Ashes Of Aetheria

r been underg

loomshop, when the Crimson Guard came to conscript every able-bodied

Deeper. Built not to hide

he torch she carried burned with a color Kael didn't recognize. Not orange

e asked, trying not to

d, voice echoing strangely

ker, like every breath had to push against a veil of memory. The torchlight reflected agai

in a narrow archway carv

it, a

a

ach at least twenty feet wide - supported the weight of the ruined city above. The floor st

der the city?"

Built by the First Emberlords.

forward, staring at th

s?" he asked. "

weren't men. Not entirely. They wer

her. "You mean th

, older than light. It lives beneath the world. And this place - this hall - was wher

s min

scratched into stone near the old border ruins. Stories of flame-chosen warrior

was myt

n't

me this? I'm just... I'm no one. My mother-she was

. She turned to him a

ard," s

nst his side since the moment it had reacted to the Etern

t and placed

losed h

the caver

ight. A deep hum vibrated through the st

hand burned higher

oom did n

arked - not from the torch

ickered in the flame: runes, faces, memories. And then,

ecogni

s of the palace before the d

e House of Solanir," he

use your shard belo

possible. I found it on

no mistake - this is a flameheart. A soul-key

hat can't be right. My fa

n't let h

id softly. "But who was your mothe

lowing shard, spinni

d no

Deeper in th

winged beasts, warriors in cloaks of fire, and battles fought not with armies but with ideas

reached a ci

pedestal. Upon it: a s

any weapon Kae

The guard was shaped like phoenix wings. The blade itself - where it

oached it

. Forged in the breath of a dying dragon and quenched in

ared. "

with the Flameborn

o her. "You t

w it's

's in

idn't

red to the sword.

r around the sword vibrated faintly, like a heart

- it w

like

- s

across the stone

ack. "I didn'

smiled. "Ye

d once, then fe

"The shard responded. The swor

dn't ask for this. I'm not a

either were the ones who came before you.