🌕 Chapter 9: The Burned Path
687 Words
The moons faded as the sun crept across the Lunari sky, dyeing the cliffs with a faint crimson hue. Kaira and Riven moved like shadows between jagged rocks and dead tree lines. Every step was calculated. Every sound watched.
“This trail leads to an old Flamekeeper vault,” Riven explained, his voice deep but hushed as they crept across a narrow ledge.
“My mother spoke of it once. She said it was sealed when the fire faded.”
“Is that where I’ll learn to control this?” Kaira asked, glancing at her hand. Sparks still danced at her fingertips. Sometimes she didn’t even notice when they lit.
“If the vault accepts you,” he said, “It only opens for blood.”
Kaira frowned. “Mine?”
“Yours… or your mother’s.”
Her heart ached at the thought of Liora again. The dreams felt more vivid each night, as if her mother’s voice was somehow reaching through time.
They reached a clearing.
In the center: a stone circle covered in soot and vines. Runes etched in spirals, worn by time. A faint humming pulsed from the ground like a heartbeat beneath her boots.
“This is it,” Riven said. “If the flame in you is true, it’ll answer.”
Kaira stepped forward. The fire inside her stirred, warming her chest. She knelt and pressed her palm against the stone.
Nothing.
She exhaled, disappointed.
“Try again,” Riven urged, walking through the outer ring with wolf-like pacing.
Kaira closed her eyes.
She didn’t reach for the flame this time.
She remembered.
The night her village burned. The way her power flared. The ache of loss. The flicker of her mother’s lullaby.
Then, she whispered the only word she remembered from her mother’s prayer:
“Virelth.”
The runes lit up — one by one — until the entire stone circle glowed bright orange. The wind roared outward in a spiral. The ground rumbled. And in the center of the ring, fire erupted skyward — not hot… but welcoming.
Kaira gasped as the fire curled into a doorway made of light.
“You did it,” Riven whispered.
“No,” she said, heart-pounding. “She did it.”
They stepped inside.
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🔥 Inside the Vault
The air shimmered like heat on metal. Ancient flame-etched murals lined the chamber walls — warriors holding hands with beasts, crowns melting into ash, and one symbol over and over again:
A girl made of fire, and a wolf made of moonlight.
“That’s…” Kaira began.
“Us,” Riven said quietly.
She approached a pedestal at the vault’s center. On it, a burning scroll hovered, suspended by glowing chains. Riven stood back.
“It’s a Flamekeeper’s core,” he said.
“A memory, sealed in fire. Only your blood can release it.”
Kaira hesitated. Her fire flickered along her hand again. She reached forward and touched the scroll.
The vault vanished.
And Kaira was plunged into memory.
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🔥 Flashback Vision
Her mother — Liora — stood in the same vault, pregnant. Alone. Tears on her face, fire in her hands.
“If you’re hearing this, my daughter…” she said, her voice cracking.
" I failed to stop the crown. But you don’t have to. You were born to choose, not obey.”
A cry sounded from outside. Boots thundered. Theo’s voice, colder than ever, echoed:
“She’s not yours anymore, Liora. Earth will raise her properly.”
Liora turned back to the flame.
“If the Hollow takes me… let the fire guide you.”
She released her memory into the flame — and it shattered.
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🌕 Present
Kaira fell to her knees, breath sharp.
Riven caught her before she collapsed.
“You saw her?” he asked.
She nodded, tears streaking her face.
“Theo took me. Not to protect me. To own me.”
“Then we take it back,” Riven said, eyes gleaming with the start of a plan.
Kaira looked up, flames dancing in her pupils.
“We burn the Hollow down.”
- Writer
