Ember’s hands caught on thorns as she climbed down, fresh cuts joining her blisters. The shop entrance waited just around the corner. She dropped the last few feet, her bare feet striking cobblestones. The roar of flames filled her ears as she ran toward the building’s front. Smoke poured from the windows, carrying the stench of burning wood and cloth.


    “Mother! Father!” The words scraped her throat raw. Through the smoke she saw it - a heavy beam braced against the shop door. “I’m coming!”


    She slammed into the barrier, fingers clawing at the rough wood. The beam was massive, clearly placed there with purpose. She shoved against it with everything she had, feeling splinters pierce her palms.


    “Please!” Her voice cracked. “Someone help them!”


    Nothing moved. Inside, timbers crashed down. Between the sounds of destruction, she heard movement - her parents, they had to be alive in there.


    “I’ll get you out!” She rammed the beam with her shoulder, over and over. The wood burned hot through her thin nightdress. Blood from her hands streaked the surface.


    Glass shattered as a window burst outward in flames. The blast of heat forced her back, but she hurled herself at the door again. “Mother! Father! I’m here!”


    She found a gap between beam and door, wedged her fingers in and pulled until something snapped in her hand. The pain barely registered. She had to get inside.


    “Little… fox…” Her father’s voice floated through the roar of flames. Ember kicked the beam, her feet leaving red marks on stone.


    “I won’t leave you!” The force of her next hit knocked her down. She pushed up, choking on smoke. “Please! I can get you out!”


    The roof creaked ominously. Flames danced behind the windows, swallowing any sign of movement within. She screamed and threw herself at the barrier again.


    “Not without you,” she choked out. “Please, not without you…”


    A deafening crash shook the building as part of the roof caved in. The fire surged higher, forcing her away despite her struggles. Her face burned, her hair singeing.


    She tried to stand but her legs gave out. Her bloodied hands left marks as she dragged herself toward the door. The beam hadn’t moved. Behind it, everything she loved turned to ash.


    The screams had stopped. When had they stopped?


    “No,” she whispered. “No, no, no…”


    Ember screamed until her voice gave out, the sound bouncing off the alley walls as flames consumed her family’s shop. Each cry tore at her raw throat, but she couldn’t stop.


    “Help! Someone please help them!”


    People emerged from their homes, drawn by her desperate calls and the roar of fire. They gathered at a safe distance, faces lit by the blaze. A woman clutched her shawl tight. A baker still dusted with flour shook his head slowly.


    “My parents are trapped!” Ember lunged for the nearest man, her bloody fingers catching his sleeve. “The beam - help me move it!”


    He pulled away with gentle firmness. “There’s nothing we can do, child. The fire’s too fierce.”This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    “No!” She spun toward the shop where her father’s prized silks fed the flames. The fabrics he’d traveled so far to find, that her mother arranged each morning with careful hands, vanished in bright bursts before crumbling to nothing.


    Smoke carried the sickly-sweet stench of burning flesh. Her stomach clenched and she doubled over, heaving up bile as muttered sympathies drifted from the crowd.


    “Where’s the watch?” “Poor lass…” “Someone stop her!”


    The heat seared her face as another section of roof collapsed. Sparks showered into the dark sky. Ember lurched forward, but rough hands grabbed her shoulders.


    “Stay back! The building’s coming down.”


    She twisted against the grip, barely able to whisper now. “Let go… please… they’re still inside…”


    But she knew better. The screams had stopped long ago.


    A deafening crack split the night as the central beam gave way. People scattered, someone dragging Ember with them as burning timber crashed down. The surge pushed her into a nearby alley.


    The fire raged on. Ember huddled in the alley’s shadows, trembling despite the heat, as everything she’d ever known burned away in the darkness. Her chest felt hollow except for a single burning coal of rage.


    The heat pushed at her back, catching the torn edges of her nightdress as her family’s home collapsed in flames.


    Through watery eyes, she caught movement at the crowd’s edge. Several figures stood apart from the other onlookers, watching not with shock or sympathy, but with the sharp focus of men checking their work. One turned toward her hiding place, head tilting slightly. Even at this distance, she could see the satisfaction in his stance before he stepped back into the darkness between buildings.


    “Wait-” The word came out as a broken whisper, her throat stripped raw. Her whole body jerked with shallow, panicked breaths. The figures slipped away into the night while her parents’ screams still echoed in her ears, mixing with the crackling of flames they’d set.


    Each breath scraped her smoke-filled lungs. Her hands throbbed where she’d burned them trying to shift the fallen beam, and she pressed them against the rough cobblestones, feeling the sting of open blisters. The fear drained away, leaving something harder and colder behind - a rage she’d never known she could feel.


    They hadn’t just watched. They’d made certain.


    Another wall fell inward with a roar, throwing sparks high into the black sky. The crowd’s voices faded as people began to leave, abandoning her to the sound of splintering wood and her own ragged breathing. This was no accident. Someone had sealed her family inside their home and watched them die.


    The firelight turned everything blood-red, but Ember’s eyes fixed on the spaces between buildings where those figures had vanished. Her fingers found a broken piece of glass, gripping it until she felt warmth trickle down her palm. The small pain barely registered against the vast emptiness where her life had been moments before.


    As the sky began to pale toward dawn, she watched the last of her home cave in on itself. The hatred grew with each passing moment, as steady and consuming as the flames themselves. She held it close, letting it fill the hollow spaces grief had carved inside her. It was all she had left now.


    This was no accident.


    Her small frame shuddered. Somewhere in the chaos she’d lost her wooden fox, the one she’d carried since she could barely walk. Like everything else, it was gone.


    “Why?” The question stuck in her throat, barely carrying over the snap and pop of burning wood. No answer came.


    The fire consumed it all - her father’s prized trade goods, fabrics from distant ports, the delicate laces her mother arranged each dawn. The familiar scents of home turned caustic, carrying other smells that made her stomach clench.


    Her palms stung where they pressed against the cobblestones, dried blood and soot mixing in the creases. She’d tried to move that beam until her hands gave out, accomplishing nothing.


    The crowd had thinned to scattered whispers. No one approached the girl in the shadows. Perhaps they assumed someone else would help. Perhaps they simply looked away.


    Dawn crept across the sky, grey light washing over black smoke. The flames retreated to sullen coals, leaving behind a skeleton of char and ash. The heat faded from the air but Ember felt frozen, as if she’d never be warm again.


    Their faces were branded in her memory, lit by their own torches. She would know them anywhere.


    Blood welled fresh as her fingers curled against stone. “I’ll find you,” she said, voice rough but clear. “I promise.”


    The words dissolved in the morning air, witnessed only by cooling embers. Something hardened inside her then, something that would outlast the flames still smoldering in the ruins of her home.


    The sun rose over Aldermere. Ember stayed in her alley, watching ash settle over everything she’d ever loved.