Beneath every throne is a corpse no king dares speak of.
Seraphina stood between the god who birthed her flame… and the man who burned her alive.
Above her, the cage of dragonbone still hummed with ancient energy, echoing her name in the same language the gods once used to condemn her.
Kael's boots scraped against the rune-lit stone as he stepped forward. His breathing was sharp, shallow. Not from exhaustion.
From fear.
"You don't understand, Sera—if you go down there, you won't come back. You won't be you anymore."
She turned to him slowly.
"Then maybe I was never me to begin with."
**_The Spiral of Flame_**
The staircase beneath Vael's cage spiraled downward, glowing faintly with red-gold light. Every step sang beneath her bare feet — not with sound, but memory. She could feel pieces of herself waking as if her soul was shedding centuries of ash.
Kael followed, silent now. For every five steps she took, he took one. As if being this close to her cost him something heavy.
They descended for what felt like hours — deeper than any structure should go, past ancient murals etched into the stone walls.
Scenes of gods kneeling before a dragon-shaped throne.
Scenes of a woman crowned in fire.
Scenes of that woman being torn apart in a circle of gold-masked deities — and Kael standing behind them all.
"These are lies," Kael muttered, almost to himself.
"They're memories," Seraphina corrected.
"Mine."
At last, the spiral opened into a chamber so wide and black it swallowed light whole. The ceiling vanished into darkness. Runes floated midair, shifting in language, rearranging themselves depending on who looked at them.
In the center of the space was a flat platform of polished obsidian. Upon it sat an altar.
Not like the one they'd married on.
This one was ancient, cracked, and stained with something darker than blood. A low, continuous hum echoed from it — not sound, but vibration. A pulse.
A heartbeat.
**_The First Memory Returns_**
Seraphina stepped toward the altar.
The hum grew louder.
**_FLASH—_**
She knelt at that very altar centuries ago. Her wrists were bound. Her crown of flame was ripped away. A god with no face held a dagger shaped like a spine.
Kael knelt behind her.
He whispered: "Forgive me."
Then the gods carved a song into her soul — one she could never forget, one that kept her buried.
**_FLASH—_**
She staggered, choking on air.
Kael caught her by the arm.
"I didn't want this, Seraphina."
"But you let them do it anyway."
The altar began to shift.
Cracks split along its surface, glowing with molten gold. A ring of fire erupted around the platform.
And then, from the black beyond, voices began to sing.
**_The Song Beneath the Stone_**
It wasn't melodic.
It was agonized.
Dozens of voices, layered over each other like a cursed choir, chanting a fragmented lullaby:
"Ash to dust, fire to flame,
Bind the name and break the name,
Crown the lie, forget the queen,
Buried deep and never seen."
Kael flinched. "Make it stop."
Seraphina fell to her knees, the song weaving through her veins like venom.
But something beneath the song was calling her.
A name. Her true name.
Not "Seraphina."
Not "Queen."
Not even "Daughter."
It was a name older than flame.
"Vaelryn."
**_The Revelation of Vaelryn_**
The song broke.
Silence fell like a blade.
A slab of stone slid open on the far wall, revealing an ancient mirror. It wasn't made of glass. It was made of smoke — shifting, shadowed, alive.
Seraphina stepped forward.
And saw herself.
Not as she was now.
But as she had been — ten thousand years ago.
Wings of molten light.
Eyes of wildfire.
A voice that split mountains.
A dragon queen.
Vaelryn the Flame-Eater.
"That was your true name," said Vael's voice from the walls.
"Seraphina was the name they gave your corpse."
Kael dropped to his knees behind her. "They made me choose. The gods said if I didn't bind you… they'd tear this realm apart."
"So you burned me," she whispered.
"No," Kael said. "I killed you… to keep you from becoming her again."
**_Betrayal, Reignited_**
Seraphina turned to face him.
Her hands were glowing, her hair flickering with sparks.
"You married me to stop me."
"I loved you," he said.
"And still chose a crown over me."
The air between them thickened. Sparks hissed. The runes flared violently. The ground trembled.
A voice rose from the black—
"Release her.
And I will burn for you again."
**_Kael's Choice_**
Kael stood, eyes wide.
"Don't listen to it. You were a weapon once. A flame so strong it cracked the sky. The gods feared you because you were meant to end them."
Seraphina stepped forward.
"Maybe I still am."
The mirror behind her shattered.
A gust of black fire surged upward — and from it rose an armored figure with wings of glass and veins of lava.
Vaelryn.
Not a memory.
A fragment.
A soul remnant.
Seraphina didn't move.
Vaelryn looked at her, nodded once, and then stepped into her body.
She gasped as the power hit — like swallowing a sun.
**_She Becomes Flame Again_**
Her eyes lit.
Her voice changed.
Her skin became golden glass, pulsing with molten threads.
Kael took a step back.
"Sera…"
"No," she said.
"I am Vaelryn.
And I have returned."
**_BOOM._*"
The stone altar exploded behind her.
The rune circle flared and cast out a wave of light so bright it split the darkness open like a wound.
From every wall, chains snapped.
Vael's cage shattered far above.
His laughter echoed through the chamber like thunder wrapped in silk.
"Now the gods will burn."
**_The Dungeon Awakens_**
Stone cracked. The dungeon began to reshape itself — walls folding, ceilings collapsing. The path behind them sealed.
And ahead… a staircase rising upward.
Not out.
Upward — into the sky.
Kael ran toward her. "We have to leave before this whole place collapses!"
But Seraphina—no, Vaelryn—smiled.
"Let it fall."
She stepped onto the new staircase.
Flames followed her feet.
Kael hesitated.
Then followed her into the fire.
TO BE CONTINUED...
🔥 Chapter 4 Hook — "The Song Beneath the Stone"
Her name is not Seraphina.
It's Vaelryn the Flame-Eater.
And now that her soul has awakened, no king, no priest, and no god will silence her again.
🩸 Can Kael stand beside the woman he betrayed?
🗝️ What is Vael's true endgame?
🐉 And when the sky breaks, will a dragon or a god rise from the ashes?
📖 Next: Chapter 5 — "He Who Dances in the Sky of Bones"