CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:When The Fire Speaks My Name
Elianah
The temple walls groaned like an ancient beast stirring from slumber. Cracks lit with veins of orange fire, bleeding upward toward the ceiling — as if the place was about to erupt from within.
Kael gripped the burning sword, its blade singing — not with sound, but with memories.
> "It knows me," he whispered.
> "It's calling me."
Elianah stood beside him, her hand over her heart, where a warmth had begun to bloom. Not pain. Not fear.
Recognition.
"This temple... it's older than gods. Older than time. And it remembers us."
---
Caelen
He collapsed in Kael's arms, weak but awake. The black fire had receded, but a flicker still lingered in his veins like a scar.
"I fought it," he whispered. "Every life I screamed your names, but the silence was louder."
Kael clenched his jaw, cradling his brother. "You're here now. You came back to us."
But the moment shattered as the voice returned, deeper than the earth's own breath.
> "If flame cannot claim him, then shadow shall."
The ground split.
From it rose a creature — part god, part curse. Shaped like Caelen, but twisted, faceless, burning from the inside.
It was the Forgotten God's last remnant.
---
Lyra
She threw a rune forward, cracking it against the ground. A wall of golden light surged upward, blocking the creature's path for a heartbeat.
"Run!" she shouted.
But Kael didn't move. He turned to Elianah.
"We don't run from fire anymore."
He stepped toward the beast.
And as he walked, the temple responded — each of the nine thrones flaring to life one by one, even the empty one. All except the final flame, which remained dark.
Until Elianah's feet touched the dais.
---
Elianah
A wind swirled around her. Soft. Knowing.
She looked into the pool of glass where the sword had hovered moments before.
And there — reflected — was herself in a life long forgotten. A priestess of flame. Guardian of endings. Lover of the one who held the blade.
Her voice trembled as she spoke the name once more:
> "Aëryn."
That was her name before Elianah.
The fire heard her.
And the ninth throne ignited.
The final seal broke.
---
Kael
The sword in his hand pulsed.
"Together," he said, and Elianah came beside him. Their fingers entwined.
The fire roared in approval.
Kael looked at the beast — the last piece of the god that had ruined them across time.
And he saw, finally, what the fire had been trying to show them.
> They didn't need to destroy the past.
> They needed to reclaim it.
---
The Final Strike
The sword lifted, split into two — one in Kael's hand, one in Elianah's.
Twin flames.
As one, they leapt toward the shadow. The creature struck — claws of smoke and hunger — but it couldn't pierce flame that remembered who it was.
With a cry that shattered echoes, they drove their blades through the heart of the god's remnant.
---
Silence.
And then—
Light.
Blinding. Warm. Real.
The temple breathed out… and stilled.
---
Caelen
He stood slowly. The fire no longer clung to him.
"I remember now," he said.
"Who we were. Who we are."
He looked at Kael. Then Elianah.
"Thank you… for not giving up on me."
---
Elianah
She stepped forward, placed a hand over her own heart.
"Now we find the others."
Kael nodded.
"Now we finish what the stars began."