Ember Born

Chapter 12: The Voice in The Flame

Jade fell asleep still smiling from his party. The warmth of the night stayed with him as he drifted off. But sometime after midnight, his sleep changed into something different. It felt more real than any dream he'd ever had.

He found himself standing in total darkness. There were no walls. No floor he could see. No sense of which way was up. It should have scared him. Instead, he felt calm, like some part of him already knew this place.

Then a light appeared in front of him.

It wasn't like normal fire. It floated in the air with nothing holding it up. Its color moved slowly between orange and gold. And even though it looked like fire, Jade felt no heat at all. Instead, being near it felt like standing next to something alive. Something that noticed him.

"You're finally starting to hear me," the flame said.

Jade froze. The voice didn't come from one direction. It seemed to come from everywhere at once. It didn't sound like a man or a woman. It didn't sound young or old. It sounded like all of those things mixed together.

"What are you?" Jade asked. His voice sounded small in all that darkness.

"I've been called many names," the flame said. "Sacred. Ancient. Some call me f*******n, because they don't understand me. You can just call me the flame. That's the simplest way to think of it."

"Am I dreaming right now?" Jade asked.

"Kind of," the flame said. "Your body is still asleep in your bed. But part of you, the part that's connected to me, is wide awake right now."

Jade stepped closer. "Connected to you? What does that mean?"

The flame glowed a little brighter, then settled back down. "You were born with a piece of me inside you, Jade. Before you had a name. Before you knew anything about yourself. I was already there."

"That's not possible," Jade said. But even as he said it, something deep inside him felt like it was true.

"It's more possible than you think," the flame said gently. "You've felt me for years, even if you didn't know it was me. Your speed. Your strength. The way your body heals fast. The visions you get, where you see things before they happen. All of that comes from me."

Jade thought about the swing set from years ago. He thought about the bomb under his dad's car. He thought about the coma, and the vision of the stake, and the old woman's face. None of those things had made sense before. Now they were starting to connect, like puzzle pieces finally lining up.

"Why me?" Jade asked quietly.

"That's a longer story," the flame said. "One I can't tell you tonight. But I can explain what powers you have. That way you understand yourself a little better."

The flame pulsed once. As it did, Jade felt something open up in his own mind, like a book turning to a page he never knew was there.

"First, your body," the flame said. "You're faster and stronger than a normal person. Not without limits, and not without effort. But still far beyond what most people can do. That strength comes from me. I gave you a small piece of it the moment you were born."

Jade looked down at his own hand and made a fist, thinking about how fast he'd run to save his dad.

"Second, you heal quickly," the flame said. "A cut or bruise that takes someone else weeks to heal will only take you a few days. Sometimes just hours. This won't fix everything, and it has limits too. But it will help you when you need it most."

Jade thought about the explosion in the parking garage. His bruises had disappeared faster than he'd even noticed at the time.

"Third, you have a special connection to fire," the flame continued. "You've felt this since you were little. Fire has always felt calm to you, safe even, when it should have felt dangerous. That's not an accident. It's part of what you carry inside you."

Jade remembered standing near the stove as a small boy, and how calm he'd always felt, even when his mom panicked.

"And fourth," the flame said, its light dimming just slightly, "there's the part that costs you the most. The visions you get, where you see things before they happen, or sometimes things from long ago, come from a special part of me. I don't experience time the way you do. That part of me, living inside you, sometimes shows you glimpses of moments outside the one you're standing in right now. We can call this your time vision."

"That's what almost killed me," Jade said quietly. He thought about the coma. Three days gone. The vision of the stake and the old woman.

"Yes," the flame said, its voice heavier now. "That gift costs more than the others. The bigger the vision, the more it drains you. It hurts your mind first, and if you're not careful, it will hurt your body too. You'll need to learn how to control it. If you don't, it could one day take more from you than you can afford to lose."

Jade sat with that for a moment. He felt amazed and a little scared at the same time. "Why tell me this now? Why not before?"

"Because you're finally ready to hear it," the flame said. "And because time is running shorter than either of us would like."

"What do you mean?"

The flame's light flickered, dimmed, then steadied again. "Something is happening far away from where you sleep tonight. I can't show you everything yet. But you need to understand your powers, and learn to use them, before that thing reaches you. I didn't wake up inside you tonight just to comfort you, Jade. I woke up because you're going to need everything I've given you, sooner than you think."

A chill ran through Jade, even though the flame gave off no heat at all. "What's coming?"

"That's a story for another night," the flame said softly. "For now, rest. Let everything I've told you sink in. And Jade," it added, its voice turning warmer, "no matter what you learn about where you came from, and no matter what you find out about the life you had before this one, remember this. You are exactly who you're supposed to be. Nothing that happens next will change that."

The light began to fade. The darkness around Jade grew deeper as the flame slowly disappeared.

"Wait," Jade said, reaching out even though there was nothing to hold onto. "Don't go yet. I have so many more questions."

"You'll get your chance to ask them," the flame said, its voice growing quieter and further away. "When the time is right. For now, sleep, Jade. Really sleep. You've earned it."

The darkness swallowed the last bit of light completely. Jade felt himself being pulled backward, gently but firmly, away from wherever he had been standing. Back toward his own body. Back toward his own bed.

He woke up the next morning with sunlight coming through his window. His birthday decorations were still hanging around his room from the night before. For a moment, he just lay there, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out if what he remembered had really happened, or if it had just been a really vivid dream.

But when he sat up and looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers slowly, he could still feel it. A small, steady warmth, sitting quietly somewhere deep in his chest. It felt patient, like a small flame waiting for the right moment to grow bigger.

Whatever happened last night, Jade knew deep down that it had been real.

And for the first time in his life, he finally understood, at least a little bit, exactly what he was.