The village pulsed with urgency.
Bells rang through the night, calling warriors and civilians alike to the center. Children were herded into the fortified temple, guarded by Talia and the elder Keepers. Torchlight danced across hurried faces, but no one panicked—not yet. Not with Chizzy still standing.
She stormed into the Keeper's archive with Sera close behind.
"There has to be something," Chizzy muttered, tossing aside brittle scrolls and half-decayed books. "A map, a seal, a counter-curse—anything that can tell us how to close those tunnels."
Sera pulled open a dusty compartment near the bottom of the archive shelves and drew out a thin leather-bound codex wrapped in gold wire.
"This might be it," she whispered. "The Codex of Binding. It's old—pre-Silencing—but some of the Keeper runes are still intact."
Chizzy opened it, her eyes skimming through the ancient script. The pages trembled faintly under her fingertips. "Here," she said, pointing to a rune sketched in scarlet ink. "The Lock of Emberbone. It requires a blood-bound flamebearer and a Keeper with direct lineage."
"You and me," Sera realized.
Chizzy nodded grimly. "We need to descend now. If they reach the central tunnel, they'll come up directly beneath the Ember Stone."
Outside, the ground vibrated again—stronger this time. Screams echoed near the east fields. Chizzy turned to Aerun, who had just arrived at the doorway.
"Hold the line. Don't let anyone near the core chamber."
"You're going down there alone?" he asked, stepping forward.
"We're the only ones who can seal it," she said. "I'll come back, I promise."
Aerun cupped her face, just for a heartbeat. "Then burn bright, Chizzy."
She gave a small, brave smile before turning and racing toward the tunnel entrance with Sera.
The old Keeper door at the forest's edge groaned open under Chizzy's touch, revealing spiraling stairs that descended into the Hollow's forgotten veins. Flames lit their path, reacting to Chizzy's presence. They moved fast but careful, hearts pounding, each step closer to the core.
As they reached the bottom, the scent of old stone and something fouler—rotting magic—clung to the air.
They entered the first chamber, where flickers of black smoke hung like veils in the corners. The walls trembled with the weight of incoming dark energy.
Sera opened the Codex and chanted, her voice steady.
Chizzy stepped into the center of the chamber, drawing a line across her palm with her dagger. Her blood shimmered golden as it dripped onto the carved sigil beneath her feet.
Flames rose from the edges of the runes, swirling around her and Sera. Together, they chanted:
"By flame and bone, by light once known, Let silence fall, and shadows be thrown. We bind the path, we close the door, Let Veil find passage here no more."
The chamber shook violently.
Dark figures screeched from the edges—Veil scouts emerging from the crevices, hissing as the sealing magic ignited. They lunged toward Chizzy, blades drawn.
Sera didn't hesitate—her staff cracked open the skull of the nearest one as Chizzy raised both hands, flames bursting from her fingertips in arcs of golden fire.
The final rune lit. The earth groaned.
Then everything went still.
The shadows screamed as the tunnel collapsed inward, stone folding upon itself, sealing the Whispering Path in a burst of fire and dust. A silence deeper than death settled.
Chizzy collapsed to her knees, breath ragged.
Sera knelt beside her. "We did it."
Chizzy nodded, eyes shining. "We stopped them. For now."
But deep, deeper still… a new voice stirred. One that hadn't spoken in ages.
"She bears the First Flame… and still, she walks blind."
And then… silence.