Chapter 1 The Body That Breathed

The city never slept.

It only flickered.

From the high windows of the Aurevia City Morgue, the skyline pulsed in fractured neon blue veins running through black towers, a pulse that matched the quiet hum of the refrigeration units below. Rain hissed against the glass. Somewhere far above, a mag-train screamed past, trailing light like a comet.

Seren Ardent didn’t look up.

She hadn’t looked up in months.

Her gloves snapped against her wrists as she bent over the examination table. The smell of antiseptic couldn’t hide the faint trace of burned flesh that clung to the room like a ghost. The body on the slab was charred beyond recognition another victim from the chemical plant explosion on the east end. Another casualty the city would mark as “industrial error.”

Seren knew better.

Explosions didn’t whisper names.

She pressed her fingers to the scanner, logging the hour: 2:17 a.m. Her reflection flickered across the steel storm-grey eyes ringed with exhaustion, a single braid of dark hair falling against her cheek. She was twenty-three, too young to feel this old. Too tired to care that the morgue’s lights kept dimming in time with her heartbeat.

“Rowan,” she murmured softly, glancing at the clock. “You’d tell me I need sleep.”

Her twin brother’s photo sat on the counter a smiling face, eyes just like hers. It was two years old, taken before the explosion that had left him comatose. Before everything quieted inside her.

She forced herself back to work. The body’s ribs were exposed where fire had eaten through cloth and skin. She guided the scalpel carefully, tracing the incision line.

Then the corpse twitched.

Seren froze.

Her first instinct was rational rigor relaxation, residual muscle discharge, postmortem reflex. She’d seen it before. But the second twitch wasn’t random. The body’s hand curled inward, nails scraping against the metal tray.

A low, crackling sound filled the air.

And then

“Seren.”

The voice was raw, like heat made audible.

Her scalpel clattered to the floor. She stumbled back, pulse hammering in her ears. The lights flickered once, twice and then everything flared gold. Veins of light rippled beneath her skin, crawling up her arms like molten glass. The corpse’s eyes snapped open, hollow sockets glowing faintly amber.

“Seren Ardent,” it rasped. “The heart…forged…awaits.”

Her scream died in her throat. The body convulsed once, then went still.

The light beneath her skin faded, leaving only the echo of warmth. Her breath came in ragged bursts. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. Maybe she’d fallen asleep at the table, maybe the exhaustion had finally fractured her mind.

Then the security alarm blared.

Three red dots danced across the wall. Laser sights.

She ducked instinctively as the morgue door slammed open. Figures in ember-marked robes swept inside five of them, their faces obscured by soot-black masks etched with glowing runes. One raised a palm and a wave of heat shimmered through the air.

“Seize the vessel,” the leader commanded.

Seren bolted. Scalpel forgotten, she snatched the first thing within reach a tray of instruments and flung it at the lights. Sparks burst as a bulb shattered, plunging the room into shadow. The intruders shouted, fumbling for visibility. She slammed her fist against the backup panel.

Nothing. The power was dead.

Her body moved before thought caught up. She crashed through the back exit, boots slipping on wet tile, heart punching against her ribs. The sound of pursuit echoed behind her footsteps, the hiss of igniting magic.

A burst of orange fire streaked past her shoulder, scorching the wall. The heat grazed her cheek, searing the air. She stumbled into the autopsy hall, grabbed a metal tray as another blast came metal met flame and the world exploded in light.

But it wasn’t the intruder’s fire.

It was hers.

Flames burst from her palms, wild and golden, coiling through the air like living things. The heat was alive, pulsing with purpose. Her body felt both weightless and anchored to something vast a heartbeat not her own thundering through her veins. The attackers stopped short, shielding their faces.

“What is she?” one gasped.

The leader stared. “The bloodline awakens.”

The lights blew out completely.

When they flickered back, the intruders were gone only scorch marks remained, smoldering across the tile in strange, circular patterns. Seren stood in the center of the room, trembling, her gloves burned away to reveal skin faintly glowing beneath the soot.

Then came the sound of distant sirens.

She ran.

By dawn, the morgue was sealed off. Police drones circled overhead. Seren watched from the shadows of a half-collapsed alley, shivering inside her soot-stained jacket. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking not from fear, but from the memory of heat.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that corpse’s face. Heard it say her name.

She needed answers.

She thought of one person who might know something Elder Nyros. Her mother’s journals had mentioned him, a hermit who “studied the Veins beneath Aurevia.” At the time, Seren had assumed it meant some old folklore about magic currents under the city. Now… she wasn’t so sure.

She hailed a hover tram, paid in cash, and kept her head down.

The tram hissed through the city’s veins past light markets, under bridges where graffiti glowed with residual ley energy. Aurevia was built on contradictions: progress over ruins, neon over ashes. Nobody looked at anyone for too long.

Nyros lived at the edge of the city, where towers gave way to abandoned ironworks and fractured concrete. Seren followed the cracked path toward a rusted gate covered in charms and paper wards. Each one shimmered faintly as she passed.

The door opened before she could knock.

An old man stood framed in the light of a hundred candles. His eyes were clouded white, but he turned toward her with uncanny precision. His coat shimmered like it was woven from scales, catching and reflecting each flame.

“I’ve been expecting you, child of fire,” he said softly.

Seren froze. “You know my name?”

“I know your blood.” His voice carried the weight of centuries. “The Covenant has awakened, and so must you.”

She hesitated, fists clenched. “Who are they? Those people who attacked me they called me a vessel.”

Nyros motioned for her to follow. “The Ember Covenant worships destruction. They seek the rebirth of the Crimson Wyrm an ancient dragon that devoured worlds before the first cities rose. And you, Seren Ardent, are the spark they need to light the pyre.”

She stared at him. “That’s insane.”

He smiled faintly. “So is the truth, most days.”

He guided her through a labyrinth of corridors lined with relics bones shaped like crystals, molten orbs humming with faint energy, scrolls that whispered when touched.

“Your lineage runs deep,” he continued. “Once, dragons walked this world not as beasts but as conduits of creation. When the Wyrm fell, its heart shattered into countless fragments. Your family carries one of those fragments still.”

Seren shook her head. “I’m not whatever you think I am. I’m human.”

Nyros tilted his head. “Then explain the fire that obeys you.”

She opened her mouth but found no words.

He stopped before a basin filled with molten gold. “Touch the forge,” he said. “And remember.”

The liquid shimmered, its surface reflecting not her face, but a vast sky streaked with flame. A dragon’s silhouette roared across it majestic, endless, eyes like burning suns.

When she reached out, pain lanced through her veins then vision.

She stood in a wasteland of glass, surrounded by fire. A voice echoed through her skull, low and ancient.

Hearts are not born. They are forged.

Seren gasped and staggered back. The vision shattered. She was on her knees, breathing hard. Nyros watched quietly.

“The mark on your collarbone,” he said. “It is no scar. It is your Gate. The first of seven. You can open it or let them open it for you.”

She clutched at her chest, feeling the faint warmth beneath her skin. “And my brother? Rowan—he’s all I care about. They said his coma was caused by that explosion. Was that them?”

Nyros’s expression softened. “Yes. The Covenant tried to forge the Heart two years ago. The blast awakened your blood but consumed his. He lives only because his soul clings to yours.”

The words struck like blows. “Then tell me how to save him.”

The old man’s eyes gleamed faintly. “To save him, you must master your flame before it devours you. That means learning the art of Vein Cultivation the ancient craft of aligning your soul’s fire with the world’s.”

Seren hesitated. “And if I refuse?”

“Then the Covenant will find you,” he said simply, “and forge your heart for themselves.”

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Rain began to fall, sizzling into steam as it hit the wards.

Seren turned toward the door, pulse quickening. The city beyond burned faintly in the horizon’s reflection. Somewhere out there, her brother lay silent beneath cold machines. Somewhere, the people who did this were waiting.

She looked back at Nyros. “Then teach me.”

For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he nodded, almost sadly. “So it begins.”

He dipped his hands into the molten basin. Flames curled around his wrists like living threads, weaving patterns in the air. The forge roared to life, golden light spilling across the walls.

“Your first lesson,” he said, voice like distant thunder. “A flame remembers its source. Do you?”

Seren stepped forward, fire already stirring beneath her skin. The mark on her collarbone glowed faintly, beating like a second heart.

She met his gaze and whispered,

“I will.”