NOVEL WEB Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Echoes in the Ember
[Scene 1 – The Shadow That Moved]
Night blanketed Veora in uneasy silence.
Kun stood on the outskirts of the village, where grass gave way to ash, staring down at the ground.
At his shadow.
It wasn't behaving like it should.
It didn't sway with the campfire. It didn't follow his movements. It was... twitching. Breathing. It extended slightly when he stepped back. It rippled when he stood still.
And then—ever so slightly—it lifted its hand.
Mirroring him.
Only, he hadn't moved.
Kun narrowed his eyes. "I see you."
The shadow froze.
Then settled back into its normal shape.
---
[Scene 2 – Rhea's Discovery]
Inside the old stone hall, Rhea unrolled a tattered scroll across the table.
"The ruins in the northern Ashlock Mountains," she said. "Local legends call it a 'grave for fire.'"
Elira leaned closer. "A Celestora site?"
"More than that," Orlan murmured, eyes scanning the symbols. "A Starfire divergence lab. A place where they tried to separate divine flames into fragments... before realizing what they'd created."
Rhea tapped a burned glyph on the map.
"They tried to split a god's will."
Everyone turned to Kun.
He met their eyes, voice low. "Then I need to see what they found."
---
[Scene 3 – Arrival at Ashlock Ruin]
The Ashlock Mountains were cold and dead. Trees hadn't grown here in centuries. The rock was brittle, cracked by ancient pressure, and covered in soot that never washed away.
At the mountain's base, a black door of fused stone stood buried halfway in the earth. Runes danced faintly across its surface.
As Kun approached, the symbols lit up.
The door slid open on its own.
Responding not to magic…
But to memory.
---
[Scene 4 – The Flamekeeper]
Deep within the ruin, suspended above a long-dead forge, hovered a woman.
She was translucent, her body shaped from soft starlight and drifting particles of memory. Her face was obscured by a silver half-mask, and her hair floated weightlessly, untouched by time.
As Kun stepped closer, her eyes snapped open—glowing white, like twin collapsed suns.
> "Starborn," she whispered. "Incomplete. But luminous."
Orlan inhaled sharply. "She's a Celestora Flamekeeper—still alive."
She drifted down and stood upon the cooled anvil of the forge.
> "I am Lirian, last of the Flame Speakers."
> "And you… are already unraveling."
---
[Scene 5 – Truths from the Past]
Lirian touched the ancient forge, and a wall of floating runes flared into life. As she moved her hand, the symbols re-formed into stars, constellations, and glowing flames.
> "The Starfire you carry is not whole," she said.
> "It was never meant to be."
She explained:
The divine fire was once singular—a pure godmind.
In fear of its power, the Celestora fractured it into seven aspects, each sealed into a different type of flame.
Each flame held a different facet of will—sovereignty, oblivion, memory, hunger, rebirth, entropy, and clarity.
Kun had already activated three:
Sovereign Flame – dominance and protection.
Noctis Flame – forgetting, erasure.
Eidolon Flame – memory, reconstitution.
> "Every flame you awaken creates an echo," Lirian said. "A shadow of who you were. A shadow that may one day become strong enough to take your place."
Kun looked at his hand. A faint constellation burned in his palm—gold, silver, and blue all at once.
Then he asked the question that chilled the room.
> "What happens if I awaken all seven?"
Lirian's expression hardened.
> "Then you cease to be you."
> "You become what the Celestora feared."
> "The vessel. The return. The one whose name was erased—so it could not be remembered into being."
---
[Scene 6 – The Shadow Speaks]
That night, long after the others had slept, Kun returned to the forge's steps.
And there, in the moonlight, his shadow stood up.
Not attached to his feet.
Not bound to light.
It rose—humanoid, featureless, crackling faintly with dark-blue fire.
> "You finally see me," it said.
> "I am what you burned away. Every time you lit the Sovereign Flame. Every time you erased pain. Every time you remembered something that wasn't yours."
Kun stood frozen.
> "Are you me?" he asked.
> "No," the shadow said. "I am the part of you that knows how this ends."
> "And soon… you'll need me."
As the wind picked up, the shadow melted silently back into the ground.
Kun sat there a long time.
Not afraid.
But no longer sure he was alone.