POV: Ariya đĽđŻď¸â°ď¸
The cave behind the village was hidden beneath a curtain of moss, wedged between two jagged boulders. The elder had only whispered of it once â a place the villagers didn't go. A place left to the fire and its dreams.
Ariya was the first to step inside.
The air was cooler here. Still. The glow of her flame cast flickering shapes along the walls. Kael followed close behind, his hand never far from his sword. Lyra and Jax brought up the rear, both unusually quiet.
They descended deeper into the dark, the tunnel narrowing, then widening again â until they reached a vast, hollow chamber.
And there it was.
A wall.
No doors. No markings of passage.
Just a curved surface covered in carvings â not etched, but burned into the stone. Shapes and figures danced in spirals across its surface, their edges glowing faintly as if touched by an eternal ember.
Ariya's breath caught.
"It's reacting to her," Lyra whispered. "Just like the seal in the forest."
Ariya stepped closer.
The wall pulsed â and the carvings began to shift.
The flame figures came to life.
Four stood side by side â stylized shadows of a girl, a knight, a winged huntress, and a jester holding fire in his hand.
Her team.
Then the images twisted.
The knight fell.
The huntress wept.
The jester scattered into fragments.
The girl â the one with flame in her chest â stood alone.
Chains wrapped around her wrists, and her mark burned brighter.
"This isâŚ" Kael murmured, "...a vision?"
Ariya stepped closer still. Her mark began to throb. Not in pain â in recognition.
The wall shifted again.
The chained girl faced a throne of shadows.
On it sat a crown of smoke â and beside it, a mirror, cracked.
And in the mirror?
Her own face.
But older.
Colder.
Eyes glowing with power that didn't look like fire anymore.
"No," she whispered. "That's not me."
The flame vision of her raised its hand â and the mirror shattered.
Behind her, Kael said her name. Once. Quietly.
Ariya turned, eyes wide. "I saw⌠what I could become."
"You don't have to be that," he said. "Whatever it showed â you decide who you are."
But her fingers were shaking again.
Because for a moment, the girl in the mirror hadn't looked like a stranger.
She had looked⌠free.
And that terrified her most of all.
Jax lit a flame along the chamber floor, revealing more symbols: spirals, suns, and at the center â a trail leading toward the mountains.
"Looks like this is our next direction," he said, his usual cheer dimmed.
Lyra pressed a hand against the stone. "This whole place is a warning."
"Or a challenge," Ariya murmured. "To change it before it becomes real."
She turned, her voice steadier now.
"Let's go. I won't let that future happen."
And as they left the chamber, the wall behind them dimmed once more.
But one figure remained glowing, unseen.
A tall figure in a cloak of smoke.
Watching.
Waiting.
Far away, Ruvan sat before his flame-mirror, fingers tracing the edge of his mark.
"You've seen it now," he whispered."The path. The crown. The fire that breaks or binds.""And still⌠you walk toward it."
He smiled.
"Soon, little flame. We'll see which you truly are."