Chapter 3 The Weight of Fire

The mountain was too quiet.

Crescent’s inner rings, which usually hummed with subtle life, training murmurs, whispered spells, patrols passing through the tunnels, were still. It wasn’t peace, It was the silence before something sharp.

After the Moonshade messenger left, a shift settled over the pack. Wolves walked with stiffer shoulders and every sound felt heavier. Even the fire that \I often summoned during meditation crackled lower, as if it also sensed what was coming.

I felt it in my blood just the same way animals sensed a storm long before the sky cracked.

That night, I sat alone on the mountain’s edge. I had found a perch halfway up the cliffs, a ledge that opened wide to the valley below. Stars spilled across the sky like spilled salt, and wind danced through my hair, pulling her thoughts gently.

Sometimes, the world felt still enough that I almost believed I could go back. Just maybe If I closed my eyes and stepped forward, I will land somewhere before the ceremony. A calm place before the rejection and the pain.

But the fire beneath my skin reminded me there was no before anymore. What only exists is After.

The rock beneath my hands was warm, the way stone gets when magic hums right under the surface. My fingers glowed faintly, and the rune on my chest which signifies the Ember Queen’s mark, pulsed under my shirt. I didn’t know whether to be comforted or cursed by it.

“You meditate like someone waiting to fall,” I heard a familiar voice behind me - Rae.

I didn’t turn but answered “Maybe I am.”

“You won’t.”

“Because I’m too stubborn?” I replied

“Because the fire won’t let you.” Rae said.

I glanced at him then Rae leaned against the wall behind me, arms folded, his expression unreadable as always. But his eyes held something close to understanding.

“You heard what the Moonshade wolf said,” I said quietly.

“I heard.”

“They’re afraid.”

“They should be.”

I looked back to the stars. “Then why do I feel like I’m the one being hunted?”

Rae didn’t answer. And that silence, more than anything, told me the truth I wasn't ready to accept.

The next morning, I trained even harder than usual.

My magic had grown more responsive. The flames didn’t break out like they once did, they listened to me. Moved with purpose, Rae sparred with me using enchanted weapons that pulsed with water magic, trying to weaken my flames and slow my reactions.

But I was faster and also sharper.

I ducked under a blade, twisted, and sent a stream of heat against Rae’s side. He blocked with a grunt as his dagger was glowing blue the moment it met my fire.

We both backed away, breathing hard.

“You’re not fighting to survive anymore,” he said.

“I’m fighting to win.”

“Good,” Rae said, nodding. “Because survival won’t be enough when Moonshade moves.”

I swallowed hard. “Do you really think they’ll come for me?”

“Not with another message. The next one will carry danger”

That afternoon, Crescent’s Council met privately.

Although I wasn’t invited, I knew I was the reason they gathered.

I stood near the garden courtyard, half-hidden by a flowering ash tree, listening to their raised voices. The elders rarely argued. But now their words snapped like dry branches.

“She’s dangerous. She’s protected. She’s not one of us. She bears the Queen’s mark which makes her ours whether we like it or not.”

Just then Theron’s voice, calm and controlled, said “She is not here to rule but has come to prepare. Let her become what the prophecy demands. Then we decide.”

Alpha Theron’s words wrapped around me like cold vines. It dawned on me that they didn’t see me as a girl. Not even as a wolf but as a tool, a symbol and a possible weapon.

And perhaps… that’s all I could afford to be. I thought to herself.

By evening, Crescent’s guards returned with news.

Moonshade wasn’t sending armies yet. But something had stirred beyond their borders.

“villains,” one scout said. “But not wild, they carry symbols we don’t recognize.”

“They’re watching the passes,” said another. “Marking our trails and testing our patrols.”

Rae became tense then said, “They’re not acting alone.”

Theron nodded slowly in agreement. “They aren't moving openly. They’re using shadows.”

The Alpha turned to me. “You’ll go out at dawn with Rae, Mira, and two other guards . You’ll find the group watching our eastern slope. If they carry a message, we need to hear it. If they carry blades… you’ll return with proof.”

Without hesitation, I responded “Understood.”

At dawn, we left. I rode a dark-gray wolf, I shifted just before sunrise. My wolf was taller now but powerful, with silver-touched fur that flickered orange near my paws when my magic stirred. My eyes, once soft, now burned gold.

Rae led the way in wolf form while Mira followed close behind, wearing leather armor and carrying a pack of field ointment. We moved in silence.

The forest stretched out like a sleeping beast. Fog kissed the tops of the trees, and birdsong had fallen quiet. Every snapping twig echoed too loud. Every blow of wind carried a question.

The scent of a fight long finished hood caught our attention. Rae halted while we circled.

And there, beyond the rise, six wolves had lay scattered across the forest floor.

All the villains' markings were carved into their skin and runes painted on their arms.

I dismounted, shifting back as my heart pounded. One of the wolves still breathed but barely. His chest rose and fell like a dying drumbeat.

Mira rushed to his side while I crouched beside them. “Who sent you?”

The rogue’s eyes blinked non stop “She... walks in fire…”

My breath caught. “Who?” I asked in fear.

“The dark one, from the North. Fire-born… like you.”

His eyes rolled back. Then he became still.

There was no space for goodbyes, just silence.

Rae knelt beside me and asked “What did he mean?”

Puzzled, I said “I don’t know.” but the truth was, I did. I knew the darkness was stirring and not just in the packs. It was stirring in the world itself.

Something was beginning to awake but Something old and it was calling for me.