CHAPTER 4: THE TRIAL OF ECHOES

PART 1: THE BARGAIN

The woman's smile didn't waver as Lysara's dagger pressed into her throat. A single bead of blood welled, crimson against porcelain skin, but her gaze never left Aric's.

"You don't have to trust me,"she said. But you should trust "this"

From the folds of her silk dress, she withdrew a small, charred box. The moment Aric saw it, his scars "itched".

Kael sucked in a breath. That's— A memory casket, the woman finished. "One of the last. The Guild salvaged it from the Pyre Temple's ruins." She tilted her head. "You want your sister's face back, don't you?"

Aric's hands curled into fists. Fire licked up his wrists, but he forced it down. "What's the price?"

The woman's smile widened. "A trial. Five deaths. Five echoes of the Emberborn who came before you."

Lysara's dagger dug deeper. "No."

"You'll die without us," the woman said simply. "The Hollow King already has three Revenants hunting you. The next one won't stop at "talking"."

Silence.

Then— Do it, Aric said.

Lysara's hands flashed. "IT'S A TRAP."

I know. Aric met the woman's eyes. "But I'm out of options."

The woman laughed—a sound like shattering glass—and flipped open the casket.

Black smoke poured out.

And the world "burned".

PART 2: THE FIRST DEATH (WARRIOR'S END)

Aric stood on a battlefield.

Not the Ashen District's grimy streets, but a valley choked with corpses, the sky stained red as a fresh wound. Smoke coiled from the earth, and the air reeked of iron and charred flesh.

A man knelt before him, armor shattered, face streaked with ash and blood. An Emberborn—Aric "knew" it, the same way he knew fire. The man's eyes glowed like banked coals, but his flames were guttering. Dying.

"You're the next one, then," the warrior rasped.

Aric tried to speak, but his voice wasn't his own. "I don't understand."

"You will." The warrior coughed, black blood spattering the ground. They're coming. The Hollow King's "children".

Then Aric saw them—shadows detaching from the smoke, their limbs too long, their mouths stitched shut with sinew.

The Revenants.

The warrior laughed. Watch close, boy. This is how an Emberborn "burns out".

He "exploded".

Fire tore through the valley, incinerating Revenants, earth, sky— and Aric "felt it".

The agony. The defiance. The "finality".

Then darkness.

PART 3: THE SECOND DEATH (THE DROWNED FLAME)

Water filled Aric's lungs.

He thrashed, but chains held him beneath the surface of a black lake. Above, moonlight filtered through ice, and a figure watched from the shore—a woman in robes of frost, her eyes empty.

"The fire must drown," she whispered.

Aric's flames sputtered, dying in the depths. His vision darkened.

Then— A hand grabbed his.

Another Emberborn, her hair floating like smoke, pressed her forehead to his. "Remember," she breathed. The fire is "yours".

Her body "disintegrated", the heat of her death boiling the water around them.

The chains melted.

Aric burst from the lake, gasping— only to see the frost-robed woman smiling.

"There will always be another," she said.

Then the ice closed over him again.

PART 4: THE THIRD DEATH (THE LIAR'S PYRE)

A crowd screamed as the pyre ignited.

Aric—no, "not" Aric, this was someone else—strained against the stake, his skin blistering. The flames weren't killing him. They were "changing" him.

"Confess!"a priest roared. "Renounce the false gods!"

The Emberborn laughed, even as his flesh blackened. "You're burning the wrong man."

Then he "looked" at Aric—"through" the memory—and winked.

"Tell Kael he owes me a drink."

The fire swallowed him whole.

PART 5: THE FOURTH DEATH (THE SILENT SACRIFICE)

Darkness.

Then—pain.

Aric couldn't move. Couldn't scream.

Something was "inside" him, slithering through his veins, his bones, his "mind"—

A voice, soft and broken: "Take it. Take *me* instead."

Lysara.

But not his Lysara. This one was younger, her scars fresh, her hands trembling as she pressed them to his chest.

"I'll be your voice," she whispered. "Now *burn*."

The thing inside him shrieked—and Aric woke up screaming.

PART 6: THE FIFTH DEATH (THE ONE HE FORGOT)

Aric knew this place.

The temple. The assassin. The blade in his ribs.

But this time, he saw "more".

The assassin's hood fell back— and it was "Lysara".

No. Not her. Someone with her face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, driving the dagger deeper. "He has my sister."

Then the fire came.

And Aric remembered "everything".

PART 7: THE AWAKENING

Aric lurched upright, his throat raw from screaming.

The brothel room was empty save for Kael, who watched him with something like pity.

"Welcome back," the old man said.

Aric's hands shook. "How long?"

"Three days."

Three "days"?

"Where's Lysara?"

Kael hesitated. "Gone. The Guild took her."

"What?"

"Part of the bargain." Kael tossed him a dagger—"Lysara's" dagger. "She went willingly. Said to give you this."

Aric's fingers closed around the hilt— and the blade "flared" to life, its edge wreathed in blue fire.

"Oh," Kael said softly. "That's new."

Aric stood.

"We're getting her back."

CHAPTER ENDING: THE HOLLOW KING'S LAUGH

The door burst open.

The Guild woman stood there, her silk dress torn, her eyes wide with terror.

"They're here,"she gasped.

Behind her, the hallway "moved"—shadows peeling from the walls, coalescing into figures with too many joints, too many teeth.

And then, from the darkness, a voice:

"Little ember."

The Hollow King stepped into the light.

"Did you miss me?"