Chapter 101
The sky was whole again.
The gods were gone.
But the silence they left behind was not peace—it was something else.
Waiting.
Kael and Vaern stood at the edge of the village, watching as life began to move again.
Children ran between stalls.
Old men repaired broken carts.
And the fig tree bloomed in full, its roots no longer trembling.
Eliendara stepped beside them, scrolls clutched in her arms.
"The world remembers now."
Vaern nodded slowly.
"Good.Then we don't have to remind it."
Kael looked eastward, where sky met ash.
"But something's still wrong."
Beneath the earth—far, far below the roots of any tree—a sound echoed.
A heartbeat made of stone.
Not fire.
Not divine.
Older.
It pulsed in rhythm with something buried.
Not dead.
Just forgotten.
And it was waking.
In a cavern lined with the bones of creatures no one had ever named,a figure stirred.
Skin like obsidian.
Eyes closed.
Lips cracked with ancient symbols.
They opened one eye, just enough to taste the surface world.
Then whispered:
"They let fire judge gods…"
"But they never asked who judged fire."
Back in the village, Vaern froze.
Kael turned instantly.
"You felt it too?"
Vaern didn't answer at first.
Then, without emotion:
"Something just looked at me from under the world."
Eliendara's face drained of color.
"That can't be right.The underrealm is sealed."
Kael turned toward the horizon.
"Then something just unsealed it."
The fig tree's branches snapped suddenly—just one.Clean.Deliberate.
A warning.
A promise.
And far beneath the soil, the ancient being smiled.
Its voice was hollow stone and molten dust.
"Let the gods sleep.Let the flames flicker."
"Now it is ash's turn to speak."
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 102: The One Beneath Fire
As the world begins to heal,a force untouched by prophecy, gods, or flame begins to rise.
Kael and Vaern must confront a being not of balance, but of emptiness—a will that existed before choice.
Because before there was fire…
there was silence.