The silence that followed was not peace. It was the breath before a scream.
Elyra knelt beside Vespera, her fingers pressed against the woman's neck, searching for a pulse. Weak, but there. Barely. Kael stood guard beside them, sword drawn once more, his eyes scanning the ruins as if expecting the shadows to peel back and spit out another horror.
The Pale Flame was gone—or at least, no longer visible. The cracked pedestal still hissed with heatless smoke, like the ruin of a god's altar. But the real danger hadn't ended. It had begun.
"She shouldn't have done that," Elyra said, voice hoarse. "We should have found another way."
"There wasn't another way," Kael replied. "Not once we stepped into this place."
"She almost died."
"She still might."
Kael's tone wasn't cruel. Just blunt. Grounded. That strange steadiness again, the cold wall she hated and needed in equal measure.
Elyra looked down at Vespera's face. Pale. Gaunt. Haunted.
"You said it's not gone," she whispered.
Kael's gaze didn't shift. "No. It's not."
A low tremor rippled beneath them. Dust rained from above.
Kael swore under his breath. "We have to move. Now."
Elyra hesitated. "We can't just leave her."
"We don't," he said. Then, without warning, he swept Vespera into his arms like she weighed nothing. "But if we stay here, none of us walk out."
They left the chamber behind, sprinting through twisting corridors that felt tighter than before. The architecture itself seemed to groan, shifting like it hated them. Elyra caught glimpses of carvings she hadn't noticed before—faces twisted in agony, wings burned to ash.
Outside, the ruins no longer whispered. They howled.
Wind slammed into them like a wave as they emerged beneath the open sky. But the wind carried something new.
Smoke.
Fire.
Screaming.
Elyra turned her eyes toward the horizon—and froze.
There, rising like a scar into the twilight sky, was a tower of flame. Real flame. Not magical, not restrained. Wild. Hungry. And circling through it, wings outstretched, was a shape she knew too well.
"Starflame," Elyra breathed.
Kael followed her gaze. His jaw tightened. "Not just her."
As if summoned by the words, three more figures broke through the sky. Dragons. All of them. Wreathed in fire, but not their own.
Their eyes burned blue.
"They're corrupted," Elyra said, heart thundering. "The Pale Flame—it infected them."
Kael lowered Vespera gently to the ground. "Then we have even less time than I thought."
The sky roared as the dragons wheeled and turned, heading south. Toward the human cities. Toward the places that still burned with life.
Kael stood, face grim. "They're not just burning the world. They're purging it."
Elyra's fists clenched. "We have to stop them."
"You can't even call your dragon right now," Kael said sharply. "You touch Starflame, and you're touching that corruption too."
"Then I'll burn it out," she snapped.
"You'll burn with it."
Their eyes locked. Neither gave ground.
Then Vespera coughed.
Both of them dropped to her side.
She blinked slowly, then focused on Elyra. "You… saw them?"
Elyra nodded. "They're headed for the southern kingdoms."
Vespera gave a small, bitter smile. "Of course they are. The Flame always feeds on war."
Kael leaned in. "Tell us what woke up."
Vespera's voice dropped to a whisper. "A part of the Flame that remembers what it was. Before. When dragons ruled, and the gods still walked. It's not just consuming… it's calling the old things back."
"The old things?" Elyra echoed.
"Things that should've stayed buried."
Kael stood. "Then we go north. To the Obsidian Archives. If there's any hope of understanding what's coming, it'll be there."
Elyra hesitated. "What about the cities? What about the people?"
Kael looked at the sky. The dragons had disappeared behind the smoke.
"There'll be no saving them if we charge in blind."
Elyra wanted to argue. But the weight of the Pale Flame still echoed in her bones.
She turned back to Vespera. "Can you walk?"
Vespera nodded faintly. "If you help me."
Kael offered a hand. Elyra offered the other.
Together, they moved.
And far behind them, something ancient laughed.