As the spring snow began to melt, several children played among the broken walls in the ruins outside Ash Kiln Village. A boy named Xiaoman crouched at the collapsed site of the old Fire Shrine and picked something out of the scorched earth—a palm-sized pottery shard with blackened edges. An ancient flame pattern was carved into its front, while dark red writing marked its back, like congealed blood or brands burned by fire:
The writing was faded and mottled, yet it held a searing obsession. When Xiaoman touched it, a faint light rose from his palm, as though the words were breathing.
He did not understand what year "Year Three of the Heavenly Revelation" meant, nor did he know where the Fire Prison Academy stood, but he knew—this fire letter was a plea for help.
He brought the pottery shard to the Hall of World Records at Greenstone Cliff. At the sight of it, Nian Sheng's Heart Flame shuddered violently. The Flame Blade fragment rang out without a breath of wind, hovering in the air and pointing into the depths of the Northern Desert.
"This is no ordinary relic," Nian Sheng murmured. "This is sealing fire with one's life, sending a message through fire—a hundred years ago, as Flame Prison burned to destruction, someone sealed their last consciousness into this fire letter and buried it in the ruins, waiting only for someone who could understand the language of fire."
"They... have been waiting for us all this time."
He immediately gathered the Fire-Speakers and set out north with the fire letter, the Flame Blade, and the fragments of the Fire-Speech Bell.
Along the way, the fire letter resonated without cease. Whenever they passed an ancient trace of fire, new words appeared on the pottery shard, like memories awakening:
Nian Sheng's