Under the pale glow of broken streetlamps, Elira and Dante conspired in the ruins of her old forge. Sparks still glimmered in the coals—remnants of her past life. She unfurled a tattered map of Velmara's underbelly while Dante watched—shadows pooling behind his ears.
One by one, they recruited the betrayed:
• Mila, a telekinetic pickpocket whose fingers danced through the air to pluck purses and prejudice alike
• Roshan, once a Flamebinder cadet, now exiled after refusing to quell a civilian uprising
• Jin, a chronomancer haunted by echoes of time, who'd lost his family to the Council's experiments
They named themselves the Ash Circle—forged in ruin, bound by loss. Their first mission: ambush a Council convoy at Narrow Pass, where steel‑reinforced carriages hauled arcane suppressors.
At dawn, Elira's flame pillars split the sky, igniting the iron wheels. Dante's shadow‑fangs swallowed guards in silent gulfs. Mila ripped rifles free with a mental flick; Roshan's fire‑whips braided through armor, while Jin froze time for fleeing prisoners. When the smoke cleared, only the charred husks of suppressor cores remained.
Elira found Roshan holding the last remnant—a glinting shard of crystal.
"Let them try to silence this."
With that, the Ash Circle emerged from the blaze, ready to rewrite Velmara's fate.