The silence behind was absolute for three seconds. Then, the ground beneath my feet hissed.
"You think we are incompetent?" the Alpha growled, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous rumble. The heat in the gorge spiked so high my sea-silk dress felt like it was about to burn.
I turned back slowly, one eyebrow raised. "I’m just a realist. If you can’t lt the stone, you’re just cats with hot paws. And I need masters, not strays who can only burn grass. You care about lting my walls because they’re just stone, but why don’t you use that pretty talent of yours to burn sothing harder and prove your fire is unstoppable?"
The Alpha stepped forward, his claws now glowing a blinding, brilliant white. He looked at the chunk of ore I’d dropped on a flat rock earlier.
"Show this stone, female," he snarled, his pride radiating off him in waves. "And once I’ve turned it to liquid, we will talk about who is ’competent’."
I shared a quick, secret look with Damar. Hook, line, and sinker.
"Fine," I said, my Queen mask firmly back in place. "Prove it. And if you do... I might just have a treasury worth of pearls and a permanent, warm ho for a pride that’s tired of sleeping in the dust."
"We do not need your roof!" He snapped, waving his hand.
"Are you sure?" I asked, my eyes narrowing with a knowing look. "You are the Alpha, so if you are able to lt it, it proves you are the strongest, no doubt. But what about your pride? Are they as strong? And even if they do lt it, how long can their scorching fla last? Don’t you want to test your limits?" My lips curved. "Don’t you want to try burning a whole mountain of the tough stuff instead of going place to place fighting weaklings?"
He furrowed his brows and said nothing.
"I’m giving you a chance to do sothing worthwhile to boost your ego, while putting food on your table. I trust you hold the prestige of your pride just as much as you hold the sun."
The Alpha went silent, his molten eyes darting from my face to the unassuming gray rock at his feet. The heat radiating from his claws was so intense that the pebbles beneath him began to crack with sharp, snapping sounds.
He was wrestling with two things every feline beastman held sacred: his absolute arrogance and the undeniable pull of a challenge he couldn’t walk away from.
"A mountain of this stone?" he rasped, his voice dropping into a low, predatory hum. "You think you can bait with work like I am a common beaver?"
"I’m not offering you work, Alpha. I’m offering you a throne in the forge," I countered, standing tall despite the persistent ache in my lower back. "A beaver builds a dam because it must. A master of the sun’s fla shapes the world because he can. If you lt this, you aren’t a laborer. You’re the heart of the West Way’s power. Without you, the tal stays cold. With you, we are unstoppable. Join to be unstoppable."
I stepped back, giving him room, while Damar shifted the Trident. The purple light of the sea magic shimred against the orange glow of the Alpha’s claws, creating a strange, violet haze between them.
"My na is Kael," he said. "And I will show you why the flas in my hands co directly from the sun. I will show you its power, and then you can never question it again."
Fine, be my guest. I’m waiting.
Then he slamd his glowing, white-hot claws onto the ore’s surface.
A high-pitched, violent hiss filled the gorge, and a cloud of bitter, tallic steam billowed up, hot enough to burn the air. I didn’t move an inch from behind Damar who was not shielding .
I watched through the haze as the Alpha poured everything he had into that single point of contact. The scars on his chest began to pulse with a blinding orange light, his entire core igniting as he channeled the stored heat of a thousand desert suns.
For a long minute, the stone stayed as it was. It was the material that had defeated Oryn’s hottest wood fires. But then, a dull red glow began to spread from the center of the gray rock.
Slowly, the solid ore began to slump. It softened, turning from a lump into a glowing, viscous pool of liquid tal that dripped down the side of the boulder like thick, golden honey.
The Alpha pulled his hands back, his chest heaving, his claws slowly fading from brilliant white to a smoldering, dangerous amber. He looked up at , sweat dripping from his chin, his face a mask of exhausted triumph.
"Is that... unstoppable enough for you?" he growled.
This is... far more incredible than I anticipated.
I thought it would take him longer, but now I see why they are able to burn down walls without any issues.
I didn’t let my jaw drop. I walked forward, leaning in to inspect the molten pool as if I were checking a soup for enough salt, but I didn’t touch it. That was a death sentence for my finger.
I waited until the tal began to settle before I looked him in the eye.
"It’s a start," I said, my voice cool and professional, hiding the ’Eureka’ screaming in my head. "But one rock is easy. I have a thousand more waiting at the palace, and a southern gate that needs your fire to be truly impenetrable. If you want to prove your pride is the strongest, you’ll show you can do this all day, every day, without flickering."
Kael looked at his pride, then back at the treasury pouch he had previously ignored. The defiance was still there, but beneath it, I saw a flicker of sothing new—purpose.
"We will follow," Kael stated, sheathing his claws with a sharp, tallic ring. "But let it be known, tiger queen: we do not sleep under your ’roofs.’ We will take the high ridges above. And the sea-gold stays in our hands."
"Deal," I said, a slow, satisfied smile finally breaking through my mask. A small sacrifice for what I was about to build with them. "Damar, lead the way. We have an industrial revolution to start."
Damar took one look at Kael, narrowed his eyes, and hissed. Kael did not look away, did not back down from the glaring contest.
If Damar was looking for a fight, he would give it. But I didn’t give them a chance to spark whatever that was. I pushed Damar’s back.
"Co on, big fella. We don’t have ti for this."
"Ari, you should be in front of ," he said, looking over his shoulder at worriedly.
"Well, you should’ve thought of that before you decided to delay. Let’s go."
I stopped pushing since he was heavy and wouldn’t move unless he actually moved his feet. So, I got in front again, leading us to the greatness of our tomorrow.
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