Part 1 · Chapters
The Child of the Ash District
Long before he had strength, he had learned to step forward.
Night never fell on Flame City.
The tower at its heart burned all year round, staining the sky a dark red. The closer you came to its peak, the brighter the rooftops and the warmer the streets. Down at the foot of the city wall, the light grew so thin that it revealed only the workers' bent backs, never their names.
That place was called the Ash District.
By the time Xiao Jin pushed a cart of obsidian coal up the slope, the soles of his shoes had worn through. Sharp coal fragments pierced his cloth socks and dug into his feet. Every step left a faint red footprint on the ground.
“Faster!” The foreman's whip cracked against the cart. “The upper city is holding a Flame Banquet tonight. Waste one moment, and ten of you couldn't pay for it.”
Xiao Jin did not answer back. He lowered his head, not in obedience, but because he would not let a word of protest steal the last strength he needed to push. When the cart finally crested the slope, he released the handles. Blood immediately seeped from two fresh patches of torn skin on his palms.
Beside him, a stomach gave an unmistakable growl. Xiao Hui clutched a shovel taller than he was, his eyes darting between the ground and the half of a cold, hard flatbread in Xiao Jin's pocket, as though he feared the foreman might even catch him being hungry.
“What are you looking at?” Xiao Jin asked.
Xiao Hui shook his head at once.
Xiao Jin broke off the larger piece and tossed it over. “I'm not hungry. This thing's hard enough to kill someone.”
Xiao Hui caught it. He knew it was a lie, but said quietly, “Then I'll get rid of it for you.”
Before either of them could laugh, a dull boom rose from underground.
The entire furnace workshop shuddered as if a giant beast had struck it. Iron pipes shook, and scalding steam burst from their seams. A moment later, the iron floor plates flew upward. A monster clad in coal-black armor crawled out of the pipework. It was as big as two coal carts, with burning ore clamped in its jaws. Its six thick legs scattered sparks across the floor.
“A coal-armored beast!” someone shouted.
The workers instinctively conjured fireballs, but none dared approach. Flames struck the thick shell and only drove the creature into a greater frenzy. It toppled a hoist, leaving a trough of molten iron swaying overhead. Two workers were trapped beneath a fallen beam.
“Help them!” Xiao Jin shouted.
People gasped around him, yet their feet seemed stuck in the coal dust. No one actually moved forward.
The beast lowered its head for another charge. A spark lit Xiao Jin's palm, as faint as a candlewick in the wind. Someone beside him cried out, “Are you mad? That little flame couldn't even cook a meal!”
Xiao Jin knew that. He could not stop the monster head-on. A single blow might kill him.
But the people beneath the beam were screaming.
He seized an iron hook and ran. The beast turned toward the light. Xiao Jin immediately snuffed it out and slipped between the coal carts. He noticed that before every charge, the plates along its belly opened to vent heat. He also saw that the steam pipe it had knocked crooked now pointed straight at an empty cart on the slope.
“Xiao Hui!” he shouted as he ran. “Valve Three! Open it when I count to three!”
“But that valve's stuck!”
“Hit the left side with a wrench! The gear inside is missing a tooth!”
Xiao Hui froze for a moment, then threw himself toward the pipes. Xiao Jin climbed onto a coal cart and lit the last flicker of flame in his palm. The coal-armored beast roared and charged.
“One—two—three!”
The valve burst open. White steam struck the monster square in the belly. It swerved in pain and slammed into the cart. More than a dozen carts hurtled down the sloping rails, carrying the beast with them into an empty cooling pit.
Xiao Jin did not stop. He swung onto the hoist and cut the rope on one side. The suspended trough tilted, pouring half-hardened iron slag like a black waterfall over the pit's exit. The monster roared and thrashed, unable to climb out for the moment.
Only then did the workers rush forward to carry the injured people from beneath the beam.
Once the danger had passed, the first thing the foreman noticed was the damaged coal carts.
“Who gave you permission to touch the equipment?” He seized Xiao Jin by the collar. “Three carts and a steam pipe. It's coming out of your wages!”
“I saved them.”
“You got lucky.” The foreman shoved him into the coal dust. “Weaklings always call their troublemaking bravery.”
Silence fell. The only sound was loose coal tumbling, piece by piece, over the rim of a tilted cart. The workers he had just rescued lowered their heads. Their lips moved, but in the end, not one of them spoke up for him.
That night, pain kept pulsing through Xiao Jin's arms. Even so, he dragged his weary body into an abandoned furnace.
He picked up a rusty iron bar and copied the hero on the poster on the wall, though only half the hero's face remained. Again and again, he swung.
Each time the tiny flame lit his palm, a draft pressed it flat against his skin.
Xiao Jin paused and waited for it to rise again.
Then he swung once more.