Kael slept — finally. Not because he felt safe, but because for the first time in this cursed second life, someone else was watching over him.
But peace never lasted long.
He awoke to the smell of earth-flame incense, faint tremors in the stone, and Orrin — the "madman" who now stood tall and focused — whispering low while drawing a line of warding symbols around the chamber's perimeter.
Kael blinked the sleep from his eyes. "They're here, aren't they?"
Orrin didn't look up. "They've been here. Since the moment you entered the market."
He stood, tossing Kael a pouch of elixirs. "Flame Sect agents. Watching. Waiting.
And now… their elite moves."
Kael stiffened. "Who?"
The chamber darkened as Orrin said it.
"The General. And the Flame Seer himself."
Kael's blood turned to ice.
The Flame Seer.
Alira's father.
The man who had whispered to the other clans, twisted prophecy into fear… and orchestrated the fall of their clan.
He was the one who'd looked Kael in the eyes, years ago, and said, "Your future burns too bright. It must be snuffed out."
And now he was here — to finish what he started.
The roof caved in.
Crimson light exploded downward, peeling through rock and spellwork. The General landed first, his armor blazing like magma, face a mask of cold fury. And floating behind him on a current of heatless fire was the Flame Seer, robed in ember-dyed silks, eyes aglow with shifting, molten script.
His presence was overwhelming — the air itself seemed to bow.
Kael stepped forward, teeth clenched.
But Orrin was faster.
The illusion of age melted away — rags becoming dark-etched combat robes, his spine straightening, muscles coiled and honed. The madness faded from his eyes, leaving behind only the calm, deadly glare of a man trained in death.
He looked barely older than Kael now — thirty-five, maybe less — and radiated the poise of a master assassin.
"You've changed," the Flame Seer said, tilting his head at Orrin. "I rather liked the lunatic act. It suited your survival."
"I prefer yours," Orrin replied, spinning two black-dagger hilts into his hands. "Prophet of corpses. Father of lies."
The Seer's eyes narrowed, but the General moved first — a blur of fire and iron, charging like a meteor.
Orrin stepped to meet him.
Steel shrieked.
The room exploded in a clash of darkness and flame.
"Go!" Orrin roared to Kael. "Get to the ridge! Find the glyph-gate!"
Kael didn't argue. He ran — shadows trailing him like smoke.
Kael turned and vanished into the tunnels.
The upper pass was narrow — just a stone's edge between two cliffs.
And it was already waiting for him.
Four elites.
Two bore the Seer's mark, cloaked in firelight. The others shimmered with the Infernal sigil, weapons laced with smoke and ember.
Kael stopped.
His injuries screamed. His breath dragged. But something inside him… shifted.
A stillness.
A pull.
The shadows grew around him — not as cover, but as movement.
They attacked.
Kael vanished.
One fell before his blade even touched the ground.
Another turned — only to find Kael already behind her, foot snapping into her knee, a dagger slicing across her ribs in one clean arc.
The last two spread out, but Kael slipped between them like smoke.
When the final body dropped, Kael didn't wait.
He ran. Again.
Not because he was afraid — but because something was wrong. All of this was too precise. Too practiced. Like they knew he would be here.
Like someone had seen it.
Hours later, Kael collapsed beneath the ridge's broken path.
Breathing. Bleeding. Still alive.
He pulled the black thread Orrin had given him — a line of shadow magic tied to another bearer. It pulsed weakly.
Once.
Twice.
Then red.
Orrin was taken.
Kael let the thread burn in his palm until it vanished.
He thought of the man who now had him — the Seer.
Alira's father.
The man who, for reasons Kael still didn't understand, feared him enough to burn his entire bloodline from the records.
Kael sat in the dark, eyes on the stars he couldn't see.
His breath steadied.
His thoughts calmed.
Not from peace… but from purpose.
"I'll find you," he whispered.
"And this time, I'll burn everything back."