The Palace, isn’t it?
It wasn’t such a difficult place to figure out. There were two places in the capital city of Aetherre that were easy to locate — the Palace Quarter and the Eternal Church. Moreover, it was close to the Academy, easy to navigate even for soone as directionally challenged as .
As I moved to leave, Emma begged to co with . For a second, I genuinely considered locking her in Clara’s room. But then I rembered the trauma she’d endured, locked in that cupboard, and the thought made my stomach turn.
’Can’t do that to her. Not after everything.’
Still, I didn’t know what was going to happen out there. I tried to be confident in my ability to protect her.
’Kassie’s ability. Not mine.’
I grabbed her hand, and we ran out together, making for the Palace Quarter. When I started toward the usual path the carriages took, she yanked my hand back and yelled.
"That’s for carriages! It’ll take forever! I know a shortcut!"
Right. I’d forgotten for a mont that she was a thirteen-year-old girl who’d grown up in this city. Kids like her knew every nook and cranny, every hidden passage adults never bothered with.
She led into a dark alley and we ran, alley after alley, branching through narrow pathways that twisted like a maze. The cobblestones were slick beneath our feet, the walls close enough to touch on both sides.
It was weird, though. People’s doors and windows were either locked tight or there was simply no one around. We passed fewer than ten people as we sprinted toward the Palace Quarter, and each one hurried past without making eye contact.
’Where is everyone?’
Finally, we burst from the alley onto a main street and climbed the Central Lake Bridge, which led directly to the vast expanse of the Palace Quarter. From the bridge, I could already see a dense crowd gathered ahead — a focus of people that confused .
They were all gathered in front of the Palace gate. Shit. I couldn’t even see the gate itself from where I stood because the crowd was so thick, so tightly packed together.
Emma pulled my hand and directed forward, taking another direction. We squeezed through bodies and elbows until we reached a spot where the landscape was slightly elevated — just enough for to see what exactly everyone was staring at.
When I saw, I trembled.
Lira.
In front of the crowd stood a platform. On that platform, a single stake rose from arranged bundles of wood at its base. A young woman was tied to the stake, her face rough and battered, her head dangling forward in exhaustion. Scars marked her body, visible even from this distance. She looked dead already — but she was still tied there, still breathing.
’What? What are they doing? That’s—’
Lira.
"LIRA!"
My voice bood through the murmuring crowd, cutting through the chatter like a blade. I knew it reached her because she imdiately jerked her head up, searching for across the sea of faces. But she couldn’t locate right away — not through the thick press of bodies.
There was soone speaking at the front of the platform.
"Heretics!" the priest’s voice rang out with righteous fury. "We teach about heretics and their evil ways! The God of Light has paved a way for us — he has saved us from eternal darkness and placed us on a path of light that leads to eternal peace. But even as individuals, we remain greedy! We are loose of gratitude, turning back and seeking the darkness we were saved from. We are insatiable!"
The crowd responded with mutters and murmurs, resonating with the priest’s ssage like a well-rehearsed chorus.
"We hunger for darkness! We disregard light! What more could be done for us humans? Why do we always have to be like this? Why are we so insatiable? Lest we incur the wrath of the gods, we must fix ourselves!"
Annoying affirmative nods rippled through the crowd — old ladies and n, zealous younger ones shouting "Yes!" like they were at so twisted rally.
"Lira Velan," the priest declared, his voice rising to a crescendo, "since you will not abandon the darkness, we shall purge you from this world! Light the flas!"
"No—wait—what?! Stop! Please!" I forced my way through the crowd, bodies pushing left and right. Others were yelling curses at her, their voices blending into a hateful roar.
"Heretic, be gone from this world!"
"Die!"
"Heretic!"
"She doesn’t deserve to die!"
"Lira!! No!!!"
"Go be with your useless father!"
"Please soone! Save her!"
Lira ignored the chants. Instead, she surveyed the crowd, searching — looking for my voice. She finally found as people shoved aside, and I raised my head and hand, stretching desperately as I caught sight of a broad-shouldered man lifting a torch toward the base of the woodpile.
White flas ignited imdiately around , setting afla the people who were pushing . In that mont, I cared about nothing else. I was far enough from Emma — I had to believe that. I just needed to reach Lira.
The people thrashed and scread as fire consud them. Chaos erupted as the flas spread. The priest on the platform yelled frantically.
"Burn her!"
The torch fell and fire erupted around her, engulfing the base of the stake in hungry orange flas.
But Lira—
She didn’t look pained, or hateful, or even angry. She stubbornly held my gaze, making pause instinctively despite the chaos. The look in her eyes — it was a painful kind of delight, sothing bittersweet and heartbreaking.
She tilted her head slightly and gave a small smile, mouthing wordlessly with her lips:
"Thank you."
The flas surged upward and consud her, burning furiously. They blocked my vision, rising higher and higher until I couldn’t see her anymore. I couldn’t hear a cry from her, couldn’t hear anything over the roar of fire and screaming. Everything was thrown into utter chaos, and my world seed muffled, distant — like I was underwater and drowning.
’Lira.’
Flashbacks hit all at once. Our strange first eting, the monts when she was awkwardly cute, fumbling over her words. The tis we ate together, laughing about nothing important. That night in the alley when she’d confessed. The next day in her house, on her bed, when everything had felt right for once.
Everything in scread, but without a voice. It was a mix of rage and pain so intense it felt like being torn apart from the inside.
I fell to my knees, eyes frozen on the burning pyre.
’Lira...’
Lira.
My voice broke.
"LIRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
With that scream, white flas exploded around . The entire plaza changed, transford by fire. Pillars of fla began to erupt from the ground, and masses of people were set ablaze, their screams joining the inferno.
I could feel that strange connection — like the first ti, when I didn’t need to say a word and Kassie imdiately understood what I needed.
The Pyre Saint had manifested behind , her presence overwhelming and terrible.
And her ultimate signature ability had undoubtedly been activated.
Sohow, I had enforced it with my rage, amplified it with my grief.
The world burned.
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