Chapter 26

In Caligorya, Zevander questions the point of Alastor’s lessons as they observe a mortal girl in a poor cottage. Alastor forbids Zevander from touching her, warning that contact across the liminal boundary would invite divine interference. Despite Zevander’s disdain and trauma-fueled distractions, Alastor insists the flame glyph is Zevander’s most important power.

When Zevander complains the glyph is too complex and useless outside Caligorya, Alastor shifts the scene to Zevander’s family castle, where Zevander’s mother and Rykaia shiver in the cold. Zevander resists the no-touch rule, then kneels at the dead hearth to recall the glyph. Pressed by urgency, he demands to see it again; Alastor refuses, forcing true memorization.

Driven by the threat to his family, Zevander traces his forbidden chest scar at Alastor’s instruction. The tactile memory unlocks the full glyph in his mind, and a black flame ignites in his palm. Alastor helps place the flame on the logs, and the fire roars to life, instantly warming the room and easing his family’s shivering.

Alastor explains he can bend the flame but cannot summon it—only Zevander can, a feat mages have sought for centuries. Alastor presses Zevander to practice until summoning is second nature and reveals the next step: pairing the black flame with Zevander’s arachnid prodozja to make it truly destructive. Zevander is both awed and wary, noting this power remains confined to Caligorya.