The riders did not charge.
They entered slowly.
Deliberately.
Black armor. No banners. No crest of Avaros etched into their steel. Their helmets were smooth and featureless, reflecting the afternoon sun like dark mirrors.
Emberfall fell quiet long before the first command was spoken.
Farmers stopped mid-swing. Children were pulled indoors. Doors half-closed but not fully — as if uncertainty was safer than defiance.
Alfon stood beside Kaelen at the edge of the main road.
Maelor had vanished.
"Maybe they're passing through," Kaelen muttered.
But even he didn't believe it.
The lead rider dismounted.
His movements were stiff — not mechanical, but wrong. Too precise. Too controlled.
He removed his helmet.
His eyes glowed faintly blue beneath the shade.
"By decree of the crown," he announced, voice echoing unnaturally across the village, "Emberfall is under immediate quarantine."
Murmurs broke out.
"There's no sickness here," Alfon's father said, stepping forward from the crowd. "You've been misinformed."
The captain's gaze shifted to him.
"There will be."
Silence dropped like a blade.
Kaelen's mother grabbed his wrist. "Inside," she whispered.
The first torch flew before anyone could argue.
It struck the thatched roof of the grain house.
Flame erupted unnaturally fast — blue at its edges before turning orange.
"That's not normal," Alfon breathed.
The riders moved.
Not chaotic.
Organized.
Two blocked the southern road. Three advanced toward the center. The rest began dragging villagers from their homes.
"This is containment," one soldier said flatly as a man begged at his feet.
A sword fell.
Blood stained the dirt.
Kaelen's father lunged forward with a woodcutting axe.
He was brave.
Too brave.
The captain didn't even draw his blade fully. A flicker of blue flame shot from his gauntlet, striking Kaelen's father in the chest.
He collapsed instantly.
Smoke thickened.
Screams layered over crackling fire.
Alfon grabbed Kaelen's shoulder.
"We need to go."
"No," Kaelen growled, eyes locked on his fallen father. "I'm not running."
"You can't fight this!"
Kaelen tore free and charged.
A rider intercepted him with inhuman speed, backhanding him hard enough to send him skidding across dirt.
Alfon moved without thinking — throwing himself between Kaelen and the descending blade.
The blade stopped inches from his face.
The rider's arm trembled.
Blue flame flickered around the steel.
Then—
Wind exploded outward.
A shockwave knocked several riders off their feet.
The air rippled like heat over sand.
Maelor stood between the boys and the soldiers.
But not as before.
His cloak whipped violently though no natural wind blew.
His eyes shone silver.
The captain's expression shifted for the first time — recognition.
"Spirit," he hissed.
Maelor's voice carried layered tones, like multiple voices speaking in unison.
"You were not meant to awaken yet."
The captain's gauntlet ignited with blue fire.
"The King commands necessity."
"And I remember when kings feared balance," Maelor replied.
The clash that followed was not human.
Blue flame met silver light.
The earth cracked beneath them. Nearby homes shattered from the force.
Alfon dragged Kaelen toward the tree line.
"Move!"
Kaelen resisted, staring at his parents' bodies.
"They're gone!" Alfon shouted, voice breaking. "If you stay, you die too!"
Another explosion rocked the village.
Maelor staggered back as three riders joined the captain. Their movements were synchronized — unnatural unity guided by something deeper.
Maelor raised his hand.
For a brief moment —
Wings of pale radiance unfolded behind him.
Massive.
Majestic.
Broken at the edges.
He was not whole.
The captain lunged, blade piercing through Maelor's side.
Instead of blood—
Light spilled.
Maelor grimaced but did not fall.
He looked toward the forest.
Toward the boys.
"Run!"
Alfon didn't hesitate again.
He pulled Kaelen into the trees as Emberfall's final screams echoed behind them.
They did not stop until night swallowed the sky.
When they finally collapsed near a stream miles away, Kaelen punched the ground until his knuckles split.
"They burned them," he whispered hoarsely. "They burned all of them."
Alfon stared into the darkness where the glow of distant fire still stained the horizon.
"This wasn't about plague."
"No."
They both knew.
It was about control.
Branches snapped behind them.
Kaelen reached for a rock.
Maelor emerged from the shadows.
But he was weaker now.
Faded at the edges.
Silver light dim.
"You're hurt," Alfon said.
"I have been hurt before," Maelor replied softly.
"You could've stopped them!" Kaelen exploded. "You had power!"
Maelor met his gaze steadily.
"If I revealed my full strength, the Flame would have answered through the King."
Silence.
"The King…" Alfon began slowly. "He did this?"
Maelor nodded.
"The man you once called Vaelrion is no longer alone inside his body."
The wind rustled through trees.
"Then we kill him," Kaelen said.
Maelor studied him carefully.
"No," he said quietly.
"You survive him."
Kaelen's jaw clenched.
"You think running makes us strong?"
"No," Maelor replied.
"But it keeps you alive long enough to become something more."
He turned his gaze back toward the distant smoke.
"This was not punishment."
"It was a test."
Alfon swallowed.
"Of what?"
Maelor's expression darkened.
"How far necessity can go before the world breaks."
The glow on the horizon slowly dimmed.
Emberfall was gone.
And with it—
The last part of their childhood.