Echoes of the Immortal Flame
Written by R.E. Solcrest
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The wind outside the ruins was colder than Aryan remembered. Or perhaps it was he who had changed.
The sigil still burned faintly on his palm—moon wrapped in flame, pulsing with a rhythm not entirely his own. It wasn't just a mark. It was a message. A door. A key. And something else…
A tether.
Aryan stepped onto the stone path back toward the sect. Behind him, the ancient ruins stood silent, but not dormant. He could feel it—the Keeper still watched, not with malice, but with expectation.
"One path," Aryan whispered, eyes sharp as a blade. "One name."
And the flame answered with silence… yet it stirred.
As he approached the outer valley, shadows shifted unnaturally. He wasn't alone.
"You carry her mark," a voice hissed—female, serpentine. A shadow peeled itself from the stone, revealing a woman robed in black petals, her eyes two pits of shimmering venom. "That sigil does not belong to you."
Aryan's gaze didn't falter. "Then take it."
She stepped forward. "You've awakened something, boy. Something we buried. We drowned."
"I didn't come here to dig graves," he said. "But if you stand in my way—yours will be next."
She flinched—not at the threat, but at the calm with which he spoke it.
Her form twisted, then dissolved into mist.
Not a real fight. A warning.
But why warn him?
Aryan looked at the sigil again. Now, faint letters shimmered around its curve. Ancient script. Not of this realm.
He could read only one word.
"Pact."
A memory surfaced—Lirael's voice in another life. Whispered in moonlight.
"If ever the flame and the moon align… the pact returns."
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Author's Note – R.E. Solcrest
The sigil is more than a mark—it's the beginning of a forgotten promise, forged in lifetimes past. Aryan's journey is no longer just about power. It's about what fate tried to bury… and what love refuses to forget.
What do you think the Moonfire Pact really is?