Chapter 4
Chapter 4: The Weight of Smoke
Harold's flame training advances to 180-second sustained burns, but Eldrin warns the pulses from his reignited soul are growing stronger and detectable. Eldrin teaches Harold a concealment technique called veiling to hide his magical signature. Meanwhile, Lady Anya gains restricted section access and discovers references to an ancient 'Flamebearer' prophesied to return, while Lord Valerius receives word that the academy is sending investigators to examine anomalous readings near the cliff where Harold disappeared. The chapter ends with Harold successfully veiling his flame for the first time, but Eldrin revealing that whatever opened its eye at the end of Chapter 3 has now begun to move.
Harold woke up—or returned to consciousness, which wasn't the same thing in a place without clocks—to find Master Eldrin standing three feet away and staring at him with the particular intensity of someone who'd been waiting for a while and wanted him to know it.
'You sleep like the dead,' Eldrin observed. 'Appropriate, under the circumstances.'
Harold sat up on the stone floor. His back complained. His shoulders complained. The coal in his chest did not complain; it pulsed, steady and warm, as if it had been keeping time all night with an orchestra Harold couldn't hear.
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