They didn't leave the cavern the same people who had entered it.
Riven carried the weight of a legacy he never asked for.
Kaelis bore a power she barely understood.
And the world above was already turning against them.
As they emerged from the ruins of Eldenhold, the sky still burned with unnatural light. The rain had stopped, but the ground steamed where droplets had touched stone.
Kaelis looked at her hands.
She could still feel it—the fire that wasn't hers, the pulse beneath her skin that responded not to will, but to something deeper.
Something ancient.
"We need to move," Riven said quietly.
She nodded.
"Before they find us."
But it was already too late.
---
They were intercepted before they reached the city outskirts.
A squad of armored enforcers—black cloaks, crimson sigils burned into their gauntlets.
The **Council of Flame**.
Their leader stepped forward, eyes sharp as obsidian.
"Riven of Emberreach," he called. "You are to come with us."
Riven tensed.
"No."
The leader didn't flinch.
"You carry the blood of the old gods. You are not free to choose."
Kaelis stepped beside him.
"She just did."
The leader's gaze flicked to her.
"And you are?"
Kaelis met his stare without fear.
"A girl who's tired of being told what to be."
Then the fight began.
Flame met steel.
Fire clashed with fire.
Kaelis moved instinctively, calling upon the ember within her—not to burn, but to shift. To reshape. To control.
One enforcer lunged at Riven.
She raised a hand.
Time slowed.
Not literally.
But close enough.
Riven twisted, dodging the strike, and drove his elbow into the man's throat.
The leader hesitated.
"You're one of them," he whispered, realization dawning in his voice.
Kaelis frowned.
"One of what?"
He spat at the ground.
"A Shaper."
Then he vanished in a burst of flame, taking the remaining soldiers with him.
Leaving only silence behind.
---
Back in the tunnels beneath Emberreach, hidden deep within the **Ember Circle's sanctuary**, Veyra listened in silence as Riven and Kaelis recounted what happened.
When they finished, she exhaled slowly.
"I feared this would happen," she murmured.
Kaelis crossed her arms.
"What's a Shaper?"
Veyra studied her carefully.
"They were the first wielders of fire," she said. "Not born from the gods, but born to master them. They existed before dragons, before mortals even learned to speak."
She leaned forward.
"They were said to have been erased when the gods rose."
Kaelis swallowed hard.
"But I'm not erased."
"No," Veyra agreed. "You're the first in millennia."
Riven looked between them.
"If they were so powerful, why don't we know about them?"
Veyra smiled faintly.
"Because power like that threatens everyone—even gods."
She turned to Kaelis.
"And now, you may be the only one who can stop what's coming."
---
That night, a message arrived.
Not spoken.
Not written.
Felt.
A pulse through the air, like thunder before a storm.
The Whispering Gate had opened again.
This time, not with a name.
With a warning.
> **"The gods remember."**
Riven stood at the edge of the chamber, staring at the glowing embers around him.
"They're coming," he said. "All of them."
Kaelis stepped beside him.
"So we end this."
He looked at her.
"How?"
She smiled.
"We do what they never could."
She raised her hand.
And the fire obeyed.
Not because it had to.
Because it wanted to.