The sun never reached the Voidlands.
After escaping the tower, Leora and Kael stood at the edge of a wide canyon carved into black stone, windless and still. Behind them, the obsidian spire was sealed once more—silent, as though it had never opened.
Kael checked his satchel, fingers twitching. "I don't like how quiet it is."
Leora didn't answer. Her thoughts were heavy, replaying the vision from the spire again and again. That city in the sky. The woman who looked like her. The broken blade. Vaelira.
"She's hunting us now," she said.
"She was hunting you before," Kael muttered. "Now she's just mad you didn't die easy."
Leora turned toward the canyon. Below, shadows twisted like smoke, but a faint shimmer glowed far in the distance—another shard calling to her. "We need to find the fourth sigil."
Kael looked down the narrow path that wound into the canyon. "Are we climbing into another haunted ruin?"
"Not this time," Leora said. "We're going back to the city."
Kael blinked. "You mean Eldoria?"
Leora nodded. "The shard's call… it's coming from beneath the city."
---
By the time they returned to Eldoria, the sky had darkened to violet-gray. Ash still hung in the air from the fires left behind by the Hollow Order's last attack. The eastern walls were scorched, and the bells of the temples had gone silent. People whispered of ghosts and skyfire, of a cursed girl wrapped in starlight.
Leora kept her hood up.
They entered through an abandoned trade tunnel beneath the outer wall. Kael had used it before—smugglers' routes weren't just useful for thieves.
They emerged in the lower quarter of Eldoria, where broken buildings leaned into each other like drunks. No soldiers. No noise. Only dust.
"You sure about this?" Kael asked.
Leora nodded. "The shard's close."
She led him through the winding alleys until they reached the Temple of the First Flame—a ruined dome half-collapsed from the quake last spring.
They climbed through a hole in the back wall.
Inside, statues of long-forgotten gods watched them with blind eyes. The floor was cracked, and moonlight shone through holes in the roof.
Leora stood in the center, feeling a tug in her chest.
"It's below us," she whispered.
Kael raised a brow. "How do you know that?"
She knelt, placing her hand on the stone. Her sigils pulsed in response. The shard in her satchel floated again, then darted toward a fallen statue. As it touched the base, the ground shuddered and a hidden staircase cracked open beneath the rubble.
Kael whistled. "You're full of surprises."
They descended.
---
The staircase led them into a forgotten crypt, carved into the bedrock below Eldoria. The walls were lined with sarcophagi—ancient, sealed with wax and golden runes. Dust choked the air, and the temperature dropped sharply.
At the far end was a circular chamber with a central dais. On it stood a silver stand holding a crystal orb, glowing softly.
Leora stepped closer. The shard in her satchel pulsed wildly.
Kael held her arm. "Wait. Something's wrong."
Before she could ask why, the torches around the room ignited by themselves, casting flickering light onto the walls.
Runes began to glow, and from the shadows came a voice.
"Another seeker dares disturb the tomb of fire."
A figure emerged—tall, armor-clad, with a helm shaped like a lion's skull. Its eyes were embers.
Kael reached for his blade. "Wraith?"
Leora shook her head. "No. A guardian."
The figure raised a staff. Fire licked along its edge. "Only one who bears the mark of the flame may claim what lies here. Prove yourself, or be turned to ash."
Leora stepped forward, lifting her hand. Her sigils flared.
The guardian paused, then lowered its staff slightly. "You carry three flames. But you are untempered. The fourth will not yield to weakness."
"I'm not weak," she said, fire gathering at her fingertips.
"Then show me."
The guardian struck.
---
The chamber exploded with fire and sound.
Kael leapt back, avoiding a wall of flame. "I'll just… stay out of this one."
Leora raised a barrier of light, absorbing the first strike. The guardian moved like smoke—swift, powerful, relentless.
His staff clashed with her sigil-powered blades, energy bursting with each hit.
"You hesitate," he said. "The Hollow consumes without mercy. Will you stand before them like this?"
Leora gritted her teeth. "I'm not ready. But I will be."
She channeled the three sigils at once—her palm, chest, and spine igniting.
A beam of starlight blasted from her hand, knocking the guardian back.
For a moment, the chamber fell still.
Then the guardian dropped to one knee.
"Flame accepted."
The orb floated from the pedestal and split open like a blooming flower. Inside, a tiny crimson shard pulsed.
It drifted toward Leora—and burned into her skin just above her heart.
The fourth sigil awoke.
Her body shook as power surged through her veins. She saw a vision—of a golden phoenix, burning and reborn. Of a forge where weapons of stars were made. Of a girl wrapped in chains, screaming in a tower of glass.
Leora gasped, the vision vanishing.
She turned to Kael, breathless. "We need to find the next one. Fast."
But before he could reply, the ground rumbled.
Cracks tore through the floor.
A scream echoed from deep below.
Kael drew his blade. "Tell me that's not the shard reacting."
"It's not."
A voice slithered into the chamber, smooth and mocking.
"I was wondering when you'd come here, little star."
From the cracks rose a massive serpent, its body black as night, eyes glowing with violet flame. It was not flesh—but shadow given shape.
Vaelira's voice echoed from its maw.
"I told you, Leora. You cannot run from me forever."
Kael fired three arrows, each laced with silver wire.
The serpent swallowed them whole.
Leora stood tall, sigils glowing.
"I'm not running."
She lifted both hands—and fire burst from her sigils, forming wings of starlight.
The chamber shook as the fourth sigil flared fully awake.
---
End of Chapter 8 Cliffhanger:
Leora successfully awakens the fourth sigil, gaining a vision of a chained girl and a forge of stars. But before she can plan her next move, Vaelira returns—this time possessing a monstrous shadow serpent. Leora, no longer willing to run, prepares to unleash her growing powers in a fight she cannot afford to lose.