At the heart of the Kingdom of Fire stood the Flameheart Citadel, a fortress of molten stone and fiery passion. Ruled by the charismatic Queen Embera, the people of this realm were fiery in both temperament and ambition. They were skilled blacksmiths, crafting weapons and artifacts with flames that seemed to dance with a life of their own. The Fire Kingdom thrived on innovation and energy, and its people were known for their fierce determination.

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“Blaze! Where are you? I’m back from the council meeting at the elemental palace!”

“Sparks!” I cursed. I didn’t think she would be back so soon. I stood up from my desk so quickly that my chair popped backward into the ground and ran for the little cubby on the floor. I cursed again, hoping the noise wasn’t heard by my mother. I quickly crawled into the cubby and through the backing of lava. “Coming Mother!” I stood up and turned to face the lava back which I had just crawled through. I reached my hand out towards the lava and slowly made a fist, with a crackle the lava hardened almost instantly into solid rock. I focused on the central hearth that each room had to be used as a power source and drew my fire energy towards that fire. As I felt them come in contact I was suddenly aware of every fire within a half-mile radius of me. The sudden awareness of all those flames never ceased to amaze me. Sensing one of the sconces in a hallway parallel to my mother, I pushed my fire energy towards that small flame and felt a rush of wind as I spun in place. The wind increased to a roar, and then in an instant it was gone, and I found myself standing next to that sconce I had sensed. Panting I shook off the euphoria that came with using large amounts of my fire magic and turned to face my mother who would turn on to this hallway any minute. “Blaze! There you are!” Queen Embera had a slim figure of 6 feet. She was clad in a red dress that seemed to burn with an intensity not unlike a fire. She wore a crown of rose gold inset with rubies that glowed an inner light. “Mother, I wasn’t expecting you for another two days.” I said, “Yes well we received news from the Guardian that required us to skip the usual festivities and come straight back to prepare.” “What is the news?” I asked incredulously. “War, war is coming my son. The Guardian said it is time to create the Unions.” “The Unions!” I exclaimed, “Yes my son, and you have been chosen to be the Terraburn Union.” Her statement left me speechless. “But Mom that’s not possible, the Unions are legendary and I mean I'm powerful and all but not that powerful,” I said that but on the inside I understood, I always knew that I was more powerful than most and in all my studies I had never found mention of people who could control lava, it was an exceedingly rare ability and kinda made sense that The Guardian would choose me. I’d always dreamed of becoming a Union, I’d even convinced myself at one point that I already was one and that's why I could control lava. My mother bent down to look me in the eyes, “Blaze I have complete confidence in you, and you're not just anybody, you are flame royalty and that makes you much more than just anybody.” “When do I go?” I asked, “The Guardian wants to meet with each one of the candidates before the ceremony, so you’ll leave tomorrow.” “Oh Blaze your father would be so proud of you, I can only imagine how he would react if he lived to hear it.”

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