Summer solstice, year six of the Firefolk Era, the ninth day after the Everlasting Light Festival.
Across the Nine Provinces, the Starfire River flowed without cease, while a new river quietly took shape.
It lay neither in the heavens nor along the veins of the earth. It flowed through the mortal world—beside stoves, along field ridges, at the sterns of fishing boats, in classrooms, in the moments when elders whispered and children gazed.
This was the River of Passing Flames.
The Starfire Envoys shouldered unlit lamps and set out on their rounds. They no longer stood guard at the Fireheart Platform or gathered beneath the river of stars. Instead, they walked deep into the dust and smoke, into the hearth fires of ordinary lives.
They said, "A Starfire Envoy's mission is not to protect fire, but to give every ordinary person the courage to light a lamp."
First stop, Gray Ridge Village.
A He returned home and stood before the old stove at the village entrance. She cast no spells and formed no Flame Seals. She merely placed a Fireless Lamp inside the stove and asked the villagers, "Who would light a lamp for someone else?"
No one answered. In a place so poor, keeping oneself alive was hard enough. How could they speak of lighting the way for others?
Three days later, an old woman tottered over and placed her last piece of dry firewood into the stove. "I'm lighting this lamp for my grandson, who died on a snowy night... If someone had lit a lamp for him then, perhaps... he could have come home."
The lamp caught fire. A starfire mark flashed upon her brow. Though she had not been chosen as a Starfire Envoy, her Heart Flame already shone.
A He smiled. "That is enough. The