The forest changed as they walked.
Not suddenly but slowly, in ways they only noticed after hours had passed. The trees grew older, their trunks wide as cottages, roots gnarled like sleeping beasts. Moss shimmered faintly with gold in places, as if reflecting the glow of the Ember Path. Even the air tasted different, denser, filled with the scent of ash and wildflowers.
Eira's dreams had begun to shift too.
She saw flickers of memories that weren't her own: hands shaping stone, whispered chants in forgotten tongues, flames kindled in darkness not to destroy but to guide. Each time she awoke, the shard in her chest glowed faintly, almost comfortingly. But it always dimmed before dawn.
That morning, Lena walked beside her, silent for a long while before finally asking, "Do you feel it?"
Eira nodded slowly. "It's like… the Path remembers us. Like we've walked it before."
Kaela, overhearing, frowned. "That doesn't make sense. You said your mother told you about it. But if it's that old…"
"She didn't just tell me," Eira interrupted. "She taught me words. Songs. None of them made sense until now."
Lena glanced at her. "Can you show us?"
Eira hesitated. Then she sang.
The melody was low and winding, a string of vowels and soft consonants that vibrated deep in her chest. As the final note slipped into silence, the path beneath them brightened and from beneath the mossy floor ahead, a cluster of symbols emerged, glowing faintly. Runes. Ancient, curved, and flickering like embers.
Kaela's mouth parted slightly. "That's Mageborn script."
"No," Thorne said, stepping forward. "It's older."
Eira knelt and reached out. Her fingers hovered just above the runes when a sudden sting ran through her palm. Not pain. Recognition.
Then a voice in her mind. Whispered.
"Guardians. Keepers. Flames born of flame."
Eira staggered back.
Thorne caught her. "What did you see?"
"I think… this Path wasn't just built," she whispered. "It was grown. Shaped by the first Mageborn. Bound to bloodlines. That's why I can feel it."
Kaela looked uneasy. "If it's tied to blood… does that mean it can turn on us?"
"I don't think it wants to hurt anyone," Eira said slowly. "But I think it remembers why it was hidden. And it knows something's coming."
⸻
Elsewhere, the trees thinned. The forest near the edge of the old valley bore no glow, no memory. But Maelis saw patterns even in emptiness.
She stood atop a jagged rock outcropping, watching the ravens circle above the distant ridge.
"The Ember Path is alive," she murmured to the tracker beside her. "Not sentient in the way we understand, but bound by purpose."
The tracker looked uncertain. "Then how do we catch them?"
"We don't need to." She turned to her waiting unit, silent warriors in black cloaks, faces veiled. "We cut ahead."
"You know where it leads?"
Maelis pulled a small stone from her pocket. It shimmered faintly, a stolen shard, smaller than Eira's, dull but still potent. Harrower has given it to her. She placed it on the earth.
Immediately, the ground trembled. A faint line of golden light flared beneath her feet and vanished toward the east.
"There," she said softly. "The Path leaves echoes. Even magic leaves footprints if you know how to listen."
She stepped back and crushed the shard beneath her heel.
"We'll take the ridgeline. Set traps near the narrowing. If the girl truly carries the Ember inside her… she'll walk straight into my hands."
The tracker shifted nervously. "And if she doesn't?"
Maelis smiled faintly, cold as frost. "Then I'll burn down the forest. One tree at a time."
⸻
That night, the forest grew colder.
Eira's group made camp beside an ancient, collapsed archway, half-buried in vines, but unmistakably crafted. Lena traced the stonework in silence, eyes wide. "This was once a gate," she said softly. "To something larger."
Torin looked up from where he sat patching a torn boot. "You think we're being led to a city?"
"Or a grave," Thorne said.
Eira stood still in the shadows of the stone, staring at the broken arch. A breeze stirred the moss at its base, and again, the runes flickered, only briefly.
But this time, she didn't reach for them.
Something was changing. She could feel it in the shard.
Kaela approached and sat beside her. She didn't speak right away, just stared at the glowing trail beyond.
"Do you trust where this ends?" she asked finally.
Eira thought about it. Thought of her mother's last words. Of the Veil. Of her magic.
"No," she said honestly. "But I trust it leads somewhere we're meant to find."
Kaela gave a slow nod. "Then let's find it before my sister does."
Eira blinked. "Your sister?"
Kaela turned her gaze to the woods. "She's here. I can feel it."
In the trees beyond the camp, the wind stilled.
The Ember Path pulsed once beneath them, brighter than before.
And somewhere, far ahead, something ancient opened its eyes.