Location: Training Clearing / Kaela's Cottage / Demon Camp, Thornhaven Village
Date/Time: 16 Ashwhisper, 9938 AZI (continuous from Ch 225)
Realm: Mid Realm
The clasp was warm under her fingers.
Lyria had expected it to resist — some dramatic lock, some ancient mechanism requiring ritual or blood or permission. But it was just a clasp. A simple silver catch, worn smooth by fourteen years of contact with her skin, and it opened with a small click that sounded like the end of something.
The chain slid through her fingers. The pendant — a disc of silver no larger than her thumbnail, engraved with symbols she'd never thought to examine — came away from her throat and hung in the air between her hand and her body, spinning slowly in the afternoon light.
And the world changed.
The seed ignited.
