Trial by Flame
The glyph-stone pulsed like a heartbeat in Elior's palm.
Cold at first. Then warm.
Then burning.
He gasped, knees hitting the floor as the world fractured around him. His breath stopped—not in his lungs, but in his mind.
Everything went black.
Then came the flame.
He stood in a place that wasn't real.
A void of swirling smoke and shifting shadows. No walls, no sky. Just a circle of scorched earth beneath his feet—and fire, slow and silent, dancing at its edges.
He looked down.
The three-ring mark on his palm shone brighter than ever, but its rings turned slowly, like gears in a clock.
Tick.
Tock.
A voice whispered:
"Welcome to the Flame.
The First Trial begins."
Shapes emerged from the smoke.
Not monsters.
Memories.
His father, drunk and shouting.
His mother, silent and hollow-eyed.
That teacher who said he'd "never focus enough to matter."
That girl who looked at him like he was invisible.
They circled him. Repeating their lines. Their judgments. Their doubts.
Each word a match, each glare a spark.
The flame crept closer.
"The flame reveals truth.
Will you run from it—
Or become it?"
Elior clenched his fists.
"I didn't choose this."
The flame surged.
"You didn't choose to be born, either.
But you're still here."
The fire leapt onto his legs. Not burning flesh—but ego.
The part of him that doubted.
The fear that he was small, broken, nothing.
It screamed as it died.
He stood still.
When the flame reached his chest, he thought it would kill him.
Instead—
It showed him something new.
A light inside him. Not from the mark. Not from the Codex.
From himself.
Small.
But steady.
He reached for it.
And the fire bowed.
When his eyes opened again, he was back in the room.
Kneeling. Sweating. But alive.
Mira stood above him, arms crossed.
"You didn't scream," she said. "That's rare."
"What was that?"
She nodded at the glyph-stone, now dim and cracked.
"Your first trial. The flame doesn't just give power. It demands clarity."
She knelt, placed two fingers on his forehead.
"Now you're ready to see the Second Ring."