Smoke still curled from the ruined spires of the Emberforge. Though the siege had ended, the city's silence was heavy with unfinished war. The Queen had retreated—but her power had only been delayed.
Liora stood atop the highest spire, her cloak fluttering in the wind. The ember within her throbbed—not with pain, but with warning.
"She's bleeding," Ashara said beside her. "The forge wounded her."
Liora nodded. "And she'll come back angry."
Below, Thalen trained with the constructs, learning to control the twin forces of frost and flame that warred within him. Kael sat near the anvil, sharpening his blade with deliberate precision. His eyes hadn't rested since the battle.
Elestria read aloud from a scroll found in the inner sanctum. "The Queen's blood is cursed, born from the betrayal of the Ember Pact. She was once one of us."
Ashara frowned. "That's impossible. The Queen is as old as ruin."
"Exactly," Elestria whispered. "She was the First Breaker."
Gasps rippled through the chamber.
Thalen looked up. "She shattered the pact?"
Liora took the scroll and read the final line. "'And in her veins flows the last corrupted ember—the Bloodflame.'"
Kael rose. "Then to defeat her, we need to purify what she carries. Or destroy it."
Ashara paced. "Both options could kill her—or worse, release what's bound inside her."
Liora turned toward the vault beneath the forge. "Then we find out what she's hiding."
They descended into the deepest chamber—one none of them had entered since the battle. At its center rested a dark crystal, pulsing with shadowfire.
Elestria approached slowly. "This is… a blood ember. But it's sealed."
A whisper slithered through the chamber: You see me now.
Kael drew his blade. "Something's alive in there."
The flame flickered as the voice continued: You cannot destroy her without destroying yourselves. The pact made her. And unmaking it will break all of you.
Liora stepped closer. "Who are you?"
A ghostly figure appeared—a woman with a crown of broken flame and eyes like dying stars. "I was her twin. Once."
Ashara gasped. "The Queen had a sister?"
"Yes. I was chosen to carry the original ember. But she took it. Twisted it."
Elestria stepped forward. "Then help us end her."
The spirit wept emberlight. "I cannot. But I can give you what she feared most."
A soft glow rose from her hands. "The Memory of Flame. The truth of the betrayal. Use it… in the place she first broke the pact. Only then can the ember be made whole."
The light sank into Liora's chest, warming her heart with forgotten memories. She saw visions of two sisters, once united—until ambition burned everything between them.
Thalen bowed his head. "Where is this place?"
"The Valley of Sorrow," Ashara said. "Lost beyond the Ashen Wilds."
Kael tightened his grip on his blade. "Then that's where we go."
As they prepared to leave, the First Ember appeared once more.
"She will not wait. She will summon the Obsidian Flame."
"The what?" Elestria asked.
"The last weapon of the gods," Ashara whispered. "A fire that burns souls."
Liora turned, eyes blazing. "Then we get there first. And we light our own fire."
Above, in her black citadel, Queen Iridell bled violet fire into a bowl of obsidian. Her generals watched in silence as she carved a sigil into her chest.
"They have stolen my forge," she growled. "But they have not yet seen my flame."
She rose.
And the world began to burn.