Tarin's voice was not his own.
The wind around the Cradle stilled. The temperature dropped—not to cold, but to silence, the kind that falls before annihilation.
White fire shimmered around the boy's body. It didn't burn—it unmade. It dissolved the boundary between what was and what would be. His eyes, now glowing like twin stars, turned to Amina.
"The cycle has begun," he said, voice layered—Tarin's, the Phoenix's, and something deeper.
Ashen Var stepped back, lips curled in satisfaction. "Finally."
Kai reached for his blade, but the fire struck faster.
BOOM.
A single pulse of energy threw them all back. Kai hit a stone pillar and crumpled. Valec groaned somewhere behind Amina. But she couldn't move—her limbs pinned by invisible heat, not physical, but willful.
"Tarin," she whispered, struggling, "Fight it. Don't let it take you."
But he didn't answer.
Instead, the Phoenix turned toward the egg—now open and beating like a living heart. Its flame unfurled wings of burning memory. Echoes poured from it: screams of dying worlds, crumbling towers, oceans boiling under the weight of power too vast for mortals.
Ashen Var raised his hand toward the heart.
"Yes," he breathed. "Give it to me."
"NO."
The voice came from within the fire.
And suddenly, the heart resisted.
The flames recoiled from Var's touch like a living thing stung. Cracks formed in the ribs holding it. A shriek—like a bird dying mid-flight—pierced the sky.
Amina's bindings shattered.
She surged forward, calling the last of Amariel's gift to her palms. Blue fire danced along her skin, weaving a pattern too ancient for language. She reached Tarin just as the Phoenix within him flared again.
"Don't make me fight you," she whispered.
Tarin's body trembled. His lips moved. "I'm… sorry…"
For a moment, she saw the boy again.
Then everything exploded.
---
The World Between
Amina floated.
There was no ground, no sky. Just fire—everywhere. Not burning, but remembering.
This was the Phoenix's mind.
Images flickered: cities turned to ash, lovers embracing before death, Amariel walking into flame to contain a power she had once been. And in the center of it all, Amina saw herself—eyes wild, lips chanting, standing over Amariel's body as the light drained.
"I didn't want this," she said.
"No one ever does," said a voice.
Amariel stood behind her, whole. Alive in this memory realm. She touched Amina's cheek.
"You were a child of balance, not destruction. But the flame is alive—it tempts, it tests. It makes us choose."
"Then I choose to stop this."
Amariel stepped aside, revealing a path of blue flame spiraling through the void.
"Then walk it. But know this—Tarin is the Phoenix's tether. To stop the cycle, you must break it."
Amina froze. "Break it… or him?"
Amariel didn't answer.
---
Back at the Cradle
Time snapped back into place.
Amina awoke to the scent of scorched air. Kai had regained consciousness and was holding Valec up, blood dripping from both.
The Phoenix floated above the Cradle's core now—wings half-unfurled, casting no shadow, only heat.
Tarin lay unconscious beneath it.
Ashen Var stood with hands clenched, fury etched across his face. "You interfered with destiny."
Amina rose. "Destiny is a lie told by men like you to excuse what they fear to change."
He struck.
A beam of crimson fire shot toward her.
She caught it in her palm—and shattered it.
Var's eyes widened. "You unlocked the rest of it."
Amina's voice was calm and deadly. "No. I remembered."
Then she threw her flame.
It spiraled through Var's defenses and struck his chest, sending him crashing into the glacier wall.
The Phoenix screamed.
The egg cracked fully—revealing a burning shape, half-bird, half-flame, its face human… and young.
Tarin's face.
"No," Amina gasped.
The Phoenix wasn't just using him.
It was becoming him.
---
Elsewhere – Unknown
In a dark chamber lit by shifting runes, a hooded figure watched the Cradle through a pool of molten crystal.
They spoke a name.
"Amariel's Heir has awakened."
Another figure behind them responded. "Then prepare the Chains. If the Phoenix rises unchecked, the world ends before the Rebirth can begin."
"And if Amina fails?"
The pool swirled.
And showed a throne of bones burning in white fire.
"She won't."