Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Third Flame (Epic Edition)

The mountain groaned like a dying beast.

Stone cracked. Pillars snapped like brittle bone. The air trembled with collapsing magic as Seralyn yanked Kaela to her feet. Heat from the awakened fragment seared the chamber, and above them, a shadow moved watching.

"We need to go now!" Seralyn shouted.

Kaela staggered, barely upright. Her legs trembled beneath her, as if the ground had shifted from stone to air. The second Veil Fragment pulsed in her chest like a second heartbeat, each throb flooding her with visions, voices, fragments of lives that weren't hers.

"I saw it," she whispered, disoriented. "The next one… the third flame... it burns in the Forgotten Expanse."

Seralyn tightened her grip on Kaela's arm. "Then we live long enough to reach it."

They ran.

The collapse roared behind them like an avalanche. Shattered stone and burning fragments tore through the temple's corridors. The sky greeted them in a flash of colorless dawn as they emerged from the cave's mouth, smoke and ash chasing their heels.

But they were not alone.

A figure stood atop the ridge, backlit by lightning. His cloak, woven from shadows and cursed wind, billowed like a stormcloud. His face was hidden beneath a hood, but his presence was unmistakable.

In his hand: a staff of bone fused with blood-stained crystal.

"Yren," Kaela said hoarsely. The name burned like poison on her tongue.

Seralyn stepped in front of her. "That's him?"

Kaela nodded once. "He taught me everything. Then tried to own me."

Yren's voice rolled over the cliffs, smooth as silk, sharp as a blade. "You've run long enough, little flame. You and your... pet commander."

Seralyn's blade came free with a whisper. "Watch your mouth."

Yren grinned beneath his hood. "Give me the fragments. And the bond. Or I will rip them from your corpses."

Kaela reached for her power, her flame instinctively rising but her knees buckled.

Seralyn didn't hesitate. She lunged.

Their clash was brief. Yren didn't need to move. He lifted his staff and shadowfire spilled forth ribbons of midnight flame that hissed as they touched the air.

Seralyn slashed through two of them but the third coiled around her shoulder and burst.

She screamed.

"SERALYN!" Kaela shrieked.

The commander hit the ground hard, her armor seared through, the scent of burned flesh sharp in the air.

Kaela dropped beside her. "Don't you dare die on me."

Yren lowered his staff. "Your bond makes you weak."

Kaela lifted her head. Her eyes were flame. The sigil on her chest lit with wild, crackling fire.

"You think this bond weakens me?" she growled. "It anchors me."

A burst of raw flame exploded from her, searing the air.

Yren snarled, shielding himself, retreating into smoke.

"I'll return, Kaela. When the bond fails you."

His form vanished like mist in wind.

Kaela collapsed beside Seralyn, hands shaking as she pressed cloth against the wound.

"Why are you always saving me?" Seralyn rasped.

Kaela's voice cracked. "Because I'm tired of watching the people I care about bleed."

---

They camped in the foothills two days later.

Seralyn's wound was slow to heal, tainted with trace curses. Kaela burned the infection out with a mix of herbs and pain magic, refusing to let anyone else near her.

"You're going to kill me with care," Seralyn mumbled once during fever.

Kaela gritted her teeth. "Then don't give me a reason to."

Nights were quiet. The firelight between them said more than words could. Seralyn would often wake to find Kaela sitting watch, eyes distant, flames flickering in her palm.

On the fourth night, Seralyn stirred.

"I saw your face," she murmured. "When I fell. You looked scared."

Kaela didn't look at her. "I was."

"Why?"

Kaela's fingers curled. "Because... I thought I finally had something worth losing again."

Silence.

Then Seralyn reached over, her fingers brushing Kaela's.

"I'm still here."

---

The journey east took them through ravaged terrain. Villages long abandoned, forests where trees wept bloodsap, and fields where the dead whispered.

Kaela kept her hood up. Seralyn held her blade constantly. Trust was a fragile thing, and the world tested it daily.

One night, they found a quiet lake. Moonlight painted silver across the surface.

Kaela stood waist-deep in the water, arms raised.

"What are you doing?" Seralyn asked.

"Calling the memory of the flame," she said. "Trying to understand it."

Seralyn sat at the edge. "And?"

Kaela opened her eyes. "It's not a place. The third flame… is a person."

Seralyn blinked. "A person?"

Kaela nodded. "Not born. Forged. In the Forgotten Expanse."

Seralyn stood slowly. "Then we go."

---

The Forgotten Expanse greeted them with white ash and endless windless silence. The moment they stepped in, the sky dimmed. Their footprints vanished behind them.

Kaela's nightmares returned. Each night she whispered in her sleep, sometimes in voices Seralyn didn't recognize.

She never left Kaela's side.

"I dream of fire," Kaela murmured one night. "But it's not mine. It watches me."

Seralyn touched her brow. "Then let it see you're not afraid."

They found old temples swallowed by sand. Runes that shifted when Kaela passed. The sigils on their skin burned brighter. The silence deepened.

Then, at the edge of a dune sea, a figure appeared.

Clad in robes of white flame, he walked without footprints.

"You bear the mark," he said. His voice was echo and fire.

"Who are you?" Seralyn demanded.

"I am the Flame's Memory," he replied. "And you are not enemies but initiates."

Kaela stepped forward, eyes wide. "What is the third flame?"

He extended a hand toward them. "The final trial. The fusion of memory and magic. Come, and be judged."