Spirit Interference
Chapter 4
Part 3
They'd barely left the ruin's threshold when the air thickened—pressing close like hidden lungs inhaling with malicious intent. Velrona froze, each breath dull in her lungs. She felt shards of flame-spirit residue churning beneath her boots.
Something's wrong, Erlin whispered.
We awoke more than thoughts, she replied.
From the temple's broken arches came a whisper of heat. Then a wisp of flame—blue and hollow, a ghost-flicker. Another followed… and another. Soon, dozens of flame-spirits drifted, their forms cracked, bodies scorched with fury.
They encircled Velrona, wings of cinder flaring. They whispered in a voice that fit neither language nor prayer—just the echo of old promises broken.
Velrona steadied herself.
System prompt: Corrupted spirit approaches – recommended skill: Voice of the Veil
She exhaled, steady.
Use it. Erlin's voice rang soft, urgent.
Velrona summoned the silent rhythm she'd practiced beneath Serathe's stones. She raised her palm to the flickering spirits.
"By the names you carried—by the flames you remembered—I know you."
The spirits surged forward as one.
They attacked.
Ash cut through air. Flame-screams peeled like burned cloth. Velrona dove sideways, elbows into flames. She dragged Erlin's body toward a broken pillar for cover.
System hint: Voice ready
She pressed both palms against the pillar, took a breath, and shouted:
"Vel‑ro‑na … A‑za‑eth!"
The spirits paused mid‑air.
Their heads snapped toward her. Their flames dimmed to flickers.
She repeated:
"I am Velrona Azaeth—Mother of the Veil—
I remember each of you by name."
A ripple passed through them. Ghosts stilled. Some dwindled to ash; others shuddered.
System record: Spirit Interference resolved – Permanent tissue acquired? Ashbind Rune unlocked
Velrona sank to her knees, exhaling. The remaining spirits fled upward through the cracks and into the sky, leaving motes of collapsing ember.
Erlin rose, brushing ash from his clothes.
That… was ridiculous.
Necessary.
He nodded, still shaking.
Will they come back?
If they remember their names, yes.
They re-entered the temple's vestibule. The air was cooler now, haunted only by empty echoes.
Velrona touched the ash-smeared floor.
I remember too much. her voice rang softly.
You look different, Erlin said.
Ashbind Rune. she whispered. The name-tag... it brands me.
Erlin let that sink in. "Your own flame-scar."
Proof, not prison.
They sat crossing old mosaic tiles, Velrona half-leaning against a fallen column.
Raising her fingers, she traced a spiral—new and raw—imprinted in her memory. The Rune glowed faintly beneath her skin.
She breathed, testing it.
System note: Permanent trait "Ashbind Rune" activated. Flame spirits hesitate.
Erlin watched quietly.
What now? he asked.
She silenced him, voice calm yet fierce.
We complete the signal.
They returned to the surface plaza where the spirit-foragers waited in anxious kneeling.
Velrona raised her hands, palms open.
Use Echo Signal?
She nodded.
A single spiraled flame flickered above her palm. It hovered, silent, ash-gray.
Then it shot upward—arcing into the sky like a living brushstroke.
It faded over the destroyed town, leaving a sigil-shaped trail of ember-fire that hovered in the ash-clouded dawn.
The foragers gasped.
The man whispers, "She calls them by her fire."
Velrona looked at Erlin, voice low but steady.
"This signifies my return—unclaimed, unbroken."
They left Serathe Hollow with that signal drifting behind them—predator and prophet, bound by flame and memory.