The torchlight danced in eerie silence.
Kye—he'd stopped calling himself Kyle in his head—sat still in his cell, eyes half-closed, the medallion resting in his palm again. The name Reen gave him lingered in his mind like a flicker of warmth against the cold stone walls.
**Kye.**
Not Kael. Not the Third Prince. Just… Kye.
A name without weight. A name without chains.
Yet even as he repeated it silently, something stirred deeper within him—**pressure**, dull but present, like a locked door behind his ribs.
He rubbed the medallion absently.
Then it happened.
A soundless flash.
No pain. No heat.
Just **a whisper** in the back of his skull.
> **\[Paradox System Recalibrating…]**
> **\[Error: Host Displacement Stabilized – Initiating Soul Sync v1.1]**
His breath caught in his throat.
> **\[Cognitive Sync Rate: 38%… 41%… 53%… Warning: Emotional Contamination Detected]**
He froze.
The torch flickered unnaturally.
The air grew heavy. Thicker. As if the cell itself had started breathing.
> **\[New Trait Unlocked: Echo Memory Fragment I – "The Candle Room"]**
> **\[Skill Imprint: ———]**
The last part glitched—letters scrambling.
Then everything snapped back to normal.
The light. The air. The sounds.
Kye was left trembling, jaw tight, his fingers gripping the medallion so hard his knuckles cracked.
"What the hell…" he whispered.
The **Paradox System** wasn't gone.
It was adapting.
And worse—it was **blending** his mind with Kael's. Merging thoughts, feelings, memories. Not just offering power… but warping identity.
He shivered.
But before he could sort through it, a new sensation hit him.
The wall across the room **shifted**.
No—*flickered*.
Like heat rising from stone. A ripple of air formed a faint rectangular outline, invisible unless you stared directly into it. Like the stone wasn't fully real.
He rose to his feet slowly, careful not to draw attention through the corridor slit. The guard wasn't visible, and no footsteps echoed.
He approached the ripple, shackles clinking.
He reached out.
His fingers brushed the stone—and passed through it.
His heart nearly stopped.
There was no wall there.
Not completely.
Just an illusion.
He pushed further, arms trembling, until his hand touched **something cold and metallic** behind the fake wall. A recess in the stone.
He reached in deeper, carefully… and his fingers closed around something solid.
**A candlestick.**
Not decorative. Functional. Heavy. Plain brass, polished to a dull gold.
He pulled it free and stepped back.
The illusion rippled once more and faded entirely, revealing a narrow alcove. Carved into the back wall was the same **serpent-and-sword symbol** from the medallion.
**Talia's symbol.**
She hadn't just told him to look for it—she had already left one behind.
He stared at the candlestick.
It felt ordinary. Cold. Balanced.
But as he looked closer, he noticed faint inscriptions along the neck—worn down, old runes in a language he didn't recognize.
His hand itched.
A strange compulsion welled up inside him.
Almost like instinct.
He closed his eyes.
Held his breath.
And pressed the bottom of the candlestick into the floor—*hard*.
Nothing happened at first.
Then—*click.*
Stone shifted beneath him.
A small groove slid open at the base of the wall. From it, a soft *hum* rose—low, vibrating, strange.
And inside the compartment: a tiny, glass vial glowing faint **red**.
Kye stared at it, his heartbeat picking up.
He reached down, lifted the vial carefully.
No markings. No label.
Just swirling red mist inside a sealed container.
> **\[Unknown Catalyst Detected]**
> **\[System Query: Absorb Sample? Y/N]**
He nearly dropped it.
"Wait—*absorb*?"
> **\[Warning: Paradox Reaction Unknown – Compatibility Risk 46%]**
> **\[Minor Reality Instability Possible]**
Kye paused.
**What the hell kind of system is this?!**
But deep down… something pulled at him.
Not desperation. Not greed.
Curiosity.
If this was **Kael's** hidden stash—something he buried behind illusions and locked inside a hidden slot—then it mattered.
And it wasn't going to sit here forever.
Kye hesitated.
Then whispered, "Do it."
The vial dissolved in his hand—no heat, no burn.
Just *light*.
Red veins of energy danced across his fingers, up his forearm, into his chest. His body shook, and for a moment—
—he wasn't in the cell.
He was **in the Candle Room.**
---
**A memory.**
The boy again—Kael, maybe fourteen. Kneeling in front of dozens of candles arranged in spirals. Around him, books. Scrawled diagrams. Diagrams of **runes**, **blood sigils**, **vein paths**.
He was whispering.
To himself?
No—to the room.
"…if the flame is life… then the wick is will. If I can burn slower—deeper—maybe it won't consume me."
He pressed the candlestick down.
An explosion of light.
And Kael collapsed.
The image shattered.
---
Kye gasped, back in the cell.
Sweat rolled down his neck. His eyes flickered with residual red light, quickly fading.
> **\[New Skill Imprint: Ember Vein (Unstable)]**
> *A primitive ignition technique bound to internal willpower. Enhances muscle response, reflexes, and pain resistance when invoked. Causes internal stress buildup if overused. Cooldown: 12 hours.*
Kye doubled over, panting.
Pain licked at his nerves—not unbearable, but **deep**. Like a bruise under the soul.
But he smiled anyway.
A **power**. A real one.
Not gifted freely. **Earned. Dug out. Suffered for.**
He leaned back against the wall, breathing slowly.
The guards would be back soon. The next day of questioning would come. And the cell would return to cold and silence.
But now?
He had something.
A shard of strength. A clue of Kael's past. And a system that—dangerous or not—was finally waking up.
And above all?
He finally had a weapon.
Even if it came from fire.