Chapter 73
The silver city faded behind them like mist touched by morning.
Kael and Eliendara walked in silence, hand in hand, the ground beneath them reshaping with every step—as if the world was still deciding what it wanted to be.
The void-being followed, silent and still. Its form had changed again—no longer a shadow, but something clearer. Softer.Still dark… but no longer empty.
Ahead of them stretched a plain where time didn't move in straight lines.
Here, memories bloomed like flowers.A flicker of Eliendara as a girl, laughing under a festival lantern.A glimpse of Kael before fire—before names—just light drifting in the dark.
And then something new:
A child.
With their eyes.Their fire.Their stillness.
A future that had never existed… but could.
Kael stopped walking.
The vision hovered in front of him like a dream barely out of reach.
Eliendara whispered, "Is that… real?"
The First Name emerged from behind a veil of starlight.
"It is a world that never was. But one you now have the right to choose."
Kael looked around.
No war.No gods.Just wind, warmth, and potential.
He glanced at Eliendara, her eyes filled with tears—hopeful ones this time.
"I don't know if I deserve this," he said.
She smiled. "You chose not to destroy. That's all the deserving anyone needs."
But then…
The sky above them fractured.
Not torn.
Shattered.
The First Name's head snapped toward the horizon.
"No…"
A ripple spread across the horizon.
And through it came a sound unlike anything Kael had heard.
Not flame.Not void.Not silence.
But a name.
His name.
Spoken backward.
The First Name turned, face pale.
"The sleeping ones stir.And they remember the first fire…as a threat."
Kael stared at the broken sky.
So close to peace.So close to finally existing without being hunted.
But fate didn't forget.
Not for the origin flame.
Not for the heart that burned before time.
He clenched Eliendara's hand gently.
And said, "Then we make this world real. With or without their permission."
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 74: Names That Should Not Be Spoken
The oldest gods awaken—beings untouched by void or flame.
Kael and Eliendara must protect a future still unborn,as ancient powers seek to erase even the memory of what they've become.
And at the center of it all…
A single name, buried in Kael's soul, threatens to unlock the fire's final form.