The wind howled through the Obsidian Chasm, sweeping ash and soot over the jagged rocks as if the mountain itself exhaled a memory of fire.
Lyra stood frozen, her eyes locked with the hooded man's golden gaze. The man who claimed to be her uncle. Her blood. Her kin.
Lucien's blade was still drawn, glinting in the faint moonlight, his stance ready—tense but controlled.
Thalia gripped Vulkara's reins behind them, her face shadowed with disbelief. Even the dragons had grown restless, pacing the ledge with quiet hisses, as though they too could feel the shift in the air.
"You're lying," Lyra said, voice low but steady.
The man—no, the stranger—didn't flinch.
"I wish I were," he said. "But the truth has burned too long in silence."
Lyra's thoughts swirled like storm winds. Her mother had never spoken of family, had never mentioned another Ashwyn. She had died with that secret—perhaps to protect it.
"Who are you?" she asked again.
"My name is Kael. Kael Ashwyn. I was your mother's elder brother." He stepped forward slowly, hands open, showing no sign of aggression. "And like you, I carry the flame. The true flame. Not what they teach in the Academy."
"The Ash Crown?" Lucien asked coldly.
Kael nodded. "The flame they feared. The one they tried to extinguish with blood."
"Why reveal yourself now?" Lyra challenged. "Why not before?"
"Because you weren't ready. And because they would have killed me—and you—if I had."
Silence stretched as Lyra studied his face. There were traces of her mother there—high cheekbones, the same piercing eye color. But there was weariness too. The kind that only comes from being hunted.
"Prove it," she said at last.
Kael reached into his cloak slowly and pulled out a medallion—a scorched pendant shaped like a phoenix rising from ash. The sigil of House Ashwyn before it had been purged from the records.
Lyra's breath caught.
"I had one just like it," she whispered.
Kael's expression softened. "She gave it to you, didn't she? Before the fire."
Lyra nodded. "I lost it when our home burned."
Kael took a deep breath. "You were never meant to be alone. But Velora ensured you would be."
Thalia stepped forward now, her voice uncertain. "What do you want from her?"
"Nothing she doesn't already carry," Kael said. "But there are things she must know. About her blood. Her magic. The war that never truly ended."
Lucien narrowed his eyes. "Speak clearly. What war?"
Kael turned to him. "The war for the Flameborne. The rightful heirs of the dragon throne."
They followed Kael deeper into the chasm, through winding tunnels and ancient paths carved by flame long ago. Eventually, they emerged into a hidden sanctuary—an underground chamber warmed by natural magma vents and lit by the soft glow of lava crystals.
It was here that Kael told his tale.
"Centuries ago," he began, "the Flameborne ruled with dragons not as beasts of war—but as kin. Magic was balanced, and every element served the land. But power breeds fear. And the Ash Crown—the ruling bloodline—was betrayed from within."
He showed them a mural etched into the chamber wall. It depicted dragon riders wearing crowns of flame, surrounded by silver-winged dragons. But one figure—cloaked, faceless—stood among them with a dagger raised.
"They feared the prophecy," Kael said. "That a child born with the Flame Sigil would unite the wild dragons and restore the ancient order. So they wiped out the Ashwyn line. Your mother escaped. She hid you, but only just."
Lyra clenched her fists. "Velora led the purge."
Kael nodded. "She was once one of us. A flame-seer. But ambition twisted her. She convinced the Flame Council that we were a threat. That the Ash Crown would rise and destroy everything. So they hunted us. Burned our homes. Killed without mercy."
"And you survived," Lucien said quietly.
"I fled. I buried my name. But I watched. I waited. And when I saw the bondstone ignite… I knew you had come of age."
Lyra turned away, staring into the magma's glow. Her entire life had been a lie—a carefully constructed cage. She'd been taught to suppress her power, to fear what she was. And all along, it had been her birthright.
"Why me?" she whispered.
Kael's voice was soft. "Because you are the last of the Ash Crown. And because only you can reclaim the flame."
That night, Lyra couldn't sleep.
She sat at the edge of a high ledge overlooking the chasm, Vesper curled beside her. The dragon's breath was warm, steady. Calming.
Lucien approached silently and sat beside her.
"You okay?" he asked.
"No," she replied truthfully.
He nodded. "Yeah. Didn't think so."
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Lyra said, "Do you believe him?"
Lucien shrugged. "Doesn't matter if I do. You do."
"I don't know what I believe anymore."
He looked at her, his expression uncharacteristically vulnerable.
"I believe in you."
She turned to him. Their eyes met.
"Lucien…"
He leaned closer, slowly. "Just… don't disappear into the fire, Lyra."
And for the first time in days, she let herself lean into him.
Not because she was weak.
But because sometimes… strength meant letting someone stand with you in the dark.
By dawn, the plan was set.
They would travel to the Ruins of Elarion—once the capital of the Ash Crown—hidden in the Dragonspire Mountains. If any knowledge remained about how to unlock the true flame, it would be there.
But they would not go unnoticed.
Velora's spies moved faster than fire.
As they prepared to leave the sanctuary, a roar echoed through the chasm.
Vulkara shrieked.
"Riders!" Thalia yelled. "Three—no, four! Coming from the ridge!"
Kael grabbed his staff. "They've found us."
Lyra mounted Vesper, heart racing. Lucien vaulted onto Zephyr. Thalia and Kael took flight on Vulkara and Kael's storm drake, Nyrrax, a beast with scales like silver lightning.
The sky was chaos.
Flames and frost collided midair. Glyphs lit the sky like falling stars. One of Velora's riders hurled a spear of searing red magic, barely missing Lyra's shoulder.
She twisted in the air and unleashed a spiral of flame, her glyphs burning white-hot.
The rider screamed and fell.
But more came.
Kael shouted, "They want the grimoire! We can't let them have it!"
Lyra reached into her cloak and pulled the sealed book—the second grimoire they had taken from the Academy catacombs.
She held it high—and then tossed it into the chasm.
The fire riders screamed in rage.
"NO!" one shrieked. "That was sacred!"
"It was cursed," Lyra hissed.
Lightning cracked through the sky as Nyrrax slammed one of the riders into the cliff face. Lucien dueled another in mid-air, their blades clashing in bursts of flame and ice.
Then—
A horn blew.
And the sky parted.
A massive dragon, dark as obsidian and twice as deadly, soared into view. Upon its back rode a woman in silver and black.
Velora Emberlyn.
Her eyes locked onto Lyra, cold and hungry.
"Blood of Ash," she called across the sky. "You run from what you were born to wield."
Lyra's flame surged in response. "And you twist what was born to protect!"
Velora raised a hand—and the obsidian dragon roared. Magic surged around it, runes crawling over its wings like parasites.
Kael's face went pale.
"She's corrupted it. That's not a dragon anymore. That's a revenant."
The battle turned.
Zephyr collided with the revenant midair, jaws clashing in a spray of flame and shadow. Vesper flanked from the side, striking at the rune-covered wings. The obsidian dragon let out a roar that made the sky quake.
"Cover Lucien!" Lyra shouted. "He can't take it alone!"
Thalia urged Vulkara to the side, launching molten shards toward Velora, who batted them away with a flick of her wrist.
Lyra surged forward, fire gathering in her palms.
Velora raised a dark blade of glowing obsidian. "You will kneel before your true Queen."
"I bow to no monster," Lyra growled.
Their magic collided midair. The blast threw them both back, dragons screaming as the sky itself cracked.
Below, the ruins of Elarion began to stir.
As if awakened by the battle above, the ancient city beneath the mountain trembled.
Kael's voice cut through the chaos.
"Lyra! The ruins—they're reacting to your flame!"
Vesper dove, dodging a dark pulse from the revenant. Lyra closed her eyes, focusing.
The bondstone on her chest pulsed.
And then—
The mountain split.
A pillar of light shot skyward from the base of the ruins, engulfing the sky in a ring of flame.
Velora hissed, shielding her eyes. "What have you done?!"
Kael's voice was full of awe. "She's awakened the Heart of Flame."
The revenant dragon shrieked, reeling as the light touched its corrupted runes.
"Pull back!" Velora shouted.
But it was too late.
The light pulsed again—and the revenant exploded in a storm of ash and smoke.
Velora vanished into the shadows.
The battle was over.
They landed on the outer cliffs of Elarion's ruins.
Lyra collapsed to her knees.
Lucien caught her, his arms strong around her.
"You did it," he whispered.
"No," she said breathlessly. "We did."
Kael knelt beside them, staring at the glowing runes now etched into the ground.
"The city has accepted you," he said. "The Flame remembers."
Thalia walked to them, singed but smiling. "What now?"
Lyra stood slowly, her hair glowing faintly with embers.
"Now," she said, "we take back the throne."
----
Ben Legend — Igniting worlds, one chapter at a time.