They arrived at dawn.
Mara, cloaked in soot and silence, stood on the ridge overlooking the Valley of Last Flame — where the embers of the old rebellion still whispered beneath cracked soil and withered banners.
Beside her, the First Spark's flame pulsed softly.
"He's here," Mara said, though no eyes could see Kael in the early light.
The Spark tilted her head. "You remember him differently now."
Mara gave a slight nod. "He was a weapon once. I thought he had no choice."
"And now?"
"…Now I wonder if I ever saw him at all."
---
Kael Reunited
Smoke rose from a ruined altar at the valley's center — not from battle, but from a small controlled fire.
Mara descended carefully. And there he was.
Kael.
Older in spirit, though only days had passed. His ember no longer coiled with Spiral signature. It was raw, untamed. True.
He looked up and saw her — and for a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Kael stepped forward and said, softly:
> "You came."
Mara studied him. "You changed."
"I had to."
"You remember what they made you do?"
Kael's jaw clenched. "I remember everything."
"And still… you burn."
> "Because I must."
---
The Spark's Warning
The First Spark approached them, laying a flame between them — a small flickering glyph.
"The Queen has begun the Severance," she said. "She means to unwrite every Kindled name. Not just kill — erase."
Kael glanced at Mara.
"Then we act now."
Mara nodded. "We have the Scroll of the First Severance. And Oren is with Ashen-Kai."
Kael blinked. "He's awake?"
"Yes. Teaching them the art of Name-Weaving."
Kael reached for the glyph. It burned gold in his hand.
> "Then we don't just fight.
We rename the world."
---
The Phoenix Pact
Beneath the ruined altar, they uncovered what had once been called the Emberstone, a relic forged in the last free city before the Spiral conquest.
The First Spark placed her hand on it. So did Kael. So did Mara.
"We light a new name," the Spark said.
Kael: "For those erased."
Mara: "For those still burning."
> "What shall we call ourselves?" the Spark asked.
Kael looked out across the ash-colored sky.
> "We are the Whispers," he said.
"We are the Flame Beneath."
Mara added, "And we will not be silent."
---
Meanwhile: Serai's Warning
Far to the south, Serai stood atop the Ember Archives as the sky split above her.
The Queen's Unmakers had arrived — not soldiers, but living scripts, twisted creatures made of laws, of bindings, of silence.
Oren read the wind. "They're erasing everything."
Serai held her newly awakened blade.
> "Then let them come.
And let the fire speak back."
---