The growl echoed again—deep, feral, and ancient.
Liora raised the Flameblade instinctively, the weapon's edge shimmering with light that danced across the walls. Whatever lurked behind the dais was no mere beast. It had waited in darkness for centuries.
Ashara's grip on her staff tightened. "That sound doesn't belong to any living creature."
Kael stepped forward, eyes sharp. "Then it's something that's supposed to be dead."
The red eyes multiplied. One pair. Then two. Then four.
From the shadows crawled a monstrous form—its body forged of stone and emberfire, limbs bound in chains carved with forgotten glyphs. A golem of ruin. The Warden of Arvalis.
Ashara inhaled sharply. "They left it behind to guard the tomb. It was meant to awaken only if the seal was broken."
"It thinks we're intruders," Kael muttered.
"We are," Liora said. "But I'm the one the ember called."
The Warden let out a shuddering roar that shook the stones. It charged.
Kael leapt aside, barely dodging a sweeping arm that cracked the wall. Ashara sent a beam of light searing into its flank, but it barely flinched.
Liora stood her ground. Her flame surged—not wild, but focused. The trial had taught her to listen. Now it spoke again.
She whispered a word she didn't know she knew.
"Entherai."
A wave of heat burst from the Flameblade. The runes on the golem's chains glowed. It paused.
"It hears you," Ashara gasped. "It remembers the old tongue!"
The Warden growled again but didn't strike. Instead, it slowly knelt before Liora, the chains around its limbs clinking softly.
Kael blinked. "You just tamed a monster."
"No," Liora said softly. "I reminded it who it once was."
Ashara stepped closer, awe in her eyes. "It served the first Flamebearers. It was once a guardian, not a destroyer."
Liora touched its scorched hide. "Then maybe it can help us now."
The Warden rumbled something low and strange. A section of wall behind it cracked open, revealing a long passageway glowing with golden light.
Kael looked to Ashara. "You think this is the path to the godfire?"
Ashara nodded slowly. "It's the Vault of Echoes. Where the gods stored their final secrets."
Liora's flame dimmed slightly in her palm. "Then we go. But we move carefully. Whatever's waiting beyond here... it won't just test us. It'll tempt us."
Together, with the Warden lumbering behind them, they stepped into the golden corridor. Glyphs illuminated as they passed, each one whispering names of the fallen—Emberbearers lost to time.
Liora felt every name settle into her chest like an ember of memory. She carried them now.
At the end of the corridor stood a massive circular door, shaped like an unblinking eye. In its center was a flame-shaped sigil—empty.
Ashara's breath caught. "The Ember Key."
Kael looked to Liora. "You think it's you?"
She didn't answer. She only stepped forward, pressed her hand to the symbol, and let the ember inside her burn.
The eye blazed to life.
And the door began to open.