Ash swirled through the morning wind, thick as breath, heavy as memory.
Kael and Lyra stood side by side on the blackened ridge, watching as the Hollow Lords approached — five figures cloaked in living flame. At their head walked one who should have been dead.
Kael's twin.
Saren.
Lyra felt the tremor in Kael's arm before she heard his breath catch. "Is that…?"
"Yes."
Saren's armor was darker than shadow, adorned with crimson sigils that pulsed like embers. His face bore Kael's lines, Kael's eyes — but colder. Hollow. Burned clean of mercy.
"You never looked for me," Saren said as he stopped twenty paces away. His voice echoed through the stone. "Not even once."
"I thought you died when the flame fell," Kael replied, tone steel and sorrow. "I mourned you."
Saren's mouth curled. "You mourned a memory. While I burned. While I served."
He looked to Lyra then, and the flames at his feet coiled like vipers.
"This is the girl who made you weak?"
Kael stepped forward, blade still sheathed but his aura flaring. "One more word and you'll choke on it."
"Oh, brother," Saren said, laughing, "I want to see how much of the prince still lives in you."
Without another warning, the Hollow Lords raised their hands.
The ground cracked open. Flames erupted skyward. Kael leapt, drawing his blade in one swift motion, deflecting a blast aimed for Lyra. She spun behind him, chanting, summoning a barrier of silver light.
"Lyra, go!" he shouted.
She stayed.
Their bond lit like a storm.
Kael and Saren clashed.
Steel against flame. Memory against wrath.
Every strike rang like a scream of the past. Saren fought with fury born of betrayal. Kael, with love born of truth.
The Hollow Lords pressed forward, but Lyra met them head-on. Her magic pulsed in time with Kael's movements, weaving between his sword strokes, creating shields, flares, blasts of mirrored heat.
"You chose them," Saren snarled, slamming Kael into a slab of stone. "You chose her."
"I chose hope!" Kael roared, kicking him back. "I chose not to become what they made you."
Saren surged again, blade aflame. "Then die with your hope."
Their swords met one final time — and Kael's magic, fed by the bond, exploded outward in a wave of searing light.
The Hollow Lords reeled.
And Saren was thrown back, landing hard on the ridge.
Silence returned.
Kael panted, sword lowered but not sheathed. Saren lay still, eyes burning but gaze... changed.
"You still feel," Kael said quietly.
Saren said nothing.
But he didn't strike again.
And the Hollow Lords retreated into the smoke.
Kael collapsed to his knees. Lyra rushed to him.
"Hey, hey—look at me."
He did.
And in that moment, there was no prince. No flame. No war.
Just a man, broken open. Held together by her.