Dreams of Ash and Fire

The dream didn't feel like a dream.

It hurt too much.

The air was thick with ash, the ground a shifting sea of shattered memories. Every breath tasted like burned parchment and regret.

Jace stood on a cracked marble bridge that stretched across nothingness, each step echoing into a void that hummed with Violet's voice—fragmented, bleeding, echoing.

> "I didn't mean to leave."

"I just couldn't stand watching you carry it all."

"I thought… maybe this way, you'd forget."

He walked forward.

Each step pulled him deeper into her.

---

The first memory formed like a fog-cloaked stage—an abandoned courtyard back in Ascendria, where they used to train. Except here, it was night. Always night.

He saw her.

A younger Violet.

Kneeling alone beside a shattered Codex shard.

Weeping.

Then whispering to something he couldn't see.

> "If I could just rewrite it… I'd trade my place in his life for one in his memory."

> "He deserves better than what I became."

Jace stepped into the scene.

"Why didn't you say that to me?"

She didn't hear him.

It was a memory, after all.

But then—

The dream shifted.

And the younger Violet looked at him.

Her eyes bled fire.

"You weren't meant to follow me here, Jace."

---

He flinched—

And the dream shattered into burning petals.

He was somewhere else.

A battlefield now—black banners, Daemir's sigil, Nullborn clashing with Ascendria's Guard. Violet at the front, leading the charge.

But this time…

She looked soulless.

Her Codex flared with inverted glyphs, and her glaive was no longer the curved shadowsteel blade she once used.

It was a fang.

A living fang, pulsing with Daemir's will.

He reached out.

"Violet, this isn't you."

She turned slowly.

And for the briefest moment—her expression broke.

But the dream snapped again.

---

Now he stood in front of a mirror.

Not his.

Hers.

In it, he saw her memories—every one she sealed. Her mother's death. Her failed inheritance trial. Her desperation to match him. Her fear that she would always be "the second" next to Jace's growing flame.

> "I never wanted to be saved," her voice whispered.

"I wanted to save you."

Then—

Fire.

The mirror exploded.

And she was there.

Not a memory.

Her.

---

The real Violet.

Standing across from him in the final space of the dream—an empty temple, cracked pillars, and their first inscription carved in one stone:

> "Two against the world. No house. No bloodline. No fate."

She stepped closer, her dreamself no longer monstrous.

Just tired.

"I thought if I became strong enough to protect you… I wouldn't need to be near you."

Jace shook his head.

"You don't have to fight alone."

She reached out.

Their hands touched.

---

> [Codex Pulse – Link Stabilizing]

– Emotional Sync: 86%

– Codex Merge Threshold: 60%

– Violet Spark Reintegration: Partial Success

Trait Unlocked: Dreamforged Bond

– When sharing proximity with Violet (Codex-bound), both gain 5% stat resonance and access to shared cooldowns

– Codex Integration: 55% → 58%

---

She smiled.

Softly.

"Thank you… for not giving up."

But before the dream could close—

It ripped.

Not shattered.

Ripped.

A clawed hand tore through the memory space, yanking Violet away in an explosion of inverted glyphs.

A face loomed in the void behind her—skeletal, burning with Daemir's eye.

"You shouldn't have come, little flame."

Then—

Darkness.

And Jace woke up gasping in the Dreambed chamber, blood pouring from his nose.

---

Selira caught him.

"You saw him?"

"Daemir," he whispered. "He's still inside her."

Selira's face was pale. "Then there's only one way left."

"What?"

"We exorcise the Codex."

Jace looked up.

And knew what that meant.

They had to go back into the physical world.

Find Violet.

And fight not her…

…but the god inside her.

"The Rite of Severance"

The Vault's inner sanctum pulsed with restrained dread.

Only three recorded Codex Exorcisms had ever succeeded in the history of the Shadow Court—and all three left the initiators maimed, mentally fractured, or dead.

Jace would be the fourth attempt.

The difference?

He wasn't doing this to remove a parasite.

He was doing it to bring someone back.

---

Selira stood at the obsidian scrying table, her hands flashing through overlapping glyphs while black fire circled the air.

"Daemir used a hybrid construct," she said. "He didn't just latch onto her Codex. He rewrote part of its script using Null sigils. That's how he's surviving."

She waved her hand, and Violet's fragmented Codex appeared above the table—hovering, cracked, and bleeding lines of inverted color.

"Which means," Selira added grimly, "you won't be fighting just Daemir."

Jace looked up. "Who else?"

She hesitated.

Then sighed.

"…Her."

---

The Rite of Severance required three things.

1. A fully Codex-integrated bearer with at least 50% fusion.

2. A living trace of the original soul—the Violet Spark.

3. The willingness to die.

Jace qualified for all three.

Still, as he knelt before the ritual circle—blood sigils carved along his ribs and chest—his hands shook slightly.

Selira noticed but didn't comment.

Instead, she pressed a scroll into his hand. It was written in old ink and older sorrow.

"My brother used this to bring back his wife. He never spoke again after."

Jace stared at it.

"I'll speak for both of us then."

---

The Circle Prime watched from a distance—uninterested in helping, yet too curious to ignore.

The Codex carved itself open across Jace's back as he activated the Flame Within Me glyph—using his own soul as the anchor point.

> [Codex Ritual Initiated: Severance of Daemir's Bind]

– Focus Target: Violet (Soul Remnant Detected)

– Condition: Mutual resonance required

– Consequence of failure: Codex fragmentation, memory bleed, death

Begin.

The world ripped.

---

He stood in front of a mirror.

Not glass.

Not memory.

But her.

Violet was chained there, wrapped in burning red script, her wrists bound in chains of black glyphs shaped like thorns. Her eyes were clouded—still her, but not.

"Violet," he whispered.

She looked up.

Then flinched.

"No… not you. He'll see you…"

"I want him to see me," Jace said, stepping forward.

Daemir's voice slithered in from the void behind the mirror.

> "The boy thinks love is a weapon. Cute."

Then he appeared—wrapped in flame and bone, a skull-faced titan with Codex pages nailed into his ribs.

"You called me, little ember. Now burn."

---

The battle wasn't fair.

Because it wasn't meant to be.

Daemir could rewrite glyphs mid-fight—bend Codex rules around his will. He struck with claws of inverted fire and spoke words that made the dream-space warp.

Jace's Codex blazed with every counter he had. The Revenant Glaive screamed with shadow glyphs, bursting across Daemir's frame.

But it wasn't enough.

Each wound closed.

Each hit echoed back on him.

Then…

Violet screamed.

The chains cracked.

Daemir turned—startled.

And Jace saw it.

The opportunity.

He activated everything.

> [Soulwritten Trait: Buried Flame] – Active

[Dreamforged Bond: Resonance Boost] – Linked

Vault Merge Activated: Violet Spark + Revenant Flame

Result: Crimson Pulse

His glaive changed—wrapped in her memory, her pain, her hope.

And he struck.

Straight into Daemir's chest.

> Daemon Bind Severed.

---

The world shattered.

And when it reformed…

Jace was on the floor of the ritual circle.

Bleeding.

Barely breathing.

Selira knelt beside him, already healing the burns across his arms.

"Did it work?" she whispered.

He looked down.

A flicker of purple flame danced along his Codex.

Then a voice—hers—echoed softly.

> "You brought me back."

He smiled.

---

> Codex Update: Violet Reintegration – Stable

– Shared Bond Achieved

– New Ability Gained: Echo Step (Dual)

– Trait Evolved: Dreamforged Bond → Bloodbound Unity

• Share 10% of all active glyph traits with Violet

• Gain emotional sync bonus (when nearby)

• Stat feedback loop enabled (0.1 per 1 point gained by partner)

Codex Integration: 58% → 61%

---

Selira helped him stand.

"You know this changes everything."

"Good," Jace said, voice hoarse but alive.

"I'm tired of waiting for fate to catch up."

"Whispers in the Flame"

The moment Jace stepped back into the waking world—his body reeling from the severance ritual—he knew something had changed.

Not just inside him.

Around him.

The Codex no longer pulsed with uncertainty. It felt… awake. Rooted. And Violet's presence within it wasn't just a spark anymore.

She was there.

Alive.

Connected.

Waiting.

> Bond Status: Violet – Active

Shared Sync: 87%

Cooldown Access: Linked

Emotional Thread: Calibrating... Stable

Selira stood across from him, arms crossed, head slightly tilted.

"You should be unconscious."

"I'm stubborn."

She chuckled. "That's not a survival trait."

"It is for me."

---

Back in the Vault's upper ring, the Codex glyphs now responded to Jace faster than ever. Where before he had to pull them into being—now they moved like instinct. And Violet's bond meant they shifted together.

When he ran his hand along a flame rune, a second glyph lit beside it—ghostly, purple, etched in her script.

"Two Codexes working as one," Selira murmured behind him.

Jace turned. "You've seen this before?"

"Only in legends. It's called a Dual Ascent. Rare. Dangerous. Powerful."

She paused, gaze narrowing.

"…Deadly to those not aligned."

---

Later that evening, Violet appeared in full physical form again—restored body, matching Codex flare, her aura ghost-white with a hint of void residue.

But her eyes were clear.

"I remember everything," she said.

Jace didn't flinch. "Even Daemir?"

She nodded.

"Especially Daemir."

They sat together beneath the Shadow Vault's crescent atrium, the stars above twisted but beautiful.

"I didn't expect you to save me," she said softly.

"You saved me first."

She smiled faintly. "You know the Circle's not going to let this continue."

"Let what?"

"This." She waved a hand between them. "Us. Our bond. They'll see it as unstable. Too powerful. Too unpredictable."

He smirked. "They're not wrong."

---

He was right.

In the Prime Council's inner sanctum, several of the elders argued heatedly.

"He's bonded to a corrupted fragment!"

"She's not corrupted anymore."

"That's what he says. We don't know what influence remains."

"He passed the Rite."

"And now his Codex is mutating."

"We should extract it before he becomes uncontrollable."

Only the First Flame remained silent.

Then he whispered:

"Let's test him."

---

The test came at dawn.

A mission.

Simple on the surface: investigate a surge of Nullborn activity near the Forsaken Borderlands—a stretch of ruined land beyond the last safe bastion.

But Jace saw through it instantly.

"They're sending me to die," he said aloud.

Selira didn't disagree.

"But not just you."

He turned.

And saw Violet walk in, arms crossed, Codex floating behind her.

"They're sending us."

Jace grinned.

"Then let's give them something to fear."

---

> New Codex Trait Discovered: Bloodbound Unity (Evolved)

– Skill: Split Step Glyphing

• Jace and Violet can swap positions instantly once per battle phase.

• Shared memory access boosts casting efficiency by 12%.

• Trait Fusion Potential: 14%

> Codex Integration: 61% → 64%

---

As they prepared to leave, Selira handed Jace a sealed relic—flat, circular, and humming with forgotten magic.

"What is it?" he asked.

"A token."

"For what?"

She met his eyes, dead serious.

"For when the Circle stops pretending they trust you."