Part 2 · Chapters
The Forgotten Ancient Fire Spirit
An unexpected encounter opens a door. Climbing out is still up to you.
Elder Ember's fire had no scorching grandeur. It simply burned quietly in the stone chamber. Its warmth reminded Xiao Jin of a hearth long ago. Perhaps, when fire was first kindled, it had never been meant to hurt anyone.
The red light gathered into the shape of an old man no taller than Xiao Jin's chest.
His beard was made of sparks, and his body flickered as though it might scatter at any moment. He circled Xiao Jin once, offering no sympathy for the broken arm, black fire, or wounds covering him.
“Too weak, too stubborn, and you've thrown away half the life handed to you,” the old man said. “How have you survived this long?”
“Luck.”
“Honest, at least.” The old man snorted. “I am Elder Ember. This was once the Fire Hall of the first Elemental Guardians. I keep the world's earliest spark of fire: the Primordial Ember.”
At the back of the hall, a fire seed like a glowing coal core pulsed slowly. It was not dazzling, yet the black fire instinctively retreated from Xiao Jin's heart.
“Give it to me,” Xiao Jin said.
“Why should I?”
“I have to go back and stop a war.”
“Many have come here. Some wanted revenge, some a crown, some claimed they would save the world.” Elder Ember stared at him. “In the end, they only wanted to prove they were stronger than others.”
He swept a hand through the air. Black fire swallowed the hall.
Another Xiao Jin walked out of the flames. His body was uninjured, and black fire bright enough to illuminate the abyss burned in his palm. Visions of Yan Tuo, the foreman, and the trial instructor knelt at his feet.
“Accept me,” the blackflame Xiao Jin said, “and everyone who looked down on us will kneel.”
Xiao Jin studied their faces. He remembered the sole of a boot in coal dust, laughter in the stands, and the council reducing his death to two lines.
“Don't you hate them?” the black flame asked.
“I do.”
The answer made the apparition falter.
“I've hated Yan Tuo, and everyone who stood there doing nothing,” Xiao Jin said. “I've even thought that when I became strong, I'd make them know what it feels like to be trampled.”
The black flame extended a hand. “Then take what you deserve.”
Xiao Jin did not take it.
“But if I become another person who steps on others, what was the point of climbing up?”
The other Xiao Jin's face twisted. Blazing fire became a giant hand reaching for him. Xiao Jin had no greater power to resist it. He lit only the little flame he had always had. Black fire struck again and again; the small light bent again and again.
Each time it nearly went out, Xiao Jin spoke again the names of those he wanted to protect.
“Xiao Hui.”
“The Ash District.”
“Everyone who has no one standing in front of them.”
Gradually, the light exposed the black flame's emptiness. It looked enormous, yet there was nothing at its center. Xiao Jin stepped into the blaze and pressed his small light against his other self's chest.
The black flame collapsed without a sound.
The stone hall returned to normal. Elder Ember stood where he had been, amusement in his eyes for the first time.
“Fire was not born for war,” he said. “The first flame simply let small, vulnerable lives see one another in the dark and gather for warmth. Later generations remembered only what fire could destroy, and forgot what it had first protected.”
He pointed to Xiao Jin's palm.
“Your flame is not defective. It simply remembers farther back than Flame City does.”
The Primordial Ember rose from the depths of the hall.
“I can give you a chance to burn anew,” Elder Ember said. “But first it must burn away the black fire that does not belong to you. It may reduce you to ash along with it.”
“How long?”
“Seven days.”
“Then I can get out?”
“Then you'll be ready to start climbing.”
Xiao Jin held out his hand. “Do it.”