Light swallowed everything.
Not warm.Not comforting.A violent, searing white that carved itself across Kael's vision like a blade.
For a moment he couldn't tell if he was standing, falling, or suspended in nothing. His ears rang sharply, drowning out even the wolf's growl, drowning out Azreath, drowning out the forest entirely.
Then the light collapsed inward—and the world slammed back.
Kael hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs. The dirt felt cold under his palms, cold enough to sting after the heat racing through his veins. His chest rose and fell in ragged, shallow bursts.
He blinked, vision swimming.
The wolf was nowhere in front of him.
Not moving.Not attacking.
It lay several steps away, body twitching, half its fur singed and smoking. Not dead… but stunned, thrown violently aside by the uncontrolled surge.
The sight should have calmed him.
It didn't.
His hands were still glowing.
Heat crawled along his skin in twisting arcs, not flame but something close—raw, unstable energy leaking out from places it shouldn't exist. His pulse throbbed painfully in his wrist and neck, each beat shoving another wave of heat into his limbs.
Kael pressed a fist against the ground, trying to steady himself.
"What… was that…?"
Azreath's voice came slowly, lacking its usual sharpness.
"That… was a mistake."
Kael closed his eyes, groaning softly. "I noticed."
"No," Azreath corrected, firmer now. "Not a failure. A mistake in measure. You let the flame seize control rather than guiding it. If the wolf had been a moment closer, you might have killed it outright. If you had been a moment slower, you might have killed yourself."
Kael let the words settle, each one heavier than the last. His body trembled violently. His breath stuttered like it wanted to give up and start again.
"This feels wrong," he whispered. "Like something inside me is pulling apart."
"It is," Azreath answered.
A cold dread threaded through Kael's spine.
"You are not built to release power like that. Not yet. Your foundation is still fractured—your mortal body, your unstable core, and that fledgling flame seed have not learned to move as one. When you forced the seed awake, your core followed… and your body could not keep the balance."
Kael steadied himself against a nearby tree, trying to stop the tremor in his arms. The bark felt rough under his fingers, grounding him just enough to stay upright.
"So I almost tore myself apart by accident."
"Yes."
Kael exhaled shakily. "Great."
"It is not great," Azreath replied. "It is dangerous. And it is the price of a power mortals were never meant to touch."
Kael opened his eyes slowly and looked down.
His skin still glowed faintly—thin lines of molten gold pulsing just beneath the surface, like cracks filled with light. They faded gradually, but the echo of that power—the wild, uncontrollable flare—left his body feeling too light in some places and too heavy in others.
The wolf stirred once. Its ear twitched. Its breathing steadied.
Azreath spoke again, softer now.
"You see now why I told you ten beasts. Two realms above. The Codex will not open for a child with untamed instinct. It opens for one who survives his flame."
Kael didn't answer. He stared at the faint glow in his palm until it finally dimmed, leaving his skin dull and painfully human.
He felt drained.Hollow.Like the burst had emptied him more than it struck the wolf.
His legs nearly buckled.
Azreath's voice cut through the growing haze."Do not collapse. If you lose awareness now, the wolf will recover first."
Kael's eyes shot back to the beast. It was trying to rise—shaking, scorched, but alive. The forest air thickened as its instincts sharpened, eyes focusing through pain and confusion.
"It fears you now," Azreath said. "Good. But fear in a beast turns quickly to desperation. And a desperate Nightfang is twice as dangerous."
Kael dragged a slow breath. "I have nothing left. I can barely stand."
"You have instinct."
Kael's hands curled weakly at his sides. Instinct. The one thing that had saved him earlier. The one thing that didn't drain mana or require perfect control.
He took one unsteady step forward.
The wolf rose fully now, limping, but its fangs bared. No hesitation. No thought. Just the raw will to survive.
Kael steadied himself, shoulders shaking, vision blurring at the edges.
Azreath's final words came almost like command, almost like prayer:
"Do not meet it with flame. Meet it with clarity."
The wolf lunged.
Kael braced.
The two forces collided—
—
—and in that last-second blink before impact, something else moved inside Kael.Not flame.Not instinct.Something deeper.
A memory that wasn't his.A feeling sharper than fear.A presence older than death.
The world slowed around him.
His body reacted before he understood how.
And as claw met steel—
Kael's eyes shifted.
Just for a heartbeat.Just for a flicker.
But unmistakably—
They burned gold.