(Alternate title: "The Echo in His Blood")
The fires were dying, but the ground still smoked and the silence that followed wasn't peace.
Haken stared at the shattered gate. The light from Vivi's awakening still shimmered in the air, like dust made of magic. But Vivi herself… was gone.
Not dead.
Not missing.
Just… somewhere else.
He could still feel her. Somewhere between realms — her presence tethered to his soul like a phantom heartbeat.
The priestess knelt beside the scorched altar, whispering ancient verses no one else could understand. Blood had been spilled. A seal had been broken. The prophecy had twisted — changed shape like a shadow in firelight.
"She's not gone," Haken said. His claws dug into the dirt. "She can't be."
"She's between," the priestess said. "In the place where flame meets void. No one who's touched the ancient fire has ever come back whole."
His body still ached from battle, but worse was the ache beneath his skin — in his blood. Something about Vivi's transformation had awakened something else inside him. The beast stirred in ways it never had before. Hungrier. Sharper.
"Find her," the priestess said suddenly. Her voice was sharp. "Before the shadows do. She's powerful now, but unstable. Cenric will reach her first… if you don't."
Haken looked to the horizon. The skies were no longer burning, but the world had never felt darker.
"I'll find her," he growled. "Even if I have to tear through the shadows myself."
Meanwhile…
In a space that wasn't a room, wasn't a realm — just glowing embers and whispers — Vivi floated.
She wasn't herself.
She wasn't just a girl anymore.
Voices called to her. Some old. Some not human.
The queen's daughter... the key.. the fire-born curse...
And one voice stood above the others: smooth, velvet, venomous.
"I told your mother this would happen."
Viper.
He stepped out from the void, no longer pretending. His cloak of shadows fell behind him like wings.
"I kept my end of the bargain. Now it's your turn to burn, Princess."