"Promise me," Lydia said, so softly the words nearly disappeared. "You have toe back."


    Jared didn''t turn around.


    "I promise."


    Then he walked out.


    Lydia sat on the bed and watched his back vanish through the doorway.


    Only after he was gone did the tears finally spill over.


    ric came over and pulled his daughter into a gentle embrace.


    "He''lle back," he said under his breath. "He''s not like other people."


    Lydia leaned against her father and said nothing.


    But one thought kept turning over in her mind. Of course he wasn''t like other people.


    If he were, why would he run back into the Pyre Chasm just to throw his life away?


    Jared reached the Pyre Chasm.


    He stopped at the edge and looked down.


    The me surged at the bottom of the pit.


    Its red glow washed across his face and stretched his shadow long, longer, until it trailed far behind him.


    The heavenfire beasts moved through the me below.


    The instant they saw him return, they all stopped and turned their heads in perfect unison.


    Hundreds of eyes fixed on him at the same time.


    There was no hostility in them. No sign of attack. They only watched in silence.


    As if they were confirming something.


    As if they were waiting for something.


    Jared drew in a deep breath and jumped.


    This time, not a single heavenfire beast attacked him.


    They parted on their own, opening a path for him like subjects stepping aside for their king.


    Jared dropped through the me, through the waves of heat, throughyer afteryer of heavenfire beasts, descending toward the deepest part of the pit.


    The deeper Jared fell, the thicker the fire became.


    The heat kept climbing with it.


    The red glow shifted into orange-yellow.


    The orange-yellow turned gold-white.


    The gold-white bled into a dim blue, and that blue thinned out until it was almost transparent white.


    Chaotic force moved across the surface of Jared''s body.


    Ayer of violet radiance sealed the heavenfire outside him.


    Even with that barrier around him, the heat still pressed through.


    It was the kind of temperature that could set even a soul aze.


    He fell for a long time.


    The Pyre Chasm was far deeper than he''d imagined.


    It stretched a thousand miles across, and its depth vanished out of sight.


    He was like a small stone dropping into the deep sea, swallowed by endless fire on


    every side as he kept falling toward an unknown abyss.


    Atst, he saw the bottom of the chasm.


    A broad, level floor of stoney there.


    After tens of thousands of years under heavenfire, the rock had turned into a strange sslike substance.


    Ancient patterns covered the stone.


    They hadn''t been carved by any hand. The power of the heavenfire itself had burned them there over time.


    And at the exact center of that rock floor, there was a me.


    It wasn''trge.


    It was only about the size of a fist.


    Its color was a pure white, so white it was nearly transparent.


    It burned there inplete silence.


    Not fast. Not slow. Not wild. Not weak.


    It looked like the first thread of light at the beginning of heaven and earth.


    Jarednded on the rock and walked toward the me.


    With every step he took, the primal fire-essence inside him gave a harder tremor.


    With every step he took, the me grew a little brighter.


    By the time he reached it, it was shining like a tiny sun.


    Jared crouched down and held out his right hand.


    The instant his fingers touched the me, the whole world changed.


    Jared found himself standing on a crimson in.


    The sky overhead burned in a deep orange-red, and the ground below churned with rolling molten fire. Sulfur and smoke and the raw scent of burning heat hung thick in the air.


    But there was nothing crushing about this ce. No shadow of ruin. No sense of anything ending. What filled it instead was an ancient warmth, pure and primal, vigorous with life.


    A group stood out on the in.


    No.


    Not people.


    Fire spirits.


    Their bodies were gathered out of


    the me itself. Their features


    blurred and shifted,


    rfully


    but the shape of a human figure still showed through.


    Some of them were running.


    Some were ying.


    Others were practicing how to guide and shape the me.


    And in the middle of them all stood an old man.


    His body too had been formed from me, but his fire was tighter than


    the others denser, purer, refined


    down to something cleaner and deeper


    Unlike the others, his face could be seen clearly. It was old. His eyes ran deep. His


    beard was streaked white.


    He stood there like an ancient tree that had burned for ages beyond counting, weathered and unyielding.


    "Watch closely, children," the old man said, his voice carrying the crackle of me, warm and firm.


    He raised his right hand, palm up.


    A me


    was appeared above it. At first it


    was only a tiny flicker. Then it slowly grew, widening and unfolding until it became a blooming lotus.


    Layer byyer, the lotus opened its petals. Each one burned in a different color-


    red, orange-yellow, gold-white, deep blue.


    The fire spirits let out little cries of wonder.


    "It''s so pretty!"


    "Grandpa, teach us!"


    The old man smiled. "All right, all right. I''ll teach all of you."


    He drew the me-lotus back in and began teaching the fire spirits.


    He started from the most basic control of the me, teaching them a little at a time


    and demonstrating it again and again.


    The fire spirits learned withplete focus. They were clumsy, but every one of


    them kept at it with everything they had.


    Jared stood off to the side, watching the scene y out, and something strange stirred through him.


    This world. This ce. These people...


    It all looked like something he had seen before.


    And yet Jared had clearly never been here before.


    Then time began to speed up.


    The fire spirits grew up.


    Their mes grew denser.


    Their control grew steadier too.


    Some learned to shape arms out of me.


    Some learned to use me to heal wounds.


    Some learned to use me to sense the aura of everything around them.


    Among them, one child stood above the rest.


    From the time he was small, he could control more me than the other children.


    He learned faster than any of them too.


    What the old man taught once, the other children had to practice ten times.


    He only needed three.


    He grew fast.


    He went from a tiny fire spirit still stumbling through his first steps to a bright, high-


    spirited youth.


    His me was crimson.


    Hotter than the other fire spirits''.


    Wilder too.


    But that still wasn''t enough for him.


    "Grandpa, is there a stronger me?" he asked.


    The old man looked at him and stayed silent for a long time.


    "There is," the old man said. "But it isn''t time for you to learn it yet."


    "Then when can I learn it?"


    "When you understand what me is."


    The youth didn''t understand.


    As far as he could see, he already knew me well enough.


    He could control it, condense it, release it.


    What else was there to understand?


    So he began to figure it out on his own.


    He left the in behind and walked into the Wastnds.


    The mes in the Wastnds were wilder than anything on the in.


    Theyshed harder, ran hotter, and carried more danger in them. He didn''t care.


    He devoured the mes scattered across the Wastnds.


    He dragged them into himself and fused them into his body.


    His me shifted.


    From crimson, it turned orange-yellow. From orange-yellow, it turned gold-white.


    He grew stronger.


    But it still wasn''t enough for him.


    He returned to the in and went to find Grandpa.