The chamber pulsed with a strange light, neither flame nor magic, but something older. The sigil burned in the center of the stone floor, drawing thin tendrils of silver fire along ancient carvings etched into the ground.
Kael stepped back, instinct warning him, but his gaze remained locked on the symbol now matching the one Seris had seen in her dreams.
The ancient figure had vanished without a trace. No dust, no sound, no shadow. Just the echo of its voice lingering in the space it left behind.
"You have touched the gate," it had said. "Now you must choose: awaken what lies beneath… or turn back and bury your truth."
Seris took a step closer to the sigil. "It's a seal," she whispered, eyes fixed, voice caught between awe and fear. "But not to keep something out. It's to keep something in."
Lorent turned sharply to Aeren. "And here I thought your plan was to avoid cursed doors today."
Aeren held up his hands. "Hey, you were the one translating warding runes and still walked right in."
Kael ignored their banter. "Everyone stop." His voice cut the air cleanly. "No jokes, not now."
The silence that followed was sharp and uneasy.
"We're not alone," Kael said, scanning the walls again. "That thing, it's watching or listening."
A whisper threaded through the chamber, barely audible, but Seris stiffened. "It knows me," she murmured. "It's calling to me by name."
She clutched her circlet, the metal hot against her temple. A burning sensation surged through her, and a flash of something not hers flooded her vision: an army of shadows bowing before a flame-wreathed throne, a figure cloaked in gold and crimson, and a sword lifted high, a blade she recognized.
Then she gasped.
Kael caught her, steadying her before she fell.
"What did you see?" he asked softly.
Her eyes locked with his. "A memory... that's not mine. A time before the fall. A choice made in fire."
Before Kael could speak, a groan echoed deep within the chamber, sound of ancient stone moving.
The sigil was spreading.
The lines of silver fire branched like veins, reaching toward the sealed gate behind the throne. Symbols ignited, and a gust of wind stirred Kael's cloak, hot and dry.
Seris pulled back, instinct rising. "It's opening."
Aeren reached for his blade, voice low. "So… do we awaken what lies beneath?"
Lorent looked at Kael. "We vote?"
Kael didn't answer. He turned to Seris, as always, seeking the truth behind her guarded eyes. "Do we go forward?"
Her nod came slow but sure. "We have to. This is what everything's been leading to."
Kael looked to the others. "Then stay sharp. And stay together."
The seal cracked. Not a door but an invitation.
The walls trembled slightly as stone split, revealing a narrow stair spiraling down, into darkness lit faintly by that silver flame.
Kael led the way, blade drawn, every step echoing into the unknown.
They descended in silence. Only the whispering returned, faint words brushing against their ears, promising secrets, power, truth. Each step down was heavier than the last, as though the air thickened with memory and consequence.
Halfway through, Aeren slowed.
"Do you hear that?" he murmured. Kael paused. "Hear what?"
But before Aeren could respond, a tremor shook the stair. Behind them, the stair began to seal.
"Run!" Kael shouted.
They sprinted the last steps. Kael shoved Seris forward as the stair behind vanished entirely. Lorent leapt the final stretch, rolling to his feet. Only Aeren was left, then dove through just as the stair sealed with a dull boom.
"Well," Aeren panted, brushing dust from his sleeves, "guess we're committed."
Before them, lay another chamber, this one round, the walls pulsing with molten veins. And at the center, a floating shard of obsidian, ringed in crimson flame. It throbbed like a heartbeat.
Seris approached it slowly. "I've seen this. In my dreams."
Kael stepped beside her. "What is it?"
"I think… it's part of the Crown of Ash. The real one."
Suddenly, the flames surged, and a figure appeared.
Not cloaked in shadow, but glowing with red light, his face young but eyes ancient.
"I am Ashkar, last of the Flamebound," the figure said.
Kael lifted his blade instinctively. "You're alive?"
"No," Ashkar replied. "But not gone, bound as you will be."
The ground shook.
Ashkar's hand lifted, and Kael's blade burned with runes. "You are not ready, but time doesn't wait."
From the walls, shadows peeled free, shaped like men but twisted, eyes glowing ember-bright.
Kael moved first, meeting the first shadow with a swift, brutal arc. His blade cut through, but the figure reformed, smoke and ash reconstituting in the blink of an eye.
"They can't be killed," Lorent shouted. "They're bound magic!"
Seris shouted something in the old tongue, and the circlet flared with fire. One shadow hissed and dissolved.
"Use magic!" she yelled. "They burn in truth!"
Aeren grinned. "Now you're speaking my language."
A blur of motion, he ducked, rolled, and hurled a flame-dagger through a shadow's head. The ash twisted, screamed, and fell apart.
Kael fought beside Seris, their movements fluid, practiced, intimate. Each time she faltered, he was there. Each time he staggered, her magic surged to shield him.
And in that storm of shadows and flame, something clicked, not just comrades, not just fate-bound souls but lovers, bound by fire, blood, and truth.
As the last shadow fell, Seris turned toward Kael, eyes wild and luminous.
"I need to tell you something," she said breathlessly.
Kael, bruised and grinning, nodded. "Me too."
But before either could speak, the obsidian shard exploded in a flare of light.
They were thrown apart, Kael landing hard, Seris dragged toward the pulsing sigil behind the shard.
"Seris!" he shouted.
But it wasn't her being pulled anymore.
It was something else, from within her, clawing its way to the surface. The ancient power that had always slumbered beneath her skin… was awakening.
Kael ran to her side, grabbing her hand. "Stay with me."
Seris's eyes burned golden. "I don't think I can…"
And then, in a voice not entirely hers:
"It's too late."
Kael's heart pounded as he held onto Seris's hand. The golden light from her eyes spilled out like fire through cracks in stone, beautiful, terrible, unstoppable. Her fingers trembled in his, heat lashing up his arm like the breath of a forge.
Aeren staggered to his feet, coughing, hair windblown. "Kael, get her out of there!"
"I can't!" Kael snapped. "She's not moving, she's not even here anymore!"
Lorent struggled up beside Aeren, gripping the wall for balance. "She's channeling something from that seal, something old."
The ground trembled again. The sigil behind them, still glowing faintly from Seris's connection, pulsed faster, as if it were a heartbeat, thudding louder and louder, drawing her in.
Kael knelt over her, trying to anchor her to him with the only thing he had left: his voice. "Seris, it's Kael, you're stronger than this thing, you're not just a vessel, you're you."
Her eyes flickered. For one breathless moment, she blinked at him, confused, afraid.
"Kael…?"
Then the light surged again, burning and blinding.
The force threw Kael back, skidding across the stone. A howl of wind tore through the chamber, and Seris lifted into the air, her hair unbound, flames twisting around her like ribbons of liquid fire. Her arms flared out, and a burst of golden light exploded from her chest, cracking the stone beneath her feet.
"She's..." Aeren began, but the words died in his throat.
The mark on her collarbone blazed now, no longer just a symbol, it moved, shifted and became a living flame that etched across her skin like a spreading tattoo, ancient and wild.
The stranger emerged again from the darkened threshold, his eyes widening as he beheld her transformation.
"It's begun," he whispered. "The Flamebound rises."
Kael forced himself forward. "Tell me how to stop this!"
"You don't stop it," the stranger said grimly. "You either survive it or you don't."
Kael gritted his teeth and pushed closer to her. The heat was unbearable, but he didn't care. He reached out again, fingers inches from hers.
"Seris, fight it. Come back to me."
Her head turned slowly, as if she were looking at him from behind a veil. Tears slipped down her cheeks, steaming as they fell.
"I don't want to lose myself," she said. Her voice was hers again, but barely.
"You won't," Kael said fiercely. "I won't let you."
He pulled her to him, heat surging like wildfire between them, and kissed her.
The world blinked.
The fire dimmed, as if stunned by the contact, the wind cut off and the sigil stopped pulsing.
And Seris collapsed into his arms, weak but awake, her skin still glowing faintly.
Silence reigned.
Aeren let out a low whistle. "That… was one hell of a kiss."
Lorent didn't speak. His eyes were on the sigil, wariness carved deep into his brow.
Kael cradled Seris gently, brushing hair from her damp forehead. "You're still here."
She nodded faintly. "For now."
The stranger approached slowly. "You've only delayed what was meant to rise, she is the vessel, the Flamebound is not a myth, it is her blood and her will."
Kael rose slowly, still holding her. "Then tell us what this thing is and what does it want?"
The stranger's eyes glowed in the dim torchlight. "It wants freedom, it wants to burn away the false world above, and it will use her to do it, unless she learns to command it."
Seris stirred, voice steadier. "And if I don't?"
The stranger's voice was a grave wind. "Then it will consume everything."
A deep rumble echoed beneath their feet. The stone floor vibrated again, and from the gate, black stone twisted with runes, came a hollow thud.
Another, and another.
Something knocked from the other side.
Aeren swore under his breath. "We're not alone anymore."
Kael lowered Seris gently to the ground. "You're not facing this alone," he whispered.
"I know," she said. "But whatever's behind that gate, it knows I'm here now."
Lorent nodded grimly. "And we still have to go down there."
Kael turned to the stranger. "You said she has to learn to control it, is there time?"
The stranger hesitated. "Enough for a choice, that's all."
The gate creaked and then it began to open. A sliver of darkness spilled forth, thicker than shadow, oozing like smoke from a long-forgotten pyre.
Kael rose, hand on his blade.
Seris pushed herself up beside him, no longer trembling. Her golden eyes glowed like coals. "Let's end this."