---
The sanctuary had been quiet for too long.
Kael stood frozen in the hallway, the boy's words still burning in his ears:
> "The other Flame. The one they buried beneath this place."
Eira and Arion stirred from their rest. Vireya was already at the threshold of the chamber, blade half-drawn, eyes sharp with warning.
> "This place isn't a shrine," she said. "It's a vault."
And vaults are only built to keep things in.
---
With the Children's help—or at least the ones still loyal—they uncovered the entrance by dawn. Beneath an old reactor core, long rusted and cracked from heat, was a hidden hatch. A lock covered in runes burned faintly red when Kael touched it.
> "Your blood opened it," whispered the girl with the milky eye. "That's what the stories said would happen."
The hatch groaned open.
Black smoke hissed up like breath from a tomb.
Kael dropped down first, landing hard on scorched metal. The air was heavier here—thicker, like the walls themselves remembered fire.
The others followed in silence.
The moment Vireya's boots hit the ground, a light flared along the hallway.
Runes.
Carved into the walls, floors, and even the ceiling—lines of language older than the Citadel, older than any faction Kael had ever known.
They pulsed in time with his heart.
---
The hallway stretched longer than it should have. A circular design—every few meters, the group passed a mural made of stained glass and soot-stone, each one portraying different truths.
One showed a man bursting into flame and rising into the sky—Kael.
Another showed a girl of glass and bone—Eira—weeping over a broken city.
A third…
Kael paused.
It showed a woman—older, taller, white hair like molten snow, eyes bleeding fire. Her hands were outstretched, holding two blades: one upright, one inverted.
> "That's her," said the masked boy who had warned Kael. "The Flame they called the First."
> "How long has she been here?" Eira asked.
> "Since before the wars," he said. "She was sealed here when the world broke."
> "Why?"
> "Because she tried to burn it clean."
---
At the end of the hallway, a wide circular room opened up—walls lined with broken stasis tubes, crumbled statues, and data cores flickering with half-dead memory.
And in the center—
A sarcophagus of obsidian.
Chains made of redstone and bone looped around it, humming faintly with energy. Symbols burned across the surface like warning brands.
Kael stepped toward it, unable to stop himself.
His fingertips brushed the surface—
And the room screamed.
A psychic blast tore through the chamber, knocking everyone off their feet.
Visions slammed into Kael's skull:
Cities burning.
Armies kneeling.
A woman—the First Flame—cutting down gods with blades of pure fire.
And finally—Kael himself, kneeling before her as she reached out and whispered:
> "You are mine."
---
When Kael woke, Eira was shaking him, her eyes wide and panicked.
> "Kael! Are you—Kael!"
He sat up, gasping.
Arion helped him to his feet, but his eyes were cold now. Distant.
> "You saw something," Arion said.
Kael nodded slowly. "She knew me. Before I was born."
> "No," Vireya said darkly. "Not you. What's in you."
Tension cracked between them.
> "So what now?" Eira asked. "We leave her buried?"
> "We can't," Kael said quietly. "The seal is already breaking. I felt it."
> "Then we kill her," Vireya snapped. "Now. While we still can."
The Children of Ash stared at her like she'd just spoken blasphemy.
> "She's sacred," one said.
> "She's death," Kael countered.
Silence fell.
Because deep in the chamber—
The sarcophagus began to smoke.
---
Kael stepped back as cracks splintered across the black stone.
Eira pulled her blade.
Vireya leveled her rifle.
The Children knelt, whispering in unison:
> "Flame reborn. Flame returned. Burn the false world down."
The sarcophagus shattered.
Fire erupted upward—but it wasn't natural. It moved like limbs, like hair, like a living thing reaching out.
And there she stood.
The First Flame.
Eyes closed. Hair flowing with light. Chains still attached to her wrists, glowing dimly.
She took a breath—
And the entire chamber bowed.
Kael fell to his knees, body shivering—not from fear, but recognition.
Her eyes opened.
And locked onto him.
She smiled.
> "You came early, child."
Kael tried to speak, but the air wouldn't obey.
She stepped forward, flames parting for her like servants.
> "Do you know what they called me, Kael?"
He swallowed.
> "No."
> "The World's Last Answer."
---
She reached out—and touched Kael's forehead.
His vision exploded.
He saw everything.
The Emberborn wars.
The Citadel's lies.
The engineered bloodlines.
He saw his own origin—not from birth, but design. A result of flame-bound convergence, not chance.
And worst of all—
He saw her memory of burning the world once already.
> "Now," she said softly. "You must choose."
> "Will you burn with me?"