suddenly, a violent pulse shot through Ren's body. He screamed, and the ground around him exploded into shards of scorched rock. Sera and Kaela stumbled back, shielding their faces from the blast.

Kairo rushed in, eyes wide, immediately conjuring a barrier around Ren. "Get back! Don't touch him!"

"What's happening to him?!" Kaela asked, alarmed.

It's a feedback loop," Kairo growled. "The bond between Ren and Ashborn—destabilizing. Ashborn's power seeping into the bond, Ren's body struggling to adapt. Too much."

Ren choked on the fire flowing from his mouth like smoke off a dying star. His vision dimmed, voices—true and false—shrieked in his head. Flashing visions: Ashborn's face, another's memories, devastation, blood.

And something more.

A girl's voice. Soft, gentle. Familiar.

"Ren… don't lose yourself…"

He gripped his head. "No! Get out of my head!"

Kairo addressed the others. "We have no choice now. We have to cut the link."

Sera's eyes went wide. "Cut it? But… isn't that—?"

"Risky?" Kairo spat. "Yes. Possibly deadly. But if we don't, Ashborn will devour him from the inside out. He'll make a puppet out of Ren. Or worse."

Kaela moved forward. "And what if we cut it?"

"Best-case scenario: Ren loses the link and gets a little peace. Worst case. his flame goes out with it."

A sickening silence fell.

Sera's hands clenched. "He's not ready to die.".

Kairo's gaze softened. "He may not have a choice."

A shatter of violence in the air ripped through the camp like a bolt of lightning. They all turned around.

A figure stood at the cliffs' edge—a lone figure cloaked in a black hood, face obscured by a bone mask with red, glowing eyes.

"Kai—" Kaela's voice broke. "That… that's not one of us."

The figure took a step forward, and with it, the sky grew darker.

Sera called up her fire, and blazing scarlet flames burst in her palms. "Who the devil are you?"

The hooded figure inclined its head. "Ashborn greets you."

The agent whirled around and hurled a blade of raw flame at them—black and blue with hellish energy.

Kairo barely avoided Kaela in time, and the earth she'd been on started to shatter open in a spiral of twisting heat.

"He's come to claim Ren," Kairo yelled. "Guard him!"

Kaela was recovering quickly, launching a succession of fire darts at the attacker, who darted in and out with unnatural speed, dodging and weaving and countering.

His bluish black flames bent the air, cutting through Kaela's magic like paper.

"He's a vessel," Kaela was gasping. "A second-tier one… or higher!"

Sera did not think. She ran at the mask, fists clenched, and the agent jerked her wrist sideways and sent her crashing into a boulder. She snarled but bounced back, a trickle of blood down her lip.

Ren, his knees still bent, let out a groan of pain as the fire raging around him engulfed everything. There was another vessel—increasing the bond.

Ashborn was approaching.

Sera turned over to Ren. "Ren, wait! You have to fight it!"

"I. I can't."

Ren's voice was a mere whisper. "He's. inside."

Kairo's face twisted in a split-second decision. He slapped his hand to the ground, tracing a circle of runes across the back of Ren. "I'm cutting the connection—NOW!"

"What?!" Sera's eyes went wide. "You said it would kill him!"

"Better that than Ashborn making him a tool!"

The runes smoldered, old runes spinning in golden flames. The ring closed in upon Ren, flame erupting at the edges like a cage.

The masked operative spun, catching the spell. He rushed to attack them, but Kaela sprang in his way, a shield of burning flame.

"Not this time," she spat.

Within the circle, Ren shrieked. The blue fire shot upwards, detonating against the golden brilliance of the spell. Black clouds obscured the sky as the magic struggled to tear the bond asunder.

Sera collapsed beside him. "Hold on, Ren. please!"

Flashbacks thudded in Ren's head—his mother's smile, seeing the Blue Flame for the first time, the day Sera took his hand in the hospital.

And then. a vision of Ashborn looming over a burning city, speaking:

"You were never meant to live."

Ren's eyes snapped open—seething with anger.

"No more."

He bellowed, and the circle shattered. Blue fire erupted, not in disarray—but in command. The feedback loop was reversed, pushing the encroaching energy back onto Ashborn.

On the battlefield, the masked agent stumbled, a tiny trickle of blood oozing under the mask.

Kaela raised an eyebrow. "You feel that?"

Kairo stared in shock. "He stabilized the link… himself."

Ren stood, trembling but steady, the blue fire dancing along his skin like armor. His eyes met the agent's.

"Go back to Ashborn," he said, voice low and burning. "Tell him I'm not afraid of him anymore."

The agent hesitated—then vanished into a blink of shadow and flame.

The sky cleared.

Ren swayed, catching himself before he fell. Sera rushed to support him, her arms wrapping around his shoulders.

"You did it," she whispered.

"I don't know how," he admitted, his voice rough. "But… I won't let him control me."

Kairo came close to him, still cautious. "That was a miracle. But he'll try again. You've only postponed the inevitable."

Ren glared out into the distance, where the blue fire still raged in the clouds that were disappearing.

"Then we find him first," he said. "We get this over with before he takes everything away from us."