The road from Emberdeep was long and winding, carved through black stone that still radiated heat from the mountain's heart. The group traveled in uneasy silence, the glow of the molten city fading behind them.
Kastor was the first to break it. "Anyone else notice the way Serenya kept her bow half-raised the whole time? Even after the fight was over?"
Serenya didn't look at him. "The Emberlord's daughter is dangerous. If she gave us the shard so easily, she's already decided how she'll get it back."
"Or she's just smarter than we think," Kastor muttered.
Elara stayed quiet, her mind replaying the trial in the Pit. The way the shard had pulsed in her hand, almost as if it had known the creature. As if it had been made for that very moment. That connection both thrilled and frightened her.
By nightfall, they made camp on a cliffside overlooking a valley of ash. A thin mist clung to the ground, curling like fingers through the dead trees below.
Kastor took first watch, pacing the edge of camp with his sword resting on his shoulder. Elara lay beside the fire, staring up at the stars. She didn't realize how much she'd missed them until she saw them again after days beneath the mountain.
"Can't sleep?" Serenya's voice was low as she sat beside her.
"Too much on my mind."
"You're thinking about the shard," Serenya guessed.
Elara hesitated, then nodded. "It's like… it wants me to find the others. I can feel it pulling me forward."
Serenya's gaze was sharp. "Be careful. That's how power works. It whispers until you can't tell where it ends and you begin."
They switched watches in the deep hours of night. When Elara woke to take her turn, she noticed something strange—Kastor's bedroll was empty.
She scanned the camp. No sign of him.
"Elara?" Serenya's voice came from the shadows. She stepped into the firelight, her bow in hand. "He's gone."
The words sent a cold rush through Elara. "Gone where?"
"I followed him halfway down the path. He was heading toward the Ash Vale… alone."
They tracked him at dawn. The trail led through the valley of ash, each step sinking into the powdery ground. It was eerily silent—no birds, no wind, only the soft crunch of their boots.
Then they found him.
Kastor stood in a clearing, speaking to someone cloaked in deep crimson. The figure's face was hidden, but their voice carried, smooth and unhurried.
"…you have done well to bring me this far. The Emberdeep shard was the last I needed for the Gate."
Elara's stomach dropped. The shard?
She stepped forward before Serenya could stop her. "Kastor!"
He spun, eyes wide with shock. "Elara, I—this isn't what it looks like."
"It looks like you've been selling us out," Serenya said coldly, arrow already nocked.
The crimson figure chuckled, stepping closer. "Oh, it's exactly what it looks like. Kastor here is simply… pragmatic. He knows the Ash Crown doesn't belong in your hands."
"Who are you?" Elara demanded.
The figure tilted their head. "A friend to some. A nightmare to others. Call me Morvane."
Morvane extended a gloved hand toward Elara. "The crown will awaken soon. Give me the shards, and I will spare your lives when the Guardian rises."
"Not happening," Elara said.
Morvane's voice softened, almost pitying. "Then you choose ruin. Very well."
They snapped their fingers. The ash around them began to stir. Shapes rose from the ground—twisted, skeletal forms, their bones blackened, their empty eyes burning with faint blue light.
The fight erupted instantly. Serenya loosed arrow after arrow, each one splitting through ash and bone. Elara clutched the shards, feeling them heat against her skin.
"Kastor!" she shouted over the chaos. "You have a choice—help us or stand with them."
He froze, torn between the two sides. The hesitation cost him—a skeletal warrior lunged, slashing across his arm.
Something shifted in his expression then. He turned, slamming his sword into the attacker and shattering it to dust.
Morvane's voice cut through the clash. "Fool! You think they will trust you now?"
Kastor didn't answer. He just fought—beside Elara and Serenya, cutting down the ash-born one by one.
When the last creature fell, the clearing was silent again. Morvane was gone, vanishing into the drifting mist.
Serenya lowered her bow but didn't relax. "Why?" she asked Kastor, her voice like steel.
He swallowed hard. "I thought… maybe Morvane could help us. I didn't know they wanted all the shards. I didn't know what they really were."
Elara studied him. His betrayal had cut deep, but in his eyes, she saw something she didn't expect—shame.
"We finish this together," she said at last, "or not at all. But if you even think about running again, I'll make sure you can't."
Kastor nodded grimly. "Understood."
As they left the valley, the wind picked up, carrying with it a whisper that only Elara seemed to hear:
The crown is almost whole.