Chapter 4 The Fire Beneath the Dust

The Dust Quarter didn't sleep. It lingered in the night like a ghost with unfinished business. Fires burned in barrels. Drunks muttered to ancestors long dead. And above them all, on the rooftop of a shattered shrine, a horn blew three times.

Barumo and Zaru waited beneath it.

"They'll come?" Zaru asked.

"They must."

The first to arrive was Nia - short, fierce-eyed, hands stained with ink and blood. A forger. A spy. She once copied a noble's seal so perfectly it caused a war between clans.

Behind her came Dogo - giant of a man, half-blind, his laughter as loud as his fists. He had once pulled Barumo from a burning tavern, and never stopped calling in the debt.

Last came a shadow. No name. No voice. Just eyes like night and blades on every finger. Zaru felt the air grow colder around her.

Barumo nodded. "We are the fire now."

Nia raised an eyebrow. "You sure this is worth it?"

Barumo's eyes turned to Zaru. "Every child chained is one more storm waiting to rise. We start with Kondo."

Plans were drawn. Maps spread. The group debated, argued, sharpened ideas like knives. Zaru listened, learned.

He would not just be a shadow anymore. He would be a spark.

And when the fire came, Ereko would remember.