The fire had faded, but the echoes remained.
Kael rode through the mist-veiled hills alone, the horse beneath him half-starved, its tack stolen from a demon-corrupted merchant he'd cut down two days prior. He hadn't slept. Sleep brought dreams.
Dreams brought him.
The presence.
It had no name, not truly. But Kael knew what it was: the part of himself that had awakened in death. The part the Church would call blasphemy. The Flameborn.
And tonight, it came again.
[Dream Realm – The Burning Mirror]
He stood in an endless desert, ash falling like rain. A mirror stood before him, cracked and burning. His reflection stared back—but it wasn't quite him.
Younger. Smiling.
Untouched.
And then… the reflection changed.
Hair streaked with white. Armor scorched. Halo broken. Golden eyes full of fury.
The Saint of Vengeance.
"You can't run from me." The reflection's voice echoed.
Kael clenched his jaw. "I'm not running. I just haven't decided what kind of monster I want to be yet."
"You already have."
The mirror shattered, flames leaping toward him.
[Waking World]
Kael snapped awake, body slick with sweat despite the night chill. His sword, Solas, pulsed faintly by his side. Its flame burned hotter when his emotions stirred.
He rose, breathing slowly, deliberately.
You will not control me, he told the voice in his head.
But the flame laughed in silence.
[Three Days Later – Outskirts of Armathil, Capital of the Holy Dominion]
The Holy City loomed in the distance: white spires, ringing bells, and banners bearing the insignia of the Light. Kael stood on a cliff, cloaked, hood drawn low. The place he had once called home. The place that betrayed him.
He knew every corridor in the Grand Temple. Every hidden passage in the Academy. Every lie buried in golden words and polished stone.
And he would walk among them again.
But not as Kael.
Not as their Saint.
[Flashback – Ten Years Ago]
"You were always too soft," Thorne had told him once during training. "You hesitate. You care."
Lucien had laughed. "That's what makes him the Saint, idiot."
Kael had smiled.
He didn't smile now.
[Present – Inner Monologue]
The Saint they remember is dead.
I will bury the Church that killed him.