Ash still fell from the sky.
The Mourning Fields lay silent in the aftermath, shrouded in drifting smoke and blackened dust. The remains of the shattered pyre smoldered in the distance, its once-sacred wood now reduced to ember and ruin. And though the Red Circle had withdrawn, their presence lingered like soot in the lungs.
Eren stood at the edge of the ruined ritual circle, Akreth sheathed and still, but not asleep. The blade was... listening. It had been since the moment he drove it into the ground and shattered the illusion. It hadn't protested. It hadn't resisted. If anything, it had… acknowledged him.
Elira crouched nearby, brushing ash from her cloak, her breath slowly steadying. "They'll come again," she said. "The Circle never retreats for long."
Eren nodded. "Let them. Next time, I won't be merciful."
She looked up sharply. "That's not what this path is about."
"I know," he replied. "But mercy is not the same as hesitation."
She studied him for a long moment. Then, quietly: "Something changed."
He didn't deny it.
He could feel it in his bones.
The voice of the flame no longer dominated his thoughts, but it lingered less a master now, more like a companion that had been warned to keep its distance.
And beneath it all, a new awareness burned in his chest. Like a door that had opened and couldn't be shut again.
"I saw her," he said suddenly.
Elira tilted her head.
"Lyria," he continued. "In the fire. She called to me. She wasn't afraid but she didn't want me to go farther."
"Memory or projection?"
"I don't know. But it felt real."
Elira stood and walked toward him. The wind tugged at her cloak as she looked out over the field. "The Circle wants you to believe that power and sacrifice are the same. They use guilt as a chain. But you broke that chain today."
"And now?"
"Now," she said, "you decide where your fire leads."
They didn't stay in the fields. The place had served its purpose. By dusk, they had moved northeast, following an old trader's road that twisted along the cliffs. The air grew cooler, the skies clearer, but the silence remained.
Only after they made camp did Elira speak again.
"There's another place. A temple hidden in the Vale of Thorns. It belonged to the Ashen Covenant."
Eren raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said they were the worst."
"They are," she said. "But they know things the others don't. The Covenant doesn't seek to worship the flame or seal it. They want to understand it. Dissect it."
"That doesn't sound better."
"It's not. But it's useful. There's a vault beneath the temple an archive that holds what's left of the flame's first prophecy."
Eren poked the fire. Sparks rose into the twilight.
"A prophecy?"
She nodded. "Written in blood. Bound in stone. It speaks of the bearer who ends the cycle."
He didn't speak for a long time.
Finally, he said, "Then we'll go."
They broke camp early the next morning and set out again. As the sun rose, they saw smoke in the east not from the Circle, but from villages they'd passed days before. The war was moving. And it was leaving no survivors.
Near the end of the second day, a lone figure approached from the ridge behind them.
Elira spotted him first. "We're being followed."
Eren reached for Akreth. "Red Circle?"
"No," she said after a moment. "Too fast. Too light-footed."
They waited as the figure drew closer.
It was a young woman barely older than Eren clad in worn leather armor, her face hooded. She raised her hands slowly as she stopped several paces away.
"I'm not here to fight," she said. "But I am here for the sword."
Eren's eyes narrowed. "Name."
"Syra," she said. "Scout for the Silver Veil. The one you met was a messenger. I'm the one they send when the bearer makes the wrong choice."
Elira stepped forward, hand on her blade. "And what choice would that be?"
Syra looked past her, locking eyes with Eren.
"You refused the baptism. You denied the sanctum. And now the Circle marks you as corrupted. My Order sees only one path forward containment."
Eren exhaled slowly. "So what? You're here to kill me?"
Syra shook her head. "I'm here to see if you're worth saving. You have three days to prove it."
She turned, walking back the way she came.
Elira called out, "And if he doesn't?"
Syra didn't stop walking.
"Then I finish the job."