The forest grew darker with every step. Branches wove overhead like the ribs of a beast, swallowing the sky. The air was thick — not just with mist, but with memory. Elira felt it pressing in, watching her.
The book had begun to hum again, faintly, as if aware of where she was. Or of what was near.
By nightfall, she came upon a clearing she hadn't meant to find.
In the center stood a ring of ancient standing stones, each scorched black at the base, as if burned from within. Etchings covered their surfaces — some matching the ones on her book. In the middle of the circle, a fire burned without wood or flame. It hovered, pulsing red and gold, silent and alive.
Elira stepped closer.
> "Place the book," said a voice — not aloud, but within.
Her hands moved on their own, lifting the book and setting it gently in the center of the fire. It did not burn.
The fire surged upward, forming into a column of light. Inside it, figures danced — shadows of the past, echoes of the Emberborn who had come before her.
She saw battles. Cities turned to ash. A woman with eyes like hers holding back a wave of darkness with nothing but a word. Then a man — tall, cruel, cloaked in shadow — whispering into the ears of kings.
A name formed in her mind: Mareth.
The light flared, and a symbol seared itself into the ground at Elira's feet — the same sigil that had appeared in the archive. Her vision blurred. When it cleared, one of the figures had stepped from the light.
He wore a cloak of tattered flame. His eyes were hollow, yet burned.
> "You carry the last spark," he said. "But the flame must be more than carried. It must be awakened."
> "Who are you?" Elira asked, barely able to speak.
> "The First Ember," he replied. "I am what you may become. Or what you may destroy."
The vision faded as quickly as it had come. The fire vanished. The book fell into her hands once more — heavier than before.
From deep in the woods, a howl split the silence. Something was coming.
Elira looked once more at the sigil, then turned and ran.
The Vale of Ash was near. But so was the shadow that hunted her.
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