We reached the edge of the city by dusk. The storm had calmed to a low hum, tracing faint static along my skin like it was holding its breath again. The streets here were empty , no lights, no sound, just the distant moan of wind moving through hollow buildings.
Aurelius stopped at the mouth of a tunnel, an old subway entrance swallowed by vines and broken glass. He looked back at us.
"This is where the records said it would be," he said. "The Ash Vault."
Lyren scanned the shadows. "The stories say it sank after the Great Fire."
"They were wrong," Aurelius replied. "It did not sink. It was buried."
He turned, stepping down into the dark, his coat brushing the stone walls as he descended. The rest of us followed. The air grew colder with every step. The kind of cold that crawled under your skin, whispering that it had been waiting centuries just to feel warmth again.
When the last trace of daylight vanished, I felt the storm stir inside me. The static turned sharp. Alive.
The tunnel opened into a cavern , massive, hollow, ancient. Stone pillars jutted out from black water, half-broken but still holding weight they should not. Faded carvings covered every surface, swirling patterns that looked like waves frozen mid-motion. The air smelled of iron, salt, and something older , like burnt air after lightning strikes.
Lyren crouched near the edge of the water. "You are certain this place exists in your maps?"
Aurelius ran his hand along the wall, brushing away dust to reveal a single glowing rune beneath. "I am certain because it remembers itself."
The rune pulsed once, faintly. The water trembled.
I stepped closer, the storm humming louder. My reflection in the water did not match me anymore , the eyes were brighter, the air heavier. For a heartbeat, I saw another figure staring back. Same eyes, same face, older. Worn. Holding a staff instead of a storm.
I blinked. It was gone.
Aurelius noticed. "You saw something, did you not?"
"I… think so," I said. "It felt like memory."
He nodded. "Then we are in the right place."
We moved deeper, crossing narrow platforms of stone that rose just above the waterline. The walls were covered in murals now , battles between storms and gods, figures made of light fighting beasts of iron and flame. And in the center of one mural, I saw it: four figures standing against a tempest, their hands raised toward the sky.
Drokmar stopped, staring at it with silent recognition. "This," he said quietly, "was before us."
I turned to him. "You know them?"
"I know the story," he said. "They called them the Stormbearers. The ones who sealed the divine so the world could breathe again."
My chest tightened. The word echoed inside me like thunder , sealed.
Aurelius traced the mural with his fingertips. "If this place truly houses a Seal, it is not a weapon. It is a memory. The first of them."
I frowned. "A memory? Of what?"
He looked at me. "Of who we were."
The storm reacted instantly. Lightning flickered across the walls, illuminating runes I had not seen before. The air bent, warped. My vision blurred.
Suddenly, I was not standing in the Vault anymore.
The walls melted into light. The water became sky. I stood on a field of glass, and in front of me , a battle. Titans made of storm and fire clashed, the air shattering with every strike. A man stood at the center, raising his hand toward the heavens, his body crackling with power. My body.
I could feel it , the weight of his choices, the pain of sealing something he loved, the scream that came after.
"Kael!"
Lyren's voice cut through the storm. My vision broke like glass. I stumbled back, gasping. The storm in me was out of control, arcs of lightning slashing across the water. Lyren grabbed my wrist and pulled me down, her blade anchoring us both to the stone.
"Stay with me," she said, her eyes sharp but her voice steady. "You lose control here, we all die."
I forced myself to breathe. The lightning steadied, pulsing slower, weaker. My heart hammered against my ribs. When I finally looked up, Lyren was still holding my arm. There was no mockery in her eyes this time. Only… something else. Something that almost looked like concern.
"Thanks," I said quietly.
She released me and turned away. "Do not thank me. I did not want to drown."
But her voice betrayed her. Just a little.
Aurelius approached, eyes fixed on the far wall. "It showed you something, did it not?"
"Yes," I said. "A battle. A storm sealing something… or someone."
He nodded slowly. "Then the Vault has begun to open."
Before I could ask what he meant, the floor trembled. The water rippled violently. A deep metallic sound echoed through the chamber, like chains grinding against stone.
Lyren drew her blade. "We have company."
Shadows moved beyond the pillars. Metal glinted between them. Varok's soldiers , not human, not entirely. Flesh bound with molten steel, their eyes glowing orange through cracked masks. The air around them shimmered with heat.
Drokmar stepped forward, voice low. "Wardens. He sent the remnants."
Aurelius glanced around. "We cannot fight them here. The Vault reacts to violence. If the Seals break, "
"It will not matter," Drokmar interrupted. "They have already seen us."
The first Warden roared, and the echo shook the chamber. The water exploded upward as the creature charged. I raised my hands, the storm answering before I could think. Lightning burst from my palms, striking the water and leaping from body to body. Steam filled the air.
Lyren moved like shadow, blades slicing through armor. Aurelius bent time around us, slowing their advance by seconds , enough for me to strike again.
But there were too many. And the Vault itself began to react , runes flaring, walls trembling.
Drokmar turned to Aurelius. "Get them out."
Aurelius's jaw clenched. "If you stay, you die."
Drokmar looked back toward the collapsing chamber, then at me. "Then I die where I was meant to stand."
I shook my head. "No. We can fight them together."
He smiled faintly , the first time I had ever seen him do it. "Stormbearer, the world will need you more than it will need me."
Before I could argue, he slammed his fists into the ground. The floor cracked, sending a wave of stone upward, sealing the path behind him.
"Go!" he shouted.
Aurelius pulled me by the arm, dragging me through the collapsing passage. Lyren was already ahead, cutting through debris as water rushed in from behind. The entire Vault was coming down.
We burst out through a narrow fissure, crawling into an old maintenance tunnel that opened to the surface. I turned back once , just once , and saw the entire entrance to the Vault sink beneath the rising water.
The storm inside me screamed.
Aurelius stood beside me, breathing heavily. "He bought us time. We must make it count."
Lyren wiped the dust from her blade. "And what now?"
Aurelius looked toward the dark horizon where the storm clouds gathered again. "Now we find the next Seal."
I stared at the ruins below us , the water still glowing faintly, as if remembering what it had witnessed.
The storm pulsed inside my chest, quieter now. Sad. But not defeated.
"Drokmar said something before we came here," I said softly. "He said legends never die. They only wait to be remembered."
Aurelius glanced at me. "Do you believe that?"
I nodded. "I have to."
The first drops of rain began to fall. The storm had followed us again.
And beneath the city, under all that ash and ruin, something stirred , something ancient and awake.
I did not need the storm to tell me what it was.
It was memory.
And it had finally remembered me.