The Vault of Embers had become a maelstrom.
Walls once sealed with ancient sigils now crumbled into dust. Fire twisted like serpents through the air, not burning but searching—wrapping around Serayah's suspended form as if recognizing its sovereign.
Ashar shielded his eyes from the glare, his body braced against the fissured stone floor. Amina lay barely conscious beside him, her breathing ragged. Kai stood furthest ahead, hands outstretched, tendrils of energy crackling from his fingertips as he tried—futilely—to calm the storm Serayah had unleashed.
"Serayah!" he yelled above the roar. "You have to fight it! The Flame—it's rewriting you!"
But she didn't hear.
Or worse—she did, and it was too late.
Within the Flame
Inside the heart of the storm, Serayah hovered.
Her body no longer hers. Her memories no longer linear. Visions stabbed through her in staccato bursts—childhood, war, the Temple, Amariel's sorrow, the laughter of gods, and the sobbing of the world. The Flame had no patience for one timeline. It dragged her across thousands.
And in each—she died differently.
In some, she was worshipped.
In others, she was feared.
But in all of them… she burned everything.
"Stop!" she screamed into the void.
A voice—hers but older, broken and divine—answered, <"You are the key and the lock. The kindling and the pyre.">
"Then let me choose!" she shouted.
Silence.
And then, one image coalesced from the infinite chaos:
Lucien.
Kneeling in front of the god-void. His hands shaking. His soul fractured but still his.
And behind him, Vaeroth, rising from shadow and starlight like a forgotten nightmare.
Outside – A Reckoning
Lucien stepped forward now, ignoring the blaze that licked at his cloak. He faced Ashar, Kai, and the barely stirring Amina without fear.
"She's not going to survive this," he said.
Kai's eyes narrowed. "You'd know, wouldn't you? You were the first to fall to it."
Lucien didn't respond. Instead, he looked up—toward Serayah, whose form now shimmered between flesh and flame.
"She can't contain Amariel's gift," he muttered. "Not alone. No one can. That's why we failed."
Ashar pulled his sword, limping forward. "Then get out of the way, Lucien."
But Lucien didn't move.
Because Vaeroth had arrived.
Vaeroth Awakened
The space behind them cracked—not physically, but cosmically. Like someone had punched a hole through the universe. From it, Vaeroth emerged.
Not in full form—yet. But his voice was enough to warp the air.
<"How long I have waited.">
His body was a suggestion of a man: stars spiraling in place of eyes, bones made of molten logic, a robe stitched from collapsed light. Every word he spoke echoed backwards through time, resonating in memories the team didn't even know they had.
<"Serayah opened the Vault. The flame accepted her. And thus, the door opens… to me.">
Kai screamed a curse and launched a blast of energy toward the god-thing.
It never landed.
Vaeroth raised one hand and the magic simply… stopped. Like time had been paused.
Ashar felt his knees weaken.
"We're not ready for this," he said.
Vaeroth's stardust smile widened.
<"You never were.">
Serayah's Choice
Within the spiral of power, Serayah saw everything.
Vaeroth's rise.
The gods' betrayal.
Amariel's sacrifice.
And the truth:
Amariel hadn't sealed Vaeroth to protect the world. She sealed him to protect Serayah. The last living fragment of something older than even fire. The First Flame's will given flesh.
Serayah was not the key.
She was the vault.
And now, it was opening from the inside.
She felt herself split—one part reaching toward annihilation, the other clinging to humanity. Her fingers trembled as she saw herself reflected in the shards of memory: killer, savior, destroyer, divine.
A voice whispered—Kai's voice, from beyond the inferno.
"Come back to us."
And then another—Amina's.
"You're not alone."
And one more—Lucien.
"I won't lose you again."
The Counterseal
Serayah raised her hands, burning with gold and bloodlight.
"No god chooses for me," she said.
And with a single gesture, she did what Amariel could not.
She split the Flame—again.
Half into herself.
Half into the others.
Kai screamed as it filled him. Amina clutched her chest. Ashar dropped to one knee as power surged through his sword arm.
Even Lucien staggered—his mark reignited.
And Vaeroth… recoiled.
For the first time, the god stumbled.
<"No,"> he hissed. <"You bind the Flame again? You divide my return?">
Serayah landed softly, cloaked in fire.
"No," she said. "We share it."