Lily Starfire — Pov Best

I grabbed my satchel, the leather still warm from where I’d been sitting. The journey ahead would be long. But I was Lily Starfire. I didn't need a torch, a lantern, or the sun.

A laugh escaped me, low and smoky. He wasn't wrong. Fire owed me everything. Last winter, when the blizzard had buried the passes and the other scouts were losing toes to frostbite, it was my heat that kept us alive. Not a blanket. Not a spell from the soft-handed mages in their towers. Just me, Lily Starfire, pulling a core of warmth from a single damp twig until it roared loud enough to scare the wolves away. lily starfire pov

I watched them spiral upward, each orange spark a tiny sun born from a log I’d chosen, a flame I’d whispered to. The others saw fire. I saw a language. The crackle wasn't random noise; it was the pop of a secret shared between me and the deep, molten heart of the world. I grabbed my satchel, the leather still warm

"You're doing it again," Kael said, not looking up from sharpening his knife. His voice was a flat stone skipping across the surface of my trance. I didn't need a torch, a lantern, or the sun

He paused his sharpening. "What's it saying?"