Kael's POV
Something ancient wakes beneath the wasteland.
I feel it through the curse—a tremor in the magic that holds this place together. Like someone just opened a door that's been sealed for millennia.
"Did you feel that?" Elara asks, Luna still in her arms.
"Yes." I move to the broken doorway, looking out at the courtyard. The black pillar—the Seal—is glowing brighter now. One symbol burning red. Six still dark.
But something's different.
The wasteland is changing.
The dead trees at the edge of the courtyard are moving. Not swaying in wind. Moving. Their petrified branches uncurling, reaching toward the Keep like fingers.
"We need to leave," Nina says urgently. "Now. Before—"
The ground splits open.
Not a crack this time. A chasm. Right down the middle of the courtyard, spreading fast. From the darkness below comes a sound—breathing. Slow. Deep. Ancient.
"Inside!" I shout. "Everyone back!"
We scramble deeper into the Keep. I seal the doors with a spell, but I know it won't hold. Whatever's waking up down there, it's older than my magic. Stronger than my curse.
"What is that thing?" Elara asks.
"I don't know. But the Seal wasn't just locking away darkness. It was locking away something specific." I think hard, trying to remember the stories. The legends. "Before Lunaris, before humans built kingdoms, there were the First Beings. Creatures made of pure magic. They shaped the world. Created mountains and oceans. But they were too powerful. They fought each other and nearly destroyed everything."
"So someone sealed them away," Elara finishes.
"Seven of them. The most dangerous. Each locked behind one of the Seal's seven locks." I look at little Luna, sleeping peacefully in her mother's arms. "We just let the first one out."
Silence.
Then Nina starts crying. "My baby. My baby did this. I did this. I helped Theron—"
"You were protecting your daughter," Elara says firmly. "Any mother would do the same."
"But now the world is ending because I—"
"The world hasn't ended yet." Elara's voice is stronger than it should be. She's been here two days and she's already braver than I've been in three hundred years. "Kael, can we reseal it?"
"Maybe. If we had the original seal-makers. But they've been dead for thousands of years."
"Then we find another way." Elara hands Luna to Nina. "How do we fight a First Being?"
"We don't. We can't. They're—"
The wall explodes.
Stone and dust everywhere. When it clears, something stands in the rubble.
A woman. Or what used to be a woman. Tall, skin like polished obsidian, hair made of actual flames. Her eyes glow white-hot.
"Three thousand years," she says, her voice like a volcano. "Three thousand years in darkness. And this is what wakes me? A baby's giggle and a moon-marked child?"
She looks directly at Elara.
"Hello, little descendant. You look just like the queen who imprisoned me."
Elara steps forward. I grab her arm. "Don't—"
"Let me talk to her." Elara shakes me off. "You said the First Beings shaped the world. That means they can think. Reason. Make deals."
"Elara, this is insane—"
But she's already walking toward the creature.
"What's your name?" Elara asks.
The First Being tilts her head. "Name? I had many. Fire-Bringer. World-Shaper. Death-Singer. The humans who sealed me called me Pyra."
"I'm Elara. This is Kael. We didn't mean to wake you."
"But you did." Pyra's flames burn brighter. "And now I'm free. Finally free to burn this world to ash."
"Why?" Elara asks simply.
The question seems to surprise Pyra. "Why?"
"Why burn the world? What did it do to you?"
"It imprisoned me. Locked me away like a criminal. Like something dangerous that needed to be controlled."
"Were you dangerous?"
Pyra laughs—it sounds like crackling fire. "Of course I was dangerous. I am fire incarnate. I destroy to create. I burn away the old to make room for the new. That's my nature."
"So they were right to lock you up," Elara says.
I hold my breath. This could go very badly.
Pyra's eyes narrow. "Careful, moon-child."
"I'm just saying—if your nature is destruction, and they wanted to protect their world, sealing you makes sense." Elara crosses her arms. "But keeping you locked up forever? That seems cruel."
"Finally, someone understands." Pyra moves closer. Heat radiates from her. The air shimmers. "Three thousand years alone in the dark. Do you know what that does to a mind?"
"He does." Elara points at me. "Three hundred years cursed. Alone. Watching everything he loved turn to dust. He understands prison."
Pyra looks at me. Really looks. "The Sorcerer King. I heard your screams when the Queen cursed you. They echoed all the way down to my cell."
"I'm sorry," I say, not knowing what else to say.
"Don't be. Your suffering was... comforting. Knowing I wasn't the only one trapped." Pyra's flames dim slightly. "But now I'm free. And I have three thousand years of rage to release."
"Or," Elara says carefully, "you could help us."
I stare at her. "What?"
"Think about it. Theron wants to release all seven First Beings. Create chaos. End the world. But what if we made a deal with them instead? Let them out, but give them purpose. Direction. Something better than destruction."
"You want to negotiate with ancient god-beings?" I can't believe what I'm hearing.
"Better than fighting them." Elara looks at Pyra. "What do you want? Really want? Besides burning everything?"
Pyra is quiet for a long moment. Her flames flicker and dance.
"I want to create again," she finally says. "I want to shape mountains. Forge new lands. Make volcanoes that birth islands. I was never meant to destroy everything—just reshape it. Make it better."
"Then do that." Elara holds out her marked hand. "Help us stop Theron. Help us control what comes out of the other six locks. In exchange, we give you freedom to create. Not destroy. Create."
"Elara, this is madness," I hiss.
"Do you have a better plan?" she hisses back.
I don't.
Pyra stares at Elara's glowing palm. "You would trust me? After I just threatened to burn your world?"
"No. But I'm betting you're tired of being a prisoner. That you want something more than revenge." Elara's hand doesn't waver. "Am I wrong?"
Silence stretches.
Then Pyra reaches out.
Her burning hand touches Elara's marked palm.
Light explodes—silver and red mixing, swirling. Elara gasps but doesn't pull away. The Moonmark absorbs some of Pyra's fire-magic, channeling it, purifying it, transforming it.
When the light fades, Elara's palm has changed.
The Moonmark now has veins of red running through the silver. Fire and moon combined.
"A binding," Pyra says, sounding surprised. "You've bound me to you. To your service."
"Not service. Partnership." Elara's breathing hard. "I can feel your power now. You can feel my intention. We're connected."
"Clever little moon-child." Pyra actually smiles. "Very well. I accept your deal. I will help you with the other locks. But know this—some of my siblings are not as reasonable as I am."
"We'll deal with that when we get there." Elara turns to me. "How many days until Theron makes his next move?"
I'm still processing what just happened. "I... I don't know. Days? Weeks?"
"Then we have time to prepare." Elara looks at Luna, still sleeping peacefully. "We have sixteen years before she auto-activates all the locks. That means we need to open the other six ourselves. Carefully. One at a time."
"You want to deliberately release six more First Beings?" Nina looks terrified.
"Better we control when and how they're released than let Theron do it," Elara says.
She sounds so certain. So confident. Like she's been making impossible decisions her whole life.
Maybe she has.
"There's one problem," Pyra says. "The locks require specific keys. Moon and Sun combined, yes. But each lock also needs something else. A sacrifice. A truth. A death."
"What does the second lock need?" Elara asks.
Pyra's smile fades. "Blood of the cursed. Freely given."
We all look at me.
"No," I say immediately. "Absolutely not. We're not—"
"It's the only way," Elara says quietly.
"We'll find another way!"
"Kael." She puts her hand on my arm. The one that's half-stone, half-flesh. "You said you wanted redemption. You wanted to protect people. This is how."
"By bleeding for a ritual that might kill me?"
"By trusting me." Her eyes meet mine. "I shared your curse. I bound myself to you. Now I'm asking you to trust me one more time."
I look at her. This girl who chose to stay when she could have left. Who shared a curse to save strangers. Who just made a deal with a fire-god to prevent the apocalypse.
"You're going to get us all killed," I say.
"Probably." She smiles. "But we'll go down fighting."
Despite everything, I laugh. "Fine. What do we need to do?"
Pyra gestures and the floor opens up. Stairs descending into darkness.
"The second lock is below. In the oldest part of the Seal. The place where the Queen performed the original binding ritual." She looks at me. "It's also where you were cursed, Sorcerer King. Are you ready to return?"
No. I'm not ready. I'll never be ready to go back to that place.
But Elara takes my hand.
And somehow, that's enough.
We descend into darkness.
Nina follows with Luna.
Pyra brings up the rear, her flames providing the only light.
The stairs go down. And down. And down.
Until we reach a chamber that hasn't seen light in three centuries.
My old laboratory. Where I tried to bring back the woman I loved.
Where I destroyed everything.
And in the center of the room, glowing with dark light, is the second lock.
Waiting for my blood.