The Ember's Call

nes. At seventeen, she was already a ghost in the city's underbelly, known only by the flicker of her blade and the empty pockets she l

Flame, but Kael saw it for what it was: a vault for the rich to hoard their secrets. Word on the streets was that the shrine held a shard-a

taught her to keep fear at arm's length. At the top, she crouched, scanning the courtyard below. Two guards patrolled, their lanterns casting lazy

r nerves playing tricks. Kael slipped past locked doors, her lockpicks dancing in her hands. The syndicate's tip had been precise: thir

a coin, glowing a deep, molten red, like a star plucked from the sky. Kael's breath caught. It wasn't just beautiful; it felt aliv

eathed in shadow, a tower splitting the earth. Kael stumbled back, the ember clutched in her ha

e bellowed from

a pillar, heart hammering. The ember pulsed in her pocket, warm against her thigh, and that sam

tyard was chaos-more guards, shouting, the clatter of armor. She scrambled up a drainpipe, arrows whistling past her head. At the

against a wall, gasping. The ember still glowed in her hand, its light casting strange shadows.

able's entrance, cloaked, their face hidden in shadow. "You've got s

er dagger. "Tr

eyes and a scar across her cheek. "I'm not here to fight, kid. I'm here to help. That th

h twisted. "W

r burned my name from their books. And you, Kae

me?" Kael snapped, her

s chatty like that. Now, you want to l

too. And this ember, whatever it was, had already marked her. S

ing the ember. "But if yo

idened. "I lik

low a faint pulse in Kael's pocket, pullin