The wind over Crestfall carried the scent of ash and blood.What had once been a fortress of pride was now a graveyard of silence — the aftermath of gods awakening.
Lyn stood at the crater's edge, the ember-mark glowing faintly on his hand. Every pulse burned — not painfully, but with a strange familiarity, as if the flame itself remembered him.
Umbra hovered nearby, its voice low and resonant. —It lingers inside you. The fire's memory… it knows your name.
"It shouldn't," Lyn murmured. He lifted his hand, watching faint trails of light curl from his fingers. "No one's touched Crestfire in centuries."
Rhea approached carefully, staff still crackling with residual mana. "Whatever it was, it's bound to you now. The flame didn't just mark you — it chose you."
Lyn turned toward her, eyes reflecting the dying embers around them. "Chosen or cursed?"
Before she could answer, the ember flared suddenly. A vision slammed into him — images too fast to process: a burning city of gold, beasts screaming in rebellion, a black sun swallowing light.
Umbra roared, shadows curling protectively around Lyn as he fell to one knee.
—Stay with me! the spirit thundered. —You're seeing the memory of the Seal. The first tamers… the ones who started this war.
Lyn's breath hitched. Through the blinding fire, he saw figures — cloaked tamers with glowing crests, standing before an endless pit of light. One voice echoed among them:
"Power is not meant to serve. It's meant to bind."
Then darkness.
Lyn gasped, breaking free of the vision. The ember had dimmed, but its warmth remained, pulsing with every heartbeat.
Rhea steadied him. "You saw something, didn't you?"
"A memory," he said, voice raw. "The birth of the Seals. And the betrayal that followed."
Umbra's form shimmered, wings brushing against the fractured air. —The fire remembers the chains that birthed it. It's not just energy… it's conscience.
Arden approached, dragging a wounded soldier. "Reports from the eastern watch — the Council's moving. They know Crestfire's been unsealed."
Lyn clenched his fist, the ember responding with a low hum. "Then they'll come for it."
Umbra's tone darkened. —They'll come for you. The fire's inside your crest now. You've become part of what they fear.
"Then we make them fear what they created."
He rose, eyes hardening as the last of the flames faded behind him. The wind carried their shadows eastward — toward the path of the next Seal.
Rhea hesitated before following. "Lyn… if this ember's alive, what happens if it burns too far?"
He looked down at the mark on his hand — now pulsing like a second heartbeat.
"Then I'll burn with it," he said softly. "But I won't let it burn alone."
Umbra's eyes gleamed in quiet approval. —Then our path is set.
Together, man and spirit turned toward the horizon.The ember flared once — bright enough to light the ruins.And far away, beneath a sky heavy with thunder, the Third Seal shuddered awake.