The Ember Citadel was never quiet.
Even in the dead of night, its halls whispered. Torchlight flickered along walls carved from volcanic stone, and the faint hum of barrier runes pulsed beneath the surface, alive like veins in a giant's skin.
Kye moved through those corridors now, cloaked in silence, with **Renna** at his side.
They had left through a back route in the temple and used one of the Librarium's hidden passage keys — an artifact Maerin had hidden in his pack. It was disguised as a feathered bookmark, but when pressed into certain seams of the Citadel, it opened **forgotten doors**.
Renna had guided him to one such seam.
A section of wall in the western archive, behind a rusted shelf of unused blood oath scrolls.
"This is insane," she muttered as the wall slid open. "We're breaking into a sealed level."
"We're not breaking in," Kye said. "We're *remembering* something they erased."
She gave him a side glance. "You sound more like Kael every day."
Kye didn't respond.
Because part of him wondered if that was true.
---
The passage led downward.
Stone turned to steel. The air grew colder, heavier.
Unlike the upper levels of the Citadel, there were **no torches** here.
No guards.
Only glyphs along the walls—old, cracked, glowing faintly with gold-red light. They looked half-finished. Some looked **alive**. Others… like they'd been **carved in blood.**
Renna shivered.
Kye felt it too—the Witchfire inside him dimming, retreating deeper into his core.
This place didn't **drain** magic.
It **judged** it.
They descended for minutes. Then an hour. Then more.
Until finally, the tunnel ended in a massive obsidian door.
On it, a single phrase:
> **"Truth has teeth."**
Renna ran her fingers over the words. "I've seen this phrase before. But never in Corps doctrine."
"It's Kael's," Kye whispered. "He used it when he interrogated rogue warlocks. He said it meant truth doesn't just cut—it devours."
He placed his palm on the door.
It didn't burn.
It **opened**.
---
The chamber beyond was a wide, circular room built from volcanic stone and bound in chains.
Actual chains.
Each link was etched with spells in dead languages—binding glyphs, silence runes, soul-locks. They hung like curtains from the ceiling, unmoving despite the faint breeze of old magic.
In the center of the room sat a stone pedestal.
On it, a **coffin**.
Renna froze. "You said this was a prison."
Kye nodded. "It is."
She stepped closer. "Then what's in the coffin?"
Kye didn't answer.
Because he didn't know.
He approached the pedestal and noticed a sigil engraved into the coffin's lid.
A cracked crown, framed by flame.
Kael's mark.
He reached for the coffin's edge—
> "Stop."
Renna's hand caught his wrist.
"You don't know what's inside," she warned.
"I need to," he said.
Her hand trembled slightly before letting go.
"Just don't die," she muttered.
Kye pressed his hands to the lid.
It didn't resist.
It **opened**.
---
There was no body inside.
Only **ash**.
And a single **mask**, carved from scorched bone.
It was shaped like a human face—neutral, emotionless—but the inside was etched with **writing** so dense it made Kye's head hurt just trying to read it.
He reached in.
And the moment his fingers touched the mask—
> **\[Paradox System Triggered – Soul Memory Locked]**
> *Initiating Kael's Flame Residue*
> *Warning: Mental trauma may occur. Continue?*
> \[Yes] / \[No]
Kye didn't hesitate.
He chose **\[Yes]**.
---
The world bent.
Twisted.
And then he stood in **Kael's memory.**
Not a vision.
Not a dream.
A direct transfer—Kael's soul layered on top of his own, just for a moment.
He stood in the same chamber—but it was **younger**. The chains were newer, humming with power. The glyphs burned bright. The coffin had just been sealed.
And Kael stood over it, blood on his hands.
He spoke aloud, to someone unseen.
> "If you're seeing this, it means I failed."
> "It means the Ash Circle survived me."
> "And worse… it means they *remembered* the child."
Kael turned slowly.
And stared directly **at Kye.**
> "I tried to bury this secret in blood and fire. But fire is memory. And memory always burns its way back."
He walked to the coffin, hand on its lid.
> "Inside this box, I placed not a corpse… but a *mirror.* A memory echo of what they're building."
Kye looked again.
And realized the ash in the coffin wasn't natural.
It was **burnt from spells**—from something **erased.**
> "They're trying to clone the Paradox Line. They think if they break enough minds, they can recreate the soul that lived outside time."
Kael's voice grew hard.
> "That's what the Ash Circle wants. Not power. Not domination."
> "They want **control over fate itself.**"
Kye staggered back in the vision.
Kael's eyes softened.
> "And you, boy… you're the only one who ever stood at the center of the flame and didn't beg for death."
> "You are the chain they cannot break."
Kael raised a hand.
Fire erupted behind him.
> "Burn them."
The vision shattered.
---
Back in the chamber, Kye gasped—falling to his knees.
Renna grabbed his shoulder.
"Kye! Are you—?"
"I'm fine," he breathed.
But he wasn't.
The knowledge pulsed inside him.
The Ash Circle wasn't just an elite faction.
They were **sculpting gods**.
And Kael had left him the only map to **stop them**.
---
Kye stood slowly, staring at the mask in his hands.
Behind the blank face… were answers.
Kael hadn't left him power.
He'd left him a **plan**.
The coffin wasn't a prison.
It was a **key**.
Kye turned to Renna.
"I need you to help me break into the Flame Archive."
Renna froze.
"The High Archive? That's suicide. You'll be seen. Caught."
"I don't care."
He held up the mask.
"Because this? This proves they're already inside our house. I don't have time to play polite anymore."
She stared at him.
Then—slowly—nodded.
"I'll get you inside."
---
**That night**, far above the city, in the highest spire of the Citadel, the **Flame Matron**—the hidden leader of the Ash Circle—knelt before a burning orb.
"It has begun," she whispered.
A voice from the flame answered.
> "Then prepare the ritual."
> "The boy lives."
> "Let him."
> "He must reach the truth… before we take it from him."