Year nine of the Firefolk Era, the night of the spring equinox.
Across the Nine Provinces, the Starfire River flowed without end, and the river of passing flames had become part of everyday life. Lights shone in every home; children lit lamps, elders tended them, and Starfire Envoys traveled the wilderness, no longer to "kindle," but to "bear witness"—to witness how fireseeds flourished in ordinary hearts, as endlessly as spring grass.
Yet just then, in the fragments of ancient texts in Sand-Speech Town, the Starfire Envoy Qing Ci discovered a long-buried record:
—"Ancient Fire Chronicle · Fragment Three"
When word spread, the Nine Provinces trembled.
The Starfire Envoys gathered at the Fireheart Platform. A He cradled Little Bean's clay lamp, Su Li unrolled the "Record of Mortal Flames," and A Lu gazed toward the Eternal Frost Abyss, murmuring, "We thought the fire would endure forever. So... it, too, has a journey home."
The blind girl A Mian stroked the stele and sighed. "Zhaoming went to his death, Mute Uncle became the Guardian Lamp, all to protect the fire. But if its source was already nearing exhaustion, what, then, were we protecting?"
They could only set out.
They could only escort the fire back to its source.
The Starfire Envoys set out northward.
They carried no weapons, no magical implements, only three things:
- Little Bean's clay lamp, its flame no larger than a Like a Bean, yet never extinguished;
- A "Fragmentary Fire Principles Scroll," its pages yellowed, yet every word like a heart flame;
- And the First Night Watcher Snow Sculpture brought back from the Eternal Frost Abyss, fire hidden within its snow, silently awaiting rekindling.
They crossed the Dead Ash Marsh, where the remains of extinguished lamps now glimmered faintly, as though sensing the summons of the