> "Some thrones fall in fire.
Some thrones fall in name.
But the worst fall…
and no one remembers they were ever there."
---
🌒 Far Above – The Throne of Mercy
The Fifth Throne sat in a temple made of light and bone.
It did not roar.
It whispered.
It was the last throne built before Astraeva vanished—a throne never occupied, only prayed to. A place for hope.
And now, it burned.
Quietly.
Not with rage.
Not with vengeance.
But with absence.
As if it had simply… decided not to exist anymore.
The gods didn't speak of it.
Because none of them could remember what had ever sat there.
Only one god wept—The Silent Queen, who could not speak but had once loved the one that throne belonged to.
She wept, and still the throne turned to ash.
---
🔥 Ashmarch – The Morning After the Spires
Karna stood at the war table, the map rearranging again.
Dozens of cities gone.
But worse—
Their names had vanished.
No scribes remembered them. No soldier had even heard of them.
> "We're not losing battles," Thorne muttered. "We're losing existence."
Aralyndra entered.
She was different now.
The Fragment she had claimed in the City of Spires had etched itself into her back — a glowing sigil made from the ancient vow she had once broken.
When she moved, whispers followed.
Voices that were not hers.
> "It's not a Fragment anymore," she said.
> "Then what is it?" Karna asked.
She looked at him, eyes dimly shining with gold fire.
> "It's a thread back to the world they tried to erase."
---
🜂 Elsewhere – The Erased City
There had once been a city.
Its name was Halemere.
It had stood for five thousand years.
Its people remembered every ancestor. Every stone was inscribed. Every tower rang with the bells of prayer.
The Usurper walked through it once.
And now—
No one remembered Halemere.
Not even its ghosts.
Except…
One child.
A girl who awoke in the ash of a bell tower, a single name pressed into her skin in glowing scars.
> "Aralyndra."
And with that name, the fire of the Fifth Throne hesitated.
Just long enough for something to be saved.
---
🌌 Karna's Dream – The War That Never Was
He stood on a battlefield where no one had ever died.
A war that had been planned but never fought.
Because someone erased the cause before it began.
He saw Vaeren, seated on a throne of blades, not to rule — but to guard something.
Karna stepped forward.
> "What is this?"
Vaeren looked at him.
> "This is the price of forgetting too much."
He gestured behind him.
Astraeva knelt, singing a single note over and over — trying to keep a name alive.
> "The Usurper isn't trying to kill you," Vaeren said.
> "He's trying to replace you."
Karna woke with a gasp.
The map was gone.
Just blank parchment.
---
🜃 In the Capital of the Gods – First Discord
A scream rang through the Celestial Court.
The Pale Matron struck the God of Chains across the face.
> "You lied!"
> "I did what was needed," he snarled.
> "You opened the path to him!"
The Serpent Judge slithered forward. "We should ally with the mortals."
> "Blasphemy," hissed another.
> "Survival," she replied.
And for the first time in 10,000 years—
The gods began to fracture.
They were no longer united in silence.
Because the Usurper was now stronger than their laws.
And somewhere deep in the star-bone archives—
A god remembered a name they had buried.
---
⚔️ Ashmarch – Preparation for the War Without History
The army readied not for war…
But for resistance against erasure.
Aralyndra stood atop the hill, her voice ringing.
> "We do not fight for power."
> "We fight to be remembered."
> "We fight to exist."
Karna drew Truthbreak, now pulsing darker.
Each time a throne fell, it absorbed not just memory—but burden.
> "If we fall," he said, "let them say it took the gods, the sky, and the end of time itself to stop us."
---
🌑 Far Beyond – The Usurper Smiles
Another throne gone.
Another city erased.
But now—
A name remained.
Aralyndra.
Sung by a child. Held by a blade. Spoken in flame.
He turned slowly in the void.
> "She remembers."
His voice was a thought wrapped in frost.
> "Then I must forget her for them."
He raised his hand.
And aimed it toward Ashmarch.
---
End of Chapter 12 – The Fifth Throne Burns Quietly