Suddenly, the air around him hissed. A thin line of white steam rose from his skin. It wasn't the roar of a Fire-king, but a focused, searing intensity that turned the rusted iron in his hand cherry-red.
"Focus, boy," a voice rasped from the shadows of the forge. It was Master Oryn, a man whose skin looked like cracked basalt. "Cultivation isn't about gathering heat. It’s about enduring the burn. You’re trying to build a fire before you’ve learned to be the hearth." Download Seared progression cultivati Robyn Wideman epub
Kaelen closed his eyes. He didn't reach for the external ether. Instead, he reached inward, toward that tiny, frozen speck at his center. He didn't try to light it; he squeezed it. He compressed the cold until it turned into a friction-based ache. Suddenly, the air around him hissed