Blue Fire, Red Chains

Kade threaded through the market, slipping between baskets piled high with odd items and foods, dodging elbows and outstretched scales. The air was thick with the scent of sweet fruit, dust, and baked goods. His stomach growled, but he kept his eyes locked on the red-haired woman.

A real sorcerer. He thought.

The street changed beneath his feet.

Smooth paving gave way to something older, neglected. Stones were cracked and sunken, tilting like broken teeth in a crooked smile. Narrow gaps between slabs gaped like traps, ready to catch an ankle.

She stopped as if she had arrived exactly where she intended. She didn’t look or talk to the people around her. Instead, she raised her hands, palms facing down as though she was feeling for the unseen framework of the street.

Something shifted.

Kade felt it before he saw anything. The air seemed to thicken, a faint heat brushing his skin, as if someone had opened an oven a dozen paces away. His pulse kicked, that strange warmth coiling in his chest, as though standing in attention.

Then light bloomed in her hands. Gold spilled from her fingers in lines as steady as a ruler’s edge, each stroke following some exact geometric shape. Lines drawn in perfect proportion. The patterns wove together until the street itself hummed underfoot. A massive drawn sigil.

She flicked her hands.

The ground obeyed.

He felt it beneath his feet before he understood what was happening, the slow movement of stone on stone. Cracks closed as if the pieces remembered how to fit. The rut in the center smoothed. The jagged edges settled into place until the whole stretch lay flat, clean, as though it had always been that way.

When she finished, the designs sank into the stone, leaving only a faint afterglow, like sunlight slipping beneath the horizon.

Kade stared, mouth open.

His hands felt restless, his chest tight with a strange mix of awe and disbelief. He had read about magic, the kind with dragons and fairy tales, but nothing had prepared him for this. A magic that was… fixing the world.

The people around him, watching, still and mesmerized, slowly moved. They turned, raised their right hands, palm up and facing her, a silent offering. Then, reverently, each hand pressed to the chest.

“May your light never fade,” the crowd murmured one after the other as she passed.

Kade copied them clumsily, palm over his heart. His voice rang louder than he meant, full of the excitement that was now pulsing inside his chest,

“May your light never fade.”

The woman glanced at him once.

Her eyes were unreadable before she turned and walked on.

Kade jogged after her, weaving through the people who were still murmuring blessings under their breath.

“That was incredible,” he blurted. “Could you… could you fix anything with your magic? Like, if something was totally broken? Or maybe sick? Or… wait, are there lots of sorcerers like you? Or are you like… the best?”

She stopped walking so abruptly that Kade nearly smacked into her back.

He skidded to a halt, rocking on his heels, and gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to almost squash you.”

Her head turned slowly. The red hair caught the sun like fire, but her eyes were colder than winter, gray, measuring him.

“What is it,” she asked softly, but with a weight behind each word, “that you hope to accomplish here, boy?”

Kade blinked. The way she said it made his chest feel tight, like she wasn’t asking about him chasing after her, but about… something else. Something bigger.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I-I was just fascinated. By your magic. I’ve never seen anything like it before. What does it… feel like?”

Her eyes lingered on him for a beat too long, and for a moment he thought she might not answer at all. Then her expression shifted, her sharpness easing slightly.

“I see,” she said at last. “You don’t know who I am, then.”

Kade brightened, nodding. “Renn said you were a sorcerer, so I followed you to see for myself.”

One of her eyebrows arched gracefully, and her gaze flicked down him, from the messy tufts of silver hair, past the loose hospital pajamas, to his bare, dirty feet. Her nose wrinkled faintly, the way someone might at a sour fruit.

“You’d better go home now,” she said, each word crisp, decisive. “Honestly, the fact that they let children run wild dressed like this is unacceptable.”

Kade blinked at her, and suddenly realized that her coat, embroidered with gold and stitched in sophisticated patterns, wasn’t just fancy clothes. It was part of a uniform. The same as that mural. A sorcerer thing. A rank, maybe. Or a badge. He felt very small under her gaze. Not that she sounded cruel, she sounded more like a teacher scolding someone for forgetting their homework. Except… no. The more he watched the straight way she held herself, the less it felt like a teacher. More like… a general.

Kade’s grin came back, crooked and sheepish. “I don’t think I was supposed to get out looking like this. It just happened.”

Then he tilted his head, eyes bright. “And… I don’t really remember home. If I have one here. Do you know where that is? You talk like you know.”

Her expression didn’t change. Her voice carried the ring of finality.

“The orphanage. To the east of the market.”

Kade froze, blinking. “The orphanage?”

She turned away. “Don’t follow me.”

And without another glance, she walked on.

Kade watched her go, her green-and-gold cloak catching the sun until she vanished into the crowd.

That was when the guards came.

Two men pushed through the marketplace throng. One was broad-shouldered, short dark hair glinting with sweat. The other towered over him, older, his face carved into downward lines that made him look like he’d been born scowling. Both wore dark uniforms and burnished armor, eyes sharp as they swept the crowd, until they landed on Kade.

Trailing them was Renn, looking exactly like a man who regretted every decision that had led him here.

“This is the boy,” Renn said, throwing up his hands. “He just wandered here disoriented. Harmless. Probably under a spell.”

The older guard’s gaze cut into Kade like a knife. His mouth tightened further when it landed on the hospital clothes. “Came to pull another trick?” he demanded.

Kade blinked. “What?”

“Your friends that were here two nights ago,” the younger guard snapped. His eyes narrowed. “Vanished near the gates with one of our Marked. Outsiders, just like you.”

“I don’t know anyone here,” Kade said quickly. Then hesitated. “I think.”

The older man stepped forward and seized his arm, his grip iron. “You’ll answer at the station.”

“Hey… ow,” Kade complained, squirming. “You could’ve just asked nicely.”

The younger guard turned to Renn. “What do you know about this boy?”

“Leave me out of this,” Renn said sharply, stiffening. “I’ve done nothing.”

“We’ll need you for questioning too,” the younger guard growled, reaching for him. Renn tried to step back. The guard, angered by the disobedience, grabbed him by the shirt roughly.

Kade slipped from the older guard and stepped between them. “Leave him alone!”

Something inside Kade flared.

The warmth under his ribs erupted, surging outward in a rush of blue, spilling into his arms before he even thought about it. It gathered at his hands, alive, a light that rippled and twisted as if it had thoughts of its own. The power, translucent blue, crawled over his skin like living fire.

The younger guard yanked his hand back as the strange energy lashed toward him, not striking but pulsing with a warning.

All three men stared.

Renn’s mouth dropped open.

The younger guard whispered, “Blue…”

The older one’s eyes hardened. “That is not the colour of the blessing.” His voice was grim, as if naming a curse. “This…” he jerked his chin at Kade’s hands “...is wrong.”

“Wrong?” Kade echoed, distracted, too busy staring at the living streaks of blue coursing over his fingers. “No, no, look at it… it’s amazing.” His voice was giddy, thrilled, like a boy watching fireworks for the first time.

The crowd had started murmuring, uneasy ripples spreading.

“Is that the Mother Moon’s light?”

“What else could it be?”

“Is that boy one of the Marked?”

The guards moved at once, both reaching for him again.

His magic reacted before he did.

The nearest guard was hurled backward, slammed into a cart with a crunch of splintering wood.

Gasps rippled through the market. Children cried. Faces turned pale.

The older man’s expression iced over. He drew his sword in one smooth, practiced motion, blade flashing in the sun.

With his free hand, he crushed a small crystal between his fingers.

It burst with a crack like shattering bone, releasing a spear of crimson light that tore into the sky and hung there, pulsing.

“Unregistered outsider,” the older man said coldly. “Using magic in Lunavin. That is crime enough. But raising it against city officials…” He leveled his blade. “…is an indictable offense.”

Kade stumbled back, trembling, the blue light still spilling from his hands like living fire. His grin slipped away.

The crowd muttered louder now.

More guards converged from the edges of the market.

“I didn’t mean it,” Kade said, voice cracking, but the power lashed out again anyway, curling around his arms, flickering with life. “It’s just… just moving on its own…”

The guards charged.

His body moved instinctively, ducking and darting. Blue arcs lashed from his palms, whipping through the air like serpents. They hissed against armor, forcing men back, striking with too much force though he willed it not to. Every motion made the crowd flinch. Every flicker of blue drew another curse muttered under someone’s breath.

“Stop!” Renn shouted. “He isn’t harming you. What are you doing?”

But no one listened.

And then the air shifted.

Stillness swept the marketplace like an unseen wind. The guards froze mid-step, tension locking their bodies.

From beyond them stepped a man in a crimson cloak-like coat, as heavy with embroidery as the red-haired woman’s, shimmering faintly as he moved. His long black hair framed a severe, pale face. Dark eyes locked on Kade with calm, unsettling interest.

The air itself bent around him.

The guards parted without a word.

He walked forward, each step deliberate, unconcerned by the snapping blue power still crawling over Kade’s arms like living lightning.

“Name,” he said. The word landed like a command.

Kade blinked. “Kade.”

“Lineage?”

“…What?”

“Your family name.”

“I don’t remember.”

The man’s expression did not change.

He lifted a hand.

The air cracked.

Lines of crimson light burst into being, coiling like serpents, then snapped tight as luminous chains around Kade’s body. They wrapped his arms, his chest, his legs, pinning him mid-step.

His chest burned as the blue power rose desperately to defend, but the crimson chains squeezed, suppressing it, choking it back.

Kade gasped, straining against the bindings. “Wait!”

The man stepped forward and produced from his coat a pair of cuffs, metal inscribed with glyphs that glowed faintly red. He clicked them shut around Kade’s wrists.

And just like that, the blue light went out.

The warmth vanished.

The pressure behind his ribs disappeared.

Kade slumped forward, dizzy and hollow, like something vital had been scooped out of him.

The chains melted away, no longer needed.

“Take him,” the man said.

The guards obeyed.

For a heartbeat, fear clenched Kade's ribs tight.

He’d only just found this world, this body that finally worked, and now something inside him had been chained and stolen. His throat tightened.

But the guards were already gripping his shoulders, hauling him forward. People stared, murmuring, stepping back as if he were diseased.

Kade’s head drooped for a moment. His silver hair fell into his eyes. He could’ve let himself crumple under their hands, just a strange boy dragged through the streets like a criminal.

But he wasn't a criminal. It made no sense to act like one.

So he lifted his chin.

As the guards marched him through the gawking crowd, he turned his head.

And there she was.

The red-haired woman stood half-shadowed between two stalls. Her pale gray eyes fixed on him, unreadable.

Their gazes locked.

And in that moment, Kade understood.

Whatever he was, whatever that blue fire inside him meant, he was like her now. A sorcerer.

His lips curved into a sudden, bright smile.

They could chain his hands. They could take him away. But they couldn’t take that truth from him.

He was one of them.

And that meant this was only the beginning.