The word etched into the glowing cylinder still pulsed faintly:
> Cyclebreaker
Threat Level: Omega
I stared at it in silence.
Kaela moved beside me, her hand resting gently on her sword. Solin stood behind us, eyes darting between the flickering flames that lined Emberwatch's broken walls.
"I don't like this," Kaela murmured. "The fire's wrong. The sky's too still."
Neriya, perched on a crumbled parapet, whispered the truth aloud:
> "The Unwritten touched our world.
And now it's unraveling."
---
The Broken Flame
In the days that followed, Emberwatch changed.
Small things at first:
– Fires wouldn't stay lit.
– Spells failed mid-casting.
– Water forgot how to boil.
– Names written on paper faded after a day.
The people grew restless. Some panicked. Others prayed. The Flameborn kept to their towers, whispering to the Sunshard Core, which now flickered like a dying heartbeat.
I could feel it too—something missing.
