Chapter 262: What the Fire Leaves

Ren carried the embers up to the Worldroot once he had finished checking the four companions.

He sat among the roots above the northern beach and laid the six coals on the grass. Cold water held each one clear of the ground, though none had stopped burning. The red Emberfire sat beside the four dull orange embers from the raid, with the golden-white Dawnfire at the end.

Ren checked their markings as he arranged them. The red one had attacked him when he first entered the Burning Sea. The four Devourfire had been attacking the settlement, and the Dawnfire had held the Cinders captive.

Anything stored at the Tide Hearth was a different matter. Its people might keep embers from their own dead, and the great blue Hearthfire was clearly important to them. Helping defend the settlement did not give him permission to take either. If they had material he could use, he would have to ask what they were willing to trade.

"This one first, Ren," Kaia said.

He picked up the red ember.

"All right."

— • —

Ren settled the coal against an exposed root and began the graft.

Death opened the site in a thin grey cut. Life followed, binding the ember into the living wood as the bark closed over his fingers. He withdrew his hand and kept it against the root while the last red glow disappeared beneath the surface.

Warmth spread through the wood into his palm.

[GRAFT: EMBERFIRE.]

[FIRE: NO NEW COMPREHENSION.]

Ren waited until the sensation settled, then examined what the graft had brought him.

The Fire principles were familiar. He could follow them without finding anything deeper than what he already understood, and there was no unfamiliar relationship for him to work through. That explained the unchanged comprehension.

The ember itself had still been absorbed. Its material and energy were part of the Worldroot now; he could feel the warmth travelling farther along the roots even after the panel faded.

He reached for the first orange coal, then stopped with his hand above it.

"These fed on other Heartflames," he said. "Will grafting them make me want to do that?"

[COMPULSIVE HUNGER: NO TRANSFER DETECTED.]

Ren read the answer carefully before bringing the ember to the root.

The grey cut opened again, and green spread around the coal. This time the warmth came with a pulling sensation. He held his hand steady while the root accepted it, following the unfamiliar connection until it settled.

He processed the remaining three in the same way, one at a time. After each graft he waited for the join to finish before taking up the next ember. Their patterns overlapped, but there were differences he could distinguish as each source became part of the tree.

[GRAFT: DEVOURFIRE. FOUR SOURCES.]

[DEVOURING: HEARTFLAME TRAIT.]

[SEPARATE LAW PRINCIPLE: NOT DETECTED.]

[FIRE: NEW RELATIONSHIP INTEGRATED.]

Ren leaned back against the trunk and worked through the sensation again.

He could trace how their fire drew on another flame to sustain itself. It was a relationship he had seen the effects of at the Tide Hearth, where the injured guard was still missing part of its Heartflame. The graft let him understand more of what had happened.

It did not give him the Devourfire’s entire way of feeding. He had no Heartflame of his own, and the new understanding had arrived without any urge to seek one out and eat it.

The System had found a trait and something new within Fire, but no separate Law principle in these four sources. Ren followed the unfamiliar pattern once more before letting the sensation settle.

The last orange glow vanished into the bark. Ren checked the join, then turned to the Dawnfire ember.

— • —

The golden-white coal lit the underside of his hand as he lifted it.

He could still remember the Dawnfire’s chest brightening. He had raised his arms against the first strike, and Gravebloom had burned away before he could bring his water into place. The second had gone through him.

Ren pressed the ember to the root.

The graft took longer this time. He kept his palm against the bark while grey and green worked around the bright coal, and followed the two distinct Laws entering the Worldroot.

Light came first. He recognized the structure that had held the ring around the Cinders and the shaped body standing beside their rock. Both used the same Law, but in different arrangements. He lingered over the barrier, remembering where his water had broken it and how the remaining section had stayed in place.

Then he reached the relationship between the Dawnfire’s Fire and Light.

Its first attack had been a sheet of flame he could meet with water. The later strikes had delivered their burning force through light, leaving him too little time to respond. He had recognized the change during the fight without understanding how it worked.

Now he could follow that connection through the ember. The deeper Fire principles gave him more to learn than the ordinary red coal had, while its Light was well beyond his shallow grasp of that Law.

Understanding the structure did not mean he could reproduce the attack immediately. He would have to learn how to use what the graft had given him. At least he could now identify what had killed him and what his defense had failed to stop.

A faint hum drew his attention from the root.

The relic rack was responding again.

Ren finished the graft before taking it out of storage. The five sealed pieces rested in their frame, vibrating against his palm. He remembered the same sound from the night the northern arch had opened, though it was stronger now.

He turned the frame over and checked each piece. None had opened, and he could find no change in their surfaces. Holding the rack nearer the root made no obvious difference.

[RELIC ANALYSIS: IN PROGRESS.]

He waited, but nothing further appeared. Whatever had caused the response, the pieces were still sealed.

Ren put them away and checked the completed graft.

[GRAFT: DAWNFIRE.]

[LIGHT: NEW COMPREHENSION INTEGRATED.]

[FIRE: NEW RELATIONSHIP INTEGRATED.]

The updated figures followed.

[FIRE: 5.70%.]

[LIGHT: 1.80%.]

[TIME: 0.23%.]

Ren studied the first two entries, then let the panel close. The gains were permanent, and he had a better understanding of both kinds of fire that had threatened the Tide Hearth.

Time still needed a source.

— • —

At the foot of the hill, a narrow strip of fresh ground extended toward the sand. Ren glanced along it as he walked down to the companions waiting in the shallows.

Ward had Keep on its back. Snap rested beside them, and Hearth had settled farther along the beach. The others were still protecting the Tide Hearth; Spear had stayed with his people.

Ren stopped beside Ward.

"Same fallback," he said. "If I go down, you take charge. If the link fails while you’re in trouble, start pulling back. Don’t wait for me to tell you."

He rested his hand against the whale’s brow.

"Once everyone’s safe at Tide, bring Keep home straight away. I need to know who’s hurt and where you’ve left them. Get that to me first."

Agreement reached him through Sporelink, clear now that they were all in his world.

"A late message doesn’t mean the link’s gone. It was slow before the fight too. Keep, let Ward know if you lose me."

He waited for the acknowledgment before stepping back. The withdrawal had worked, but the first thing he had needed afterward was an account of the others. Next time they would know to send it as soon as they returned.

He would stay home until his revival allowance reset. He was alive, but there was no second chance left for another dangerous encounter before then.

— • —

Ren returned to the Worldroot and sat beside the closed graft sites.

The ordinary Emberfire had carried Fire alone. The others had shown him different combinations, and the Dawnfire had just improved two Laws through a single source. That did not guarantee the combination he needed existed, but it gave him something specific to ask about.

"Can a Heartflame carry Time?"

[TIME-BEARING SOURCE IN INVENTORY: NONE.]

[LINEAGE DATA: INCOMPLETE.]

Ren looked over the answer. Nothing he had brought home contained it, and the System did not have enough information to tell him which other lineages lived in the Burning Sea.

Spear might know. If it did not, there was the elder, and a settlement full of people who knew far more about Heartflames than he did.

He looked toward the northern arch.

Then he’d have to ask them.