Ash blanketed the broken sky as night fell on the ruined citadel of Morwynn.
In the center of the crumbling throne room, Lyra stood before a cracked mirror. Her reflection looked nothing like the girl she used to be. Where innocence once lived, there was only fury. Her armor glinted with bone and shadow, her eyes shimmered with crimson fire.
Behind her, the Revenant approached, his voice smooth like poison.
"She remembers now."
Lyra didn't turn to face him. "I felt it."
"She saw you," he continued, circling her like a predator. "She'll come looking for answers."
"I hope she does." Lyra's voice was cold. "She deserves the truth."
The Revenant stopped behind her. "You still want her dead, don't you?"
Lyra smiled darkly. "I want her to understand why."
Years ago…
The sky was red the night the kingdom fell. Screams echoed through the mountain halls as fire swept through the corridors.
Lyra was just fourteen. She had been hiding in the lower crypts, clutching her sister's pendant, waiting for Melissa—Eris—to return for her.
But no one came.
Instead, monsters came. Not wolves, but things twisted by dark magic. She had run, barefoot, through ash and bone, until she stumbled into the underground river tunnels.
Bleeding. Alone. Forgotten.
She survived, but something inside her cracked that night.
A strange voice had come to her in the dark. Whispering. Promising vengeance. Offering power.
The Revenant.
Now, in the ruins of Morwynn, Lyra walked through the halls where she once played as a child. The murals were blackened. Statues shattered. Memories burned away.
But she remembered everything.
Melissa had been the golden one—the chosen one, the queen. And Lyra? The shadow, always watching from behind.
"I waited for her," Lyra said aloud. "I waited, and she left me."
A soft laugh came from the corner of the room.
A tall figure emerged—another ally of the Revenant. A woman cloaked in deep green and stitched shadows, with pale, glowing eyes. She bowed slightly.
"My Lady Lyra," she said. "The mirror is ready."
Lyra turned, fire in her gaze. "Show me."
The woman raised her hands, and a swirling portal of silver mist formed in the mirror. For a moment, the image wavered.
Then it cleared—showing Melissa, standing beside Kael and Selene, staring at an old map in a candlelit chamber.
"She's looking for you," the shadow woman murmured.
Lyra's eyes narrowed. "Good."
"She may remember more soon. The stones are unlocking her power."
"I'm not afraid of what she remembers," Lyra replied. "Let her see everything. Let her see what she did."
She turned away from the mirror, the memory of that blood-red night seared into her soul.
One day, Melissa would stand before her.
And when she did, Lyra would make her choose:
Her people.
Or her sister.
Because this war wasn't just about power anymore.
It was about betrayal.
It was about justice.
It was about the girl who was left behind—and the fire she had become.
The sun had barely risen when Kael led Melissa and Selene into the shadowed mouth of a cave nestled at the edge of the Whispering Cliffs.
"Where are we?" Melissa asked, shivering as the cold wind followed them inside.
"A sanctuary," Kael replied, his tone hushed. "One of the last places untouched by the war."
Torches flickered to life along the stone walls as Selene whispered an ancient spell. Faint symbols began to glow—wolf sigils intertwined with crescent moons, eyes, and something else: two thrones, side by side. One of gold. One of shadow.
Melissa stopped.
"That's me… and Lyra?"
Kael nodded slowly. "We didn't understand it then. No one did."
Selene stepped forward. "This was where the first Oracle spoke of the Prophecy of Two: sisters born of the same blood, one light, one dark. One to lead, one to destroy—or save."
Melissa's heart thudded. "Lyra and I… we're the prophecy."
"Not just you," Kael said, reaching behind a cracked altar. He pulled out a scroll wrapped in wolfskin. "This is what the elders feared."
He handed it to her. Melissa unrolled the parchment. The script danced across the page like it was alive:
> "When the Queen forgets and the Shadow falls, the flame shall awaken in blood once lost.
One will rise from death's embrace.
One will burn the world to ash."
Melissa's fingers trembled. "Burn the world?"
Selene placed a hand on her shoulder. "Lyra isn't just your sister. She's the other half of this. And if her pain becomes rage… she could end everything."
Kael added, "Unless you remember who you truly are—and what you were meant to do."
Melissa felt the dream stone under her shirt, still warm. Visions of Lyra's broken eyes, of the wolves kneeling, of the crown on her own head—they returned in fragments.
"I left her," she whispered. "I didn't mean to, but… I did."
Kael's voice was gentle. "Now you have a chance to make it right."
A howl echoed faintly from far off—too distant to be a threat, but close enough to be a warning.
Selene frowned. "Others are awakening. The prophecy isn't a secret anymore."
Melissa looked between them, her voice steadying. "Then we need to find Lyra before the Revenant twists her beyond saving."
She stood taller, fire in her veins. "I need to remember everything. No more fragments. No more fear."
Kael gave a slow nod. "Then tonight, we return to the ruins of Morwynn."
Selene whispered, "And awaken the memory locked inside the Queen's tomb."