POV: Ariya 🗺️🔥🌋
By morning, the fire in the sky had dimmed.
But the weight in Ariya's chest had not.
They packed in silence. The villagers had already returned to their quiet, masked lives, avoiding eye contact and refusing questions about the cave. Even the elder had vanished by sunrise.
Ariya rolled the old map between her fingers as the group gathered at the village edge.
But the lines on the parchment… had changed.
There was no trail anymore. No mountain routes. Just a blank burn across the center — as if the paper itself had been scorched clean.
"That's new," Jax muttered, peering over her shoulder.
"Is this a bad thing or a terrible thing?" Lyra asked dryly.
"Depends," Kael said, voice low. "Can we still move forward?"
Ariya frowned.
The parchment began to glow.
Not from the ink — from her.
The map burned brighter as her hand touched it, until it pulsed and sparked — and then fused with her skin.
"Ariya—!" Kael shouted, reaching for her, but it was too late.
The parchment crumbled into ash.
And across her forearm, from wrist to elbow, a glowing trail carved itself into her flesh — not with blood, but with fire.
A living, burning map.
Ariya screamed — but didn't pull away.
She didn't need to.
The pain was sharp but not cruel. It felt like a mark she had earned.
When it stopped, Kael caught her as she staggered.
"I'm fine," she breathed, sweat clinging to her brow.
"No, you're not," he said, wrapping his arm around her waist.
"Let me see it," Lyra said, already digging for salve in her pack.
Ariya slowly pulled back her sleeve.
The map etched into her skin glowed faintly, like cooled metal.
It pointed one way only — northeast. Toward jagged mountains half-hidden in fog.
Toward Ashfall Reach.
"It's… beautiful," Jax said, genuinely quiet for once.
"It's a curse," Kael muttered. "We don't know what it does to her."
"It shows the way," Ariya whispered. "And it came to me. No more guessing."
"No more safety, either," Lyra added. "That thing basically screamed to the world where you're headed."
"Let them come," Ariya said, standing straighter. "I'm done hiding."
As they left the village, the wind picked up behind them, whispering through the cliffside like voices sighing goodbye. Or a warning.
They didn't look back.
Far away, in the citadel of mirrors and smoke, Ruvan stood before a projection of fire shaped like a star.
He watched it flicker — then split in two.
One flame burned steady.
The other… bent, spiraled, and turned inward.
"She's marked herself," he said softly.
Corven's reflection shimmered beside him. "Do we act now?"
"Not yet. Let her come closer. Let her think it's her choice."
He turned toward a shadowed alcove where a silver ring rested inside a case — one that hummed with Ariya's magic.
"And when she reaches the Reach," Ruvan said, eyes narrowing,"I will be waiting."