The Kindred's Curse Saga, #1
Spark of the Everflame
by Penn Cole
Contents
Chapter 1
Overview
Diem Bellator’s Forging Day begins with a patient’s death and spirals into violence, pursuit, and frightening revelations about her own hidden identity. After Diem overhears her mother Auralie secretly confronting a Descended man, a mysterious old woman exposes that Diem’s father may still be alive and that Auralie has been concealing something with flameroot powder.
The chapter ends with Auralie’s disappearance, turning Diem’s private questions about her origins into an urgent mystery. The blood sun, the prophecy, and the old woman’s power all signal that Diem’s life is tied to forces far beyond Mortal City.
Summary
On Forging Day in Mortal City, Diem Bellator walks home from a difficult healer shift with Maura under an ominous blood sun. Diem is shaken because a starving young man died after being stabbed for stealing food, and his preventable death leaves her angry at the cruelty and injustice around her.
Diem and Maura discuss the holiday, the Descended rulers, and the divide between mortal poverty and Descended wealth. After Maura leaves for the healers’ center, Diem continues alone through streets crowded with drunk men affected by magic-laced Descended wine. Two men corner Diem, threaten her, and become suspicious of her colorless eyes, forcing Diem to defend herself with the combat training her father gave her.
Diem incapacitates the attackers without killing them, steals their weapons, and flees when other armed men begin pursuing her. In Paradise Row, Diem gives the weapons to a woman who helps misdirect the chase. While hiding deeper in the alleys, Diem sees her mother, Auralie, arguing with a powerful blue-grey-eyed Descended man.
Diem overhears enough to learn that Auralie is extorting the Descended man with a dangerous secret and demanding his help because lives are at risk. The man threatens to kill Auralie, but Auralie says the secret will be revealed if she dies. Before Diem can learn more, an elderly woman interrupts Diem’s spying and begins revealing impossible knowledge about Diem’s real father, the powder Auralie gives Diem, and Diem’s hidden nature.
The old woman magically seizes control of Diem’s body and mind, demonstrating terrifying power before releasing her. The woman calls Diem “Daughter of the Forgotten,” warns her to stop hiding and stop taking flameroot powder, and recites a cryptic prophecy about forgotten blood, heartstone, broken chains, and an old debt.
Diem returns home shaken and waits for Auralie, but Auralie never comes back. Diem, her father Andrei, and her brother Teller search the forest, shoreline, healers’ center, neighbors, patients, and Mortal City for days, then weeks and months, but find no sign of Auralie alive or dead.
Who Appears
- Diem BellatorMortal healer; defends herself, uncovers hints of hidden heritage, and loses her mother.
- AuralieDiem’s mother; secretly confronts a Descended man and disappears afterward.
- Mysterious elderly womanPowerful crone who controls Diem, reveals secrets, and delivers a cryptic prophecy.
- Mysterious Descended manScarred blue-grey-eyed man arguing with Auralie over extortion, secrets, and endangered lives.
- MauraOlder healer and Diem’s companion, offering comfort after Diem’s patient dies.
- Andrei BellatorDiem’s adoptive father; former soldier whose training helps Diem survive.
- TellerDiem’s younger brother; helps search repeatedly after Auralie fails to return.
- Paradise Row womanLocal woman who takes Diem’s stolen weapons and misdirects Diem’s pursuers.
- Drunken attackersTwo men who threaten Diem, question her eyes, and are disarmed after attacking her.