Chapter 3 — When Starlight Walked Into Fire

There are stories people tell about you so many times that eventually they stop feeling like yours.

The village of Lareth became one of those stories.

The songs made it sound cleaner than it was.

I was nineteen.

Terrified.

And ten minutes into my first official mission, I was already arguing with my commander.

“Keep moving.”

Commander Aeron didn't even slow his horse.

I looked toward the eastern hills.

Smoke climbed above the trees in thick black columns.

“That isn't a cooking fire.”

“I know.”

Another scream carried over the fields.

I pulled my reins.

Aeron finally stopped.

Behind us, twenty-four soldiers did the same.

Cassian was riding beside me. He followed my stare toward the smoke.

“Village,” he said.

Aeron's jaw tightened.

“Our objective is Fort Vaelis.”

“There are people down there.”

“There are three thousand soldiers waiting at Vaelis. If the primordial reaches that fortress before we do, the northern road falls.”

Another roar rolled across the hills.

The horses panicked.

Mine nearly threw me.

Cassian caught the reins before I could lose control.

“That sounded close.”

“Which is why we move,” Aeron snapped. “Now.”

I looked down the hill.

Through the smoke, I could make out roofs.

One collapsed.

Then another.

Tiny figures ran between them.

I remember thinking how small they looked from where we were.

Small enough to ignore.

That thought scared me more than the roar.

“We can help them.”

Aeron turned his horse toward me.

“No, you can get them killed slower.”

I stared at him.

His voice softened.

“Zyrion, listen to me. This isn't training. You can't save everyone you see.”

I hated that sentence.

“Our orders?”

“Fort Vaelis.”

“And if we leave?”

“The village is likely lost.”

Likely.

Such a clean word.

The kind people use when they're far enough away from the screaming.

I looked at Cassian.

He already knew.

“Don't.”

I blinked. “Don't what?”

“Give me that look.”

“What look?”

“The one that says you've decided something stupid and want me to make it sound intelligent.”

Despite everything, I almost smiled.

“Can you?”

“No.”

“Worth asking.”

Aeron swore under his breath.

“Star-Chosen, that's an order.”

I hated that title.

Maybe especially then.

I pulled Epitaph from my back.

“Then I'll catch up.”

Aeron went pale.

“Zyrion.”

I kicked my horse forward.

Cassian shouted something behind me.

I couldn't hear it over the wind.

For about six seconds, I thought I'd made a brave decision.

Then the primordial came through the trees.

And I realised I was an idiot.

It was shaped vaguely like a wolf if whoever made wolves hated the world.

Six legs.

A body covered in black stone plates.

Antlers made of burning crystal.

Its mouth opened too far, glowing orange between rows of teeth.

It hit the first house like it wasn't there.

Stone exploded across the road.

I jumped from the horse before it could panic and slapped its side.

“Go!”

The animal didn't need convincing.

A woman stood frozen beside an overturned cart.

Two children were trapped beneath it.

The primordial turned.

So did I.

I ran.

My wings opened behind me, white feathers catching the heat as I crossed the road.

The beast lunged.

I reached the cart first.

Epitaph flashed.

One cut split the wooden axle.

I grabbed both children and threw myself sideways.

The primordial's claws hit where we'd been.

The road broke.

Not cracked.

Broke.

For one stupid second, I lay there thinking:

Seris is going to kill me.

We weren't even especially close yet.

She'd still kill me.

“Run!” I yelled.

The woman grabbed the children.

The primordial faced me.

I stood.

“Alright.”

It roared.

I raised Epitaph.

“I've had better first missions.”

It charged.

I dodged the first claw.

The second hit me.

Everything became sky.

Then a wall.

Then pain.

I hit the side of a house hard enough to forget my own name for a few seconds.

Somewhere nearby, people screamed.

The beast turned away from me.

“No.”

I tried standing.

My left leg disagreed.

The primordial moved toward a group sheltering inside a stone chapel.

I dug Epitaph into the road and dragged myself upright.

“Hey!”

Nothing.

I grabbed a broken roof tile and threw it.

It bounced off its armour.

The beast slowly looked back.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Very heroic.”

Then arrows hit its face.

Six at once.

The primordial recoiled.

Cassian landed beside me.

His wings folded.

“You're an idiot.”

I couldn't help smiling.

“You came.”

“Unfortunately.”

Behind him, soldiers poured into the village.

Aeron was last.

He looked furious enough to kill me himself.

“Commander?”

“Shut up.”

Another roar.

Aeron drew his sword.

“Vale!”

Cassian was already looking over the beast.

“Armour overlaps beneath the front shoulders. Crystal growths are feeding heat through the spine.”

“You sure?”

“No!”

“Wonderful.”

That was enough for me.

Cassian grabbed my shoulder.

“You can barely stand.”

“I only need one leg.”

“That isn't how fighting works.”

“It is today.”

The primordial charged again.

Aeron's soldiers scattered.

Cassian pointed toward a narrow lane between two stone buildings.

“There! Force it sideways!”

I understood immediately.

That was always the best part of fighting beside Cassian.

He saw the battlefield.

I saw what he meant.

We moved.

Soldiers struck from the right.

I opened my wings and threw myself left, dragging the beast's attention with me.

It followed.

Cassian shouted.

“Now!”

Aeron's mages collapsed the first building.

Stone crashed onto the primordial's rear legs.

It stumbled.

I ran.

Every step sent pain through my side.

Epitaph's sigils lit silver.

The weak point beneath its shoulder opened for less than a second.

I jumped.

The beast twisted.

Too fast.

A burning antler punched through my wing.

Pain went white.

I screamed.

But I was already close enough.

So I drove Epitaph in.

The blade sank beneath the armour.

The primordial thrashed.

I held on.

“Zyrion!” Cassian shouted.

One claw rose above me.

I pushed more magic into Epitaph.

Too much.

The silver sigils flared.

The beast's inner magic broke apart.

Then the claw came down.

Cassian hit me from the side.

We rolled through dirt as the primordial collapsed behind us.

Silence followed.

Real silence.

The kind that comes when everyone is waiting to find out if the nightmare is actually dead.

Cassian lay beside me.

“You alive?”

“I think so.”

“Disappointing.”

“You jumped on me.”

“You're welcome.”

I laughed.

It hurt.

So I stopped.

Aeron appeared above us.

He looked at the dead primordial.

Then the ruined street.

Then my bleeding wing.

I expected him to yell.

He didn't.

“Fort Vaelis.”

My stomach dropped.

“How late?”

“Forty minutes.”

I forced myself upright.

“We can still—”

A scout landed near us.

“Commander! Signal from Vaelis!”

Aeron turned.

The scout caught his breath.

“The primordial assault broke against the western barrier. Fortress still stands. They didn't need reinforcement.”

Nobody spoke.

I looked around.

Villagers were slowly coming out of their homes.

The woman from the cart held both children against her.

One of them waved at me.

Aeron saw it.

His expression didn't soften.

Later, once the wounded were treated and the village fires were under control, he found me sitting beside a well while Cassian wrapped my wing.

“You disobeyed a direct order.”

“I know.”

“You risked the campaign.”

“I know.”

“You could've died.”

Cassian pulled the bandage tighter.

I winced.

“Also aware of that.”

Aeron crossed his arms.

“All for people you didn't know.”

I looked past him.

The villagers were sharing water.

A soldier was carrying an old man from a damaged house.

The two children I'd pulled from the cart were arguing over who got to keep one of my fallen feathers.

Aeron followed my gaze.

“Why?”

I didn't have some grand answer.

No prophecy whispered to me.

No ancient law told me what a hero should say.

I just remembered standing on that hill.

Seeing smoke.

Knowing we could reach them.

So I shrugged.

“Because I could reach them.”

Aeron stared at me for a long moment.

Then he sighed.

“Gods help whoever commands you next.”

Cassian laughed.

Years later, people would repeat those five words like they were sacred.

Because I could reach them.

The first story of the wandering Star-Chosen.

The hero who never passed someone in need.

People loved that story.

I did too.

Back then.

What the songs never mention is what came after.

Once you decide that being able to reach someone means you're responsible for saving them, it's hard to stop.

One village becomes ten.

Ten become a kingdom.

Then everyone starts calling for you.

And eventually, you start believing every life you fail to save is yours to carry.

That was the first day the world learned I would turn around for strangers.

Seven days before my world ended, I still hadn't learned the other half of that lesson.

Sometimes, when you keep running into the fire for everyone else...

you don't notice your own home has started to burn.