The temple was dying.
It didn't collapse all at once.
It screamed.
A low, thrumming howl like stone mourning its own death, echoing through the collapsing corridors as fire bloomed in veins of gold along the floor. Every glyph Aurea had awakened was burning from within, bleeding light and heat as though the island's heart had cracked open.
Aurea stumbled through a narrowing passage, her breath short and chest tight. Sweat trickled down her temples, mingling with blood from a cut on her brow.
Behind her, Kael was a storm of movement—arms coiled around her waist one moment as a stone ceiling gave way above, pulling her into a roll as debris shattered just behind them.
"Keep moving!" he barked over the roar.
"I know!" she shouted back, coughing on dust. "Where are the others?"
Ahead, Eryan's silhouette flickered in the smoke, moving with the speed and grace of a shadow, guiding Riven—who was still half-limp, dragging one leg, blood soaked through his dark shirt.
"I'm fine," Riven grunted. "Don't touch me."
"You're welcome for saving your ass," Eryan muttered, not releasing his grip.
"Enough!" Aurea snapped, pushing herself forward, past the bickering. "That voice—Elsera—she's out. And this temple's going to bury us for it."
"She said the world would burn," Kael said grimly. "This may be where it starts."
Then the floor cracked.
Aurea's foot plunged through—the ground vanishing in a heartbeat beneath her. Kael caught her arm, muscles straining, but the platform below them was giving way, crumbling into a glowing chasm.
"Go!" Kael snarled. "Jump!"
She pulled herself up, legs scrambling, and as soon as she hit solid stone, they both leapt across the final gap together.
The temple behind them collapsed.
Stone, fire, memory—all swallowed into a black hole of magic ruptured beyond repair. When they finally burst out into the open, gasping, the jungle air was hot and thick, filled with ash drifting down like snow.
Silence.
No birds. No insects. Just the sound of their ragged breathing.
Aurea dropped to her knees in the underbrush and vomited.
"That's new," Eryan said, kneeling beside her, brushing hair from her face. "Your aura's still glowing. It's overcharged."
"I took in too much," she said weakly. "The temple… it fed me everything it had left."
Riven slumped against a tree, wiping blood from his mouth. "Why do you always attract ancient dead queens with apocalyptic tendencies?"
Kael knelt behind her, hand resting firmly on her back. "Because she's the spark," he said quietly. "And now that spark has been passed on."
Aurea looked up at him, and for the first time since Elsera's voice had spoken in her mind, she felt the magnitude of what had changed.
The fire inside her wasn't just a gift anymore.
It was a legacy. And it had chosen her.
They made camp far from the temple ruins, near a small river that still flowed clear and cool. Kael stood watch, ever alert, while Eryan tended to Riven's wounds with sharp efficiency, muttering insults under his breath.
Aurea sat alone, legs pulled to her chest, the glyphs on her skin now dim but permanent—etched in thin, gold lines that pulsed faintly beneath her surface.
"What now?" she whispered to herself.
"I was hoping you'd tell us," Eryan said, suddenly at her side.
She startled, then sighed. "I don't know. She didn't tell me what she wanted. Just… showed me enough power to light up a continent."
"Or incinerate one," he said dryly.
"Both are options," Riven added, hobbling over with Kael just behind him. "If she's truly awakened, then it's not just the Flame returning. Others might rise too. Her enemies."
Kael crouched in front of Aurea, eyes searching hers. "She marked you. You're a vessel now."
"Not just a vessel," Aurea said. "A trigger."
They all fell silent.
Then Eryan said, "We have to decide. Do we keep running from this? Or do we face what's coming head-on?"
Kael's expression turned colder. "We face it. Whatever comes next."
Riven let out a slow breath, his voice uncharacteristically serious. "Then you should all see this."
He pulled something from his coat—a map, battered and singed, marked in ink with circles and runes.
"This was buried beneath the temple floor, just before the glyphs lit up. It's part of a network. I think the temples weren't singular." He pointed at five distinct marks.
"Five?" Aurea whispered.
"One for each aspect of the elemental pantheon," Kael said, eyes narrowing. "Fire, Ice, Storm, Stone, and the Void."
"She was the Queen of Flame," Riven confirmed. "If her seal broke, others might follow."
"Then we have to reach the others first," Eryan said. "Or someone else will awaken them."
Aurea swallowed. "Then we go north. The frozen peaks."
"The Temple of Ice," Kael said with a nod. "But it won't welcome us. Not after what we did here."
Before they could respond—
The earth trembled.
Not a quake. A pulse.
Aurea's glyphs flared.
The flames of their fire blew sideways—no wind, just pressure, as if something vast and terrible had taken a breath beneath the soil.
Then—
A voice.
Soft. Male. Old. Not Elsera.
"So… the Flame returns."
Everyone went still.
The voice echoed not in the air—but in their minds.
"And with it, the war begins again."
Aurea stood slowly, eyes wide.
"Who are you?" she whispered.
No answer.
Only silence.
Only the scent of ash rising into the night sky.
And the chill of something watching.