Chapter Thirty-Eight – Flames Beneath the Skin

We didn't speak much after the vision.

The air had shifted, and so had we. I could feel it in the way Kael kept glancing at me like he was solving a riddle that suddenly got more complicated. I could feel it in Riven too—he hadn't let go of my hand since the ruins, and his grip tightened with every step.

The Veiled Road wasn't just showing us the past.

It was merging us with it.

And then it happened again.

This time, the shift came with fire.

One moment we were walking across a shallow stream, and the next, the entire forest around us was ablaze. Crimson fire coiled through the trees like serpents, but nothing burned. The flames licked at bark, leapt across leaves—and yet, not a single branch turned to ash.

"An illusion?" Riven asked, drawing his blade.

Kael crouched and pressed a hand to the ground. "No. This is a living memory. Someone's pain. Someone's rage."

That's when I heard the scream.

High, raw, and broken.

It was me.

But not my voice—not really. Younger. Angrier. Wild with power I didn't understand.

The fire twisted—and in its heart stood a girl. Hair like ash. Eyes like molten gold. Skin cracked with glowing lines, as if fire lived beneath it.

I stepped forward, breath caught in my throat. "Who… who is she?"

"She's you," Kael said. "Or she was. Before the Thread marked you in this life."

Riven stepped in front of me protectively. "She doesn't look too happy."

The girl—my other self—lifted her head and locked eyes with me. And then she spoke.

"You sealed us away. Buried the truth. But fire doesn't forget."

With a scream, her body erupted into flame, and suddenly the world burned real.

Kael shouted, casting shields of Threadlight around us. "She's not a memory—she's a fragment!"

"Of what?" Riven yelled.

"Of her soul!" Kael shouted. "She's a sealed part of Sera, a piece that remembers everything the Loom tried to erase!"

The girl lunged at me, fire trailing from her hands.

I didn't think—I just reached inside, to the place the Thread always stirred, and let it flood out.

Light met flame—and for a moment, we were suspended in a storm of clashing memories and emotions. Pain. Power. Love. Loss. A thousand lives screaming through my mind at once.

Then, silence.

The fire was gone. The girl was gone.

And I was on my knees, shaking.

Riven caught me before I fell completely. "Sera, talk to me."

"I… I'm okay," I whispered. "But… I think the seals inside me are breaking."

Kael looked grim. "And that's not all. If one fragment is awake…"

"There'll be more," I finished. "And they won't all want to be part of me again."

Riven helped me to my feet, his voice low. "Then we find them. Face them. One by one."

I looked at the charred earth where the fire-girl had stood.

And for the first time since this journey began, I wasn't just afraid of the road ahead…

…I was afraid of myself.