Seven Years Later.
In one of the most protected places in the realm, only found in the Higher Continents, Temple Maiden Nyla Sheritz was performing the ceremony to become a Temple Matron, because she had unexpectedly become an Ascendant, shocking the entire order because of her youth, she was less than five thousand years old.
The Temple Maiden with the record for the earliest Ascendancy did it at the age of 3,760, and she was now the foremost Temple Mother.
The hall Nyla was waiting inside was dark, only brightened by several statues of powerful Ascendants whose heads were aflame.
The light from the flames hardly pushed back the gloom, but for those inside this hall the flames were not there for lighting, but for their significance—Their lives were meant to burn for their service, and no matter how small the flames, it still lit up a small part of the darkness.