Dreth lifted both hands over his head like a man calling a toast, then clapped once.
Behind him the Ember Guard, sixty picked men in blackened mail, burst into flame together without a single scream. The fire arrived in every body at once, a pillar of light where a regiment stood a moment earlier.
"His output just doubled in a single breath, Hajin," Aria said, flat and fast inside his skull.
Every flake of ash in the basin turned bright as bone at once, the snow beneath it steaming.
"Sixty good hearths lit in one breath, little brother," Dreth called, biting into a roast apple, "they all went out smiling."
Hajin did not answer, drawing the Chain tight around his left wrist until the links bit his skin. Beside him Juna's ears lay flat against her skull, her daggers out, her whole body one held breath.
'Every body in this basin is fuel to him, friend or enemy, the fire doesn't care.'
"Left, Mutt, I take the front," he said.
