Kellal did as he had been trained. He could feel the warmth pulling away from his arms and legs to gather in the center of his chest. The biting cold of the iron shackles fastening him to the wall quickly took the warmth’s place as his fingers grew numb. He had little time to gather as much heat as he could, but he knew this was the best chance he would get for a long time. Kellal had been counting the days since being thrown into his chilled cell, it had now been twenty-seven, and the colder months would soon be coming, making it even harder to gather heat. The budding warmth within his chest grew as his appendages began to numb.

After gathering as much heat as he could for what Kellal guessed to be several hours, footsteps and voices began approaching the other end of the large iron door opposite him. Kellal could not make out what they were saying, but he recognized the voices. They were the same two that he heard day after day, and the only way he could keep track of time. As far as he knew, they were two unimportant Lucernian guards with the unfortunate task of being assigned to feed him. Kellal did not know their real names, but he had named them in his head. He called the larger one ‘Stinky’, because he always did all the talking and his breath smelled even worse than the food they brought him, and the smaller one ‘Light’, because he held the lantern.

With all his bodily heat now contained within a small area in the middle of his chest, Kellal had lost all feeling in his extremities. He prayed that the meager amount would be enough.

The talking on the other side of the door stopped as the jingle of metal keys was followed by the seven audible clicks of the pins as the lock released. Kellal held his breath and closed his eyes in an attempt to calm himself. The door slowly opened. The sound of unoiled hinges and iron scraping against stone assaulted his ears.

Kellal opened his eyes so they could adjust to the newfound light in the room as the smaller guard carried a lantern in. This lantern ,however, was not lit by a flame, but a small glowing rock in its center. The Lucerna Kingdom was much too smart to bring a flame into a Flarer’s cell. Stinky followed behind Light, carrying a ladle and an iron bucket filled with Kellal’s next meal. Light locked the door behind the two as an extra precaution.

“Open up!” yelled the larger guard with a scowl on his face. His breath was visible from the cold. He guided a near frozen liquid filled ladle towards Kellal’s mouth.

He wore the standard Lucerna Kingdom guardsman attire of thick leather armor with a large fur-lined hood. The Kingdom’s insignia – three orbs held in the palm of a hand – was emblazoned on the outside of his dark red surcoat.

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Kellal looked at the ladle but did not open his mouth. His heart raced. It was now or never. He was not about to drink the freezing liquid and douse what little flame he had cultivated in his chest.

Kellal flared the heat within his chest, pouring some of it into his forearms. The muscles warmed and limbered while faint glowing red veins pulsed across the skin around them.

In one clean pull, the iron shackles broke free from the wall behind him with a resounding crack, spewing stone fragments everywhere. Stinky stumbled back awkwardly as he lost his footing, dropping the ladle and spilling the rancid meal all over the ground and himself.

“Esca-” Stinky began to shout. His scowl shifted to terror.

Before he could finish the word, Kellal redirected the heat from his forearms into his calves and dashed forwards, pouncing on the large man’s throat like a panther.

With both hands wrapped around the guard’s neck, Kellal flared his fingers, digging them into flesh. He heard a loud crack as the guardsman’s body fell limp beneath him.

Kellal redirected his attention to Light. The smaller guard frantically tried to unlock the iron door with one hand while keeping his eyes on Kellal and drawing a short sword with the other.

“Stay back!” Light spewed. “Stay back or in Leopold’s name I will strike you down!”

Kellal stood up and stepped over the slain guard’s body, grimacing as he wiped the guard’s blood from his hands onto the rags wrapped around his waist. Kellal stood a full head over the smaller man and could overpower the man with ease even if he wasn’t a flarer.

Kellal felt the heat retreat from his arms and legs. He had already used most of what he had gathered. The dim glowing cracks in his skin where he had flared began to recede.

It had been so long since Kellal had spoken that he nearly forgot how.

“I enjoyed my stay, but I think that it is about time I get going.” Kellal said. His voice came out scratchy. He cleared his throat. “Why don’t you hand me the key and I can be on my way without anyone else getting hurt?”

The small man looked from Kellal to the key in his hand and back, appearing to mull the thought over in his mind. He slowly laid the key down on the ground in front of the door before making a wide circle around the prisoner to the other side of the cell. His eyes never left Kellal the entire time.

Kellal stretched his shoulders and back, feeling the muscles and joints groan from disuse. The warmth from using heat helped to loosen him up quickly, but he still felt stiff. The flarer walked towards the door and knelt to grab the key. He once again heard the seven clicks as it slid into the lock. With a turn of the key, the door swung open, screeching as it grinded once more against the floor.

The freshly freed prisoner took a few steps out the door before pausing. He turned back to look at Light one more time. A smirk flashed across his face and he locked the door behind him.

As Kellal strode towards a stairwell at the other end of the narrow hall, he tossed the key onto the ground. Now free from the chilled cell, he ran his hands over the walls and other cell doors to either side of him, feeling for any more heat he could gather. He found none.