The forge no longer glowed.
It pulsed.
A deep, measured rhythm, like the exhale of something slumbering beneath stone. No flames roared. No hammer rang. But the heat it gave off wasn't just warmth—it was presence. A warning, quiet and unblinking.
Riku stood before it, his palm hovering an inch from the core vent. The metal responded, thrumming like it recognized him.
Sixty days. That's how long they'd disappeared. Not from the world, but from the war.
Outside, the world had turned louder. Sovereigns rose and fell, flags changed, chat lines boiled with threats and boasts. But Blackridge had gone silent.
And in that silence, they'd built.
He left the forge chamber without a word. The steel doors sealed behind him on their own, steam locks hissing like a held breath. The interior halls of Blackridge had changed—not drastically, but subtly. Stone refortified. Vaults deeper. Corridors tighter, more defensible. Kael's new alloy compound ran like veins through the lower vents, reinforcing the pressure traps without compromising heat flow.
As Riku moved through the halls, heads turned. Quiet nods greeted him—no cheers, no salutes. Just a recognition. He passed Sira instructing a new glaive division, her words short, sharp, and constant. She didn't pause her drill when he passed. That was the new rhythm here: no ceremony. Only function.
He emerged into the upper deck as the sun cracked low across the basin. The wyrmlings—no longer small—circled overhead in a wide arc, their flight patterns tightly managed. They didn't screech or display. They watched.
Controlled.
Riku walked to the southern overlook, where Kael stood beside an observation plate embedded into the obsidian railing. The basin stretched far ahead—its topography shifted. Where once had been ash flats and glassy plains now lay jagged ridges, fractured veins of earth pulsing with heat. The crater was changing.
Kael tapped the plate without looking at Riku.
"Three sovereign markers. North-northeast. Two days old. They're building roads. Not toward us—toward the center."
Riku nodded once. "What else?"
"New name in chat last week. 'Obsidian Thread'. Coordinates match basin movement. Their vanguard's working with chained beasts—driven, not summoned."
Riku's gaze sharpened. "They made it through the core pass?"
"Yeah. Not cleanly, but they held the corridor. Lost a caravan of scouts on day two. Next day, their construction tripled."
He was quiet a moment. Then, "Sira?"
Kael smirked. "Already positioned two ridgeline scouts. They're watching, not engaging."
Riku's attention dropped to the plate's edge. A faint glow there—a relay of thermal shift. Something was moving beneath the far edge of the basin.
Not sovereign. Not crafted. Alive.
Kael noticed it too.
"Same signature as the one we detected last moon. Whatever it is... it's not fleeing anymore."
Riku straightened.
"Prepare the wyrmlings. Two formation wings. I want full altitude drills at dawn."
Kael blinked. "You sure we're ready to go loud again?"
Riku turned toward the heart of Blackridge. His gaze lingered not on the forge tower, but the base of the southern trench—where a new kind of drake-iron gate had been set, designed not just to withstand siege but to seal in pressure.
"We're not going loud," he said. "We're going visible."
Kael gave a short exhale, half-laugh, half-nod. "Been a while."
"Too long."
The moment hung between them. In the distance, one of the wyrmlings let out a short, abrupt pulse of flame into the cold air. Controlled. A signal, not a cry.
Kael pointed at the central control shard embedded in the overlook stone.
"Still no ping back from Iron Veil or Nightforge. Either they're underground or dead."
"Or waiting," Riku said.
Kael shifted. "What if they find the rift first?"
"They won't."
"Confident?"
"No," Riku said simply. "Prepared."
That night, the forge gave off one breath of steam—no louder than a whisper. But every soldier in Blackridge heard it.
And the next morning, when the wyrmlings rose together into a low sky and turned east in perfect formation, the basin noticed.
The sovereigns did not see Ash Veil return to the world.
They felt him.