The world settled like dust after a storm.
Light radiated from Leira, soft now, almost fragile, no longer a blinding blaze but a gentle pulse tracing through her veins. Her body floated a few inches above the ground, the trance lifting, though the remnants of fire clung like warm silk around her. The air smelled of ash and something else, something new, clean, reborn.
Kael knelt a few paces away, wide-eyed and frozen, his hands hovering uncertainly. He couldn't believe she was… herself again. He could see it: the subtle rise and fall of her chest, the faint shimmer in her eyes, the small tremor that ran through her limbs like a river finding its way back to its bed.
"Leira…" His voice was a whisper, not daring to break the delicate hush of the moment. She didn't answer immediately. She couldn't.
Every heartbeat was a soft drum, echoing through the silence, as if the world itself was holding its breath with her. The shard pulsed faintly on her wrist, like a heartbeat synchronized with her own. She could feel it inside her, not as a weapon or a test, but as a fragment of herself finally returned.
Her eyelids fluttered. Slowly, delicately, she exhaled. The faintest of smiles tugged at the corners of her lips, a trembling acknowledgment of survival, of reclamation. The fire had tested her, had torn through her fear and doubt, but in the end, it had only refined her. She was still here. Stronger.
And yet… vulnerable.
Kael's chest rose and fell with a sigh he didn't realize he had been holding. His hand reached toward her, shaking slightly, as though afraid that if he touched her too quickly, she would vanish again.
Her eyes opened fully, revealing their soft silver-gray glow, the shard's light mirrored in them. She looked at him, not with the wide-eyed panic of before, but with quiet clarity, as if seeing him for the first time and the thousandth time all at once.
"You… you passed," Kael whispered, his voice barely above the wind brushing the ash laden ground. Relief hit him like water, and he closed the gap, kneeling beside her, careful not to startle her as she slowly descended toward the earth.
Leira's legs bent at the knees, and finally, gravity claimed her. She collapsed, not harshly, but softly, her body folding into itself as the last threads of levitation and trance fell away. Her arms came up instinctively, bracing her against the ground, fingers digging into the ashy soil.
Kael was there instantly, catching her before she hit the ground fully, holding her as if she might crumble if left alone.
"It's okay," he murmured, pressing a hand against her back. "You're okay. You did it."
Leira's eyes fluttered shut for a moment, her chest heaving with uneven breaths. Every inhale burned gently, a reminder of what she had endured and what she had reclaimed. For a moment, she simply rested against him, letting his presence anchor her to the world she had risked losing in the fire.
"I… I felt everything," she whispered finally, voice fragile. "I felt Cassian… the fire… all of it." Her fingers twitched, brushing against Kael's arm. "I thought… I thought I couldn't take it."
"You did," he said softly, voice steady but thick with emotion. "You're here. You're stronger than anything that tried to break you."
Her gaze lifted, meeting his. There was awe in it, no arrogance, no relief only; just the quiet realization that she had faced herself, her past, her fears, and emerged. Vulnerable, yes, but undeniably whole.
The fire's remnants curled around them like smoke in sunlight, gentle and alive. It whispered nothing now, no tests, no threats, only the soft echo of her heartbeat reflected in the world around them.
Kael brushed stray strands of hair from her face, tucking them behind her ear. "The shard… it's yours now," he said. "Every piece you reclaim makes you more yourself."
Leira nodded faintly, lifting her wrist. The golden light pulsed gently, a warmth she could feel through her skin and bones. It was quiet, intimate, hers. A piece that had been waiting for her all along.
"Two down," Kael murmured, almost reverently. "Five more."
She let out a small, shaky laugh, a sound more fragile than the roaring fire had been, yet somehow more powerful. "It doesn't feel like… like victory," she said. "It feels like…" She trailed off, searching for words to capture the sensation. "…like waking up."
Kael's lips quirked into a small, tired smile. "You don't know how happy that makes me feel," he said. "We have work to do. The echoes won't wait for long."
Leira closed her eyes briefly, letting the calm seep into her bones. The fire had tested her, burned her, stripped her down, but it had also left her with clarity, bits and pieces of her past memories. Each shard, each trial, was not only a challenge but a mirror, reflecting what she had lost, what she had feared, and what she had yet to reclaim.
When she opened her eyes again, they were steady, luminous in the dim ash lit air. The world felt new, fragile, and waiting. Kael extended his hand, and she took it without hesitation.
They stood there together for a long moment, breathing in the quiet, letting the silence stretch between them, not tense, not heavy, but full of acknowledgment.
"I'm ready," Leira said quietly, voice firmer now, carrying the weight of her awakening.
Kael nodded.
As they walked forward, the first rays of real sunlight, diffused and warm, reached through the lingering smoke of the trial. The air smelled faintly of rain on stone and ash, carrying with it the promise of beginnings.
The shard of the Trial of Embers had been claimed.
With Kael by her side, she felt the fragile, quiet power of rebirth. Vulnerable, yes, but undeniably hers.
The next echo waited. And this time, she would face it fully awake.