The Council of Ash
724 Words
The Hall of Judgment sat at the city’s heart like a crown of cold flame—a towering chamber of blackstone pillars and gold-veined glass. Lyra had never stood within it, but its stories were etched into the bones of every emberborn: the place where the First Flame was divided, where the High Council had once crowned kings, and where dissent had often met its quiet end.
She stepped beneath its vaulted archway with Caelin still resting in her arms. Kalen walked beside her, silent as ever, though his eyes never stopped moving.
They were met by an escort of six Emberguard, clad in ceremonial armor scorched at the hems—a strange symbol of service through fire. At their lead was a tall woman with obsidian skin and molten gold eyes, her voice sharp and formal.
"You have been summoned to the Council of Ash. Speak truth, and flame shall guide you. Speak falsehood, and it will consume you."
Lyra nodded once, steadying the ember within her. "We have nothing but truth."
The chamber beyond was vast and echoing. Twelve seats formed a crescent around a great pyre that burned with neither fuel nor smoke. The councilors sat robed and still, their faces partly obscured by shadowed hoods and scorched veils.
An older man with silver-white hair and a jagged scar over his left eye stood as they approached. His voice rang with authority hardened by decades of command.
"Lyra of Thornefield. Kalen of the Outer Watch. You stand before this council under the Flamewright Accords. We are told you bring dire warning. Speak."
Lyra glanced at Caelin, then stepped forward. "The Hollow Vale has awakened. Hollowborn roam free. Villages have fallen. There is a rift above the valley—a tear in the sky itself. Something older than the Emberlight stirs. We saw it."
The council shifted. Murmurs rose. But it was the High Flamekeeper, seated at the center, who responded. Her voice was softer than Lyra expected—like embers beneath ash.
"And what of you, girl? You bear an ember. Yet your name was not in the Registry of Sparks. You are an anomaly."
"I was born after the registry closed," Lyra replied. "Hidden by my village. When my spark awakened, I... I couldn’t control it."
"You destroyed it," one of the councilors said flatly.
Lyra’s jaw tightened. "Yes. And I’ve lived with that ever since. But I didn’t come here to be forgiven. I came to prevent worse."
She lowered Caelin gently to the floor, unwrapping the cloak that covered her. The girl stirred, weak but breathing. Her ember flickered softly across her chest.
Gasps rippled through the council.
"She was taken by the Hollow Vale," Lyra continued. "They tried to infect her spark, twist it. But we pulled her out. The corruption is real, and it’s spreading."
The Flamekeeper leaned forward. "What proof have you that this is not a trick? That the rift is more than illusion?"
Kalen stepped forward for the first time. He tossed a bundle at their feet. It landed with a sick thud—a severed limb of a Hollowborn, still steaming, its blackened veins writhing faintly.
Gasps turned to silence.
"We bled for this proof," he growled. "And if you wait too long to act, you’ll bleed too."
The High Flamekeeper’s expression remained unreadable. "This rift... does it have a source? A center?"
Lyra nodded. "I think it wants something. It reacts to emberlight. It... speaks. Not in words, but in hunger. It wants sparks."
The scarred man folded his arms. "And what would you have us do, girl-who-burned? March on shadow? Send an army into cursed lands on your word?"
Lyra stood tall. "No. I want you to listen. To prepare. And to stop treating sparks like weapons or curses. The ember is changing. If we don’t change with it, we’ll all burn."
A long silence followed. The pyre at the center flared briefly, throwing dancing light across their faces.
Then the Flamekeeper spoke. "The Council will deliberate. You will remain in the Emberhold. Guarded, but not caged. Until then, the fire watches."
As Lyra turned to leave, she heard another voice from the shadows—a young one, amused, too calm.
"The fire doesn’t just watch. It tests."
She paused. But no one else spoke.
The test had only begun.
- Writer
