Chapter 56
The nights grew colder.
Even the flames flickered uncertainly, as if sensing the tension between the hearts that once beat in perfect sync.
Eliendara sat alone by the Crownfire Pool, watching her reflection twist in the emberlight.
Kael hadn't spoken to her since the awakening of the Heart.
Not truly.
He smiled, stood at her side—but something within him had shifted.
He stood on the balcony now, overlooking the silent city. His bloodfire pulsed faintly, but the rhythm no longer matched hers.
The power from the Heart of Embers was vast—too vast.
It had awakened strength in them both… but also something else.
A piece of Kael's soul had gone silent.
Something had fractured.
Ravien entered, breaking the silence. His face was drawn, his hands trembling.
"You need to see this," he said to Eliendara.
He unrolled a blood-sealed scroll.
"The Heart didn't just awaken power. It awakened him."
Far beneath the realm of flame, in a forgotten chasm where light had never reached, Valtheron stirred.
Not walking. Not speaking.
But becoming.
A black flame curled up his form—slow, patient, lethal.
His Herald knelt before him.
"They wear the Heart now. They've bound its will."
"Good," came the answer. "Then it will be sweeter when I break it."
He looked up—through fire, through time, through the weave of fate.
"And the boy... he carries more than he knows."
Back in the city, Eliendara entered the inner sanctum, where Kael stood before the Mirror of Flame.
He didn't turn to face her.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, voice low.
She frowned. "Tell you what?"
He pointed at the mirror—where his reflection burned blue.
"Why does it show my flame changing?"
She stepped forward slowly.
"I… don't know."
But she did.
She had seen it too.
Since the bond, since the Heart—something had stirred inside Kael.
Something other.
Something that didn't belong.
Suddenly, the flame around the mirror flickered.
A deep laugh echoed through the chamber—not Kael's.
Not hers.
"He is not yours to bind."
"Not anymore."
And then Kael collapsed, screaming as his bloodfire flared violently—burning red, then black.
Eliendara rushed forward—
But the fire flung her back.
And for one heartbeat… Kael's eyes turned void-black.
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 57: The Flame That Betrayed
Kael's soul fractures under Valtheron's curse.Eliendara must make an impossible choice:
Break the bond to save him…Or hold on—and risk being pulled into the void with him.