They did not bury Saryn.
There was no ground willing to take him.
The Ember Wastes rejected stillness—ash swallowed footprints within moments, heat erased traces of passage, and the wind scattered memory as easily as sand. What remained of Saryn lay wrapped in Maelor's cloak, placed carefully upon a rise of obsidian where the fire could not reach.
Lira stood closest.
She hadn't cried since it happened.
Her eyes were dry, distant, fixed on nothing at all.
Kael knelt a short distance away, fists pressed into the black sand so hard the silver flame threatened to spill free. He had replayed the moment again and again—every movement, every breath he hadn't taken fast enough.
I wasn't strong enough.
The dragon within him did not mock him.
It was silent.
Maelor finally spoke. "The Ember Wastes end here."
Kael looked up.
Ahead, the world simply… stopped.
The land fractured into an immense drop, the edge jagged and broken, falling away into endless cloud and wind. Far below—too far—nothing could be seen but a pale, shifting void. Above it all floated fragments of land, massive islands drifting in slow, solemn circles, tethered by no chains, obeying no laws Kael understood.
The Sky Abyss.
Lira stepped forward without hesitation.
The wind hit her immediately—cold, violent, nothing like the burning gales behind them. It tore at her hair and cloak, whispering through the empty space with a sound like distant voices calling names they no longer remembered.
"This is where he meant us to go," she said.
Kael rose slowly. "Saryn?"
She nodded once. "He knew."
Maelor's expression darkened. "Then he knew the cost."
A narrow bridge of fractured stone extended from the cliff's edge, broken in places, barely holding together by veins of pale energy that hummed softly beneath their feet. With every step forward, the world behind them seemed to fall further away.
Kael's chest tightened as they crossed.
The higher they went, the louder the wind became—not in volume, but in presence. It pressed against his thoughts, tugged at memories, stirred the dragon uneasily.
This place remembers, the dragon murmured at last. And it judges.
The first island loomed ahead—vast, its underside wrapped in mist, its surface covered in pale grass that rippled like water beneath the wind. At its center rose shattered pillars of stone arranged in a wide circle, ancient beyond reckoning.
Lira stopped abruptly.
Kael followed her gaze.
Something moved between the pillars.
Not a creature.
A shape.
Tall. Thin. Not quite solid, its form rippling as if made of condensed wind and shadow. Its presence bent the air around it, distorting distance and depth.
Maelor inhaled sharply. "A Watcher."
Kael's silver flame ignited instinctively. "Friend or enemy?"
Maelor didn't answer.
The Watcher spoke first.
Not aloud.
Its voice pressed directly into their minds, layered, overlapping, ancient.
"You carry fracture."
Lira stiffened. "It's talking to Kael."
"No," the Watcher replied. "To both."
The air around Lira shimmered faintly.
Kael stepped forward. "We're not here to fight."
The Watcher tilted its head. "Everyone who arrives says that."
Without warning, the wind surged violently. Kael lost his footing, sliding toward the island's edge—
—and saw it.
A vision slammed into him.
Not prophecy.
Memory.
He stood above a burning sky, wings spread wide, silver flame raining down upon cities that screamed as they fell. Dragons wheeled beside him—some silver, some blackened, some screaming in agony as they shattered mid-flight.
And below—
Lira.
Standing against him.
Her eyes were cold.
Her hand was raised.
Kael gasped, snapping back into himself as Lira grabbed his arm, anchoring him.
"Kael!" she shouted over the wind. "Stay with me!"
He clutched her wrist, breathing hard. "I saw—"
"I know," she said fiercely. "You don't face it alone."
The Watcher observed silently.
"You walk toward becoming," it said at last. "One of you will ascend. One of you will break. The sky will remember which."
Maelor slammed his staff into the ground. "Enough riddles. We pass or we don't."
The Watcher's form thinned, dispersing slowly into the wind. "Pass," it allowed. "But understand this—"
The sky darkened.
"The abyss does not forgive hesitation."
The pressure lifted.
The wind softened—slightly.
Kael steadied himself, silver flame receding. Lira didn't let go of his arm.
Far above them, the next floating island shifted, drifting closer, as if answering an unseen call.
Maelor turned toward it. "Once we move forward, there's no turning back."
Kael looked at Lira.
She nodded.
They stepped deeper into the Sky Abyss.
And far beyond the clouds, something ancient opened its eyes.