Fires in the Dark

Location: The Broken Spire — a long-abandoned watchtower straddling fractured leyline pathsTime: Dusk, with stormclouds gathering over distant ridgelines

The scholar stood at the edge of the crumbling balcony, watching lightning flicker across the valley.

Kael emerged from the shadowed stairwell, cloak soaked and boots caked in ash.

"We're not the only ones who want to stop her," Kael said, tossing a sigil onto the war table."The Freebinders sent their mark. They'll listen. For now."

A Gathering Begins

The room filled slowly—one by one, new faces stepped from the dark:

A former Accord Enforcer with blood still on her hands and doubts in her eyes.

A Veilborn exile, glyph-burned and silent, eyes glowing with fractured insight.

A Sable Mire scout, the last of her kind, bearing a deep wound and a deeper grudge.

Each bore a different scar of the Crown's legacy.

Each had a reason to fight.

The Scholar Speaks

The scholar unrolled a new map across the table — drawn from Thaleon's hidden pages and the Watcher's visions.

"She's claimed a fragment," they said quietly."And the next one will not fall so easily — not if we move first."

They looked up.

"We don't have the numbers.We don't have the power.But we have something else."

Kael nodded, grim and certain.

"We still have the will to stop her."

The Flame Rekindled

Around the table, heads dipped. Hands tightened over blades and glyphs.

The war for the Hollow Crown had fractured nations, twisted loyalties, and burned through old truths.

But now, a new force stirred in the dark — not born of conquest or prophecy.

Born of resistance.