The map from Valecrown led them far north.
Beyond the Black Sands.
Beyond the Riftfall trenches where Warden weapons still smoldered in the dirt.
Until they reached the edge of the world's oldest crater—a place once thought to be just legend:
> The Ashwake.
Here, under a layer of obsidian and glassed sand, slept the ruins of the Flame Archives—Jazira's true sanctuary of knowledge.
Mira stared out across the scorched basin. "How did it even survive?"
Jackie answered quietly, "Because she didn't want anyone to find it. Until now."
---
🜂 Entering the Ashwake
The entrance was buried beneath a dead dragon skeleton—twisted into the mountain wall like a gate.
Its bones pulsed faintly with warmth as Jackie approached.
The scroll's map glowed again.
With a breath, she reached out—and the ribcage split open.
A stairway of blackstone unfurled from the skeleton's chest.
Luci whispered: "It's like the earth remembers her…"
Jackie stepped in first.
---
🜂 What Remained
Inside, fire still burned in hovering braziers—somehow untouched by time.
Shelves made of dragonbone curved along obsidian walls. Tomes wrapped in scale-hide. Maps, memories, even DNA records of extinct dragonkin.
The air was thick with old magic. Heavy.
Kael touched a wall panel. "This is Warden-encoded... but rewritten in Flameborne script."
> "She hacked their knowledge. Made it her own."
But it wasn't just books and scrolls.
In the far chamber, they found something… alive.
---
🜂 The Guardian
It emerged from the shadows—eight feet tall, wings tucked, body covered in plated volcanic armor.
Not a Flameborne.
Not human.
A construct.
Its voice was deep, resonant, and ancient.
> "IDENTITY REQUIRED."
Jackie stepped forward. "I am Flamebound. I carry Jazira's tooth. Her scroll. Her fire."
> "VERIFYING…"
The construct's chest lit with molten light. Then:
> "ACCEPTED.
WELCOME, FIREHEIR."
It stepped aside. Behind it: a sealed vault labeled simply—
> "Project Emberseed."
------
The vault hissed as ancient seals released, steam pouring from glowing fissures that traced the door like veins. Each symbol flared in turn—Flameborne runes, Warden glyphs, and something older still, a script none of them had seen before.
Jackie felt her heartbeat echo in her chest.
> This… this wasn't just a library.
Kael stepped beside her, scanning the glyphs. "This is cross-genetic coding. Jazira didn't just save dragon lore—she was splicing it."
The door parted.
Inside, the temperature dropped. Not heat, but contained fire. The kind that burns inward.
A long chamber opened before them, the walls covered in tanks—each one pulsing faintly with orange-blue light. Suspended inside: embryos.
Some were small. Reptilian.
Others… not.
Luci backed up. "Those aren't dragons. Not entirely."
"No," Jackie said, voice tight. "They're hybrids."
At the far end of the chamber stood a central console, its screen flickering to life with Jazira's insignia: a burning feather inside a spiral of ash.
A recording activated—holographic flames forming the image of a tall woman, hair like a corona of sparks.
Jazira herself.
> "If you've found this… then my sanctuary is no longer safe.
The Flame Archives were never just a vault.
Emberseed is our last chance."
She glanced sideways, as if she could still feel them there.
> "The Wardens feared dragonfire for what it could become. So I gave them something to fear for why it must return.
Not to destroy.
To awaken."
Her image shimmered. Glitched.
> "Each seed holds a memory. A lineage. A choice.
Fire doesn't forget. And neither should you."
Then the console powered down.
Silence.
Kael let out a breath. "She was building a future. One born from both worlds."
Jackie turned toward the nearest tank. The embryo inside shifted slightly—reacting to her presence.
> It recognized her.
And in that moment, the Ashwake wasn't just a grave.
It was a nursery.