The world breathes.
The chamber, the stone, the air itself — all of it exhales at once. The sound is low, endless, ancient. The golden mist that once glowed softly now burns with veins of scarlet light, pulsing to a rhythm older than time.
I know that heartbeat.
It's not mine.
Kael feels it too. His hand finds the hilt of his blade though both of us know steel is useless here. The hum rises, shaking dust from the ceiling, and the air thickens until it tastes like lightning.
The mark over my heart ignites.
It's not pain this time — it's command. My body moves before my mind can stop it, my hands lifting toward the center of the chamber. The floor splits open in answer, light spilling upward in a torrent.
"Nyra!" Kael shouts, but his voice is swallowed by the roar.
I can't hear him anymore.
The light consumes everything — and in the center of it, something wakes.
A shape begins to form from the fire. Not solid, not flesh, but energy sculpted into memory. Wings like molten glass unfold, each feather trailing sparks. Eyes open in the flame — endless, shifting, neither kind nor cruel.
The voice that follows is not sound. It's truth, pressed into my bones.
You call to what you do not understand.
I fall to my knees. The heat radiates through my skin, filling me with both power and unbearable weight. "You're the Forsaken Flame," I whisper.
The air trembles with a low hum that feels like laughter.
Names are for those who fear forgetting. I am the spark that built the covenant, the fire that burned its chains. And you, little vessel, carry my ruin.
My ruin.
The light flares brighter. I see flashes — cities burning beneath skies of gold, rivers turned to molten glass, a woman with my face standing atop a mountain of ash, her hands outstretched as worlds crumble around her.
Me.
The Flame's voice grows softer, almost tender.
You thought you could cage me within your heart and remain human. But now you have remembered — and memory is the door through which I return.
I try to stand, but my legs refuse to obey. "If you were sealed inside me, then I'll keep you there."
The Flame's glow shifts — darker, richer, like the color of blood in sunlight.
You cannot cage fire. You can only choose how it burns.
The mark blazes again, the heat unbearable. The bond between Kael and me flares in answer — his power surging toward mine, trying to contain what's unraveling.
Through the glare, I hear his voice, raw and desperate. "Nyra, fight it! Don't let it take you!"
The Flame's gaze turns toward him. The air stills.
Ah. The tether.
Kael freezes mid-step. His breath catches, as if invisible hands have closed around his chest. I can feel his heartbeat falter through the bond.
"Stop!" I scream. "He has nothing to do with this!"
The Flame regards me — vast, unbothered.
You tethered yourself to him. You made him part of the fire. His life burns when yours does. His heart beats when yours falters. That is the covenant reborn.
The realization hits like a blade. I can feel it now — the shared pulse between us, bright and fragile. My strength feeds his, his steadiness anchors mine.
And the Flame smiles through me.
You have chosen your sacrifice well.
The light surges one final time. The chamber fractures — stone splitting, runes bursting into fire. Kael breaks free of the unseen force and grabs me, dragging me back just as the floor collapses in a whirl of light.
The last thing I see before everything goes white is the Flame's shape dissolving into a storm of embers — spreading, escaping, alive again.
When I wake, the realm is silent.
Kael lies beside me, pale, breathing shallowly. The mark over my heart glows faintly, pulsing in rhythm with his.
I reach out, trembling. The air around us still hums with power, but it feels different — not gone, just waiting.
Above, carved into the fractured ceiling, the words shimmer faintly:
Every flame consumes. But some burn to remember.