Romans & histoires Rise Up From The Ashes

He warned, before we left. The Ashborne lands were half a day's run northeast. We shifted at the edge of camp, our wolves tearing through the frost with practiced ease. Mine, silver gray eyes like storm clouds, was silent, focused. Cera's was smaller, faster, but never strayed far. By the time we reached the outer ridge, the sun was rising in the sky and the wind was sharp. The Ashborne estate was barely recognizable. Vines choked the blackened walls, and the stone steps were cracked with age. But the bones of the house remained.

One by one. Watched them curl. Blacken. Turn to ash. "You know," Isla said softly, "ashes can be beautiful. They nourish soil. Let new things grow." "Like us. We rose from ashes." "No," she corrected with a smile. "We didn't rise from ashes. We transformed them. Into something golden. Something eternal." She was right. We weren't a phoenix story. We were an alchemy story. Turning pain into purpose. Darkness into light. A legacy of violence into a dynasty of love.

When she finally broke through the dirt, heaving for breath, the cool mountain air seared her lungs as she coughed out dirt. Kira sat there for several long minutes, half in and half out of a grave, no one else in sight, the forest surrounding her impossible to see in the dark. “Fuck,” Kira coughed, tiredly shoving at the dirt covering her legs, trying to free them. She brushed dirty fingers against the tear in her neck, wincing at the sting. It was probably a mess of infection right now, but oh well. It would heal. Probably. Kira crawled out of her grave and lay down beside it, staring up at what she could see of the sky through the inky tree branches blotting out most of it.

Ashley refused to come down, "You just didn't see it!" "What, you saw it?" Morgan Blackstorm lowered his head and looked at the woman in his arms, but it was too dark around him, he only saw a pair of bright eyes, she blinked, and the long eyelashes were like a small fan. Because they were so close, the long eyelashes just brushed his face like that, and he just felt itchy on his face and heart. "I..." In the middle of speaking, Ashley suddenly stopped, she was a person who died once and was reborn again, and the soul travel really happened to her. But, can she tell Morgan Blackstorm this?

The phoenix’s warning echoed in my mind, but so did its promise. “From the ashes, you rise.” And as the first light of dawn broke over the horizon, I knew we had no choice but to believe in it.

My fans, and the wider public who realized they had been manipulated, were more than furious. Groups of them gathered and confronted Jack with countless methods of torment. His reputation was destroyed. Debt crushed him. Abuse followed him everywhere he went. He lived like a stray dog—cornered, humiliated, barely holding on—until he couldn’t bear it anymore. He threw himself from the eighteenth floor. He landed face-to-face with Alanna’s wandering spirit. Alanna spat at him in disgust before turning away, wanting to follow me. But by then, I had already let go of everything.

“Eris is losing control. Their feeds are crumbling—too much truth flooding in at once. But they’re not done. Already, shadows move. Disinformation, sabotage, agents in the crowd.” Sophia breathed deeply, steadying herself. The Monument’s pulse thrummed through her bones, neither hostile nor kind, but immense. “Horizon is not a single moment. Tonight we lit the fire. Tomorrow, they will try to smother it. We must decide how we stand when the ash settles.” --- The ash fell first in the form of smoke. From the west, flames rose where the militia had set fire to abandoned warehouses, hoping to frame the uprising as a riot. Dark plumes drifted across the sky, smudging the Monument’s glow.

(Ava) I don’t know what day it is or how much time has passed. My body is a battlefield. Everything hurts. I’m shaking, sweating through the sheets. Caleb said breathe, it’ll pass. It doesn’t pass. I think I’ve thrown up everything I’ve ever eaten. I slept but I’m not sure for how long. The shadows crawl along the walls. Then I hear a voice like an angel. Maybe she is an angel. “Ava.” Soft, familiar, full of that stubborn kind of love that never quits.

“Let me help you, Rose.” “It wouldn't hurt, would it?” She asked with a shaky voice. “Have I ever hurt you?” I got no reply to that. “Okay…so how do you get in?” She asked instead. “Close your eyes and try to breathe evenly; you could do that, right?” “Y..yes, please Emmet hurried up. The only strength I've got is on my tongue, my body is closing up on me.” Just as she spoke, I turned into a thick cloud of ash. My eyes went into flames.

I snapped, pushing past her to open the window wider. “Asphyxia. That's the medical term that covers the entire…concept of suffocation. Just so you know, you know. But it's not like I was trying to kill you, or me. We're too young, and I'm incapable of murder, you know that. I've only ever killed geckos since I was born…” She rambled, trailing off when she saw my death stare. I admit, I was more pissed at the fact that her charred whatever woke me up from my dream. I wished I heard everything my father had to say, but unfortunately, I got woken up abruptly.