The memory burned around them.
Kael and Elara stood frozen in the city of obsidian and fire, watching as the sky turned crimson and the dark army descended like shadows poured from the heavens. Flamebirds shrieked above, scattering as massive black constructs—part machine, part magic—landed with crushing weight in the plaza.
Screams filled the air. Citizens ran. Firebearers formed defensive lines, cloaks flaring, arms glowing with emberlight. But they were outnumbered.
Overwhelmed.
"This isn't a battle," Elara murmured. "It's an extermination."
Kael's knees nearly gave out as the memory deepened, wrapping him in sensations that weren't his—but felt like his. Pain. Grief. Fury.
A name whispered in his mind: Vaelien.
That was who he had been.
Or who the flame had been through.
"Watch," the voice echoed in his thoughts. "Remember."
A woman appeared atop the tallest spire—tall, cloaked in molten gold, her arms raised in command. Fire obeyed her like a living serpent. She was no mere phoenix-bearer. She was its heart.
And she fought like a god.
Flame roared from her hands in arcs that shattered airships. Earth cracked beneath her will. But even she couldn't stop them all. Shadows swarmed her. Magic that devoured flame. Chains of smoke. And in the end—betrayal.
One of her own turned.
A younger man, marked with ember sigils, stabbed her from behind with a blade of obsidian glass. Her fire exploded outward, wild and uncontrolled, and swallowed the city whole.
The vision shattered into blackness.
Kael gasped and fell to one knee in the ash.
Elara dropped beside him. "Kael! Are you—?"
"It was her," he panted. "The last phoenix queen. She was betrayed. That's how it ended."
Elara's eyes were wide. "That city wasn't just a ruin. It was a tomb."
Kael stared at his hands, flames now flickering over his palms. "And now her fire is in me."
---
They camped near the ruins that night, too drained to speak much. Kael sat by a dying ember, the vision replaying in his mind.
He understood now—why the phoenix had chosen him.
He wasn't its master. He was its continuation.
"I don't know how to carry all this," he admitted aloud.
"You don't have to," Elara replied gently from across the fire. "You just have to carry yourself."
Kael looked at her, grateful. "You've been at my side since the beginning."
"Maybe I was meant to be," she said softly.
Their eyes met, the tension between them suddenly fragile and real. But Kael looked away, heart still burdened.
"There's something else," he said. "The man who betrayed her—he looked like me."
Elara stilled. "Are you saying…?"
"I don't know. But what if the flame passed through him too? What if I'm not just carrying her fire—but his guilt?"
She moved to his side. "Kael, listen. You're not that man. And whatever he did, you still have a choice. That's what the flame gives you. The power to rise."
He swallowed hard and nodded. "Then I'll make sure it never falls again."
---
As the moon rose high, Kael sat alone at the edge of the crater, whisper-stone in hand.
"Nyra," he spoke. "We found something. A memory of the Phoenix War. And I think… I think I'm part of it."
A long silence. Then Nyra's voice crackled through. "You're not alone, Kael. Come home. We have much to discuss."
He looked to Elara, asleep beside the fire, and then to the glowing sigils carved into the obsidian gate.
The past was speaking.
But Kael was ready to answer.