All Chapters of THRONE OF FIRE &FAVORS,KING OF THE BLOCK : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

PROLOGUE – EXTENDEDTitle: What the Fire ForgotBook Two: Throne of Fire & Favors: Loyalty Is a Loaded GunTime: 4 Months After Naomi Raines' DeathLocation: Valeburn City, Southside Block, Navarro-District BorderWeather: Overcast with the smell of distant smoke and oil; a light wind rustles charred flyers across blood-washed pavementSoundscape: Buzzing streetlamps, the soft clink of bottles, low whimpers from alley shadows, and sirens like lullabies for broken cities---“Truth doesn’t heal. It haunts.”— Naomi Raines, personal field journal (page 74, confiscated by Navarro Intelligence)The sun didn’t rise in Valeburn anymore.It leaked—dripping like an exhausted apology across cracked rooftops and empty crosswalks. The sky was bruised in perpetual grey, and the streets below wore grief like wet clothes that never quite dried.Eli Navarro walked alone, as he often did since the blood stopped being poetic.Every step on the shattered pavement echoed like gunshots muffled by memory.

Location: Valeburn Underground SanctuaryTime: One Week After Dante’s ExtractionAtmosphere: Cold. Tense. Air rich with static and unspoken truths. Underground generators pulse like mechanical heartbeats. No one breathes easy.---The table was longer than necessary. Ten chairs. Eight filled. One reserved for Naomi. One left open for ghosts.Jayce Navarro stood at the head. Not because he asked to. But because no one else dared to.Dante Cross sat across from him—still gaunt, eyes hollow, body trembling under layers of trauma. Yet his voice…His voice had fire again.“You’re afraid of me,” Dante said, breaking the silence.Jayce narrowed his gaze. “No. I’m afraid of what Hollow made you believe you are.”Eli Navarro leaned back in his chair, fingers steepled beneath his chin. “You keep saying they activated your memory. But what does that mean, Dante? Who were you before the empire?”Dante exhaled, trembling. “Before Project Hollow, I was nobody. A street kid. A mistake. After… I reme

Time: Two Days After Jayce’s Dream InfiltrationLocation: Valeburn Southern Quadrant, Navarro Resistance CampAtmosphere: Murky skies. Cold earth. Heartbeats sharp with paranoia and purpose.---Eli Navarro stood outside the medical containment unit where Naomi lay suspended. Her vitals danced across seven screens. Her body looked preserved—too pristine to believe she had ever bled for this city.Jayce sat on the concrete floor, his back against the cold steel wall. His shirt clung to him, soaked in sweat. The dreamscape had taken more from him than he could articulate.“She remembered me,” he murmured.Eli didn’t move. “Of course she did. You were the last mistake she forgave.”Jayce stared at the glass, voice low. “Do you think I can bring her all the way back?”Eli: “Only if you become something she doesn’t have to save again.”Silence stretched. A distant drone roared overhead.“Reina intercepted chatter,” Eli added. “Tobias is mobilizing. He thinks we’ve unlocked Naomi’s Chair.”

Time: One Week After The ExposéLocation: Across Valeburn – Navarro HQ Ruins, Hollow Archive, Public Uprising Zones---Jayce’s Apartment, Top Floor, Navarro Tower RuinsJayce paced. Rain trickled through shattered glass panes. Naomi stood at the doorway.“You haven’t slept,” she said.“I don’t need sleep. I need a reason.”“To keep fighting?”“To believe we didn’t just wake a storm we can’t control.”Naomi walked to the window. “That storm is control. The people are loud now. That’s what matters.”He turned. “Do you hear what they’re saying? ‘Kill the king.’ ‘Drown the empire.’ We lit the match, Naomi. And now we’re their targets too.”Naomi’s eyes didn’t blink. “Good. Let them come. I’m not a queen anymore. I’m the one who buried the throne.”---Public Square – Broadcast TentEli stood before dozens of rebel reporters, drenched in sweat, shirt stained with old blood.“You’re not broadcasting propaganda,” he shouted. “You’re delivering resurrection. Truth isn’t a weapon—it’s medicin

"The Truth Chair Was Never Naomi"Narrated from a Recovered Black Archive Confession – > Location: Hollow Black Archive, Valeburn Sector 0Date Encoded: ClassifiedAccess Status: Forbidden - Level Omega ClearanceRecovered from Jayce Navarro’s Merge Memory File #013X---> "Everyone thinks Naomi was the Truth Chair—that her mind was the one Hollow designed to power the predictive architecture. That her rage, her trauma, her brilliance was what allowed Hollow to see tomorrow before it arrived.That’s the story they needed. The myth they could rally behind. A woman weaponized by grief. A victim turned vision.But the truth? The truth would burn the foundation they rebuilt. So they buried it. Even Naomi doesn’t know. Maybe she does. Maybe she always did. That’s the price of being chosen—you forget what was taken to make you worthy.The original Chair was never Naomi.It was Jayce Navarro."They told Jayce he was a stabilizer.A backbone. A support beam for Naomi’s unraveling brilliance.