You run toward the flames.

The merchant district is an inferno. Buildings you’ve walked past your whole life are engulfed, their wooden frames feeding the fire’s hunger. Smoke chokes the streets. The heat is a physical wall, pushing back anyone who gets too close.

Kira, the young guard, appears beside you as you push into the chaos.

“You came,” she says, surprised. “Most of the gem-born ran the other way.”

“People need help.”

She looks at you—really looks—and nods. “Then stay close. The fire started in the old warehouse district. We’re trying to clear the streets before the flames spread to the residential blocks.”

You work together. Pulling people from doorways. Carrying children who’ve been separated from parents. Directing the confused toward safety. The smoke burns your eyes, your lungs. Your ceremonial robes are ruined within minutes.

But there are others helping too. Citizens forming bucket chains. Shopkeepers dragging inventory into the street to keep it from burning. Ordinary people becoming heroes because the situation demands it.

“Over here!” Kira shouts.

You follow her into an alley, where a collapsed beam has trapped an old merchant beneath its weight. Together, you lift it just enough for the man to crawl free.

“Thank you,” he gasps. “Thank you. The—the things that started this. I saw them.”

“Things?” Kira asks sharply. “What things?”

“Not people. Not animals.” The man’s eyes are wide with terror. “Shadows. Shadows that moved on their own. They walked through walls like the walls weren’t there. And they carried fire. Fire that burned cold.”

He’s shaking. Babbling. But his words ring true.

Cold fire. Shadows that move independently.

This was no accident.

As if summoned by your thoughts, you hear something at the end of the alley. A sound like silk tearing. A sensation of wrongness.

A shadow detaches from the wall. It has no face. No features. But it has presence—a void in the shape of a man, radiating malice.

It turns toward you.

“Run!” Kira draws her sword, putting herself between you and the creature.

But you don’t run.

The gem’s light, still flickering in the distance, pulses inside you. The oath you spoke burns in your heart.

I swear to stand between the innocent and the darkness.

You step forward.