Chapter 30
The dream came without warning.
No whisper.
No fire.
Just wings.
A thousand of them—black feathers blotting out the sky in her sleep, each wing carrying a different memory, a different death, a different scream. They circled Eliendara in the dreamscape until only one remained.
One raven.
The thirteenth.
It perched on the edge of a forgotten gate—half-open, rusted, sealed with words she no longer remembered writing.
The raven tilted its head, eyes gleaming like coals.
Then it spoke.
Not in voice, but in flame.
"Wake."
The dream shattered.
Eliendara gasped, sitting upright in her tent, breath fogging the cold air. Night had fallen hard, the stars low and sharp, and even the campfire near her seemed muted—like it was afraid.
Kael was already awake. He'd seen her thrash. He didn't ask what she saw.
Because a real raven now perched on the dagger embedded in the ground beside her.
Its feathers shimmered violet in the firelight.
In its beak—
A scroll, sealed in silver thread.
Not just any thread.
Family thread.
Her hand trembled as she took it.
Her fingers remembered that knot.
The knot her brother used when tying her birthday gifts as children. The way he wrapped his journals. The exact same silver knot he had tied the day before the final gate ceremony.
Before he died.
Before she let him.
Kael stepped closer, brows furrowed. "That seal..."
"I know," Eliendara whispered.
She unrolled the scroll.
There were no pleasantries.
Only a single line written in old flame-script, the language they used as children when hiding messages from their mentors.
"If you wear the crown… then it means I failed."
Her breath caught.
The raven cawed softly. Not like a bird.
More like a memory.
Kael read over her shoulder.
"Your brother…?"
"He's alive," she said, though the words made her dizzy.
Or his soul was.
Or some part of him that shouldn't be.
"I buried him myself. I burned his name into the ash-altar."
Kael placed a hand on her shoulder. "Then how is this possible?"
Eliendara stared at the raven.
"The thirteenth," she murmured. "There are only ever twelve bonded flame-messengers in the royal lineage. One for each sealed gate."
Kael blinked. "You're saying…"
She nodded.
"There was always a secret thirteenth. For the Eighth Gate."
The gate that was never acknowledged.The gate she almost unsealed.
And apparently, the one her brother died protecting.
Another scroll was tucked beneath the raven's wing. Smaller. Older.
She opened it with slower hands.
More flame-script.
"I'm bound in the Hollow of Names.If you find this, do not trust the crown.You've only remembered half the truth."
Eliendara dropped the scroll.
Kael caught it before the wind took it.
"Half the truth?"
Eliendara's eyes darkened.
"The crown's not just a prison…"
She looked down at her hands—one of them was shaking.
"…it's a rewrite."
🔮 Next Chapter Preview – Chapter 31: The Hollow of Names
Eliendara journeys into the Hollow of Names, a forbidden realm where forgotten souls reside—
But what she finds isn't just her brother…
It's the part of her soul the crown never let her remember.And a truth that might unmake her identity forever.