The first light of dawn struggled to pierce the thick veil of smoke that choked the sky above Hearthglen. The village, once a peaceful cluster of timber-framed homes nestled in the rolling foothills of Eldoria, was now a smoldering ruin. Ash drifted like snowflakes on the cold morning breeze, settling on the blackened earth and twisted remnants of what had been.
Kael Ironhart lay on the cold stone floor of his small room, eyes fluttering open to a world transformed by fire and loss. The acrid scent of smoke clawed at his throat, and distant screams echoed through the air, sharp and desperate. His heart hammered as he scrambled upright, the weight of dread pressing down on him.
"Father!" he called, voice cracking. The name felt foreign on his tongue, a fragile hope in the chaos.
He stumbled through the narrow hallway, the floorboards slick with soot and grime. Outside, the village was engulfed in flames. The forge, the heart of Hearthglen and his father's pride, blazed like a beacon of destruction. Sparks flew into the sky, carried by the wind like angry fireflies.
Kael's father, a broad-shouldered man with hands hardened by years of hammering iron, was trapped beneath a fallen beam in the workshop. His face was streaked with soot, eyes wide with pain but fierce with determination.
"Kael, get out!" his father's voice was hoarse but urgent.
Kael hesitated, torn between the instinct to help and the overwhelming heat that pressed against him like a living thing. The roof groaned ominously, and with a deafening crash, the beam shifted, sealing his father's fate.
"No!" Kael cried, rushing forward, but the flames surged, forcing him back. His father's final breath was lost in the roar of the fire.
Tears blurred Kael's vision as he collapsed onto the scorched earth, the iron pendant his mother had given him clutched tightly in his hand. Around him, the village burned, and the screams of the dying echoed in his ears.
Hours passed like a nightmare. When the fire finally died to glowing embers, Kael wandered through the ruins, numb and broken. The homes of his childhood were nothing but ash and rubble. The faces of friends and neighbors haunted his mind, their lives extinguished like candles in the wind.
As he sifted through the debris, something caught his eye—a faint glow beneath a pile of charred wood. Kneeling, he uncovered a small ember, pulsing with an unnatural light that warmed his fingers despite the cold air. Next to it lay a pendant, ornate and ancient, engraved with a crown of flames surrounded by intricate runes that shimmered faintly.
A whisper brushed against Kael's mind, soft as a breeze but unmistakable:
Seek the Ember Crown. Unite the realms. Banish the darkness.
His breath caught. The ember's warmth spread through him, igniting a spark of hope amid the ashes of despair. Clutching the ember and pendant to his chest, Kael rose, his eyes burning with newfound purpose.
The world he knew was gone. From these ashes, a new destiny was beginning.