The Skyfire Core pulsed in Kael's palm for hours after he left the Ashfell Reaches.
It didn't dim. It didn't flicker.
It just… remembered.
With every beat, it shared flashes—flames eating through gods, suns weeping into death, and a temple made of burning bones beneath a lake that had never reflected light.
Kael followed the call.
Not because he trusted it.
But because he understood it.
Some flames don't burn to destroy.
They burn to reveal.
---
He arrived at Blackglass Lake by dusk.
The air here was too still.
The water did not ripple. Its surface was pure obsidian—so dark it didn't reflect the sky, only the viewer's shadow. Even birds didn't fly above it. They veered away mid-flight, as if something unseen whispered warnings into their feathers.
Kael stood at the edge.
He looked into the water—and the water looked back.
Not at his face.
Not at his soul.
It stared into his flaws.
---
He stepped forward.
His foot touched the water.
And instead of sinking, he was pulled under.
Not violently. Not gently. Just inevitably.
---
⟢ Beneath the Lake
There was no drowning.
Only silence.
Only memory.
The world beneath the lake wasn't water—it was echo. A submerged reflection of every oath ever broken, every flame ever extinguished before it could become something more.
Kael floated downward, and the world around him breathed.
Ruins emerged—half-melted pillars, broken shrines, shattered murals of winged beings screaming silently. This was once a temple, maybe even a sect. But it hadn't died naturally.
It had been buried.
And at the center of the ruins stood a pyre.
Unlit.
Unwelcoming.
Waiting.
Kael approached it slowly.
As he neared, figures formed in the smoke.
Not enemies.
Not guardians.
Regrets.
The first was a girl with cracked knuckles and hollow eyes.
> "You should have saved me."
Then came a master—robed in silver, blood in his mouth.
> "You should have listened."
Then came Kael himself—younger, unsure, eyes full of broken promise.
> "You should have stopped."
Kael looked at them all.
And said nothing.
Because regret wasn't meant to be argued with.
Only survived.
---
He reached the pyre and released the Skyfire Core.
It hovered in the air for a moment, then settled gently atop the cold altar.
And burned.
Not wildly. Not violently.
But truthfully.
The regrets screamed.
The ruins trembled.
And Kael stood still, watching the fire climb skyward—past the water, through the surface, and into the night above.
Something was released.
Not power.
Not treasure.
But clarity.
Kael didn't need to slay regrets.
He needed to leave them where they belonged.
Behind him.
---
When he rose from the lake, dawn had come.
Blackglass Lake shimmered now. The surface was still dark—but no longer silent.
Birds flew above again.
And for the first time in centuries, the lake reflected the sky.
Kael stood alone.
But not lost.
The flame in his chest now matched the fire in the heavens.
And in the distance…
a bell began to ring.