The wind whispered through the gorge long after the last Flamehunter fell. Smoke rose from scorched armor and blackened stone. Kael knelt at the edge of the battlefield, his fingers wrapped tightly around Vel'tarion's hilt. Its flames had cooled, pulsing now like a heartbeat.
Sirena crouched beside him, watching the retreating specks of the scattered warband vanish into the eastern dunes. "You should rest. That duel took everything from you."
"I can't."
He looked up at the stars. They shimmered brighter than he had ever seen.
"For the first time," he said quietly, "I feel them watching back."
Sirena furrowed her brow. "The stars?"
"The ones the Hollow Flame called upon," Kael replied. "The ones tied to the Starborn Line. Something was awakened in me back at the forge."
She didn't press. Instead, she handed him a torn satchel taken from Nyra's corpse. "Found this on her. Looks old."
Kael unwrapped it carefully. Inside was a scroll of dragonskin, bound in threads of ember gold. When he touched it, his runes flared.
The scroll unraveled itself.
A glowing map unfolded before them detailed not just with mountains and kingdoms, but ley lines, runes, and flickering lights.
"The Map of Ash and Memory," Sirena whispered. "I've only heard stories."
Kael traced a finger along its edges. "It's alive."
Dozens of red points glowed across the map. But only one shimmered in blue fire a place far to the north, past the Dead Peaks and beyond the Virethorn Forest.
"What is that?" she asked.
Kael's eyes narrowed. "The Spire of Souls. The map is guiding us."
Suddenly, the ground beneath them shook.
A fissure opened in the rock narrow but pulsing with heat. From it rose a figure cloaked in ash and steam. His eyes burned golden, and ancient runes swam across his skin like liquid metal.
Kael stood, blade ready.
"I mean no harm," the figure said, voice like the grind of shifting stone. "I am Yorrik, last guardian of the Ember Path. And you, Prince of Curses, have awakened what should have slept."
Sirena stepped forward. "Another warning?"
Yorrik shook his head. "A choice."
He turned and pointed to the glowing fissure. "Below lies the Ember Path, one of five sacred roads hidden beneath the world. Few walk it. None unchanged."
Kael looked from the map to the opening. The sword pulsed again.
"I follow it," he said. "I need to know what I've become."
Yorrik nodded slowly. "Then descend with open eyes. For the deeper you go, the more your flame must answer."
Kael gave Sirena a glance. She nodded. "Where you go, I follow."
With that, they stepped into the fissure, vanishing into the dark beneath the world.