Jaden woke to light.
Not warm light.
Not sunlight.
Sterile white bulbs humming overhead, vibrating softly, like they were barely holding back a deeper sound beneath them.
His body felt heavy, as if gravity had increased while he slept. He blinked several times before the world sharpened.
A small room.
A metal bed.
A medical scanner blinking faintly.
And Lisa sitting beside him—eyes red, shoulders tense.
"You're awake," she whispered, exhaling a breath she'd been holding for hours. "Thank god."
Jaden tried to sit up. Pain shot through his ribs.
Lisa's hands were instantly on his shoulders. "No, don't. You pushed yourself too hard."
Jaden frowned. "What… happened? I… remember the Shadow, and then—"
The memory slammed into him.
A burning world.
Screaming.
Light folding inward.
Wings turning to ash.
He gasped and clutched his head.
A voice that wasn't his whispered through the fissures in his mind:
"Not yet."
Lisa grabbed his hand. "Jaden! Hey—hey, look at me. Stay here. Stay present."
His vision steadied. Lisa's face returned: worried, trembling, human.
"I'm okay," he lied.
"No, you're not," she whispered. "You're getting worse."
Jaden opened his mouth to respond—
The door creaked open.
Kane stepped inside.
Calm.
Smiling.
Collected.
His white coat barely rustled, but the room seemed colder for it.
"Good," he said. "You're conscious."
Lisa stood immediately, blocking Kane's path. "No. Not right now. He needs rest."
Kane raised an eyebrow, amused. "Rest is precisely what he cannot afford."
"Get out."
"Lisa," Kane said gently, "every moment Jaden spends asleep is another moment the Shadows grow stronger. You witnessed it yourself."
Lisa shook her head. "You don't care about him."
Kane's smile didn't move. "On the contrary. I care more than anyone."
Jaden gripped the blanket. "Why? Why do you care?"
Kane's eyes moved to him—soft, almost mournful.
"Because you are the first anomaly I've seen in centuries."
That word—centuries—hung in the air like a blade.
Lisa tensed. "You're talking like you're older than—"
"Older than you can imagine?" Kane finished for her. "Yes."
Lisa's breath hitched.
Jaden felt a tremor in his chest—the ember pulsing defiantly.
Kane gestured. "Stand, Jaden."
He hesitated. Lisa shook her head desperately.
But something inside him answered the command.
Something old.
Something instinctive.
Jaden swung his legs over the side and stood.
His vision wavered, but he didn't fall.
Kane's eyes flickered in satisfaction.
"Good. Your resonance is stabilizing."
"My what?" Jaden murmured.
"Your Echo Scar," Kane replied. "The first of many."
Lisa grabbed Jaden's wrist. "Stop listening to him—"
But Jaden looked down at his arm.
Thin, faint red lines pulsed beneath the skin, almost like veins but wrong—moving with the rhythm of the ember.
"What's happening to me?" he whispered.
Kane stepped close, lowering his voice. "You are awakening."
Jaden swallowed. "Awakening what?"
Kane smiled. "Yourself."
Lisa pulled Jaden back. "No. He's manipulating you."
"I'm informing him," Kane corrected softly. "This is coming whether you want it or not."
Jaden wavered, unsure, caught between their voices.
Lisa's hand trembled. "Jaden. Please. You're changing and I don't know why—but he does. And that scares me more than anything."
Jaden squeezed her hand. "I… I'm scared too."
Kane's expression softened—almost genuinely.
"Fear means you're still human," he murmured. "But you won't be for long."
Jaden stiffened.
Lisa's grip tightened.
"Training begins now," Kane said.
Lisa stepped in front of Jaden again. "I'm not letting you take him."
Kane raised his gloved hand.
The room's shadows twisted toward him like obedient pets.
Lisa froze.
Jaden whispered, "Kane… stop."
Kane lowered his hand. The shadows retreated.
"I mean no harm," he said gently. "But if he doesn't learn control soon, he will hurt himself."
Lisa's eyes widened. "What do you mean?"
Kane looked at Jaden—right into the ember behind his ribs.
"That flame inside him? It will grow. It will rupture. And it will burn everything he cares about unless he learns to shape it."
Jaden's breath caught.
Lisa went pale.
Kane gestured toward the hallway. "Follow me."
TRAINING ROOM — LEVEL 0
The room lights flickered the moment Jaden stepped inside.
The air bent around him.
Lisa stood at the doorway, refusing to leave. "I'm not going anywhere."
Kane ignored her and walked to the center of the room.
"Raise your hand, Jaden."
Jaden obeyed, though his arm felt heavy.
Kane snapped his fingers.
A sphere of condensed shadow formed in the air—trembling violently like it was trying to escape.
"This is a fragment of the creature that followed you out," Kane said. "Shadows created from memories that were never yours."
Jaden stepped back instinctively. "I'm not fighting that."
"You don't need to fight," Kane said.
"You need to breathe."
Jaden blinked. "What?"
"Your flame feeds on emotion. On memory. On identity. The more you deny what's inside you, the more unstable you become."
Jaden swallowed. "What do I do?"
"Let the ember pulse."
"I can't—"
"You already are," Kane said softly. "You just don't realize it."
Jaden froze.
Because he felt it.
A small thrum behind his ribs—steady, warm, hungry.
"Now," Kane whispered, "focus on it."
Jaden closed his eyes.
Lisa watched, shaking, terrified.
The ember pulsed once.
Heat rippled the air.
The shadow fragment shrieked.
The room lights exploded.
Jaden's eyes shot open—burning red for an instant.
A small flare of red flame burst from his hand, not fire, not heat—just pure erasure.
The fragment dissolved instantly.
Lisa gasped.
Kane smiled.
"Good," Kane whispered. "Your Redking spark is awake."
Jaden staggered, breathing hard. "Red… king?"
Lisa grabbed him, pulling him close. "Jaden, stop. Please stop. Something is wrong with all of this."
Kane stepped forward, voice low.
"What's wrong," Kane said, "is that he's remembering."
Jaden's heart dropped.
"Remembering… what?"
Kane smiled gently.
"What you used to be."
And Jaden felt the world tilt.
Reality flickered.
For just a moment—
fire filled his vision, burning red across a shattered sky.
Lisa grabbed his face, panic rising. "Jaden?!"
He saw her.
But for a heartbeat—
He didn't recognize her.
A second heartbeat later—
He did.
But the look in her eyes said she saw the slip.
Kane watched silently.
Smiling.
Satisfied.