Location:Citadel of Glass – Throne Hall of King Malrec
The throne was carved from obsidian, jagged and cruel.
King Malrec sat upon it in silence, fingers wrapped around the hilt of a ceremonial sword that had never tasted battle.
He didn't need to swing blades.
Others did that for him.
🩸 His Power Was Not Born — It Was Stolen
Malrec had no magic of his own. He had something worse.
The Shard.
A cursed relic—taken from a dying Fireborn queen decades ago. A fragment of her spirit crystal, ground to dust and melted into metal.
Embedded in his chest, it pulsed like a heartbeat.Magic not his, but bound to him by force and pain.
It gave him power over flame—not to create it, but to kill it.
👁️ The Enemy in the Mirror
Malrec stood before a mirror. It did not reflect his face.
Instead, it showed a shadowy figure cloaked in smoke, a mask of bone across its face.
"The girl is alive," Malrec said to it.
The shadow raplied in a voice like cracking ice:
"And your hunters failed."
"I sent a shadowbeast."
"She burned it."
The figure paused.
"Then the flame awakens. Just as we feared."
Malrec turned away, fists clenched.
"The prophecy was a lie," he muttered. "The Fireborn line was broken. She shouldn't exist."
"But she does," the shadow said. "And if she finds the others... you will lose everything."
🐍 The Shadow's Identity
Not a man. Not a mage.
Something older. A god-fragment—an ancient being once bound by the Fireborn queens, now whispering poison into Malrec's ears.
His name?
Serevas, the Veiled Flame-Eater
Bound to the Shard, feeding off stolen fire, corrupting the kingdom from within.
🕊️ The True Plan
The king doesn't want Ariya dead.
He wants her broken.
He wants to turn her, use her power to awaken something far older and darker than kingship.
Serevas leans forward in the mirror.
"Send the Whisper Sisters. The girl must not reach the Temple of Crowned Flame."
Malrec nodded. "It will be done."
🔥 Back to Emberdeep
Far away, Ariya stirred in her sleep—eyes flickering open, chest tight with sudden heat.
A voice echoed in her dream.
"They will come for you not with blades… but with memories."