Chapter 15 — Ash and Starlight
1556 Words
They didn’t stop running until the palace was far behind them.
The sky above the mountains churned with violet clouds, the Queen’s influence bleeding into the world. Lightning crackled through them like veins. The air hummed with tension—the kind that seeped into the bones and whispered of catastrophe.
Kael staggered when they reached the ridge, gripping a boulder to stay upright. Blood soaked through the torn fabric across his ribs. His breathing had turned shallow, strained.
Eirena reached for him. “Sit down before you fall.”
He tried to protest, but his legs decided for him. He collapsed onto the cold stone, groaning softly.
Eirena knelt beside him, hands trembling as she slid her fingers over his wounds.
The cuts were jagged, radiating faint purple light.
The Queen’s magic still lingered in them.
Kael hissed when her fingers brushed one. “Easy, gods, that hurts.”
“That’s because you’re bleeding out,” she snapped, her fear fraying into anger. “And you can’t joke your way through this.”
He caught her wrist. “I’m still here.”
She shook her head, tears burning behind her eyes. “Barely.”
He tugged gently until she looked at him. “Eirena… you saved us.”
“I barely held her back.” She swallowed. “And she’ll break through again.”
Kael’s expression darkened. “Then we’ll be ready.”
“But what if I’m not?” Eirena’s voice broke. “Kael… something is wrong with me. I felt her inside my head, inside the ember. I felt myself wanting to let her in.”
Kael leaned forward despite the pain, cupping her cheek. “You didn’t. That’s what matters.”
She didn’t answer.
Because she wasn’t sure it was true.
The wind shifted.
A low hum rippled through the air, the same vibration that had echoed in the fractured corridor. Eirena stiffened, scanning the horizon.
Kael followed her gaze, hand tightening around his sword.
“What now?”
But it wasn’t the Queen.
Not directly.
A figure appeared at the base of the mountain hooded, cloaked in shimmering silver fabric that moved like liquid starlight. They ascended slowly but steadily, leaving no footprints in the snowy ground.
Eirena rose to her feet, power stirring beneath her skin.
Kael pushed himself upright beside her. “Stay behind me.”
“No,” she said. “Not this time.”
The figure reached them, stopping several paces away.
When they lowered their hood, both she and Kael froze.
The stranger’s face was… ageless.
Features delicate, smooth, and unmarred by time. Their eyes glowed softly like stars reflected in water.
Not human.
Not fully.
Eirena’s pulse quickened. “What are you?”
The figure bowed slightly.
“I am Serath. A witness. A keeper of what was lost. And a messenger.”
Kael kept his blade drawn. “Messenger of who?”
Serath’s glowing eyes turned to Eirena.
“Of the Crown. Of the power bound within you.”
Eirena’s breath hitched. “The ember?”
“No,” Serath said softly. “Something far older. Something deeper. Something only half-awake.”
Kael stepped forward. “We don’t need cryptic riddles. If you know how to stop the Queen, speak plainly.”
Serath tilted their head. “You cannot stop her.”
Silence fell.
Cold and heavy.
Eirena swallowed hard. “Then why are you here?”
“To show you that she is not whole,” Serath replied. “And neither are you.”
Kael stiffened. “What does that mean?”
Serath looked at Eirena again, almost sadly.
“When the Queen forged the first Starborn, she split herself. Not physically. Not entirely. But… enough.”
Eirena felt the world tilt. “You’re saying… she split her own power?”
“Her essence,” Serath corrected. “Her light. Her shadow. Her fury. Her hope.”
“And the ember?” Eirena whispered.
Serath’s eyes dimmed.
“The ember is not her creation. It is her other half.”
Kael swore under his breath. “So the Queen wants Eirena because—”
“She is incomplete without what Eirena carries,” Serath said. “You have felt it, haven’t you? The pull. The resonance. The way your power mirrors hers.”
Eirena’s chest tightened.
She had felt it.
And she had feared exactly this.
Kael moved closer to her, voice low and protective. “So if the Queen gets her hands on Eirena, she’ll reclaim her full power.”
“Worse,” Serath said quietly. “She will become unstoppable. Eternal in truth, not just in title. And this world will collapse under what she becomes next.”
Eirena clenched her fists. “So what do I do?”
Serath studied her with a mix of reverence and sorrow.
“You must learn what the Queen denied you. What she never wanted a Starborn to know.”
“Which is?”
“How to control the ember. Fully. Not with emotion. Not with instinct. Not with fear. But with mastery.”
Eirena hesitated. “And who will teach me? You?”
Serath smiled faintly. “No. I can guide you. But I cannot shape starlight.”
“Then who can?”
Serath lifted a hand, pointing toward the northern peaks—where the clouds parted just slightly, revealing ancient, jagged mountains dusted in starlit frost.
“There is a sanctuary beyond those ridges,” Serath said. “A place where the first Starborn was forged. Where the ember was nurtured. Where its echoes remain.”
Kael frowned. “The Luminous Sanctum. A myth.”
Serath lowered their hand. “Most myths are simply truths buried too deeply.”
Eirena took a slow breath. “If I go there… will it help me fight her?”
Serath’s expression shifted—something like sympathy. Or regret.
“It will help you choose what you become.”
Kael stepped in front of Eirena. “She’s not becoming anything. She’s just trying to survive.”
But Serath met his gaze with unsettling calm.
“Survival is not enough for what is coming.”
Eirena touched Kael’s arm, grounding herself. His tension eased slightly, but he didn’t lower his blade.
She faced Serath.
“If what I carry is part of her… does that mean I am, too?”
Serath’s reply was soft but merciless.
“You are what she might have been had she chosen differently.”
Eirena felt her stomach drop.
Kael stepped closer, voice sharp. “Don’t put that on her.”
“I do not place it,” Serath said. “I simply reveal what is already there.”
Eirena spoke before Kael could launch himself at the messenger.
“Show us the way.”
Serath blinked, surprised. “You decide quickly.”
“I have to,” Eirena said. “The Queen is coming. And when she finds us, I want to be ready.”
Kael’s jaw flexed. “You won’t be going alone.”
Serath studied them both for a long time.
Then nodded.
“Very well. But the path is dangerous. The Queen’s shadow stretches farther than you know. And she will feel every step you take toward reclaiming what she lost.”
“She already knows where we are,” Eirena said quietly.
Serath’s focus sharpened. “Has she touched your mind?”
Eirena hesitated. Then nodded once.
Serath inhaled sharply. “Then we must move swiftly. The more you learn, the more she will feel your awakening.”
“And the more she’ll try to stop it,” Kael muttered.
“No,” Serath said, voice cold.
“The more she will try to claim it.”
They set off before the sun rose.
The air grew colder as they climbed toward the northern peaks. Snow crunched beneath Kael’s boots. Eirena felt the ember responding to Serath’s presence humming, restless, as though sensing proximity to something familiar.
Kael walked beside her, his injuries slowing him but not enough to deter him.
At a narrow mountain pass, he finally asked the question he had been holding back.
“Eirena… when she touched your mind, did she show you anything?”
Eirena’s throat tightened.
“She showed me a throne.”
Kael’s steps faltered.
“And?”
“And me.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Sitting on it.”
Kael closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. “She’s trying to break you.”
“No,” Eirena said. “She’s trying to tempt me.”
Kael swallowed. “Would you ever?”
“Kael.” She stopped walking and faced him. “You. This world. Everything I love. Everything I choose. That is what keeps me from becoming what she wants.”
He didn’t say anything.
He just pulled her towards him, forehead pressed to hers, breathing her in as though he needed her to exist.
Serath watched from several steps away, unreadable.
When Kael finally pulled back, his voice was a vow edged in steel.
“We’ll reach the Sanctum. You’ll learn control. And when the Queen comes, we won’t run.”
Eirena nodded, eyes shining with fear and resolve.
“We’ll face her.”
Serath turned toward the distant peaks, their voice a whisper in the wind.
“And pray the universe survives your reunion.”
- Writer
