Kaelen

So they sent me south, to the land in my books. They told me to stop. I never learned how.

Drakmor. A fortress built on rivers of lava, under skies full of dragons. And at its heart... the Cinder Academy.

Archmage Velrith took me as his student. He taught me everything he knew. Later, he said he regretted about half of it.

My rival was Vel, a storm adept who called fire a child's trick. We duelled in the courtyard every week. I won every week.

At twenty I faced the Trial of the Pyre. Ten spells, ten heartbeats. When the fire answered back... I answered louder.

But passing was never enough. I built a laboratory on the rim of the great caldera... to prove that a dragon's fire could be called, and kept.

The volcano was never a mountain. It was the nest of Ignaroth, the Caldera Wyrm. And my experiment... woke him.

Results inconclusive. Laboratory missing. And the villages below the mountain were burning... because of me.

Velrith did not defend me. He turned his back... and it was Vel who locked the chains around my wrists.

But chains don't hold fire for long. I broke them, and walked down into the caldera alone... to finish what I had started.

Ignaroth roared. I roared back. I did not stop... and when the fire ended, the dragon's heart was burning in my hand.

Now the Stormcallers send their adepts to put me out. Vel among them. Let them come. Tell your masters... Kaelen is coming.

They told me to stop. I never learned how... and I never will.