The dawn came cloaked in haze. Amina stirred to the sound of crackling fire—but it wasn't the one they built last night.
This flame hissed. Flickered unnaturally. Whispers rose from it.
Ashar stood alone before it, eyes locked on the red-glowing scroll.
Kai approached cautiously. "You've been staring at that thing for hours."
Ashar didn't flinch. "It called my name."
"You sure you're not just—"
"It was in my handwriting."
Kai's voice dropped. "You're saying you warned yourself?"
"I'm saying… something inside me knows him—Valec. And it's waking up."
The Blood-Bound Message
Amina joined them, her gaze steady.
She reached for the scroll. As soon as her fingers touched it, a pulse of heat flashed, and the scroll burned into ash—leaving behind a single sigil glowing in the air.
It hovered—twisted, shifting—until it snapped into a seal only Amina could read.
"Seven flames bind the world... one unbinds them all."
Kai stepped back. "What the hell does that mean?"
Amina's voice was distant. "He's not just a relic of the past. He's a key. Or maybe... a curse."
Council of Thorns
Meanwhile, across the continent in the jade towers of Veltherium, the secretive Council of Thorns convened.
Eleven figures in bone-white robes. No faces shown.
"We felt it," rasped one. "The pulse of the Forbidden Flame."
Another replied, "The girl draws too close to the buried truth. And Valec... he stirs."
A third voice, female, cut in: "Then the Containment Accord is broken."
"The seal on Shal'Zahra is thinning."
"And the Flamebearer?"
"She must not reach the Tomb."
A Broken Map
Back in the camp, Lumeah summoned a scroll map—one older than any of them had seen.
Marked across it were seven sigils. One by one, she pointed them out.
"These are the Seven Anchors. The last remnants of the Old Flame."
Kai raised a brow. "Anchors to what?"
"To reality itself," she said softly. "The gods feared Valec because he unbound these. One more rupture, and the veil between realms collapses."
Ashar grimaced. "How do we stop someone like that?"
"You don't," Lumeah whispered. "You survive them."
Night Visions
That night, Amina couldn't sleep. The sigil still burned in her memory.
Then it happened.
In her dream, the flames parted—and she stood before a great obsidian gate. On the other side, a man waited. Cloaked in fire and silence.
His eyes found hers.
Valec.
But not as a monster. Not yet.
He looked young. Tired. Burdened.
"Why did they betray me?" he whispered.
Amina opened her mouth—but no sound came.
Then his hand touched the gate.
It cracked.
"You carry my flame, Amina. But soon... it will carry you."
Betrayal Unfolding
She woke with a scream—and Ashar was already up, blade drawn.
"I felt it," he said grimly.
"Felt what?"
He turned to her, shadows under his eyes. "Your bond with him... it's not weakening. It's growing."
Amina's pulse raced. "I don't want it."
"Want has nothing to do with it. The Flame chooses."
Suddenly, a distant explosion ripped through the horizon. Smoke spiraled into the sky—black as poison.
They ran toward the ridge.
Below was a village.
Or what was left of it.
Charred bodies. Melting ground. And a symbol seared into the earth.
The sigil of Valec.