The mountains loomed ahead like teeth breaking through the skin of the world. Jagged. Uninviting. Silent. The Maw of Rithen.
Amina stared at them with furrowed brows. "This is where the second seal lies?"
Aric nodded, clutching the ancient scroll. "The seal is buried beneath the Labyrinth of Whispers, deep inside the Maw. But we must not speak aloud once we enter. Sound... awakens them."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "Them?"
Ashar answered grimly. "The Echoborn. Creatures made of sound. They don't see you. They hear you."
The group fell silent.
Inside the Maw
They stepped into the narrow crevice between two cliffs. Darkness swallowed them. No torches. No talking. Just the cold drip of ancient water echoing in the stone.
Amina led, her senses tuned sharp. The Flame pulsed softly in her chest, guiding her like a heartbeat. The deeper they moved, the less the world felt real.
Then—
A whisper. Faint. Uncertain. "Amina..."
She froze. Turned.
No one had spoken.
"Amina... help me..."
Her heart dropped. It was her mother's voice.
She stumbled back. Kai caught her.
She mouthed, "Did you hear that?"
He shook his head.
They moved again. The whispers continued. One by one, every member began hearing things that shouldn't be possible.
Kai heard his brother.Ashar heard the screams of his fallen comrades.Aric heard his own voice chanting a spell he had never learned.
And Amina?
She heard herself, weeping.
Trial of the Echo
At the center of the maze, they came upon a circular chamber carved in a spiral. No exit. No seal.
Then the whispers grew louder.
Shapes formed from the walls—liquid shadows with mouths but no eyes. They moved with the echoes, becoming the voices.
One stepped toward Amina. Its form flickered, now resembling her mother. Then her. Then someone she didn't know.
"Truth binds us. Lies free us," it whispered in her mother's voice.
She backed away.
Ashar stood firm. He drew his blade, but the echo simply dispersed into mist.
Vorn's words rang in her mind: The Flame doesn't just burn your enemies. It burns you.
She understood.
This was not a battle of blades.
It was a trial of truth.
The Memory That Burned
The chamber darkened completely. They were separated.
In the black, each one faced their memory.
Amina stood in a copy of her childhood room. Her mother sat on the bed, braiding a doll's hair.
"You left me," Amina said. "You burned. You screamed."
The woman turned, face gentle. "You were chosen."
"I didn't want to be!"
"But you were."
Amina fell to her knees. "I miss you."
The image knelt before her. "Then carry me with courage, not sorrow."
A tear slipped from her eye—and the chamber exploded with light.
She had passed.
The Seal Awakens
The chamber cracked. A stone dais rose from the ground, etched with ancient runes that glowed gold, then red, then flame-orange.
The group reappeared—shaken, quiet, changed.
"The seal is reacting to you," Aric whispered.
The Flameblade on Amina's back glowed in sync with the runes. She stepped forward and placed her hand on the stone.
Boom.
The ground shook. The air twisted. And a beam of flame shot upward, splitting the clouds above the mountain.
A second seal… broken.
But something else woke with it.
A tremor deeper than the mountain. Something vast. Something old.
From below, a growl echoed through the maze. A voice that did not speak words, but emotion.
Rage.
A Storm Gathers
Miles away, in a sandstorm-ridden wasteland, a cloaked woman raised her hand as the beam of flame cut through the sky.
"She's faster than expected," she murmured. Her eyes shimmered with violet fire.
Behind her, a horde of chained beasts snarled.
"Prepare the Fangborn. The second seal's fall means the third won't wait. She's walking the prophecy line... and I intend to break it."
Back at Camp
They escaped the Maw as it began to collapse, shaken but victorious. The group settled by a riverbank that night.
Ashar approached Amina, who stared into the water.
"Truth binds us. Lies free us," he said quietly.
She didn't look up. "The truth is… I'm afraid of what comes next."
Ashar sat beside her. "That's why you'll survive it. Fear is fuel."
She turned to him. "And what if I lose myself to the Flame?"
He leaned in. "Then I'll remind you who you are."
Their eyes met.
For a second, the world fell away.