Chapter 8 Council of Smoke

Chapter 8 Council of Smoke
The next morning, Crescent’s air felt heavier like even the dawn felt stuffed with no breeze. Words had spread quickly that Moonshade was preparing for war, or something close enough to war.

Theron summoned the council before sunrise. The hall was vast and full of polished stone, its ceiling was covered by smoke and faint light from braziers. I had never been inside this place before and I wasn’t sure if I was ready.

As I walked behind Theron, I felt dozens of gaze fixed on me – Elders, Alphas, envoys, each weighing my presence like a risk they wished they hadn’t taken.

“Is this wise?” someone murmured.

“She’s not bound to Crescent by blood.”

“She’s bound by flame,” another replied, voice low but sharp.

I didn’t react as I was used to whispers by now. They still burned, but differently – like old scars remembering pain.

Theron’s voice broke through the murmurs. “Sit, All of you.”

As the head of the pack, Theron took his seat at the middle of the marble table with his hands folded and his expression calm like a carved calm stone. I stood behind his right side like a shadow, yet very much seen.

The discussion began with talks of borders, alliances, scouts, and Moonshade’s growing aggression under Alpha Kael’s reign. Crescent’s elders spoke in circles and their words were like smoke that never touched flame.

“The balance cannot hold if Moonshade seeks blood,” one elder said.

“Then let them come,” another blurted out.

“And burn half our warriors in the process?” the first snapped back.

Their fear was a living thing coiling between them, whispering doubt into every sentence.

Then someone mentioned my name. I knew what was coming next.

“She shouldn’t be here,” a young councilor said. His hair was barely silvered, but arrogance made him sound older. “We talk of protection, yet we let a curse stand among us. Her presence draws danger. You all felt it the night Moonshade’s envoys arrived – the tremor in the air, that was her.”

I looked up slowly as the council chambers went still.

“I felt it too,” I said quietly. “You didn't sense danger but control.”

Everyone began to murmur at what I had just said. The young councilor’s face twisted. “Restraint? You scorched half the hall last time you lost control. What happens when you stop pretending to hold back?”

The flame inside me stirred,  hungry to answer for me.

“Careful,” I said, voice soft but trembling with heat. “If fire frightens you, learn not to stand too close to it.”

The marble beneath my fingertips cracked as thin red lines began to glow for few seconds before cooling to ash-gray.

Then one elder stood up in anger, another in awe but I didn’t move an inch. My fire had spoken, and there was nothing to apologize for.

Theron’s hand brushed mine steadily. “Enough,” he said, his tone like a command wrapped in calm. “Fear clouds judgment faster than smoke, have you forgotten? The girl stays because we need her.” Theron said.

“She’s no longer just a girl,” someone whispered.

That voice lingered longer than the smoke.

The arguments went on at the council meeting, but my thoughts drifted elsewhere – to the Ember Queen’s whisper the night before, ‘Finish what I could not.’

Every time I blinked, It was as if I saw her, her crown of flame and her eyes like dying stars. I didn’t know what she wanted from me, but I could feel her presence threading through my veins, ancient and restless.

After the council dismissed the meeting, the whispers didn’t stop. Some called me savior while others called me a curse that was waiting to ignite. I stepped out and found Rae waiting near the courtyard gate, leaning against the wall with his usual half-smile.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“They talked,” I said. “Mostly about fear.”

“And about you,” he teased lightly.

I gave a small laugh, hollow but real. “That too.”

He looked at me for a while, then said with his voice lowered. “Theron is worried because Moonshade’s movements are strange. The scouts said they’re gathering under the old lunar cliffs.”

My pulse quickened. “That’s near the ruins.”

Rae nodded. “The same ruins where your visions began.”

A cold wind brushed through my neck and the mark on my chest pulsed once – soft, but insistent.

Before I could speak, Theron joined us with his cloak dragging faint trails of dust. His eyes met mine, but it was unreadable .

“We’re riding out at dusk,” he said. “You, me and Rae. We need to see what Moonshade is hiding. The council doesn’t trust your power, but I trust my instincts and they say we’ll need your flame before this can end.”

My fingers tingled as the fire inside me hummed like a secret waiting to escape.

I nodded. “Then I’ll get ready.”

The moment Theron left, I saw something else just at the edge of my vision. A flash, like a shadow breaking through sunlight.

I looked toward the forest and for a second, It was as if I saw Kael standing in the dark watching me from a distance. His gaze locked with mine, cold and knowing, then he was gone.

The wind howled through the courtyard, scattering ash from the training pits and blowing every fragile item in the sky.

Rae asked. “What is it?”

“There was nothing,” I lied. But the scent of smoke clung to the air, sharp and familiar.

When we returned to the hall later that evening, I found a letter waiting on the table and it was addressed to me.

As I broke the seal on the letter, it was just a single line of words which didn't seem like it was hand written but burned into the parchment.

“The Queen’s fire was never yours to command.” These words pulsed with faint heat, as though still alive. Beneath them was a mark I had only seen once before, which was on the wrist of Kael himself.