Nyra
The air in the in-between is neither warm nor cold.
It hums — alive, endless, and filled with the pulse of something vast. Every heartbeat I take echoes outward, and the realm responds like it's listening.
I shouldn't have followed the call.
But the moment it touched my mind, the Flame inside me turned restless, almost joyous — as though it had finally found the home it had been mourning for centuries.
Light stretches before me, rippling like water. Beneath it, shadows shift — not menacing, but familiar. Faces flicker within them: those who carried the Flame before me. I can feel their memories pressing against mine, desperate to be remembered.
One voice rises above the rest. Soft. Ancient. "You are not the first to burn for freedom. But you might be the last."
I reach out instinctively — and the world splits again.
Kael
The moment she vanished, the bond became a storm.
It spun wild inside me, a tether pulled in every direction at once. Every few breaths, I saw flashes of her through it — her eyes alight with fire, her hands reaching toward something unseen.
And something reaching back.
I couldn't follow her into the in-between; my body wasn't made for that kind of crossing. But the Flame had left me a fragment — a mark, faint but still alive. I pressed my palm to the dirt, whispering the old words I swore I'd never use again.
The ground opened.
A fissure spread from my hand, glowing faintly red — the same shade as her mark. The bond flared, and for a second, I saw through her eyes again: endless light, shadowed figures, and the sorrow of an entire world echoing through her veins.
"Nyra," I whispered. "Come back."
But I knew she couldn't hear me. The call had taken her too deep.
Nyra
There's a moment, right before the Flame surges again, when everything becomes still.
The air, the light, even my fear.
And then I see it — the truth beneath the call.
Not gods. Not ghosts. Something older.
The Forsaken Flame was never meant to destroy. It was meant to return.
To bridge what the gods severed when they built the realms apart.
And I understand, with terrifying clarity, that I am not just a bearer. I am the bridge.
The light around me fractures.
Kael's voice pierces the hum — faint, desperate, but real.
I turn toward it, my name echoing in two worlds at once.
And when I open my eyes, everything burns white.