Francis_9439

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.

Ashes of  the First Flame

The Clarity Codex had no true walls.

But it was a fortress all the same—built not to keep people out, but to keep Tessian in. A place where every memory was sorted, filed, and chained. The more he "perfected" the world, the deeper into it he withdrew.

Rien stood before the entrance with the blue thread in her palm. It pulsed faintly, cool as moonlight.

"He built this place to protect what was left of him," she said. "So we're not here to break it."

She looked back at her allies—Kaelen, Elyra, Vel, Maerai, Lira.

"We seed it. With the one thing it can't categorize."

Entering the Core

As Rien held the blue thread up, the air shimmered and parted like water. One by one, the Flamebearers stepped through the rift, their forms flickering as they passed into a realm of shifting glass and mirrored light.

Inside was a maze of corridors, each lined with frames—every one containing a memory rewritten. Not erased, but refined, optimized, reduced.

They passed a memory of Vel's rebellion.

They passed a vision of Elyra's war speech.

But her trembling voice had been replaced with calm.

And when they found Rien's childhood…

"He wiped me clean," she whispered.

"No," Elyra said, stepping beside her. "He feared your story. So he hid it."

The Heart of the Codex

At the center of the fortress was a prism of black glass, hovering just above a floor of light. It pulsed with each breath, as though it lived.

This was Tessian Vale.

The Seamwright's mind, digitized and sealed into order.

Until the blue thread sparked in Rien's hand.

"You should not be here," the prism said. The voice was smooth, synthetic, and terrifyingly calm.

"We're not here to fight you," Rien replied. "We came to remind you."

"I do not forget. I have recorded all."

"But you've rewritten it."

"The boy you seek no longer exists."

"He does," Rien said. "I've seen him."

And she flung the thread into the prism's light.

The Thread Takes Root

A ripple passed through the mirrored walls.

In one, Tessian sat beside his sister, holding her broken loom.

In another, he cried while the city burned, whispering promises into the wind.

In a third, he looked straight at Rien—not as a man of glass, but as a boy of ash.

"I didn't want to control them," he whispered.

"I know," Rien answered gently. "But control isn't protection. And forgetting isn't healing."

But this time, there was no scream.

The memories returned to their bearers, ragged and incomplete—but theirs.

The Flamebearers stepped back into the waking world as dawn broke across the horizon. In the distance, a city bell rang.

One of Tessian's Codex towers flickered—

Kaelen placed a hand on Rien's shoulder. "Is it over?"

"No. But now, he remembers."

"Then maybe... we all have a chance to begin again."

The Memory Fortress