POV: Ariya 🔥🏛️🗝️
The land changed before they even saw it.
The trees thinned. The rocks turned black. Ash drifted across the path like snow — soft, silent, suffocating. Every step forward felt heavier, not just from the slope, but from something else.
A pull.
A pressure.
Like the mountain knew they were coming.
And it was watching.
"This place is giving me doom-and-dust vibes," Jax muttered, brushing soot from his shoulder. "I'm not emotionally prepared for anything that smells this much like charcoal and dead choices."
"That's oddly specific," Lyra said, keeping a blade in each hand.
Kael scanned the horizon. "There."
Nestled between two jagged cliffs stood the ruins of a gate. Or what used to be one. Massive blackened stones arched toward the sky, cracked but not crumbled. Strange symbols glowed faintly across the arch — the same language Ariya had seen in the temple... and in her dreams.
Her mark burned.
Literally.
She hissed, clutching her arm. The map branded into her skin began to shine, brighter than ever.
"It's reacting," she whispered.
The arch pulsed in response.
And then… it spoke.
Not in a voice. Not out loud.
But in their minds.
"Ashfall accepts only those who are chosen by the Flame. Speak your truth. Prove your worth. Or turn back and be forgotten."
The words rang like bells through her skull, sharp and strange and ancient.
"We're not going back," Ariya said firmly, stepping forward.
The ground trembled.
A circle of ash opened before the gate. Inside it, four smaller circles shimmered to life — one for each of them.
"Do we… stand in them?" Lyra asked cautiously.
"Or we spontaneously combust," Jax muttered. "Could go either way."
Ariya didn't hesitate. She stepped into the center circle.
The flame surged upward, surrounding her in a pillar of light — but it didn't burn. It scanned.
Memories. Mistakes. Doubt. Fire.
She saw flashes — her village, her family's death, her first kill, the moment she chose not to run from the flame.
Her own voice echoed in her head:
"You don't deserve to lead.""You'll end up like the rest — broken."
She clenched her fists. No.
The fire flickered. Shifted.
And then receded.
"She's in," Kael said softly.
One by one, the others stepped forward.
Lyra faced a whirlwind of past regrets — the lives she couldn't save, her fear of losing Ariya too.
Jax's flame showed a reflection of himself laughing — alone, surrounded by shadows.
Kael's circle burned with faces he'd failed. His father. Old commanders. A bloodied battlefield and Ariya walking away.
But one by one… they endured.
The gate trembled.
And opened.
Inside, the path curved downward into glowing lava caverns, bridges of obsidian, and ancient stone stairs that disappeared into firelit mist.
Ariya's mark dimmed.
"We passed," she whispered. "Ashfall accepted us."
Kael stepped beside her, eyes never leaving hers. "You don't have to prove yourself anymore."
She looked forward.
"Yes, I do. Not to the gate. To me."
Far above, Ruvan stood on a high ridge of the other side, watching them from the shadows.
"Welcome to Ashfall," he murmured, fingers brushing the hilt of his sword."Let's see if you survive it."