Chapter 61: The Storm that Whispers Names
Far from the citadel of Aeronthal, in a forest veiled by illusions and age-old silence, the trees themselves began to hum. Not with wind, nor beast, but with something older. Something waking.
Kael.
The name fluttered through branches, echoed in stones, and stirred ancient birds who had long forgotten flight. The world knew his name. And the storm it carried.
---
At the Thalor estate, Mira stood at the threshold of her chamber, hand resting instinctively over her rounded belly. Her red robes shimmered with fire-thread, tailored in the Pyranthos fashion, but her eyes bore the storm of a woman torn between worlds. Behind her, incense flickered. Before her, Jaxon stood in silence.
He had just returned from the Hall of Waters. His expression was unreadable, but something in his aura had shifted. Mira could sense it—stronger tides beneath calm eyes.
"You met with the Oracle," she said.
Jaxon nodded. "And with the Ancestor Stones. They showed me... too much."
Mira approached slowly. "You've been hiding something. Ever since Kael began to speak to me. What aren't you telling me, Jaxon?"
He exhaled. "My father wasn't just a Thalor. His bloodline was deeper than what the council acknowledged. The first Thalor was not just a water god... he was a Weeper of Oceans, one of the original Four Sentients."
Mira blinked. "The Weepers are myth. Their tears shaped the sky rivers."
"They're not myth," Jaxon whispered. "And that blood now flows in Kael."
She took a step back. "So... Kael isn't just the heir to fire and sea. He is bound to sky as well?"
Jaxon nodded, almost afraid of the truth. "He may be more than that. The Oracle called him a Triad. A convergence. Fire, water... and something older."
Mira's breath caught. In her womb, Kael kicked hard, as if affirming it.
And then the storm began.
---
Above the estate, the sky ruptured in glowing fissures. It wasn't thunder that roared, but names. Names lost to language, uttered in divine resonance.
Mira clutched her belly. "He's not in pain... he's... trying to communicate with something. Or someone."
The Thalor guards shouted outside. Winds tore up the reflecting pools. A flaming lily, sacred to Pyranthos, bloomed midair and burst into steam.
Jaxon grabbed Mira's hand. "We have to go. Now. He's drawing in energy from the elemental circles. If he overloads again..."
Mira didn't move. Her eyes flared gold. "I'll anchor him."
"Mira!"
"I'm the Keeper of Flame. Let me be his flame."
---
Inside the storm, time cracked. Mira found herself floating inside the Inbetween.
Kael stood before her—no longer a baby in a womb, but a child of glowing light and echoes. He laughed.
"Mama, they all whisper. Even the stars."
Mira knelt. "You can't burn too brightly yet, love. Come back. Let me carry you a while longer."
Kael frowned. "But I want to fly."
"Soon. Not yet."
He nodded. "Will the angry one stop chasing us?"
Her chest tightened. "Who?"
Kael glanced up. A figure shimmered in the darkness—half-formed, wrapped in shadows. Watching.
"He calls himself the Second Flame. He wants your crown."
Mira reached out to grab Kael's hand. The boy shimmered. "I trust you, Mama."
---
Mira collapsed back into her body with a gasp.
The storm ended. Silence fell like a curtain.
Jaxon caught her before she hit the ground. "What happened?"
"We're being hunted," she whispered. "And Kael knows it."
Far above, in a temple lost to time, the Second Flame opened his eyes.