Ashes of the crown

POV: Ariya 🔥❄️🕯️

The scroll lay flat across her lap, its edges frayed, its ink nearly faded with time. Ariya's hands hovered over it, unsure whether to touch or tear it apart.

Project Ember.That's what Corven called it.

A lie wrapped in fire and frost.

"It was a sealed experiment," Lira explained, seated beside her by the fire. "An attempt to create a Flamebearer immune to frost. Someone who could walk between kingdoms. But you… weren't just a subject. You survived it."

Ariya's gaze flickered upward. "You say it like it's something to be proud of."

Lira hesitated. "It should be. But the truth is… they never thought you would live. Let alone grow powerful enough to shatter the seal yourself."

Ariya laughed bitterly. "So that's what I am? An accident they hoped would disappear?"

"No," Kael cut in, standing nearby with his arms crossed. "You're not an accident. You're a miracle."

She looked at him — truly looked — and for the first time in days, felt something in her chest steady.

Jax, upside down on a low tree branch, added, "You know, if anyone else suddenly turned out to be a fire-and-ice goddess-child, I'd panic. But for you? Sounds about right."

Ariya gave a dry chuckle. "Thanks for the vote of chaos."

"Anytime," he said, grinning.

Later that night, Ariya sat alone near the grove's edge, trying to still her thoughts. The forest was quiet — too quiet.

She stared into the flame orb Lira had brought.

It pulsed slowly… warmly… but then, for the first time, it flickered blue.

Just once.

She sat up straighter.

"Why blue…?" she whispered.

Before she could even move, the trees rustled.

A figure appeared, cloaked, walking slowly toward the camp — limping slightly, a walking staff in one hand.

Kael was already alert, sword drawn. Lyra stood. Jax dropped from the tree, for once not joking.

"Who's that?" Kael asked.

"Too alone to be a patrol," Lyra muttered.

"Too clean to be lost," Jax added.

The stranger stepped into the light of the fire. A woman. Middle-aged, wrapped in a forest-gray cloak with dozens of charms and dried flowers braided into her hair.

She looked straight at Ariya and smiled faintly.

"I've been walking a long time to find you, flame-child."

Ariya rose slowly. "Who are you?"

The woman bowed her head. "A friend. Or at least, a guide."

"Who sent you?"

"No one you'd know. I follow only signs. And one led me to a girl with a mark that glows both fire and frost."

Her words were gentle, warm… almost too warm.

Lira stepped forward, suspicious. "If you're really a guide, then prove it. What do you know about Project Ember?"

The woman's smile didn't falter.

"That it failed. Until she," she nodded toward Ariya, "was born."

Ariya's blood chilled.

"What else?"

"That your past isn't buried where they think it is. That your memory was only the first cage." She looked up, eyes deep and knowing. "There are others. And I can help you unlock them."

Kael didn't lower his guard. "How do we know you're not another trap?"

"You don't," the woman said calmly. "But the next ruins lie west, beyond the Flameworn Wastes. If you reach them, you'll find a shard of the truth your seal still hides."

"And if we don't?" Lyra asked.

"Then Ruvan finds you first."

Everyone tensed.

But Ariya met the woman's eyes.

"Why do I feel like I've seen you before?"

The woman smiled sadly. "Because sometimes, the ones meant to guide us… wait lifetimes to do so."

She turned and walked away, fading into the trees.

Kael caught Ariya's arm. "You don't trust her… do you?"

Ariya watched the flames flicker blue again.

"No," she whispered. "But I trust the feeling in my mark."

Far away, in a chamber of frost, Ruvan sat before a mirror.

Corven stepped from the shadows behind him.

"She met the 'traveler.' It worked."

Ruvan smiled coldly.

"Let her follow the map I planted. Let her think it's hers."

He rose, hands clasped behind his back.

"Because when she reaches the Flameworn Wastes… that's when we'll burn everything she believes."