Gift of Countless Souls

"You will learn everything you want to know."

Shade was still lying prone, so he barely managed to brace himself with his left hand while raising his right toward the flame. But the sharp pain in his arm made the motion fail.

Sister Devlin held the flame in one hand and tried to help Shade up, but he refused.

He struggled to shift his posture, intending to stabilize himself by kneeling on one knee. But then he noticed that the nun before him was also kneeling on one knee.

"Sister Devlin, stand up."

After the nun rose, he laboriously lowered himself onto one knee. Sister Devlin understood his intention and carefully extended the flame she held before her.

The intense pain had left Shade unable to lift his head. He could only raise his palm by instinct.

The bonfire illuminated their profiles. Shade wanted only to use this flame to fill the emptiness in his soul, while Sister Devlin looked unusually solemn, though her voice remained gentle. Using ancient grammar, she asked softly in Delarion Language:

"Shade Suellen Hamilton, are you willing to bear the power and will of the First Fire, assist me in gathering flames, and kindle the firewood? This is the covenant between the nun who guards the flame and the Fire-Bearing Hero."

Accept her.

It was exceedingly rare for "her" to give Shade the answer before he made his choice.

"Yes, I am willing."

Shade spoke softly. Beside the bonfire, beside the road where countless souls departed, beneath that boundless starry river, his palm came to rest atop Sister Devlin's.

Their shadows swayed violently across the cliff as the flame swept along Shade's arm and engulfed his entire body, as though it meant to set him completely ablaze. Yet the fire did not harm Shade, because