Elira stood frozen as the ash-wraiths advanced.
Their hollow eyes held fragments of recognition — as if some piece of them still remembered who she once was. Her fingertips burned with gathering flame, pulsing in time with the Spire's breath.
Ash stepped in front of her, blade drawn, every muscle tense.
"Get behind me."
"No," she said, her voice steadier than she felt. "I think I know how to stop them."
The closest wraith raised a hand wrapped in charred cloth, and from its palm bloomed a flicker of dying embers — a mimicry of Elira's flame. Her breath caught.
"Wait," she said, stepping forward, past Ash.
"Elira—" Kale's warning was sharp.
She ignored it.
"I remember you," she whispered to the wraith. "You were… Teylan. My first apprentice."
The creature shuddered. Its form flickered, and for a heartbeat, the ash melted away to reveal a face — young, terrified, proud.
"I failed you."
Teylan's eyes widened, then dimmed. He bowed his head… and vanished into smoke.
The other wraiths froze. For a moment, silence filled the chamber.
Then they screamed.
Their voices were the sound of shattering glass and roaring fire, and they surged forward.
Ash pulled Elira back and slashed through the nearest, cleaving it in half. It exploded in a storm of cinders.
Lira joined the fray, daggers spinning, slicing through the shrieking forms.
Kale moved beside Elira, pulling her behind a pillar. "You just made them remember."
"That was the point."
"No," he growled. "You reminded them of their pain."
---
The battle was chaos and flame.
Ash fought like one possessed, every movement brutal and elegant. Lira bled from a cut along her arm but didn't slow down. The ash-wraiths were relentless, but they faltered with each name Elira whispered into the storm.
"Varen. Sella. Corin."
One by one, they faltered — some disintegrated, some simply faded, their souls soothed by memory. But others grew more violent, feeding on the emotion Elira stirred.
She collapsed to her knees, drained. "It's too much… I can't hold all of them."
Kale knelt beside her, pressing his hand to her back. "You don't have to."
Ash drove his blade through the final wraith, panting. Smoke filled the chamber, but no new enemies came.
Silence.
Then the Spire pulsed again.
A doorway opened in the back wall — black stone sliding aside to reveal a chamber within. It was round, crystalline, and empty but for a pedestal on which rested a broken mask — half-charred, half-polished gold.
Elira rose shakily and approached it.
The moment she touched the mask, her vision went white.
---
She stood in a memory.
The sky above was gold and flame. Towers burned in the distance. Screams echoed across the horizon.
Before her knelt Ash — his old self — armor cracked, blood on his brow.
"You can't seal it alone," he told her.
"I must. You betrayed the Flame."
"I protected you."
Their words twisted, distorted. The memory cracked — and the world exploded into fire.
---
Elira gasped, stumbling back into the present.
Ash caught her. "What did you see?"
She looked into his eyes, stunned. "We were there. At the Fall. And you… you tried to protect me."
He held her gaze. "Then why did I forget?"
Elira turned to the broken mask. "Because I made you forget."
The truth landed between them like a blade.
Kale stepped forward, eyes dark. "The Hollow Flame wasn't always a curse. It was a memory — too powerful, too dangerous."
Ash's voice was raw. "Then why is it coming back now?"
Elira whispered, "Because the seal is breaking."
And somewhere far above, deep within the Spire, a new voice stirred. One that had waited lifetimes to speak again.