The forge chamber burned gold.
Not with destruction, but with memory.
Every etched symbol along the walls glowed brighter, revealing shapes within shapes, forgotten constellations, circles within spirals, ancient runes spiraling toward the floor's center. The brazier no longer flickered. It surged, alive with flame that didn't consume, but called.
Eira stumbled back from the heart of it. Her eyes burned from the light, but she couldn't look away.
Lena steadied her. "What's happening?"
"I didn't wake it," Eira whispered. "It woke itself."
A deep clang echoed through the chamber, metal shifting against stone. The floor beneath the brazier cracked open along invisible seams, revealing a circular descent. At the center, a faint column of light spiraled upward from some unseen source deep below. The stone itself was pulsing with heat and energy.
Kaela dropped from her perch and jogged toward them. "We've got more Veil pushing the side tunnels. But they're hesitating."
"They feel it," Thorne said, voice low. "They know something's changed."
From the far side, Torin jogged back to them, dust coating his coat, a wild grin on his face.
"One of the side tunnels just… collapsed. On them," he said, breathless. "Didn't touch us. Just them. Like the rocks made a choice."
Eira looked down into the pulsing light. "The forge is protecting itself."
Kaela narrowed her eyes. "Or it's testing us."
Torin huffed, wiping his brow. "Either way, I vote we keep it on our good side."
Lena knelt beside the opening. "This shaft goes deep. It could be a second forge. Or older magic."
"It's calling to the shard," Eira murmured. "We can't leave it."
Kaela looked toward the barricade. "And if we stay, we'll be buried."
Eira looked between them. "Then we split. You hold the line. I'll go down."
"No," Thorne said immediately. "Not alone."
"Then come with me," she said.
There wasn't time to argue. The chamber trembled again, and from above, a deep, echoing hum began to rise like the sound of molten metal flowing through veins of stone.
The forge wasn't just remembering.
It was preparing.
—
Above, Maelis stood frozen at the edge of the ruin, staring down as the light below rippled up through cracks in the earth. The golden glow had spread like roots beneath the surface, pulsing in time with something vast and ancient.
She didn't speak.
The tracker beside her shifted uncomfortably. "It's reacting to her, isn't it?"
Maelis's jaw clenched. "She's unlocked more than the flame."
She stepped to the edge of the crumbling stairwell and looked down into the orange haze rising from below. Magic shimmered along the walls, making the stone look fluid, alive.
"Pull the forward team back," she snapped. "We'll flank her from the tunnels. I want that chamber breached from the east. If the forge has a heart, I'll rip it out."
A soldier approached with a charred mask. "Several of our scouts are missing. Taken by the earth. We think…"
Maelis raised her hand. "Don't think. Dig."
She reached into her coat and pulled out a second shard, one darker than the one Eira bore. This one was cracked, tainted with a purple-black thread coiled within. She stared at it for a long moment.
"This is what the Harrower feared," she whispered. "Not Eira. What lies beneath."
Then, softly, like a promise:
"Burn it. Burn it all."
—
Below, in the forge chamber, the villagers were holding the line with quiet, desperate coordination.
Marin passed tools like weapons. Risa and Jerek helped reinforce the barricades with slabs of salvaged stone. Children ran messages between the defenders, ducking behind shields and scaffolds. When a burst of Veil fire blew through one of the cracks, buckets of water were passed hand to hand in swift unison.
Lena moved between barricades, tending wounds with healing chants. Her magic glowed faintly blue, threads of calm and strength woven into every spell.
Torin cracked jokes between skirmishes.
"You know," he said, ducking an arrow and smacking a Veil soldier with a metal rod, "when I imagined being buried alive, I thought it would at least be in a nicer tomb."
Marin snorted. "You want velvet drapes with that?"
"I was hoping for a bar," he said, tossing her a second weapon. "But this'll do."
"Less talking, more swinging," Kaela barked from the ledge, loosing another arrow.
Below the brazier, Eira and Thorne stepped into the spiral shaft, the air growing denser as they descended. The stone glowed with every step, responding to Eira's shard like it was guiding them home.
"What do you think is down here?" Thorne asked, voice low.
Eira looked forward, eyes bright with gold. "A choice."