1. SILENCE AFTER VICTORY
The Bastion of Silphare stood half-ruined under a soot-filled sky. Victory should have tasted sweet — but for Mira, it lingered bitter on her tongue.
Flamebound fighters gathered the wounded. Crows circled. The Soulpyre flickered in mourning rather than triumph.
Kaen watched Mira from the shadows of the war room. She hadn't spoken in hours.
"You okay?" he asked.
"No," she said. "But I'm alive."
She clutched the reforged Cindervow, its edges still whispering old memories — none of them hers, all of them Ashara's.
🔮 2. A MESSAGE FROM THE SKYGRAVE
Raven burst into the chamber, her cloak scorched.
"A messenger came through the flame. One of them."
In the courtyard, a Seraph-killed messenger still twitched — his mouth glowing with divine script.
Lyric read it aloud.
"She must come alone. To the Skygrave. Or the Flamebound die in their sleep."
"A trap," Kaen growled.
"Definitely," Raven agreed.
"Then I walk into it," Mira said.
Silence.
"You can't be serious," Kaen snapped.
"I am," Mira replied. "This war started because Ashara never bowed. Maybe it ends because I do."
🌌 3. ASCENT TO THE SKYGRAVE
Mira traveled alone.
Just her, Cindervow, and a soulfire lantern that lit the path through the haunted highlands.
Each step closer to the Skygrave Mountains, the air grew thinner. The world quieter.
She saw memories in the mist — visions of Ashara, of gods dying, of flame cities turned to salt.
At the summit, waiting in stillness, sat a god unlike any other.
Not Virex. Not Velron.
But Azem, the Withering Sky.
Neither male nor female, human nor monster — Azem wore a cloak made of starfall and spoke without sound.
🕊️ 4. THE GOD WHO DID NOT FIGHT
"You are not her," Azem said, voice echoing in Mira's soul.
"No," Mira replied. "But she's part of me."
"Then you are cursed."
Mira held her ground.
"Why summon me?"
Azem stepped forward. Each footstep warped the air.
"Because the gods do not want war. And yet, one is coming."
"It already came."
"Velron is not working alone."
Mira's breath caught.
Azem raised a hand, and a constellation of broken names spun around her: other Reborns, lost souls who once were gods and now walk as mortal monsters.
"Velron plans to shatter the sky."
"Then I'll burn it shut."
"And burn the world too?"
💔 5. THE GOD'S WARNING
Azem showed her a vision:
Cities aflame.
Kaen, dying in her arms.
The Soulpyre collapsing inward.
Mira — crowned in ash, alone.
"This is the future if you choose vengeance."
"What if I choose justice?" Mira asked.
"Then prepare to pay the price."
Before disappearing into the sky, Azem gave her a fragment — a glowing shard of Soulglass.
"Use this when you are ready to see the truth of your own flame."
🏕️ 6. RETURN TO THE FLAMEBOUND
When Mira returned to the camp, silence fell.
She had no army with her.
No new weapon.
Only a warning.
And a resolve hardened by fire and fear.
She stood before the Flamebound.
"Velron's not working alone. This is bigger than rebellion. Bigger than Ashara."
"Then what is it?" Lyric asked.
Mira held up the Soulglass fragment.
"It's about everything we've forgotten… and everything we're about to lose."