Eclipsed heart

chapter fourteen: ember trials

Cassian helped Lila to her feet, though his hands trembled. The heat radiating off her wasn’t dangerous—yet—but it was no longer dormant. Her fire had awakened.

“I don’t feel like myself,” she said, voice hoarse.

“That’s because you’re becoming more than yourself,” Cassian replied. “The Ember Trials have begun.”

“The what?”

He looked at her, eyes solemn. “When an Emberborn awakens, the flames test them—mind, heart, and soul. You’ll relive memories that aren’t yours. Face truths you’re not ready for. And if you fail…”

He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to.

The room suddenly shifted, flames flickering to life around them in a perfect circle. The air thickened, heavy with ancient magic. Before she could speak, Lila felt her body pulled inward—into the fire, into memory.

She landed in a battlefield.

Screams echoed. Blades clashed. A younger Aralis stood before her—her face identical to Lila’s but colder, fiercer. A flaming sword in her hand, she turned and looked directly at Lila.

“You think you’re different?” she said, her voice both hers and not. “Then prove it.”

Lila looked down. A sword was now in her own hands.

From the smoke, Vael emerged—eyes cruel, mouth curled into a smirk. “Two of you now?” he sneered. “Twice the disappointment.”

Lila raised her blade, heart pounding. This wasn’t just memory—it was a reckoning.

She had to fight, not just for herself, but to break free from the shadow of who she once was.