The journey to Myrath took three days.
They rode through scorched plains and crossed a river that flowed backward at dusk. The pendant around Nicolette's neck now pulsed steadily, guiding them like a heartbeat in the dark.
The Ruins of Myrath appeared just before dawn—twisted towers trapped mid-collapse, stairways leading nowhere, trees frozen mid-sway. Time was broken here.
Kael gripped his sword. "I've seen cursed lands before, but this…"
"This is worse," Nicolette whispered. "It's not cursed—it's locked. Like a memory that refuses to fade."
They stepped past the archway.
The second they entered, the air thickened, and the sky shimmered like glass.
---
Inside the ruins, time did not flow.
Birds flapped in place without moving forward. Leaves hung mid-fall. A cat perched on a stone pillar blinked the same blink over and over.
Kael waved his hand. "This is wrong. We're inside a loop."
Nicolette looked at the cracked sundial in the center of the square. It read the same time: 13:13.
She walked forward and touched the sundial.
The world shifted.
Suddenly, everything moved. The cat leapt. Leaves landed. The sun jumped in the sky. Then—back again.
Loop. After loop.
---
A voice echoed through the ruins.
"Only when truth is faced shall time release its grip."
A figure appeared—a ghostly woman in golden armor, face half-burned, her eyes full of sorrow.
"I am Eira, Keeper of the Fourth Flame," she said. "And this place—this prison—holds my penance."
"Why are you trapped here?" Nicolette asked.
"Because I broke the chain," Eira whispered. "I let doubt fester. I questioned our purpose. I watched as the seventh turned against us... and I did nothing."
Kael stepped forward. "So how do we break the loop?"
"You must live my failure," she said. "Again and again—until you change the outcome."
---
They were pulled into memory.
Now Nicolette stood in Eira's place, inside a great hall of flame and crystal. The seven guardians argued.
One—Vael, the Seventh—declared flame should rule, not serve.
"Let the mortals kneel. We are fire incarnate!"
Eira's voice—now Nicolette's—hesitated. She said nothing.
And watched the world burn.
---
Loop.
Again.
Same moment. Same silence.
Again.
---
By the sixth time, Nicolette's throat ached. "I can't keep doing this."
Eira's voice echoed: "Then you'll stay here, forgotten—like me."
Kael shouted from outside the loop. "You're not her! You're better! You know what's right—say it!"
Nicolette clenched her fists.
One more time.
---
Vael rose to speak.
And this time, Nicolette's voice rang out: "You betray the flame. Power without balance is chaos. I won't be silent again."
The others turned. A flame lit behind their eyes—recognition.
Vael vanished in a shriek.
The memory shattered.
---
Back in the ruins, time snapped into place.
The sundial moved. The birds flew free. The cat yawned and stretched.
Eira stood smiling, no longer ghostly. "You chose differently. You chose courage. The Fourth Flame is yours."
She lifted her hand.
A spark—white-hot and pure—flew from her chest into Nicolette's pendant.
The fourth flame blazed to life.
Nicolette fell to her knees, overwhelmed. The visions, the voices—they surged through her, layering over her soul like armor.
Kael caught her.
"Are you okay?"
She looked up, glowing faintly. "I remember more now. Names. Faces. The seventh… he's not gone. He's preparing to return."
Kael exhaled. "Then we'd better keep moving."
Nicolette nodded. "Three flames remain. And the next... is hidden in a city built on lies."