The light was strange.
Soft and blue, rippling like moonlight through water.
Sarya blinked and when she opened her eyes, she was no longer in the ruined tower.
She stood barefoot on smooth white marble, surrounded by gardens made of glass and silver petals. The air smelled of lavender, smoke, and something sacred.
And across from her, the lake shimmered with unnatural stillness, as though it, too, were holding its breath.
"Where am I?" she whispered.
But the answer pulsed inside her bones.
Veltharys.
She turned and saw herself.
Not as she was now, but older. Regal. Dressed in deep silks lined with glowing runes, a circlet of aquafire on her brow. She radiated command… but her face was full of sadness.
"Aelira…" a voice said.
Sarya turned toward it.
Kael no, not the Kael she knew, but the man he had been stood beneath the flowering archway, wearing robes of deep crimson, not yet crowned in flame. His eyes were full of fear… and longing.
He stepped closer.
"You know what's coming."
The older Sarya, Aelira nodded.
"You've seen the stars shift. The prophecies break. You carry the flame that was never meant to survive."
Kael reached for her hand. "Then come with me. Let me protect you."
Her face twisted. Love warred with pain.
"You don't want to protect me. You want to keep me. There's a difference."
Sarya felt it all.
Not just as memory.
But as truth.
The heartbreak. The trust. The betrayal. The moment she said goodbye… and he called her back with fire.
Aelira stepped away from him.
"You think destiny made you a weapon. But it was you who chose to burn."
Kael's voice cracked. "Because I couldn't lose you."
Aelira turned her gaze toward the lake. The surface began to churn.
"Then remember that when the city drowns in flame."
The vision began to collapse.
Flames burst through the trees. Water turned to steam. Screams echoed beneath the surface.
Sarya fell to her knees and the other her knelt with her.
Their hands touched.
Aelira smiled, eyes brimming with fire.
"It's time you stopped running from what you are. The fire is not your curse."
She pressed her forehead to Sarya's.
"It's your inheritance."
And with that, she was gone.
Sarya awoke gasping.
Still in the tower.
Kael knelt beside her, eyes wide. "Sarya"
She gripped his wrist, her voice hoarse.
"I remember everything."
A pause.
Her next words weren't a plea.
They were a warning.
"And so does she."