Chapter 17: Crimson Eyes and Forgotten Flames
The wind had no scent.
The world had no color.
Kael stood in the middle of a scorched plain, where the sky bled a sickly crimson, and the trees were nothing but obsidian husks. In his hand, the twin fragments of the Sigil pulsed with a slow, steady rhythm, echoing the beat of a forgotten world.
But it wasn't the world around him that unnerved him.
It was her.
She stood at the edge of the burned horizon.
Hair like night, skin pale as ash, and eyes glowing with an impossible shade of red—like molten rubies locked in frost. She stared directly at him, unmoving. Unafraid.
> "You remember me," she said. Not a question. A truth.
Kael's breath hitched.
> "You're the girl... from the vision. The fire. The scream—"
> "And you're still running from it."
A gust of heat rushed through the land as the earth cracked open beneath their feet. Out poured a sea of flames—not ordinary fire, but violet and red, swirling like liquid memory.
Kael stepped back instinctively.
> "This is the Forgotten Flame," she said, raising her hand.
From her palm, fire danced like threads of silk, yet each flicker carried voices—pleading, singing, screaming.
> "It remembers everything that was burned away."
> "Who are you?" Kael demanded.
She turned slowly, revealing a burned brand on her neck—a symbol that matched the markings on Kael's own chest. The Shadowbound Sigil.
> "My name is Seris."
"I was the Flamekeeper of the First Eclipse. And I died... before you were born."
Kael's eyes widened. The Hollow Star had shown him fragments—of war, of Zarith, the First Eclipse Sovereign—but none of it made sense until now.
> "Then how are you here?"
> "Because part of me still burns within you."
—
Suddenly, the world shifted. The red sky shattered like glass, replaced by a dome of stars. Kael and Seris now stood atop a floating shard of land, orbiting a dead sun. Above them, chains of light coiled around a black heart suspended in space.
Kael could feel it—it was calling him. Hungering.
> "That's the Eclipse Heart," Seris whispered.
"And you are its last gate."
The darkness surrounding the heart rippled.
A new presence emerged.
A man in pristine white robes, with no face. His body shimmered with golden light, but it felt wrong—too clean. Too empty.
> "Kael Ardyn," the figure said, voice sterile. "You are incomplete. Hand over the Sigil, and your suffering will end."
Kael stepped forward instinctively, but Seris shouted:
> "Don't listen! That's the Mask of Origin! He was the one who betrayed the Eclipse line!"
But Kael's body moved on its own. His feet walked forward. His mind screamed to stop—but his soul—
That's when Seris grabbed him. Her flame surged into him, searing his arm. He screamed—but the pain snapped him free.
> "You are not his puppet," she said, eyes blazing.
"You are Shadowblood. You are Sovereign."
The Mask hissed and raised a glowing hand.
A lance of holy light flew at them.
Seris turned, shielding Kael—her body catching the full force.
Kael screamed—not again!
---
The dream shattered.
Kael woke up in a field of gray ash, gasping.
His arm still burned. But more than that—his eyes were wet. He hadn't cried since the day his village died.
He looked down at his chest—
The fragments had fused into a black sigil, now glowing red.
But that wasn't all.
In the reflection of his blade, Kael saw it.
His right eye—
Now glowed crimson.
Just like Seris.
> "You didn't die in vain," he whispered.
"I'll find the truth... even if I burn with it."
Far away, high atop a golden city, the Mask of Origin watched through a mirror of light.
> "He awakens too fast," it muttered.
"Accelerate the Hunt."
And the sky trembled.
---
✅ End of Chapter 17