Decades after Elara vanished, the world had changed.
Children now learned fire-shaping beside arithmetic. Forests once cursed had begun to bloom. The Flame had not become a god again — it had become a guide.
But far beyond the sky, something stirred.
The Watchers at the Observatory of Vareth — an ancient tower that listened to the heavens — saw a star blink out. Then another. Then five. Then twelve.
A comet appeared, burning black with trails of silence.
They called it The Harbinger.
In a small coastal village, a girl named Liora dreamed of stars that screamed and oceans that bled. Her mother was a fireweaver, her father a historian. Liora knew stories of Elara by heart — the Flameborn who ended the Age of Ash.
But one morning, the hearth fire whispered her name.
When she touched it, it didn't burn.
Instead, it showed her a vision of a throne made of bone and stars, and a voice like stone cracking:
> "The Star-Eater has awakened."
That night, her village burned — not by war, but by silence. The fire refused to light. Shadows moved against the stars.
Liora fled. And the next morning, a small ember followed her.
Liora sought out the Temple of the Pyrebearers, high in the cliffs of Caldir. There, she met the Keepers — descendants of the Awakened who guarded the knowledge of Elara.
One of them, Master Rennar, a blind man who dreamed in flame, revealed the prophecy:
> "When stars vanish and fire fades, the Star-Eater will come.
Only a Flame not of this world can stop it.
A child born under a dead moon, touched by skyfire."
Liora fit the prophecy.
She didn't want to.
As Liora trained with the Keepers, learning to wield flame not just as fire but as song, reports came from the north: villages whose shadows moved without people, children born without reflections, entire towns whispering in unison.
They were being seeded.
Creatures known as Star-Eater's Children — things of glass and starlight, hollow inside — began to appear, feeding not on flesh but on hope. One glance into their eyes, and people forgot their names, their purpose, their dreams.
The Flame alone kept them at bay.
But it was weakening.
Liora, Master Rennar, and a rogue sky-pilot named Aven soared into the Storming Peaks to find the lost Codex of the Skyborn — a book that contained knowledge of other worlds.
In an abandoned Skyborn citadel floating above the clouds, they discovered a warning etched into the walls:
> "We fled the Star-Eater.
We found this world and built the Flame to hold him back.
But it was never meant to last forever."
The Flame was not native to Iridia.
It was a barrier. A cage.
And now, it was breaking.
In the dreamfire chamber of the citadel, Liora lit the old hearth.
A figure appeared in the flame — older, wiser, but unmistakable: Elara.
She did not speak with words, but with presence, memory, sorrow.
She showed Liora her own final moments: not death, but sacrifice. Elara had merged with the Flame to make it a living memory, a guardian with a soul.
Now, Elara's spark whispered one last message:
> "You must become more than a bearer.
You must be the forge.
Shape a new Flame."
To shape a new Flame, Liora would need something more than magic — she needed origin fire, from the stars themselves.
The only being who knew how was the last Skyborn: Valinor, exiled eons ago for trying to share the Flame too freely.
He lived at the edge of the world, in a place called the Stillness, where time moved like syrup and thoughts echoed for days.
Reaching him required crossing the Shattergate — a rift where fire turned to ice and light reversed.
What they found was not a man, but a creature of light bound in chains of gravity.
Valinor spoke:
> "The Star-Eater is not death. It is unmaking.
Flame is memory. If you forget who you are, it wins."