The Grand Hall of Oaths had not been opened in a decade.
Tonight, its great iron braziers burned again.
Velan stood at the center of a circular flame sigil etched into the stone floor, surrounded by crimson-robed elders, elite disciples, and watchers from every corner of the Aathirai clan.
Above them, the massive stone relief of Anaiyaal's banishment loomed in silence — a once-honored celestial weapon cast down for her rebellion.
Velan's mark, now fully visible across his shoulder and collarbone, flickered faintly with residual shadowlight. He made no attempt to hide it.
Because there was no more hiding.
Not after what rose from the ground.
---
The High Flame Judge, Elder Muthiyan, stepped forward. His voice echoed like an axe through still air.
"You used forbidden energy outside clan grounds."
"I was attacked by a cursed fragment," Velan replied, steady. "It emerged when I spoke the name Maayan."
Gasps rippled through the outer circle. The Judge held up his hand to silence them.
"You're not permitted to speak that name without seal approval."
"It knew me," Velan said, louder now. "It came for me. That name is tied to my mark — to what's inside me."
Kayalvizhi stood beside the Judge, arms folded. But her eyes… they didn't glare. They watched. Calculated.
"And what exactly is inside you, Velan?" she asked coldly.
Velan raised his chin. "Anaiyaal. The shadow system sealed by your ancestors. She's awakened in me."
The Judge stepped forward. "A servant… bearing the system of a fallen divine weapon. A shadowborn echo of an ancient war."
He shook his head slowly.
> "This clan cannot abide such a thing. Not without consequence."
---
From the upper chamber balcony, Thuraiyaar spoke.
His voice was calm. Controlled.
"But we must also ask: Why now? Why does the mark return after generations?"
He turned to the Judge. "We stand on the edge of something older than the clans. I propose an alternative to exile or execution."
A murmur rose.
Thuraiyaar continued:
"Let Velan complete the Trial of the Fallen Flame. A rite not seen in sixty years. If he survives, the clan will recognize his path."
"If he fails…"
He looked down at Velan, expression unreadable.
"…then his ashes will silence the mark forever."
Velan felt the room shift.
Half the court leaned forward in anger. The other half in curiosity.
The Judge stared at Thuraiyaar, then at Velan.
"Do you accept this trial, boy?"
Velan nodded once. "I do."
---
🔥 Later that night, near the forbidden valley...
Velan stood before the Flame Wound, an open rift in the mountainside where the old battle between Anaiyaal's host and the flame clans had torn the earth open. The valley burned with ghost fire — not hot, but hungry.
Thuraiyaar met him there, alone.
"You will not return the same," the elder said softly.
"I don't want to," Velan replied.
Thuraiyaar handed him a blade. Not curved, not ornate. Just simple black steel.
"Strike your shadow," he ordered. "Only then will the flames reveal your truth."
Velan turned.
His shadow stretched long behind him, flickering with the firelight. It pulsed, slightly wrong — like something inside it was alive.
He raised the blade.
And thrust it down.
---
⚔️ What followed was not death—
—but awakening.
His shadow split open like silk torn in slow motion, revealing a mirror realm of flickering fire and ink. Velan fell through it, blade in hand, into a place where his choices echoed as enemies.
Figures appeared — past selves, possibilities, versions of Velan who had chosen different roads. One knelt in chains. Another stood as a tyrant. A third had no face.
They attacked as one.
Velan fought.
He didn't fight to win.
He fought to burn away what wasn't him.
---
When he rose again — hours or days later, the stars had shifted — he was changed.
His blade now burned with shadowfire, flickering between black and violet. His eyes glowed faintly. And the serpent mark across his body now coiled around his heart.
Anaiyaal's voice echoed gently:
> "You've passed the third gate."
> "Now you're no longer bound by fire… or shadow."
> "You are something new."
---
End of Chapter 10