The campfire flickered, casting long, dancing shadows across the ruined stones. Elara sat opposite Seris, studying her in the firelight. Seris was younger than she had first seemed — maybe only a few years older than Elara — but her eyes carried the weight of someone who had seen too much, survived too much.
"How did you know my mother?" Elara asked softly.
Seris flipped one of her daggers idly in her hand, the blade catching sparks from the fire. "She saved me," she said. "Years ago, during the Rift Wars. I was a child when my village fell to the Hollow Star cult. They believed if they sacrificed enough lives, they could force the Gate to open."
Elara's chest tightened. "That's horrible."
Seris nodded. "It was. But Isolde found us. Stopped them. She… she chose to protect, even when others wanted to destroy. She taught me how to fight. How to listen to the flame inside."
Kael, who had been quietly tending to his blade, spoke without looking up. "And now?"
Seris's gaze hardened. "Now I honor her by protecting you. Her daughter. The last flame."
A heavy silence settled. Elara looked down at her wrist, the faint glow of the crest still visible beneath her skin. The mark that had turned her life upside down.
"How do I control it?" she asked. "The flame?"
Seris leaned forward. "You don't control it. You understand it. Flame is wild. It consumes, it creates, it protects. It will test you. It will break you if you force it. But if you trust it—"
"It will follow," Elara finished quietly.
Seris smiled — a real, warm smile this time. "Exactly."
The fire crackled. Above them, the stars spun across a velvet sky.
Lysar sat apart, muttering incantations over the map they carried. His brow furrowed deeper with each whispered word.
Kael frowned. "What's wrong?"
Lysar didn't look up. "The path ahead… it's changing."
"How can a path change?" Elara asked.
"Because the land itself is warped near the Ruined Star," Lysar said grimly. "Old magics. Unstable. Twisted by time and sorrow."
Seris stood, sheathing her daggers. "We should move at first light. Before the Hollow Star regroups. They won't give up after one failed ambush."
Elara nodded, determination hardening inside her. She was tired of running, tired of fearing what she didn't understand.
Whatever the Ruined Star held — whatever destiny awaited at the Gate — she would face it.
For her mother.
For herself.
For the fire that now lived within her.