The wind shifted at the Forgotten Flame Tower, carrying with it the scent of scorched stone and something older—something stirring beneath the ruin. Jian stood at the edge of the broken platform, staring down where the last of the tower's fire had flickered out.
Yet it wasn't gone.
She could feel it: not a flame, but an ember. A warmth hiding beneath the ash. Waiting.
Jackson stepped beside her, the second dragon scale now fully merged with his chest. His breath misted in the cooling air, but his body burned with something new. The trials had lit more than just fire in him—they had awakened a memory, a truth, and now… a mission.
"You feel that?" Jian asked softly.
Jackson nodded. "The tower isn't dead. Something's still alive down there."
"No. Someone," Jian corrected, her voice certain. "This tower was part of Alicia's path. I can feel it now… like she left something behind."
The embers beneath the ashes glowed faintly as the ground trembled, revealing a hidden staircase spiraling into the depths—an ancient passage untouched by flame or time. Jian's staff pulsed with light as if it, too, remembered this place.
They descended slowly, firelight trailing behind them in small flickers, as if the tower itself had not forgotten the woman who had once stood guard here. At the bottom, a door made of obsidian shimmered with runes neither had seen before—runes of binding, of light, and of silence.
Jian ran her fingers across the symbols. "This is Alicia's magic. It's old, but still active."
Jackson squinted. "Why would she seal this place?"
"Maybe not to keep others out," Jian said, "but to keep something in."
And as if in answer, the door unlatched with a slow grind, revealing a room bathed in pale, golden flame. In its center sat a floating crystal—small, jagged, and impossibly dark. It pulsed with an energy that was not Alicia's.
"The Shadow Prince's relic," Jackson said, stepping forward instinctively. "A fragment…"
"No—the heart," Jian breathed. "She didn't just seal it. She trapped its core here."
The crystal pulsed again, as if hearing its own name. Shadows peeled from its edges, forming shapes, echoes, almost like… memories. Jian watched in awe as a phantom image of Alicia appeared, younger, surrounded by light, her staff raised high in defiance.
The memory spoke—not in words, but in feelings: sacrifice, sorrow, love… and the desperate need to protect.
"She bound the relic here with her own timeline," Jian realized. "She sacrificed her place in the present to contain it."
Jackson stared at the flame in her staff. "That's why she's lost in time. She didn't just vanish—she anchored the relic to herself."
Before they could process further, the room trembled again. The relic flared, sensing their presence. Shadows lunged—but this time, the embers beneath the ashes flared with light, pushing the darkness back.
Jian raised her staff. "She left her light here… for us."
The tower's warmth swelled, as if memory itself had become their ally. The fire Alicia had once kindled wasn't gone—it had become part of the stone, the staff, the scales… and now, them.
Jackson stepped beside her, his voice steady. "We're going to save her. We'll break the relic's hold and bring her back."
Jian looked at him, her expression fierce. "Not just for her. For everything she tried to protect. For every ember that still burns."
And as the relic screamed in protest, they stepped forward—together—into the final chamber where the heart of shadow met the light of the past.