The world had gone quiet.
Not the quiet of peace — but the kind that hums just before something ancient remembers it's alive.
Kael stood at the edge of the valley, his eyes glowing faintly gold in the dusk. The Crimson Rain had stopped hours ago, yet the ground still steamed. He could smell sulfur, hear faint whispers threading through the fog — voices that weren't wind, weren't human.
Lira clutched her cloak tighter. "It's like the world's holding its breath."
Kael nodded. "Or waiting to see who exhales first."
Behind them, the faint shimmer of the Silver Dragon's essence coiled like mist — a spectral echo of scales and wings. It didn't speak, only pulsed with the rhythm of Kael's heartbeat.
"You've heard the silence too."
Kael froze. The voice wasn't Lira's.
It came from nowhere and everywhere — deep, resonant, whispering through his bones.
"The seal weakens… the valley stirs. When it wakes, you will have to choose — burn with it, or stand against what your blood remembers."
Kael fell to his knees, clutching his head. Flashes struck his mind — ancient battles, dragons in chains, his ancestors falling one by one in silver fire.
Lira dropped beside him. "Kael! Kael, breathe!"
He gasped, the visions fading — but something remained. A mark burned faintly on his palm, the shape of a spiraling sigil — the same that glowed on Veyne's mask.
"I saw it," Kael muttered, shaking. "The valley's not dead. It's dreaming."
Lira's eyes widened. "Dreaming of what?"
Kael looked up toward the mountains where the mist coiled, silver and red intertwining. "Not what," he said.
"Who."
The ground shuddered violently — a deep rumble rolling beneath their feet. Trees swayed. Birds scattered in silence.
And then, rising out of the fog, came a sound unlike anything Kael had ever heard.
A low, resonant heartbeat.
Each thud echoed across the valley — ancient, patient, eternal.
The Silver Dragon's essence flared behind Kael, wings unfolding, its voice whispering low and urgent.
"It's begun."
Kael turned to Lira — and saw terror mirrored in her eyes.
Whatever was beneath the valley wasn't just waking… it was calling.
And Kael could feel it calling him.