Chapter Ten: The Assassin in the Snow

Some enemies hide behind banners and crowns.

Others behind secrets, scars, and silence.

But the most dangerous enemies…

Are the ones sent to end a flame before it ever burns.

🔹 Dawn Over Broken Ice

The morning after Eira's awakening arrived quietly, but something felt wrong.

Too quiet.

The wind had stopped howling. Even the ever-present hum of distant frost-magic was gone. Just an eerie stillness, like the world itself was holding its breath.

I sat by the fire, feeding it gently with controlled bursts of white flame, watching Eira as she slept. Her brow twitched in her dreams. Her body remained still, but I could feel the fire and frost still battling inside her.

"She hasn't stabilized," I said aloud.

Rion leaned against the cave wall, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.

"No. But she's waking up stronger than any of us did."

"And more confused," I added. "She has no training. No control. If she panics again—"

"We're dead," he finished grimly.

We both turned as Eira murmured in her sleep. Her fingers twitched. Tiny flakes of frost gathered around her feet and vanished into sparks of heat.

"She needs time," I muttered.

"Time," Rion scoffed. "Tell that to the Circle."

That's when the wind returned not as a howl, but as a sharp whistle, piercing the ear.

Then I heard it.

Footsteps.

Not ordinary ones.

Each step melted the snow beneath it in a perfect circle. I felt the temperature in the cavern shift.

Not colder.

Hotter.

Too hot.

Rion moved first, standing and drawing his obsidian-forged blade.

I reached for the Pyra Compass, but the runes inside were already flickering erratically.

"He's here," I whispered.

"Who?" Rion asked, voice suddenly tense.

"The Circle's answer to rebellion. Their executioner."

🔹 The Silent Executioner

He entered without sound.

Not a crack of ice. Not a single breath of wind.

One moment the entrance was empty.

The next—he was there.

A tall, slender man clad in layered gray robes, his face obscured by a silver-etched mask and a blindfold stained with ancient glyphs. His presence alone bent the air around him.

I knew who he was even before he spoke.

Everyone in Zareth had heard the tales.

"He walks between sparks. He bleeds shadows. He leaves no flames behind."

The Circle's Silent Executioner.

Rion stepped between him and Eira instinctively.

"You lost something, ghost?" he asked with a growl.

The man tilted his head.

"You have ignited what was meant to be forgotten," he said. His voice wasn't human it echoed, layered, like multiple people speaking in perfect harmony. "The Circle has sent judgment."

"Then let them come themselves," I said, stepping forward. "We're done bowing."

"There will be no bowing. Only ash."

He raised his hand.

The flame around our fire was sucked inward, disappearing into his palm. A swirl of darkness formed behind him an anti-magic field so strong it made the walls tremble.

Then he attacked.

🔹 Death by Fireless Flame

He didn't walk.

He shifted.

Blink. He was on the left.

Blink. He was above us.

Blink

He struck.

Rion met him mid-air, blade colliding with unseen force. Sparks flew but not from fire. From pure will.

I hurled a flame burst toward the Executioner's flank. He spun, absorbing the blast through his arm no damage. No hesitation.

"He's feeding off our fire!" I shouted.

"Then let's give him too much," Rion growled.

We attacked together.

I used whitefire runes spiraling strikes Kael once wielded to overwhelm undead warlords. Rion unleashed his molten tempest, forming twin crescent arcs of raw flame.

Still…

The Executioner moved between our attacks.

Dodging. Redirecting. Consuming.

With a flick of his wrist, he summoned void-chains from beneath the ice and slammed us both backward. My body hit the wall hard I felt something crack in my ribs.

Blood in my mouth. Pain in my spine.

He advanced toward Eira.

Still unconscious.

Still vulnerable.

"Don't…" I croaked, dragging myself up.

But he ignored me.

Until she opened her eyes.

🔹 Eira Awakens Again

There was no scream this time.

Only silence.

And ice.

Thick, ancient, unrelenting ice exploded from beneath Eira's body, spiraling outward in jagged, crystalline patterns. Her hair floated above her head like it was underwater. Her eyes glowed—one with fire, one with frost.

"You," she said, voice trembling with rage. "I remember your kind. You came to burn my village."

The Executioner turned but even he staggered.

Eira raised both hands. The frost around her shimmered, then ignited with flames.

Fire and ice danced around her not in conflict… but in harmony.

The Executioner reached toward her, releasing a void blast.

She caught it with her palm frost freezing it solid, fire shattering it into dust.

And then she whispered:

"Don't touch my family."

The cavern exploded.

🔹 Flame vs Void

The blast threw all of us into the air.

Stone cracked. Ice screamed. Magic surged like a living storm.

I landed hard, ears ringing, eyes burning.

Through the chaos, I saw Eira and the Executioner—locked in a vortex of fire and frost.

He was powerful.

But she was waking.

He blinked forward struck her with a blade of shadowlight.

She screamed.

But didn't fall.

She grabbed the blade.

And broke it.

"You will never touch another flameborn again," she growled, and released her final strike:

A fusion of both elements a roaring blast of frostfire, ancient and unrefined.

The Executioner's mask cracked.

His body was flung into the cavern wall.

Frozen.

Burned.

Defeated.

🔹 After the Ash

We limped toward her. Rion half-dragging me.

Eira collapsed into my arms, her energy spent, her body trembling.

"He was going to kill you," she whispered, barely conscious. "I couldn't let him."

"You didn't let him," I said. "You saved us."

Rion stared at the body of the Executioner, now sealed in a frozen casket.

"That was just the beginning, wasn't it?" he asked.

I nodded.

"They'll send worse."

"And she'll burn them worse."

🔹 The Circle Responds

Far from the frostlands, inside the black halls of the Circle Citadel, High Inquisitor Laevra knelt before the Council of Twelve.

"The Executioner has failed," she said.

"Failed?" a voice hissed. "He has never failed."

"She awoke. The girl, the twin flame destroyed him. And Kael's echo fights alongside her."

An elder voice echoed from the shadows.

"Then we move beyond assassins."

"Bring the Flamebreaker."