The sanctuary did not breathe for a long, shuddering moment.
Even the wind seemed to halt mid-rustle, caught between branches as though afraid to cross into the clearing. Aelindra's hand remained wrapped tightly around Severin's wrist, grounding him, keeping him steady as whatever had spoken his name in fire echoed faintly inside the hollow of his ribs.
The others stood frozen, not in fear, but in the kind of stunned stillness that came when the world shifted its shape in front of you.
Aelindra was the first to move.
"Inside," she said softly, firmly, placing a hand on Marienne's back. "All of us. We should get her somewhere safe."
Arveth hesitated, eyes darting toward the ward line where the Herald's masked silhouette had stood. But after a long moment, he stepped aside and gestured them deeper into the sanctuary.
"Go," he murmured. "The wards will hold for now."
The words didn't sound like reassurance.
They sounded like a plea.
______
They moved quickly, weaving through the sanctuary's winding paths until they reached the healer's alcove carved into the cliffside, a sheltered hollow with smooth stone floors and a small hearth that flickered with gentle blue healing flame. Aelindra guided Marienne inside, while Severin, Mira, Caelan, and Arveth gathered at the entrance.
Marienne sank onto a woven mat as if her bones had finally remembered what exhaustion felt like. Her chest rose and fell unevenly. Dirt streaked her cheeks, and a thin cut along her jaw still bled in slow, weary trails.
Aelindra knelt before her immediately, hands already glowing with gentle warmth.
"This will hurt a little," she said softly.
Marienne nodded without looking up.
Aelindra pressed her palms against Marienne's forearms, and healing light rippled outward, threading through torn skin and fevered muscle. Small wounds sealed. Bruises faded. But trauma, trauma was slower. Deeper. It clung to Marienne like smoke in fabric.
When Aelindra finished, Marienne released a breath that wasn't relief—just a little less pain to carry.
Severin stepped forward.
"Marienne," he said gently. "Take your time. But we need to know everything."
Her fingers twisted in her torn sleeve as she lifted her gaze. For the first time since she'd crossed the wards, she seemed to truly see the people around her.
Her eyes lingered longest on Severin.
"You're him," she whispered. "The one they wanted."
Severin stiffened, he had a feeling she meant it as more than what she had already told them, but Aelindra and Caelan exchanged a confused look.
"Wanted?" Aelindra asked. "What does that mean?"
Marienne looked between them, confused in return.
"You didn't know…?"
Mira sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Seraphine told me. I was waiting for a better moment."
Caelan blinked. "Better than this?"
Arveth didn't even look surprised.
He simply muttered, "It was only a matter of time."
Severin swallowed hard. "Marienne… start from the beginning."
She nodded once.
And then the dam finally broke.
______
"We woke before sunrise," Marienne began, voice trembling. "There was smoke, but not from cooking fires. We thought maybe a barn had caught flame…"
Caelan went very, very still.
Marienne continued, staring at her dirty hands.
"When we stepped outside, they were already in the settlement. Dozens of them. All wearing those masks, with the eye carved on the front."
Aelindra felt the hairs on her arms rise.
The Veiled Eye.
Marienne swallowed hard.
"They weren't searching for food. Or supplies. They were calling out a name. Your name." She looked again at Severin, breath shaking. "They said the prince of Solis was among us. That he carried the Crownfire. That he belonged to them."
Aelindra blinked.
Caelan's mouth fell open.
Mira just groaned.
"Prince?" Aelindra whispered, eyes wide.
Severin's jaw tightened but he nodded once.
"I stayed in your settlement for a while," he said quietly, "but I never told anyone who I was."
Marienne shook her head. "They knew anyway."
Severin felt something cold settle in his stomach.
"Because someone told them," Marienne whispered. "Someone who knew you were alive. Someone who knew your power."
The air thickened instantly.
Arveth's staff hit the ground softly as he stepped forward.
"Describe their leader."
Marienne's eyes darkened with memory.
"He wore a mask different from the others. Taller. Sharper. And the eye on it was open." A shiver ran down her spine. "When he looked at people, they froze, like they couldn't move, couldn't look away."
Severin's breath hitched.
That description sounded a bit too familiar.
Marienne's voice cracked. "They demanded to know where you were. When no one answered… they set the houses on fire. One by one. Anyone who resisted, anyone who tried to run"
Her words fell apart.
Caelan pulled her into his arms, letting her sob into his shoulder. His jaw trembled.
Aelindra pressed a hand against her mouth, fighting nausea.
Severin could barely breathe.
"They burned your home," he whispered to Caelan. "Because they thought I was there."
Caelan shook his head sharply. "Severin, don't. This isn't on you."
Aelindra touched Severin's arm. "He's right. They chose this violence."
Marienne slowly lifted her head.
"There's more."
Arveth groaned. "Of course there is."
"When the flames spread," Marienne whispered, "I ran. I hid behind the well. And while I was hiding…I heard something. From inside the fire."
The clearing fell silent again.
"A voice," Marienne said. "Calling Severin's name."
Severin felt heat spark in his ribs, the ember inside him pulsing, responding instinctively.
Not the settlement.
Not the people inside it.
Him.
Aelindra shifted closer.
"What kind of voice?"
"Maddeningly calm," Marienne murmured. "Too calm. Like it wasn't afraid of the fire at all. Like it belonged there."
Severin closed his eyes.
The voice from earlier in the sanctuary, the one echoing through flame.
The Herald.
Calling him.
"They're not just looking for me," Severin whispered. "They're summoning me."
Arveth's expression hardened. "If the Herald called to you across fire, then he has already marked you."
Mira cursed under her breath. "Fantastic."
Aelindra reached for Severin again, grounding him.
"You're not facing this alone."
Caelan nodded, fury simmering. "After what they did, Severin, I'm with you."
Aelindra looked to Marienne. "You can stay here..."
"No." Marienne's voice steadied. "I'm not running from this anymore."
A heavy silence followed.
Then Arveth exhaled.
"We need a strategy. The wards are weakening."
Severin turned toward him. "Where can we go?"
"There is one place," Arveth said slowly, "where the Herald's sight cannot reach. The Umbral Range."
Caelan blinked. "The mountain shadows?"
Arveth nodded. "Their magic devours other magic. Even the Herald's."
Aelindra frowned. "Getting there won't be easy."
Marienne whispered, "He'll follow."
Severin lowered his head.
"He won't stop until he gets what he came for."
Aelindra squeezed his hand.
"Then we go together."
Mira smirked. "Obviously."
Caelan set his jaw. "I'm seeing this through."
"Then it's settled," Arveth said. "Gather what you need."
Before sundown.
Severin stared into the small hearth.
For a moment, the flames seemed to stretch,
form a hand,
a silhouette,
And a voice whispered:
Soon.
He stepped back sharply.
Aelindra caught his arm. "Sev?"
He forced the vision away.
"We must move. Now."
Outside, the wards rippled,
a thin, trembling shiver running along the boundary of the sanctuary.
The Herald had marked the path.
And Severin felt the brand of it burning beneath his skin.
They were already running out of time.
_______
The sanctuary shifted in uneasy silence as they scattered to gather what little they owned. Aelindra moved quickly, grabbing bandages, herbs, a waterskin, and the worn satchel she'd carried since the day she fled her old village. Her hands trembled, not from fear, but from the magnitude of what was unfolding.
Severin was a prince.
Prince of Solis.
She still couldn't wrap her mind around it. Caelan kept glancing at him too, each time with a look that bordered somewhere between disbelief and quiet betrayal, as though piecing together every moment they'd shared without ever knowing who he'd truly been.
Mira, in contrast, looked unsurprised. Troubled, but not shocked. Aelindra pulled her aside.
"You knew?"
Mira hesitated. "Seraphine told me. Months ago. She thought… it might matter someday. I didn't expect it to matter like this."
Aelindra swallowed hard. "Why didn't Severin tell us?"
Because he never believed he'd need to.
Because he'd run from a throne the way some people ran from monsters.
Because power had ruined everything for him once already.
Before Mira could answer, a sharp pulse rippled through the sanctuary. Not loud, just a subtle shift, like the wards had taken a single, painful breath.
Arveth emerged from the shadows of the inner hall, staff glowing faintly.
"That was the second tremor in five minutes," he said. "We don't have until sundown anymore."
Severin stepped out behind him, jaw clenched. "He's pushing against the boundary, isn't he?"
"No," Arveth replied grimly. "He's pressing on you. The wards are reacting because you're the one marked."
Aelindra moved toward Severin before she even realized she'd taken a step. "Does it hurt?"
He shook his head once. "Not pain. Just… pressure. Like he's tugging at something he wants from me."
"The Crownfire," Arveth murmured. "He thinks it belongs to him."
Caelan cursed quietly, slinging a pack over his shoulder. "Well, he can't have it."
Aelindra turned toward Marienne, who stood now shaken, but steadier. Her eyes were red, her cheeks streaked, but there was something fierce beneath all of it.
"I'm coming," Marienne said before anyone could ask. "I won't slow you down."
Aelindra squeezed her hand. "You're not slowing anyone."
Another tremor hit the wards, harder this time. The blue threads of light along the treeline flickered.
Arveth didn't look back as he strode toward the mountain path.
"Everyone out," he said sharply. "The sanctuary will not hold for a third."
The group exchanged one last silent glance, fear, determination, grief, and something else beneath it:
Resolve.
Severin lingered a heartbeat longer; eyes fixed on the trembling barrier.
He heard the Herald.
Not with ears, deeper than that.
A whisper beneath the ribs, a hand brushing the inside of his spine.
"Soon, Crownfire."
Severin's breath caught.
Aelindra grabbed his hand.
"Not today," she whispered.
And together, they ran.