Smoke rises from the ruins of the sanctuary.
The air is thick with burnt magic, fallen prayers, and the scent of blood.
Seraphina holds the child close to her chest, her tiny fingers curling against her skin — warm, alive… but glowing faintly with golden light.
Ravon limps beside her, one wing torn, his blade dragging in the dirt. Behind them, nothing remains but ash.
> "We'll be hunted," she whispers.
"Let them come," Ravon answers.
They reach a cave hidden by the misted cliffs of Arcalem. Safe — for now.
Seraphina lays the child on soft moss. She stares up at her with eyes like burning dawn and fading dusk — a mix of them both.
She brushes her cheeks and kisses her
You are more than a flame
You are our Hope
Our echo
And our fight reborn.
Years pass.
Seraphina sits in a field beneath a silver dusk sky, her daughter playing with a crown made of vines and stars. s
Peace reigns — not perfectly, but truly.
As the stars begin to sing above them, Seraphina closes her eyes and whispers:
> "Once I fell for a Demon Lord… now, I rise beside a man who gave me heaven in the dark."
The child looks up and says, smiling as she wraps her tiny finger around her's:
> "Mama, tell me the story again — of how you loved and saved the world."
The wind carries her laughter, and she brought her to her lap .
Ravon sits beside her, their fingers intertwined , with old calluses, healed scars.
She leaned into him brushing her lips against his temple... I think I fell in love with my Demon lord.
> He looked at her—not like a man looks at a woman, but like a soul that had searched across centuries and finally found its echo.
"Seraphina," he said, his voice barely a whisper, "I have no words strong enough. No language in all the realms worthy enough. But if you listen to the silence between my breaths… if you feel the fire that stills when you touch me... that is my love for you."
He circled his arms around her, eyes glowing faintly with ancient light.
"You are not a part of my heart, Seraphina. You are the reason it exists at all. I do not love you like mortals do. I love you like creation loves light. Like shadows love flame. I love you as the dusk loves the promise of dawn."
Then softer, rawer:
"And if I am damned, let it be for this love. If I am saved—let it be by you."
"You are not my weakness. You are my reason."
"I have walked through voids that would devour kings… and still, loving you is the most terrifying thing I've ever done."
"You are not what I was fated to love. You are what I was born to find.