The stars above the Emberfields shone brighter than they had before.
There was peace, the longest any could remember. Crops abounded. New cities rose up where there had been only ruin before. The ancient music of mourning dropped away, and in its place rose new songs — songs of beginning, of renewal, of life.
But deep beneath the ground, where no sunlight ever reached, an ancient heartbeat stirred.
Something. remembered.
---
Far to the north, beyond even the memory of the Ashlands, loomed the Shardspine Mountains — ragged peaks that rent the heavens.
Few traversed them.
Fewer came back.
There, deep in stone and ice, a secret fire began to beat once more.
Not a fire kindled in hope, like Kairo's.
Something older.
Something hungrier.
---
In Red Hollow, the days passed easily.
The people did not notice the little signs at first — a new wind from the north, cold and whispering in a tongue no one could understand.
Flocks of birds migrating the wrong way.
The flame shrines moving strangely, as if they were lost.
Sera noticed.
Now a leader in her own right, she stood before the Council one evening, her brow furrowed.
> "I feel it," she said, clutching her heart.
"The fire. it's restless."
Rael, older and grayer but no less incisive, leaned back in his chair.
> "After all we've been through, you're worried about a little wind?"
Sera shook her head.
> "It's not just wind. It's a warning."
Virella rose from her chair, her armored boots ringing on the stone floor.
> "If something stirs, we need to know. We owe it to Kairo — and to ourselves."
The Council voted before the sun rose.
A party would be sent north.
To the Shardspine.
To find out what was beyond the world they knew.
---
Before they left, Sera stood once more at the Flame Shrine.
She lit a new torch, smaller than the city's central bonfire, but burning with a small, stubborn flame.
She raised it high and spoke out loud — to the air, to the stars, to him.
> "If you can hear us, Kairo.
the world may yet need you."
The fire guttered — then roared, brighter than it had previously.
A soft breeze stirred the fields.
Somewhere, unseen, a figure cloaked in flame smiled.
And began to walk north.
---
On the other side of the Shardspine Mountains, the earth trembled.
And from the blackest depths, a voice whispered:
> "Awaken."