Chapter One: The Day the Flame Broke the Silence
Part Three: Ash Arrives on the Wind
The wind changed first.
Kaelen noticed it halfway through the walk back from Yolti's house—slow steps, empty road, the air brushing past his ear like someone whispering his name but holding the sound just shy of meaning.
He stopped.
The gravel beneath his boots crackled faintly, sharp in the sudden quiet.
The sky had darkened past violet. Stars had begun to web the upper veil—but not in their usual patterns. Some shimmered. Others pulsed. One flickered red and then vanished.
Kaelen's fingers twitched at his side.
A low hum rolled across the cliffs.
Not the steady kind of the Lyceum's pulse-lines.
This was thinner. Cracked. Unnatural.
He looked up.
There—slicing through the night above the eastern ridge—three figures. Sharp silhouettes against the stars. No sound of engines. No wings.
They weren't flying.
They were gliding.
Black robes trailing like ribbons, movements stitched by something older than technology. Glyphs shimmered on their shoulders—veiled, flickering, broken at the edges.
Kaelen's heart dropped.
His mouth moved before his thoughts could catch it.
"Zephryn…"
He turned and ran.
Back to the bikes. Legs burning. Air stabbing his chest with every breath.
He reached the bike and kicked off the brace, firing the engine so fast it nearly bucked.
Kaelen tore back toward Yolti's house, every second a fracture.
The sky above him didn't move like it should've.
It pressed. It tilted.
He banged on her door hard enough to shake the frame.
She opened it mid-yawn. "Kaelen, what—"
"No time," he said, breath catching. "Grab your boots. We need to go. Zephryn's in trouble."
"What?!"
"I saw them. Hollow Choir. Three of them. Flying toward the water."
Yolti blinked, stunned. "You… you're serious?"
He didn't answer.
That was enough for her.
They ran.
The bikes screamed over the water.
Spray kicked behind them in fading streaks of moonlight.
Kaelen's hands gripped tighter than they ever had before.
"Why now?" he muttered. "Why this late? They never patrol this late. Why would they fly?"
Yolti held on from behind, knuckles pale.
"What if they're looking for someone?" she shouted over the wind.
"They are," Kaelen said.
Ahead, the cliffs came into view—Solara's hut perched just beneath the crescent bend.
A flicker. A low rumble.
And then—
Explosion.
The sky lit orange and white.
The lake caught flame in reflection.
The entire cliffside flashed like a wounded eye opening.
"NO!" Yolti screamed.
Kaelen slammed the accelerator.
He didn't stop when the ridge rose.
He didn't stop when the heat hit him.
He didn't stop when his chest cracked under panic.
He flew.
The bike launched off the path edge before slowing. Kaelen leapt—feet hitting dirt before wheels finished skidding. Yolti tumbled, hit the ground hard, rolled.
Kaelen didn't turn back.
He was running before the dust cleared.
Yolti struggled up, breath sharp, hand on her ribs.
"Wait—Kaelen—"
He didn't stop.
He ran.
She followed.
When they reached the cliff's crest, the full ruin came into view.
The hut—burning. Half of it swallowed in flame. The roof collapsed inward, the eastern wall already gone. Smoke rose in a slow spiral, black against the starlight.
Yolti dropped to her knees.
"We were just here…" she whispered. "We were just…"
Kaelen didn't speak.
He walked forward, slow at first, then faster.
"Solara?" he called. "Zephryn?!"
No answer.
"Selka?!"
Still nothing.
He reached the edge of the rubble, hands shaking. His boots slid on the stone, pulse loud in his ears.
"Please…" he whispered.
Then—
Yolti's voice behind him:
"Kaelen…"
He turned.
She was pointing toward the edge of the cliff.
Toward a broken wooden post—half-charred, jagged—
—and a piece of cloth hanging from it.
Lavender. Torn. Scorched at the end.
Solara's scarf.
They ran.
The scarf danced in the wind, caught on a nail. The end was fraying—almost ready to give.
Kaelen reached it first.
He looked over the edge.
The cliff dropped into darkness.
But halfway down—on a jagged lower ledge—he saw it.
Another piece of the hut.
Smoke curling up from a shattered board.
And beside it…
Yolti gasped.
Kaelen leapt.
He half-slid, half-fell down the rocky path, hands scraping, feet slipping. His body slammed once into stone. He didn't care.
He reached the base, coughing.
"SOLARA!"
Silence.
Then—
Two shadows dropped from above.
They landed without sound.
Both cloaked. Both masked. Veil-pinned hoods. Glyphs unreadable. One raised a hand.
"Unauthorized presence.
Initiating memory wipe protocol."
Kaelen stood, fists clenched.
"Where's Zephryn?!"
The agent stepped forward.
"Subject eased from memory."
Kaelen's body shook.
Yolti appeared at the ledge above, frozen.
The air twisted.
Something behind Kaelen pulsed—not from the sky. From his spine.
The glyph hadn't surfaced yet.
But it was close.