Amina's feet echoed against the obsidian floors of the Vaults, her breath shallow, heart racing. The pendant on her chest pulsed with a blue-white fire, each beat syncing with something ancient buried deep below.
The Vault doors had not opened in centuries. No one remembered who had sealed them, or why. Only that the price to enter was always blood—and memory.
She drew her dagger.
Cut.
Let the blood drop fall onto the sigil.
The stone groaned. Then parted.
Inside, torches erupted into flame without kindling, revealing a cavernous space layered with dust, scrolls, and statues of beings long forgotten—some human, others decidedly not.
One statue caught her gaze.
It looked like her.
No. It was her.
Same jawline. Same fire-kissed eyes. Same pendant.
But in the statue's hands, there was a crown—a circlet of ash and ember, held like a burden.
"You are the Flame Reborn," the echo of Amariel's voice whispered inside her mind.
But what did that even mean?
She wasn't a queen. She wasn't a savior.
She was a girl running from the shadows of the past.
And yet... everything in this vault said otherwise.
---
Kai – The Hall of Shards
Kai's boots skidded against broken glass as he rushed into the Hall of Shards—a room of mirror-like stones that showed not reflections, but possible futures.
Each shard buzzed with life.
In one, he saw himself standing beside Amina, cloaked in flames, the world burning around them.
In another, he held Valec's severed head.
And in a third…
He knelt beside a grave marked only with a pendant.
Amina's pendant.
His fingers balled into fists.
He couldn't let any of those futures happen.
But he feared they all would.
The prophecy he'd read in the Archives haunted him:
> "When the Flame and Starblood rise, one must fall for balance to remain."
Which one was he?
And would he have to kill her?
---
Valec – The Burden of Memory
The memories returned again—sharper this time.
Zorai'el's voice filled his skull, ancient and venomous.
"You loved them, didn't you? The humans. The weak. The fleeting."
Valec stood on the edge of his mind, watching the moments play out.
A battlefield. Thousands dead.
Not by his blade—but by his choice.
He had once been Zorai'el's sword, the Flame's vengeance.
Then he fell in love.
And love made him soft.
So Zorai'el tore her from him. Burned her soul to ash. And sealed Valec in slumber for failing his purpose.
But that seal was weakening now. Every time Amina spoke to him, something good stirred. Something old.
Could he still be that man?
Or was he always destined to become the monster again?
He looked down at his hands.
They weren't shaking anymore.
They were ready.
---
Lumeah – The Prophecy Unfolds
Lumeah stood before the Eldertree of Ash, its leaves blackened, its roots wound deep into the threads of fate.
The winds carried whispers now.
Words from the Time Before.
"Three flames. Two truths. One betrayal."
She didn't need the Seer's Sight to know what it meant.
Someone would betray them.
Someone already had.
She just didn't know who.
Not yet.
But she feared it was someone close.
Very close.
---
Zorai'el – The Flamefather Awakens
Zorai'el stepped into the realm of flesh once more.
His child—The Heir—was awake now, but still tethered to dreams.
He would burn this world for the child to thrive.
Not because he hated it.
But because it was already doomed.
The Flame was never meant to be controlled. It was meant to cleanse.
He had created Amariel to be the key.
She failed.
Now her echo—Amina—stood in his path.
But echoes fade.
And flame consumes.
He raised a hand, summoning a shard of fallen starlight.
"Let the war begin," he whispered.
And the skies above the Flameguard Citadel cracked open.
---
Citadel Walls – Present
Flames erupted in the sky, not of fire but of light.
The stars themselves shifted.
And from above, a rift opened.
Creatures of ember and void poured forth—Remnants of the First Flame, long thought extinct.
Guards screamed. Alarms blared.
Amina raced from the Vaults, pendant glowing like a star.
Kai emerged from the Hall of Shards, blade in hand.
They locked eyes amid chaos.
And then Valec landed between them—flames wreathing his body, his eyes golden and full of fury.
"They're here," he said coldly.
"Zorai'el has come."