They moved before sunrise.
The air was colder now — not from altitude, but from the way the wind stopped remembering warmth.
Lira felt it.
So did Ansha.
"Something's changed," the seer whispered. "The land's closing its eyes."
Trellen led them through the pass at Vireth's Spine — an old trade road carved into the mountain's ribs. The kind of place where caravans once passed in peace, when the flame still held the world together.
Now there were no caravans.
Just ashes.
They found the first bodies at midday.
Five soldiers. Unmarked.
Their armor was melted at the edges, as if touched by precision flame — not wildfire, not chaos. Controlled. Deliberate.
Davin knelt beside one, then stood with his jaw tight.
"Kindled Crown work," he said.
"This wasn't a battle. This was a message."
Lira said nothing.
She didn't need to.
The air around her was echoing with what had happened.
She heard the orders.
Heard the screams.
Felt the fear.
One of the dead men had thought of his son before the end — a boy with missing front teeth and an obsidian sling. Lira blinked hard, willing the image away.
They kept moving.
Past flame-scorched stone.
Past a shattered waygate.
Past a grove of trees that had been turned to glass.
That night, they made camp in a ravine with high, narrow walls. Trellen lit no fire. Even Davin stayed quiet.
Lira didn't sleep.
The memories wouldn't let her.
At dawn, a falcon circled above them.
Then it dove — not at them, but toward a black banner planted in the ridge above.
Ansha was the first to spot the glint.
"Rider," she breathed. "Coming fast."
Trellen grabbed his blade.
But the rider didn't attack.
He dismounted, hands raised, and removed his helm.
He was young — no older than Lira. His face was freckled, lips cracked, eyes a dark, burning red.
"I bring a message from Ashrel of the Crown," he said.
"He bids you parley."
Davin reached for his sword.
But Lira stepped forward first.
"Speak."
The boy nodded.
"He awaits you in the Shattered Hall at Emberlight Keep."
"He says you know the way."
"And that if you do not come by the third sun… he will begin with the first city."
"Which city?" Davin growled.
The boy hesitated.
"Serenya's," he said.
That was all it took.
Lira turned to the others.
"We leave now," she said.
"No more hiding. No more waiting."
"We face him — and the flame's truth — at Emberlight."
Above them, the falcon screamed.
The sky looked ready to split.
And deep beneath the mountain, the Third Vault began to wake.