The sky broke open at dawn.
Not with sunlight—but with a shriek that split the heavens like torn silk, echoing over the treetops and down the moss-choked paths of the jungle.
Aurea jerked awake, breath caught in her throat. Her skin was slick with sweat, her body tangled in Kael's cloak, which had been wrapped protectively around her through the night. Nearby, Kael was already standing, one hand on the hilt of his blade, eyes locked on the horizon.
"It's awake," he muttered.
"The island?" Eryan asked, appearing at Aurea's side like a breath of wind. He looked less like a rogue and more like a shadow now—his clothes torn, face bruised, eyes alert.
"No," Riven said. His voice was deeper, grimmer than usual. "Something inside it."
Aurea sat up, her body still sore from the night's battle. Her fingers brushed the stone beneath her—that ancient, veined surface of forgotten glyphs, still faintly glowing with gold in response to her touch.
It was pulsing now. In rhythm with a distant heartbeat.
"Something is calling me," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Deeper. It knows I'm here."
Kael moved closer, crouching before her. "We'll go with you. You don't face it alone."
She looked up at them—Kael's burning steadiness, Eryan's fluid grace, Riven's unspoken loyalty. She nodded once, the weight of her fear pressing into her ribs, then stood.
They descended the rise, leaving behind the bloodstained battleground and broken beasts, moving into the jungle's breathless heart. The path narrowed, vines thick as arms dangling from towering trees, the canopy above casting the ground in perpetual green twilight.
For hours, they walked—though time twisted here. The shadows moved wrong. Trees they passed once, they passed again. The jungle didn't want them to reach the temple.
Aurea felt it: a quiet resistance in the very land, as if the island was testing them.
Suddenly—
The ground crumbled beneath them.
It wasn't just a pitfall—it was a trap. The vines above snapped taut, curling down like snakes and grabbing Riven's arm. He slashed at them, but they clung like iron.
"Kael—!" Aurea shouted, tumbling down the incline.
Kael caught her mid-fall, rolling them over just as they hit a narrow ledge. Eryan dropped beside them moments later, a cut on his cheek, eyes narrowed.
Riven didn't fall.
He was gone.
Taken.
"No!" Aurea scrambled up the rock. "We have to go back!"
Kael pulled her down. "It's too late. He'll survive. He always does."
"Then we find him."
Eryan didn't say a word, but he was already scouting ahead. "There's a way through," he called. "This passage… it's carved."
They turned. And there it was—a narrow doorway of stone, swallowed by time and roots, hidden behind the undergrowth. Not natural. Built.
The temple.
Aurea's heart began to pound harder.
They stepped inside.
The air changed instantly—cool, stale, and heavy with forgotten magic. The stone corridor sloped downward, its walls carved with scenes that twisted the longer you stared: a woman of fire chained in shadows; a city devoured by waves; a great beast with a thousand eyes weeping blood.
Kael brushed dust from a panel. "This is older than anything in the mainland archives. Pre-Collapse, maybe."
"No," Eryan said quietly. "Older than memory."
The further they walked, the more Aurea could feel it: something pulling at her soul. The glyph on her wrist burned, responding to the ancient magics whispering from the stone.
And then they reached the heart.
The chamber was circular—massive. A wide dais rose in the center, ringed with concentric circles of stone etched with sigils. Above, the ceiling opened into darkness.
And in the center of the dais—
Riven.
Bound by chains of black light.
Aurea screamed. "RIVEN!"
He was unconscious, slumped forward, his sword lying out of reach.
As they rushed forward, the dais lit up—one circle at a time, glowing with the same cursed energy that pulsed through the beasts.
"No!" Aurea shouted. "It's a trap—!"
But too late.
The chamber responded.
From the walls, figures emerged—stone guardians, ten feet tall, with helms shaped like open maws and glowing eyes. They moved with slow, grinding purpose, drawing weapons of obsidian.
Kael stepped forward. "We hold them off. Eryan—get Riven."
Aurea reached for her power—but the glyphs flared too violently. The temple was feeding on her.
She dropped to one knee, choking on magic.
Kael engaged the first guardian, blade meeting stone with a metallic scream. The force threw sparks high into the air.
Eryan dashed forward, ducking low, leaping over a sweep of a giant sword. He reached Riven just as a new glyph flared beneath the chained warrior's feet.
"No—" Eryan snarled, slicing at the bindings—but they resisted even his magic-edged blades.
Aurea looked up, eyes wide with fury and terror.
She screamed—and her glyphs ignited.
Power surged through the chamber, golden light slamming into the stone floor and forming a barrier between her companions and the guardians. For a heartbeat, the giants paused.
Then the voice came.
Low. Ancient. Feminine.
"You carry my fire, daughter of ash."
Aurea froze.
"Who… are you?"
"I am the chained flame. The last of the true queens. Break the seal, and I shall awaken."
The ground trembled.
Eryan finally shattered the chains around Riven, who collapsed into his arms, gasping.
Kael slammed a guardian to the ground, panting. "We need to leave. Now!"
"No," Aurea said, rising. "We need to finish this."
Her eyes glowed gold. The glyphs on her arm burned brighter than ever. The power of the temple was no longer resisting her—it was flowing into her, hungry to be freed.
She stepped onto the dais.
The voice whispered again: "Say my name."
"I don't know it."
"You do."
Aurea closed her eyes. She searched—deep into the memories the island had shown her, into the vision of the chained woman beneath the sea.
And then she knew.
"Elsera," she whispered. "Queen of Flame. I call you forth."
The chamber exploded in light.
Flames spiraled upward from the dais, dancing like serpents. The guardians collapsed as if struck by a god's hand.
And in the fire—
A silhouette formed.
A woman of gold and crimson, eyes like suns, hair a living blaze.
The chained queen.
Elsera.
"You've awakened me," she said. "Now the world shall burn anew."
And then she vanished.
The flames collapsed.
The temple shook.
Cracks split the stone.
"RUN!" Kael shouted.
They sprinted, Riven now half-conscious but moving with help from Eryan. Aurea ran, her magic drained, her heart pounding like thunder.
Behind them, the temple roared.
The fire had been set.
The island would never be the same.
And neither would they.