She could still hear her mother's voice echoing faintly, "When fire chooses you, you don't get to extinguish it. You become its vessel. You have to retain it."
Allison clenched the fragment to her chest.
Beatrice limped toward her, her coat torn and blood staining her left sleeve.
"You okay?" she asked gently wincing in pain.
Her gaze remained on the dark horizon."I'm supposed to ask you Bea"
"She won't stop," Beatrice continued. "She's tasted power now and you gave her more reason to come back."
Allison turned sharply. "I didn't give it. I was used."
"I know."
They were quiet for a while, the wind brushing past them like the memory of a battle not yet over or won.
Beatrice sat beside her. "Lucian was in devastating state when you left. You left without telling anyone."
Allison looked down at her hands. "He left me first. Just didn't realize it until now."
EARLY MORNING
Lucian hadn't slept properly.
He stood before a marble sink in his bathroom, water dripping down his arms. He looked into the mirror. His reflection stared back with silver eyes and a guilt.
Alexa entered without knocking.
"She lit up the old station, I've taken care of the mess" Alexa said, her voice hushed. "Her pendant broke, released something old, her powers felt stronger this time".
Lucian finally turned. "Did she say anything?"
Alexa hesitated. "Just one thing. 'He doesn't trust me'.'"
He closed his eyes, he didn't know how he could fix this damage.
IN A SHADOWED COURTYARD
Li Anya knelt before a basin of black water.
The silver-eyed man stood a few feet behind her. "You look pale."
"I'm feel strange inside," she whispered. "That blood… it's changing something in me."
"And yet you're smiling."
She looked up, her irises were no longer blue. They had become iridescent like oil spilled across ice.
"She unlocked something– a memory. I felt it when the fire broke out . Her blood… carries not just power. It carries remembrance."
He tilted his head. "Hmmm" He was aware but decided not to say anything.
THE NEXT DAY
Allison stood in the office again. Everything felt smaller and colder.
Her desk hadn't changed. Aaron Li stood near the window, a file in hand. When he saw her, he smiled. "You came back."
"Hmmm," she said quietly, walking past him.
"Lucian is in a meeting," he said. "I'm glad you're here."
She didn't respond.
She wasn't really concentrated.
At the conference room, Lucian ended the meeting quickly, dismissing the board members with barely a nod. The moment the door shut, he leaned against the wall, fingers pressed to his forehead.
"She is here," Alexa's voice came from behind him.
He turned.
"She came to work?"
"Yes, she did ."
He stood still for a moment, before remembering something he had in mind a long time, "Tell Aaron to stay away from her."
Alexa raised an eyebrow. "Why? You're the one who pushed her away."
"She's not his," he said sharply, eyes narrowed.
Alexa smiled. "Then go remind her whose she is. If it's not already too late."
Allison stood before the vending machine during lunchtime when Lucian entered. He didn't speak immediately he walked up to her.
She didn't look at him.
He offered a small, wrapped bun. Her favorite.
She looked down at it.
"I don't want anything from you," she said calmly but her heart was beating fast. He was still the devilishly handsome man she knew.
"Then don't eat it. Just… talk to me."
"I did."
Lucian jaw tensed. " I— Allison, I didn't tell you about Anya because I was afraid. Afraid I'll upset you. I didn't know she had something up her sleeve."
"You lost me the moment you chose to protect her over telling me the truth."
He stepped forward, voice low. "I didn't choose her."
"But you lied to me."
There was silence.
"Do you know what it feels like?" she whispered, "to give your blood for someone who once tried to kill you… and then find out the person you trusted handed you over without telling you who you were saving?"
He reached out slowly this time.
Her hand trembled. But she didn't take his.
"I can't forgive you yet."
"I'm not asking for forgiveness immediately" he said. "I'm asking for time."
*******************
Allison lay in bed that night, eyes opened. The moonlight cladding her silhouette
Then a flicker of flame appeared before her.
A memory.
"You will love someone who wasn't yours entirely, Allison . But you must decide, love that endures, or power that burn. I will tell you as a mother to choose the path you know it's right. "
Tears slipped down her cheek. She didn't know what to choose anymore but one thing was certain, Li Anya would come again.
*******************
Li Anya leaned heavily against the stone wall of a ruined buily. Her breath came in sharp, short pulls, her shirt soaked with cold sweat.
She clutched her wrist, the spot where Allison's blood had been injected now glowing with faint blue hues. But the glow wasn't clean. It flickered, like flame struggling against damp wood and wind.
She hissed as pain shot through her spine, her knees giving out. The parasites inside her moved again, not just a tremor this time but a ripple under her skin, like creatures shifting in search of a way out.
The silver-eyed man stepped from the darkness.
"You're losing control."
"I'm adjusting," she snapped, but her voice cracked and her eyes were teary.
"You look like hell."
She turned slowly, forcing herself upright. " I won't give it up."
The man didn't move. But his eyes shifted, as if searching deeper. "It's eating you alive."
Li Anya smirked bitterly. "And yet I'm still standing."
But even as she said the words, blood trickled from her nose. Dark and thicker than it should have been.
She wiped it away with a trembling hand.
"If you don't get another drop," he said calmly, "you'll be dead in a week."
"Then I'll take it from her again."
"She won't be so generous this time. And Lucian wouldn't mind."
Li Anya's smile faltered. For the first time in a long time true fear glinted in her eyes.
LU VILLA
Allison hadn't slept soundly that night, it has been so this past few weeks. She sat on the veranda, dressed in a pale blue gown, hair undone, legs folded as sunlight broke through the trees. A cup of untouched tea sat before her.
Her pendant now sat in a velvet box. The flame core pulsed gently, whispering fragments of memory only she could hear. She touched it and heard her mother's voice,
"The fire knows betrayal and it never forgets."
Alexa appeared, barefoot, holding a steaming cup of something stronger.
"You look like you've been through five heartbreaks and the end of the world," she said gently as she chuckled.
Allison smiled weakly. "Close enough."
Alexa sat beside her. "You didn't sleep."
"I kept seeing her face. Not Anya's. My mother's. When I burned those chains…" she paused. "It was like she was inside me."
"She probably was," Alexa said softly. "The First Flame isn't just a weapon. It's a memory that chooses flesh. It's part of you."
Allison turned to her. "Is she really dead?"
Alexa didn't answer immediately.
"Dead in body but not in blood. And maybe not in soul."
Back at the Lu Corporation, Lu Quing sat behind his desk, staring at a sealed envelope.
It had arrived on his window sill carried not by messenger or mail, but by wind. The seal bore a mark only he recognized, a crescent blade wrapped in a serpent of starlight.
His mother's mark.
He didn't open it because he already knew what it meant.
A knock came at the door.
"Come in," he said.
"Sir, about Allison ." Aaron Li bowed as he came in.
Lucian looked up sharply. "What about her?"
"She seems… distant and distracted. If I may say, she shouldn't be working right now."
Lucian jaw clenched.
Aaron continued. "I know I'm just an associate, but—"
"You're not just anything," Lucian cut in. "You're a shadow assigned by the board to watch me. And now, you're watching her."
Aaron didn't deny it.
"I'm watching her because someone has to," he said quietly.
Lucian rose slowly, towering. "Step carefully, Aaron. You're playing with fire." He said as his eyes darkened. Aaron felt his terror but tried his best to hide his nervousness.
****************
Li Anya stood over a black basin again at an abandoned greenhouse at night. It reflected Allison with flame wings. With flame wrapped around her like clothing. With eyes glowing like molten gold.
The vision shimmered. And the parasite in her arm surged. Her veins blackened momentarily, forcing her to her knees.
"Ahrghhhh " she screamed.
Many tiny creatures moved beneath her skin, long shaped-like silhouettes tracing her arms.
The silver-eyed man appeared but didn't move to help.
"She's outgrowing you," he said. "And the parasite is catching up."
"I need more of her blood," Li Anya gasped, "or I will die."
"She's not a fountain."
"Then I'll cut her open and make her one."
The silver-eyed man stepped forward at last. "If you try that, you'll awaken the Gate. And you know what lies beyond it. Can you control what is within." He sneered but if you look closer, he arose her competitive nature.
Li Anya's lips curled, though her eyes were rimmed with tears.
"Then let it open."
---
Allison stared at her phone, looking at the message Lucian sent to her. He'd gone to a meeting.
" Stay safe, Ally". That was all it said.
Her grip on the phone tightened.
"You left once to protect me for mother's sake. Are you doing it again to abandon me?" She thought.
Outside her window, the moon rose, red-tinted.
The same color her mother once called 'Blood Moon of Vengeance.' in her dream.
The pendant core pulsed in its velvet box.
And Allison whispered, "I'm not waiting behind anymore."