Episode 11
The iron gate creaked open at dawn.
Kael stood in silence, eyes half-lidded against the golden light spilling into his cell. His wrists were chained, and the weight of judgment pressed against his back like a thousand stones. Behind him, the Ember Bastion's great bells rang once—just once—for a sentence handed down not in death, but in disgrace.
Exile.
A single word. But it echoed louder than any executioner's decree.
Two Flameborn guards flanked him. Varon watched from the steps above, face impassive, eyes unreadable.
"You are to leave Eltherion through the Shattered Pass," he declared. "You are stripped of your rank, your name in the registry erased. Should you return before you are summoned, you will be hunted. Do you understand?"
Kael did not speak.
Varon's jaw tightened. "Very well."
They handed him a satchel—bare essentials: a canteen, a flint crystal, dried rootbread, and the tattered cloak he had worn as a child. No sword. No insignia. No honor.
Lira stood at the edge of the path beyond the gate, her travel gear already strapped, her eyes bright with defiance.
"You don't have to do this," Kael whispered as the guards released him.
"I do," she said. "You're not the only one searching for the truth."
He gave her a faint smile, and together, they stepped beyond the boundary stone, the citadel behind them now only memory and myth.
---
Beyond the Bastion — The Shattered Pass
The land beyond Ember Bastion was harsh and forgotten. Wind howled through jagged cliffs, and shattered statues of forgotten kings loomed from the stone like guardians who'd failed their watch.
"This place gives me chills," Lira muttered as they passed a crumbling monument. "What was this?"
"Once," Kael said, "this was where the Flameborn exiled their heretics. Mages who practiced forbidden arts. People like me."
"People like you?" she asked, raising a brow.
Kael pulled the shard from his satchel. It pulsed faintly, warm in his palm.
"I think I'm not just of fire and void, Lira. I think I'm something… older. Something made to bridge them. Or maybe something born of their war."
Lira slowed her pace. "That gate showed you more than you said, didn't it?"
Kael nodded. "I saw a city of glass swallowed by fire. A child with no name, screaming in a language I didn't understand. And I think… that child was me."
She swallowed. "Kael—"
Suddenly, the wind changed. Sharp. Metallic.
Kael drew in breath. "Blood."
They reached the edge of the canyon where a small camp lay in ruins—tents shredded, fires cold. Three bodies lay face-down in the dust, black robes torn.
"Order scouts," Lira whispered.
But Kael was already moving. One still breathed.
He dropped to his knees beside the figure, a young woman barely older than Lira. Her face was bruised, and her pulse faint.
"What happened?" Kael asked.
Her eyes fluttered open. "They… followed us. The Flameborn. Not your guard. The Inquisitors."
Kael's blood turned to ice. "The Inquisition was disbanded centuries ago."
She gripped his wrist weakly. "No. They never left. Just… hid."
"Why were you here?"
"To find you," she whispered. "Elira sent us. She said if they exiled you, they'd come to silence you next."
Her body went limp. Dead.
Kael stood slowly, fury coiling inside him.
"I thought exile was mercy," he said. "But they were never going to let me live."
Lira nodded grimly. "Then we keep moving. We find Elira. We find the Gate again."
Kael looked toward the horizon, where dark mountains tore the sky like jagged teeth. "Then we go east—to the Hollow Vale."
---
Two Days Later — Hollow Vale
The Hollow Vale was unlike any land Kael had seen. The trees grew upside-down, roots reaching into the sky like skeletal fingers. The mist whispered in languages older than fire.
Kael felt the shard stir in his chest.
"We're close," he murmured.
Lira adjusted her cloak. "Close to what?"
Before he could answer, a voice spoke from the mist. "To the place where memory becomes weapon."
They turned, weapons raised—though Kael held only flame.
Elira stepped from the fog, her silver hair shimmering in the strange light. Behind her, a dozen robed figures emerged—Order sentinels, but unarmed.
"You came," she said.
"You knew I would," Kael replied.
Elira nodded. "I did."
Kael lowered his hands. "You said the Gate only shows part of the truth."
"It does," she agreed. "And now you must see the rest."
She held out her hand—not in aggression, but invitation.
Lira stiffened. "Are we really doing this?"
Kael nodded. "I have to know. If I'm a bridge between fire and void, then maybe I'm the only one who can stop what's coming."
Elira led them deeper into the vale, to a cave hidden behind a weeping willow whose leaves dripped silver sap. Inside, the walls shimmered with murals—moving images that shifted as they passed.
Kael stopped before one depicting a great war. Flameborn fighting creatures of shadow. And at the center—something else.
A child with a mark on his chest.
"That's me," Kael whispered.
Elira touched the mural. "Not just you. The Firstborn. A being created when fire and void collided. He was lost in the final battle. Or so they thought."
Kael turned to her. "You think I'm him?"
"No," she said. "I think you're his echo. His memory made flesh."
Kael staggered back. "That's not possible."
"And yet," she said, pointing to the shard glowing at his chest, "you carry his heart."
Lira gripped Kael's arm. "Kael. We have to be careful. This could be manipulation."
"I know," he said. "But it also feels… right."
Elira stepped closer. "The Flameborn feared the Firstborn. Because he represented balance. And balance threatens power. That's why they sealed the Gate. Why they erased the old world."
Kael clenched his fists. "I want to believe you."
"Then let me show you one final memory."
She raised her hand—and the shard in Kael's chest flared to life, blinding.
---
Vision — The Before Time
Kael stood on a cliff overlooking a world in chaos. Fire and void clashed in the skies. Cities were torn asunder by tides of light and shadow.
In the center, a boy stood alone—marked with flame and night.
He raised his hand, and the world stilled.
The sky cracked.
And from the crack, a whisper:
"Remember."
---
Kael gasped, stumbling as the vision faded.
Elira caught him. "Now you know."
He looked into her eyes, a new resolve burning behind his. "Now I choose."
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