In the end, there really was no choice. I hadn’t come all this way to give up at the last moment. “So be it. I accept this sacrifice.”
The fire grew so bright and hot I was sure I’d melt before its wrath. The Forge had accepted my offering, and now it went to banging, whirring, clanking work. The great machinery of the cathedral blasted to life, feeding the flame the very essence of the universe. The quintessential fire of creation burned in the Forge’s belly, and I watched as a new Empyrean Flame was born, a shining beacon for mortalkind.
My strength flagged, sapped away by the heat. My legs buckled and forced me to kneel before the Umbral Forge as it prepared to unleash a new power that would create a Grand Design. Soon, all the work I’d done would come to an end.
“Not yet,” the Umbral Forge said. “This is but the first step on your quest, Jace Warin, Scion of the New Flame, Burning Core.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “What must I do?”
“As I said,” the Forge continued, “your destiny is being written. You are charged with bringing the Empyrean Flame back to the world. And the first step along this path is to host the Burning Core within you. So it has always been, so mote it be.”
The boiling sphere of pure flame rose from the Forge and floated toward me. Its power was too much for me to bear.
The Flame touched me, and darkness took me away.
The Island
WAVES CRASHED ON THE rocky shore. Lacy foam clung to the rocks as the water receded, a strangely chaotic and beautiful decoration that burned away under the noonday sun. The songs of tropical birds competed with the bass roar of the ocean’s rhythm, and the air smelled of salt and roasting meat. I’d come a very long way from the Umbral Forge and would go further still before I returned to my true home, the School of Swords and Serpents. For now, though, I was content to rest on an island in the sun, with a handful of my closest friends to keep me company.
“You are lucky to be alive,” Hahen said. He was perched on a rock next to mine, using the tip of his cane to draw symbols in the sand. I watched his latest creation vanish beneath the waves.
“We all are,” I agreed. “It was touch-and-go there for a while.”
Hahen laughed and tilted his head back to draw in a deep breath. “That is not what I meant. You are lucky to be alive to eat that pig roasting over the fire.”
“Oh.” I chuckled. After everything that had happened, it was good to think about something other than death and destruction. Fire-roasted pork made a welcome distraction, as did the heaping bowls of tropical fruit salsa, mounds of tapioca rolls native to the island, and the bottles of wine that Clem had arranged to be flown in. It wouldn’t be long now before I filled my belly. Not that I really needed to. “It’s a little harder to get excited now.”
“Because you have reached the level of artist?” the rat spirit asked.
“That, and the other thing,” I said.
The Burning Core had changed me when it entered my body. Somehow, the new power had smoothed over the ugly scar that separated the Eclipse Warrior and Machina cores. My new core was burnished gold, surrounded by a corona of flame.
And it had done something else to me, as well. Another power was nestled within my core. It wasn’t mine, not exactly. I was its caretaker. A host until the time was right to release it once again.
The combination filled me with boundless energy. I could eat, if I wanted to, but it was no longer necessary. Neither was sleep, even without Clem’s talisman stitched to my aura.
“My ears are burning,” my friend said as she made her way down the beach to perch on my rock. “You must be thinking about me?”
“You sure our threads aren’t still stitched together?” I asked.
Clem draped her arm around my neck and leaned her head against my shoulder. “The bond is gone. I just know you really, really well.”
I was out for two days after the Forge slammed the Burning Core inside me. My dreams during that time were not pleasant, and when I’d finally come around, I’d learned that my friends were given the dubious pleasure of experiencing every one of them with me. A couple of days after that, I’d felt up to the task of untying our threads of fate. Now, Clem, Eric, and Abi all had their own threads, truncated and capped by talismans that Clem had scrivened. They were free from me, and from each other, and had no ties to the Grand Design. While the rest of the world was still adapting to the changes I’d set in motion by my decision at the Umbral Forge, my friends were already free to pursue their own destiny.
My thread, though, had been rewoven. I couldn’t see the end of it, yet, but I knew it was out there, waiting to be tied to whatever the Design deemed necessary.
Lucky me. Yay.
“The pig’s ready!” Abi called to us. “You two stop canoodling down there and come eat.”
Hahen wagged a finger in my direction. “He’s right. You two are a terrible distraction for each other.”
With that, my mentor drifted up off the rocks and vanished into the smoke that gusted from the uncovered fire pit.
“Distracted,” I muttered and
