Chapter 5 — The Echo in the Ember
The forest fell quiet again after the Wispclaw dissolved, but Kael's heart still thundered like a war drum. His arm tingled with leftover Ember fire, flickering beneath his skin like trapped lightning.
Rhyne circled the closed Rift, inspecting the fading energy trails. "This tear is one of many. Something is pushing against the Veil from the other side." He straightened sharply. "We need answers—and fast."
Kael opened his mouth to respond, but a sudden pulse shot through his arm. He staggered, clutching it.
"Kael?" Rhyne moved toward him, but Kael lifted a trembling hand. "Wait—I… I hear something."
The forest blurred.
A surge of blue light washed over Kael's vision, and the world tilted.
Then he wasn't in the forest anymore.
He stood in a vast, star-filled void. Floating shards of broken sky drifted around him like fragments of a shattered mirror. And in the center stood a figure—featureless, made of blue flame, its voice echoing through every corner of Kael's mind.
"Bearer of the Ember… you awaken too soon."
Kael's breath caught. "Who are you?"
"A memory of what was lost. A warning of what is coming."
The shards around them trembled.
Kael stepped forward. "What's pushing through the cracks? What am I supposed to fight?"
The figure's flames flickered. "Not what. Who."
Before Kael could ask anything more, the void began collapsing. The shards fell inward like falling stars, and the figure's voice became urgent.
"The Harrowed King stirs. When the sky fully breaks… all realms fall."
A final burst of light swallowed him.
Kael gasped awake on the forest floor, Rhyne gripping his shoulders.
"What happened?" Rhyne demanded.
Kael blinked away the fading light. "I… saw something. Someone. They called themselves a memory." He swallowed. "And they warned me about… a Harrowed King."
Rhyne went pale.
"That name," he murmured, "hasn't been spoken in centuries."
Kael's pulse quickened. "So it's real?"
Rhyne looked up at the crack in the sky, now bleeding streaks of crimson.
"Real," he said grimly. "And far worse than you understand."