The six stood in a circle beneath the frozen sky.
Above them, at the summit of the Mirrorchasm, the full Ember Crown floated — reformed, radiant, and balanced. Each shard pulsed with its own rhythm:
🔥 Kael's fire — steady, but fierce.
🌬️ Serin's wind — quiet, but sharp.
🌊 Lira's water and earth — grounded and flowing.
🖤 Corren's shadow — present, yet unseen.
❄️ Vyrn's ice — awake, but silent.
Raeh stepped forward. "The Crown is whole. For the first time since the Age of Light."
No one spoke.
Because now they faced a question greater than any trial, monster, or god.
What should be done with it?
Kael broke the silence.
"We could destroy it," he said. "End the cycle. Make sure no one ever fights for it again."
"But then its wisdom is lost," said Serin. "The shards aren't curses. They were broken by fear, not born from it."
Lira added, "We need more than power. We need to teach balance."
Corren, quiet as ever, simply said:
"Hide it again… and the world forgets again.""Use it… and the world fights over it.""So maybe we… become it."
Raeh nodded. "A living Crown."
"No thrones. No kings. Just guardians who listen, not rule."
Kael stared into the flame of his shard.
"Then we stay together," he said. "We don't pass this down. We carry it."
Serin smiled faintly. "Six pieces. Six keepers."
The Crown began to descend.
And as it did, the shards unbound from their crystal — flowing into the bodies, hearts, and souls of the six.
Not as weapons.
But as truth.
Kael's flame warmed, not burned.
Serin's wind guided, not scattered.
Lira's stone held firm; her water healed.
Corren's shadow no longer whispered — it watched.
And Vyrn… she did not vanish.
She smiled for the first time in an age.
And joined them — not as a threat.
But as the final voice in the Crown.
🌍 That year…
No cities fell.
No shards vanished.
Instead, the world shifted.
In each corner of the realms, the six traveled — not to rule, but to remember. To mend what had cracked. To teach balance, not dominance.
And everywhere they went, people whispered…
"The Crown walks again.""Not above us. Among us."
And in a quiet cave far beyond even Veyrn, where starlight touched untouched stone…
A single child drew the Crown's shape in the snow.
Six points.
No throne.
Only balance.