They traveled in silence.
The road curved through broken terrain, past collapsed train tracks and moss-covered towers. The sky above them shimmered with faint Rift scars—thin, pale cracks across reality that hadn't healed.
Jackie walked ahead this time. Kael said little.
When they finally stopped, they stood before a structure hidden behind a veil of creeping vines and cloaking wards—so well-protected Jackie nearly walked past it.
Kael raised a hand and muttered an incantation. The air hummed. The vines parted.
> A door of steel and stone, marked with Warden symbols, slid open with a heavy grind.
> "Welcome," Kael said, "to the Ashvault."
---
Inside was cold.
The outpost had no light except for glowing crystals embedded in the walls. Shelves of tomes, sealed scrolls, and memory-bound glass vials lined the chambers. Dragon motifs were carved into the floor in perfect spirals—symbols Jackie now recognized.
> "This was built after Jazira fell," Kael explained. "To document everything the Wardens feared might return."
> "And yet they didn't destroy it," Jackie said quietly.
Kael glanced at her. "Because part of them wanted to remember."
They walked deeper.
In the vault's heart stood a pedestal—no key, no handle. Just a silver mirror resting in black stone.
Kael stepped forward, placed his hand on the edge—and paused.
> "This part only opens to her blood," he said.
Jackie stared.
Then slowly walked forward.
Her hand, glowing faintly gold, hovered over the mirror—then touched it.
The room reacted immediately.
The air rippled. The runes lit up. The mirror shattered inward, revealing a stairwell winding deep below.
Jackie turned to Kael.
> "You didn't know it would do that."
He looked… shaken. "No. I didn't."
---
They descended.
At the bottom was a single room of memories—floating fragments trapped in Rift-glass, preserved like insects in amber. One shard flickered, reacting to Jackie's presence.
She reached out.
And the world shifted.
---
✨ Memory Shard: Year 0 After Riftfall
A woman stood atop a tower of flame, golden-scaled, eyes like dawn.
Jazira.
She wasn't destroying. She was shielding. Thousands below her—children, elders, wounded—sheltered behind her body as dragonfire rained from the sky.
A voice echoed in the memory:
> "They called me a monster before I ever burned a thing."
> "If I must become their nightmare to protect those they left behind… then let them fear me."
---
Jackie pulled her hand away, heart pounding.
> "She wasn't evil," she whispered. "They forced her to become what they feared."
Kael looked at her. "There are more shards."
She touched another.
---
✨ Memory Shard: Year 4 AR
Jazira, alone. Standing in a blackened field. A circle of Warden bodies at her feet. Her breathing ragged. Her arms burned and scarred.
> "They came to kill me in the night," she said to no one. "They said I was too dangerous to live."
> "So I showed them what dangerous really means."
---
Jackie stepped back.
The fire in her chest twisted—not rage, but heartbreak.
> "She wanted peace," Jackie said. "They didn't let her have it."
Kael's eyes were distant. "This is why they feared you."
> "Because history isn't just repeating…"
"It's still bleeding."
---
Before they left, Jackie noticed one last shard—larger than the rest.
But Kael stepped in front of it.
> "Not that one."
Jackie's brow furrowed. "Why not?"
> "Because it shows how it ends."
> "And you're not ready to see it."
---
She didn't push.
Not yet.
But as they walked back up the steps, she wasn't the same.
Not Jazira. Not Jackie.
Both.