The morning was anything but calm.
Dew clung to the blades of grass, yet the earth trembled as if warning of something stirring beneath. Liam awoke to the faint smell of sulfur in the air, and an eerie stillness that felt unnatural.
Kael stood already, weapon half-drawn, scanning the horizon. Nyra had a summoned creature hovering near her shoulder—an orb-eyed wisp crackling with static energy.
Aeris was silent. Too silent.
She knelt by the edge of the clearing, holding something in her hand. A flower—burnt, brittle, but blooming with faint orange embers in its petals.
"The Ashen Bloom," she murmured, as Liam approached. "This shouldn't be growing here."
"What is it?" Liam asked.
"A sign," Aeris whispered. "This only grows after an elemental cleansing. Or… after something old dies beneath the soil."
The group circled around her. Tension laced the air.
Suddenly, a low growl echoed through the forest. Trees swayed though the wind hadn't moved. From the shadow between two crumbling trees, a beast emerged—its body a twisting fusion of smoke and scales, its eyes glowing like dying stars.
Kael raised his blade. "Not another corrupted guardian…"
"No," Nyra said, narrowing her eyes. "That's something worse. That's a Devourer."
The creature lunged.
Liam barely reacted in time, rolling to the side as a tendril of dark flame scorched the spot he'd stood. Kael clashed with it head-on, his blade meeting the blackened hide with a sharp crack of energy. Sparks flew, but the beast twisted and sent Kael crashing into a tree.
Nyra's summoning erupted into a wall of crackling defense, giving Aeris time to chant. Her voice rang clear in the forest as she pressed her hand to the Ashen Bloom.
The petals shattered—releasing a pulse of light.
It stunned the Devourer for only a moment—but it was enough.
Liam felt something tug at his core. The fragment within him stirred, as if the light had awakened a forgotten memory. He charged forward, swinging his hand—not a weapon, but pure force. A blast of violet energy surged from his palm, striking the beast's chest.
The Devourer shrieked, rearing back—but its wounds sealed almost instantly.
"It's not enough!" Aeris called out. "We're missing something! A name—a source!"
But then the ground cracked open.
Not from power—but from presence.
A figure rose from the shadows. Robed in deep blue and copper, with a staff crowned in twisted stone and thorn, eyes veiled behind a mask of mirrored glass.
"Enough," the figure said calmly.
The Devourer stilled.
Nyra gasped. "You…"
The figure turned. "You've come far. But you're not ready for what waits beneath the veil."
Kael staggered to his feet. "Who are you?"
The figure turned slowly, and pulled back the hood.
A woman.
Not old, but aged by grief. Familiar, yet distant.
Aeris's voice broke. "Serana…"
Liam blinked. "Wait… the Seer of the Divide?"
Serana nodded. "You're treading toward a path long buried. But paths like these… leave scars behind. The Ashen Bloom wasn't a warning. It was a memory. This is where Elira sealed the first fragment's echo."
The group stared in stunned silence.
Serana looked to Liam. "You're the tether now. You can unseal what's left… but you must be willing to lose something in return."
Liam's chest tightened. "What do you mean?"
Serana only turned away, lifting her staff. "You'll see soon enough."
The ground shimmered—and the beast vanished.
So did Serana.
Leaving only the Ashen Bloom's crumbled remains.
And a rising tremor in the soil that said: this was only the beginning.