The Grave Of Stars
The sky burned for two days.
The comet—if it could be called that—left a trail of cinders across the heavens, like the wound of a god. It hadn't fallen naturally. That much was clear. The flames around it weren't hot but hungry, pulling light inward instead of casting it outward.
Kael rode hard toward the southeast with his companions close behind. They passed through barren stretches of broken plains, silent canyons, and dust-choked roads. Nothing lived in these lands. Not birds. Not beasts. Just wind and the echo of something old stirring beneath the ground.
"This place feels cursed," Korrin muttered, spitting into the dirt.
"It's more than cursed," Mira said. "The comet fell where the stars don't shine. The ancient maps called it the Grave of Stars."
Marek added quietly, "That place was never meant for the living."
---
They arrived on the third night.
The crater was massive—miles wide, surrounded by blackened hills that steamed with heat and glowed with strange runes visible only at night. In the center of the crater was a half-buried structure… not a rock, but a coffin made of starmetal and bone.
Kael felt the Seal on his chest pulse like a second heartbeat.
"This is it," he said.
Mira clutched her cloak tighter. "There's something watching from inside. I can feel it."
---
They descended into the crater together.
Every step kicked up ash that floated unnaturally, like smoke in water. The heat wasn't burning—it was dreamlike, pulling at the edges of Kael's mind. At times, he saw figures in the shadows, whispering. At other times, he heard voices from his past.
Vosk.
Elaine.
Even Alin.
But they weren't real.
They were tests.
---
At the base of the crater, the starmetal coffin opened.
Not from the top—from within.
And what stepped out was not a demon, not a god, not a man.
It was a Starborn Revenant—a being made of celestial flame, wearing armor forged from fragments of constellations. Its eyes were twin galaxies, spinning in silence. It held no weapon.
It was the weapon.
---
Kael stepped forward.
"I'm here for the Seal."
The Revenant tilted its head.
> "You are Flame-Touched. Greyflame's blood. But not yet worthy."
Kael didn't flinch. "Then test me."
The Revenant raised a single hand.
And the sky collapsed.
---
The world fell away.
Kael found himself standing in a cosmic void, stars drifting in every direction. Planets turned slowly, half-formed and bleeding. A thousand voices whispered from beyond the light.
He stood on a narrow bridge of starlight.
The Revenant waited at the far end.
Kael drew Rendlight.
---
Their battle didn't begin with blades—it began with memory.
The Revenant cast Kael's past at him in waves:
The pain of watching Vosk die.
The betrayal of the Order.
The fear of becoming Malrekh's puppet.
The moment he hesitated at the Archive.
The moment he enjoyed killing the Warden of Blood.
Kael staggered.
Each memory hit like a blow to the chest.
The Revenant whispered:
> "You burn with guilt. Fire cannot hesitate."
Kael fell to one knee.
Then gritted his teeth.
And rose.
---
"I'm not fire because I'm perfect," he growled. "I'm fire because I survive what burns me."
He stepped forward—Rendlight blazing brighter than ever.
"Test me with pain. I'll forge it into strength."
---
The bridge cracked.
The stars screamed.
And Kael charged.
---
They clashed in the void.
Blow for blow. Light against flame. Kael moved faster than ever before, fueled by fury and clarity. The Revenant wielded gravity and starlight like blades, but Kael was no longer the boy who feared his own power.
He was the Hunter who had claimed fire itself.
And with one final strike—he drove Rendlight into the Revenant's chest.
The light shattered.
---
Kael stood alone in silence.
Then the stars blinked—and the Revenant, kneeling, held out its hand.
In its palm, a crystal shard glowing with cosmic flame.
> "You are not whole. But you are becoming."
Kael took the shard.
The moment he did, it burned into his hand—and the void exploded in light.
---
He awoke in the crater, gasping, the shard fused into his right palm.
The third Seal had joined the others.
Mira knelt beside him. "You were gone for hours."
Kael stood slowly. "Felt like years."
Tana looked to the sky. "The stars are dimmer."
Korrin added, "That wasn't just a Seal. That was a soul. You stole fire from the sky."
Kael looked up at the heavens, now duller, quieter.
"I didn't steal it," he said.
"I earned it."
---
But as they left the crater, Marek stayed silent.
Later that night, Mira found him standing away from camp.
"Something's wrong," she said.
Marek nodded. "Yes. I know Kael is the chosen one
. But I also know something else."
"What?"
Marek looked toward the south.
"Malrekh isn't chasing him anymore."
Mira's heart dropped.
"Then what is he doing?"
Marek whispered:
> "He's waiting."