The sun never rose in the Frostwound Expanse.
Here, the sky wore the color of mourning—a muted silver that bled no warmth, only silence. Winds carried the chill of forgotten gods, and the snow that fell was not white, but pale blue, laced with ancient ember-frost.
For days they traveled through the cold, the fire within Mara their only true warmth. Each step crackled over ice not entirely solid. Underneath, rivers flowed—of light, frozen mid-motion, trapped in time.
Serai kept near Mara now. Not just for protection, but for anchoring. "This place is old," she murmured. "Older than flame. Older than even the Heart."
Tessara agreed. "Something here hates warmth."
And Talon, ever watchful, scanned the ridgelines. "Then it knows we're here."
---
The Tomb of Avel'syr
At last, they reached the place the Heart whispered of: Avel'syr, an obsidian mausoleum embedded into the spine of a glacier like a wound held open.
Carvings on its face showed the six shards once united—around a being of neither flesh nor flame, but light. Not radiant, but cold. Piercing. Unfeeling.
Mara reached out.
The ice split with a breath of wind. The tomb opened itself.
Inside lay no treasure, no crown. Only a pedestal, and atop it, floating and still—
> The final shard.
It pulsed blue-white. Unlike the others, its flame was silent. Its gift: not warmth, but absence. Stillness. Endings.
The Shard of Remembrance.
As Mara stepped forward, it spoke in her mind—not in words, but in feelings:
> You have carried Will, Shield, Truth, Grief, and Judgment.
Now, carry what is lost.
She reached out—
And in that moment, the tomb erupted with sound.
---
What Follows the Flame
A figure appeared at the entrance, stumbling through frost and memory.
Vaerion.
But he was… different.
His ember scars no longer glowed. His eyes were no longer black.
He knelt—not in submission, but in clarity.
"The Heart showed me," he said. "What I was. What they took from me."
He looked at Mara. "I was the first. But not the strongest. That's you."
Mara turned. "Then help me finish it."
As she touched the sixth shard, cold fire raced through her bones. She saw everything—a galaxy of lifetimes, wars fought across skies and oceans, the forging of the shards from a broken being of flame and shadow.
And she understood:
> The shards were never weapons.
They were memories.
Fragments of something once whole… trying to become again.
---
One Flame, Whole Again
The six shards pulsed as one. They circled her heart, then merged—not into chaos, but into clarity.
Mara rose, her skin glowing with shifting flame and frost.
Tessara stepped back, shielding her eyes. "Mara…?"
Serai fell to her knees. "She's not just flameborn anymore."
Talon whispered, "She is the Heart now."
And Mara spoke, not in voice but in truth:
> "No. I am what the Heart remembers.
And now… I choose what it becomes."
---
But far away, in the ruined halls of the Vessel Order, the Prime felt the moment of fusion.
And he smiled.
"She's ready," he said. "Bring her to the Furnace Gate. The final flame must burn."
---