The war hall was dimly lit, firelight flickering across polished stone. Thalen stood alone now. His companions had been dismissed, their debrief complete. Only Ragan remained, arms crossed behind his back, his eyes fixed on the relic shard Aven had retrieved.
"You said it wasn’t born of aura," Ragan muttered, turning the shard over in gloved hands. "That’s impossible. All things that carry power are tethered to an aura root."
"It was humming," Thalen said, voice quiet. "But it didn’t pulse like an aura. It felt... forced. Like it was stitched together."
Ragan’s brow furrowed. "Artificial aura synthesis has been forbidden for centuries. Only one house ever dabbled in it before being wiped out."
Thalen waited.
"The House of Veyl," Ragan continued. "They believed aura could be manufactured and implanted. It always failed. Until now".
The Waking Fla
That night, Thalen couldn’t sleep.
He lay in the training barracks, eyes open to the timber ceiling, blade resting beneath his cot. The Ember aura curled faintly around his fingers still unstable. Sotis it flared when he dread.
His thoughts wandered to the creature in the well. The warped flesh. The black aura. The fear in the child’s eyes.
It hadn’t just been corruption.
It was purposeful.
And whoever caused it knew how to bypass aura boundaries.
Was soone trying to create a new kind of aura?
Or mimic the Tyrant Spirit itself?
The question gnawed at him.
Summons
At dawn, he was summoned to the inner keep not by Ragan, but by the High Bastion Warden herself.
Warden Vael.
She had ruled the Bastion for thirty years, her aura said to border on mythical. Many believed she could have claid the Tyrant Spirit but chose not to. They called her The Unbent Fla.
Thalen knelt before her, unsure of what to expect.
"You’ve grown fast," she said, walking in circles around him. "Too fast, so would say. Others whisper that you’re being grood."
"I didn’t ask for this," Thalen replied.
"No one ever does. Yet the ember chose you."
She paused in front of him.
"There will be another exam in a few months the Tyrant Spirit Examination."
His breath caught.
"It’s not open yet," he said. "Not until the realm’s council convenes."
"The council has already convened," she said softly. "And the Tyrant Seat has made a request."
He blinked. "The First Tyrant?"
Vael nodded. "He wants to et you."
The Tyrant’s Shadow
The First Tyrant hadn’t been seen publicly in over two decades. Since his retirent, he’d withdrawn into the mountain city of Izerra, where the Tyrant Throne pulsed at the heart of the realm.
Thalen had only read of him in the codex: a man who had reshaped the continent with his aura alone. A man who had faced the Skybound Cataclysm and stood unchanged.
A living legend.
And now, that legend wanted him.
"Why?" Thalen asked, unable to contain it.
"Because you passed the Ember Trial," Vael said. "And because the shard you brought back wasn’t the first."
Bonds and Blades
Back at the training grounds, Thalen found Bran and Liora waiting.
"You’re being pulled into bigger circles," Bran grunted. "Watch your back. People smile when they want your blood."
Liora looked uneasy. "They’re calling you Emberborn now. It’s spreading fast. Not everyone wants another Tyrant."
"I’m not one," Thalen said.
"You might be," Liora replied.
They walked toward the forge together.
There, Thalen t with the quartermaster a forr wielder of a high-tier blade aura. He examined Thalen’s sword and nodded.
"It’s changing," he said. "The Ember State is etching itself into the steel. This blade may rise above its class."
"What do you an?"
"There are five sword classes," the man said. "Common, Iron, Rare, Mystic, and Legendary. Yours was Rare."
He tapped the blade lightly.
"If you continue, it may awaken into Mystic or beyond."
Unseen Eyes
That night, in a distant chamber within Izerra, the First Tyrant stood atop a high spire, gazing through a crystal projection of Thalen in battle.
He wore no crown, no armor only a robe of blackened silk and silver-lined gauntlets. His eyes glowed faintly with power not born of any known aura.
"He’s imperfect," a voice muttered behind him.
"Good," the Tyrant whispered. "Perfection is brittle. He’s stubborn. Scarred. Determined."
Another voice spoke: "Should we watch him? Or test him?"
The First Tyrant turned away from the vision.
"We will let the world test him."
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