(Scene opens on a ruined sanctuary at dawn. Ash falls like snow. The broken remains of statues and beams burn slowly.)
RAEN stands on the edge of the ruin, staring at the sky. His back is bandaged. The curse mark throbs beneath it.
LIRA sits nearby, sharpening her blade. Her curse mark flickers faintly through the wrap on her neck.
RAEN(softly)
They'll come again.
LIRA
They always do.
RAEN
We need to keep moving. But to where?
LIRA
There's a place. Ashfall. A hidden village east of here.
RAEN(skeptical)
You've been there?
LIRA
Once. Before I burned it down.
(RAEN stares at her, unsure if she's joking. She isn't. They start walking.)
(Scene transitions as they pass through a forest of scorched trees. The land is blackened and cursed.)
RAEN
This whole region is dead. How can any cursed survive here?
LIRA
They don't survive. They hide. Or mutate.
(They arrive at the remains of a village. Walls are broken. Statues are melted. Black veins run through the ground.)
RAEN
This… is Ashfall?
LIRA
What's left of it.
(A faint cough is heard. They spot a cursed CHILD slumped beside a collapsed hut. His chest mark pulses erratically.)
CHILD(faintly)
The fire… it's inside…
(LIRA kneels. Her aura scans the child. RAEN watches carefully.)
RAEN
He's mutating. We should end it now.
LIRA
Wait.
(The child screams. His body twists. Cursed energy erupts as he mutates grotesquely.)
RAEN
Move!
(RAEN binds the mutant child with shadow chains. They snap. LIRA slashes, her blade igniting.)
LIRA
Forgive me.
(She finishes it. The cursed fire consumes the mutant.)
(Silence follows.)
RAEN
He was gone the moment we saw him.
LIRA
Still... it doesn't make it easier.
(A wind stirs. A sudden chill washes over them. Four veiled FIGURES appear on a nearby ridge. The air becomes heavy.)
LIRA(tensing)
No… it can't be...
RAEN
Who are they?
(One FIGURE raises a hand. RAEN's curse stops pulsing. LIRA's flame dims.)
FIRST FIGURE(speaking into their minds)
The Will stirs. The Flame breathes. The Blade weeps. But the Eye sleeps still.
SECOND FIGURE
The seal weakens. The pieces align.
RAEN(shouting)
Who are you?!
(The figures fade into mist. On the ground, a symbol appears: a crescent moon with three dots.)
LIRA(whispering)
Spectral Domain.
RAEN
That was them?
LIRA
They're older than the curses. Older than exorcists. They don't interfere unless the balance tips.
(Scene fades to night. RAEN and LIRA camp outside Ashfall.)
(RAEN tosses, then jolts awake—sweating. He dreamt.)
RAEN(panicking)
No…
LIRA(sits up)
Another nightmare?
RAEN
Worse.
(Flashback to dream: RAEN stands before a mirror. His reflection smirks with glowing white eyes.)
RAEN
You're not real.
REFLECTION
Not yet. But the queen is. Lazhara... calls.
(The mirror shatters. RAEN wakes.)
(Back to real-time. LIRA stares at him.)
LIRA
You said a name. Lazhara.
RAEN
You heard that?
LIRA(silent for a moment)
No one has spoken that name for centuries.
RAEN
Who is she?
LIRA
We should keep moving.
(Unknown to them, a WOMAN watches from the cliffs—cloaked in crimson silk.)
WOMAN(whispers)
Soon, my queen. Soon, they will open the gate.
(She vanishes)
[FADE OUT.]