The cold wind howled across the cliffside.
Serida crouched on the edge of a jagged outcropping, peering through a spyglass at the mouth of a valley carved into black stone. At the bottom stood a massive structure — angular, half-buried in the earth, its towers pulsing faintly with blue wardlight.
Labyrinth Theta.
The Cradle's hidden vault. Where Kael was held. Where Echoes were broken.
"Ugly place," Vexa muttered behind her, adjusting the soulsteel blade strapped to her back.
"Built to be forgotten," said Ailen softly, glyphs dancing along his neck. "It hides from memory itself. Once you go in, your mind forgets the path."
Serida tucked the spyglass away. "Not mine."
---
They returned to the forward camp hidden within a dead forest.
Dozens of ward-hunters, mercenaries, and resistance spies moved like shadows, prepping gear, synchronizing maps. A silent rhythm pulsed through the camp — the calm before a sacred kind of chaos.
Inside the main war tent, Ashbourne laid out the infiltration routes on an enchanted parchment. Ink moved like blood, shifting as time ticked forward.
"We enter from the south slope," he said. "Dead zone's narrow, but it's the only point their memory-veil doesn't fully cover."
"And if we hit resistance?" asked Serida.
"We burn it."
---
A moment later, the torchlight shifted — and a figure stepped from behind the ward-curtain.
The hooded girl.
The one from the Council of the Umbra Accord.
The one who never spoke.
But this time… she did.
"The Core will awaken if Kael is pushed too far," she said, voice quiet, low. "You have one chance. If you fail, there will be no second raid."
Serida stepped forward, calm but sharp. "Then we won't fail."
The girl turned, pausing at the edge of shadow.
"One more thing," she said without facing them. "The Cradle suspects the breach. They're preparing something worse than guards."
"What?" Ashbourne asked.
She didn't answer.
Just vanished into the dark again.
---
That night, Serida stared at the moonless sky.
She couldn't sleep.
Not because of fear — but because of Kael.
She remembered the way he looked when he first sparked. How wild the flame was. How afraid he was of what he carried.
He's still in there, she thought. Still fighting.
And when the time came…
She'd fight too.
---
The raid begins at first light.
And with it, the firestorm.