The preserved heart pulsed once, twice, then dissolved into pure golden energy that flowed into Maya's form. Around the Vault, the other remains followed, scales becoming light, claws turning to energy, preserved wings dissolving into their elemental essence. The ancient spirits, freed from their imprisonment, flowed through Maya like a river of ancestral memory.
*Thank you, Daughter of Light,* came their collective voice, audible only to her draconic consciousness. *We have waited so long.*
Harlow staggered back, his face pale with shock as he witnessed the dissolution of his precious collection. "Do you have any idea what you've done? The power contained in those artifacts..."
"Was never yours to take," Maya finished for him, her voice resonating with the combined essence of the freed
