C67 Seeds of Fire

Word of the flame spread beyond the forest.

Not by messenger, but by memory—carried in the songs of birds, in the soft flicker of distant lanterns, in dreams that stirred sleeping hearts. Villagers woke with the scent of embers on the wind, though no fire burned nearby. Children whispered names they’d never heard but somehow remembered.

Ember, Fen, and Aster moved on from the clearing