Year seventeen of the Firefolk Era, autumn equinox.
A Ya left Gray Ridge Village and set foot upon the lands of the Nine Provinces. She no longer dwelled on the Fireheart Platform, presided over ceremonies, or held the Heartfire Jade—that fragment had merged into the Jade Slip of the "Heart Lamp Record," sunk into the earth veins of the Ruin Abyss, and become a source of unending renewal. She carried only a small lamp on her back, wore coarse cloth, and walked mountain trails and country roads like any ordinary traveler.
She wanted to see whether fire had truly come alive.
She crossed the snowy plains of the northern frontier and saw herders building lamp shelters amid wind and snow, using animal bones as frames and Heart Flame to kindle the lights, keeping them burning every night. They said, "Our ancestors once guarded the Starfire River. Now, though we have no spiritual power, the lamps must not go out." Beneath the lamps, children recited "Words of the Lamp Guarders," while elders told of Sui Xuan sealing the fire as naturally as they spoke of spring planting and autumn harvest.
She reached the western wastes and saw merchants using lamps as markers in sandstorms, their flames unwavering as they showed the way. A group of youths took turns on watch of their own accord, calling themselves the "Lamp-Passing Watch." Every ten miles, they erected a lamp post, with words carved beneath the light: "Those before me lit lamps to light my way; I light this lamp for those who follow." A Ya lingered for a long time and saw a hazy figure appear within the flame—the leader of a merchant caravan who had died in a sandstorm a hundred years before. He gazed at the lamp post and said softly, "**The