Chapter 40: The Calling of Ash and Echo
The journey back from the Grave of the First Flame was quieter than any of them expected.
Kael walked at the front, flames still whispering faintly beneath his skin. His steps left shallow embers in the dirt. Every few minutes, the Moonsteel Shard hanging at his waist pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
Tamir, who had spent most of the journey staring at Kael from the back, finally voiced what everyone was thinking.
"Is it just me… or is the air around you literally bending?"
"It's not just you," Milla muttered. "He smells like a volcano."
"Power changes scent," Flam added, nonchalantly adjusting the broad blade on his back. "Though I preferred when he didn't hum like a forge."
Kael didn't respond. His mind was still inside the fire.
The vision had done something.
More than just power—a bond had formed.
He could feel it in his bones… like whispers of voices that hadn't spoken in a thousand years. Whispers of ancestors. Of the First Pack. Of oaths yet fulfilled.
And that night, as the group made camp beneath the starlit plains just outside Black Ash Vale, Kael's sleep was pulled into something else.
---
A Dream, or a Memory
Kael stood in a great hall of ash and obsidian. All around him were statues of wolves, ancient and colossal, each with glowing eyes and mouths carved open mid-howl.
One of them stirred.
The obsidian cracked.
From the stone stepped a figure—not a wolf, but a man clad in molten armor, his eyes twin embers.
"You are close."
Kael tensed.
"What is this?"
The figure approached, leaving glowing footprints behind.
"I am an echo. One of many left behind by the Chaos Flame. You carry the blood. But the pack you build must carry the weight."
He pointed toward the black sky above them.
There were twelve silver stars.
"Twelve Alphas will rise beneath your banner. One will fall. One will betray. And one will not be a wolf."
Kael's chest tightened. "What does that mean?"
The echo didn't answer.
Instead, the stone beneath him began to crack.
"Awaken. The world is watching again."
---
Morning – Black Ash Vale
Kael woke with sweat clinging to his neck, his heart hammering. Across the fire, Tamir was already awake, scribbling glyphs in a leather-bound book.
Kael sat up. "Tamir. Gather the others."
Minutes later, Flam, Milla, Seth, Tamir, and two new recruits—Lior and Renn, both freshly blooded warriors—stood before him.
Kael stepped forward, the Moonsteel Shard in hand and a faint mark glowing on his chest: a spiral rune, the same as the one from the dream.
"I've seen enough to know this: We're not just rebuilding the Crimson Howl."
He looked at each of them.
"We are going to evolve. Not into a stronger version of what we were—but into something no pack has ever seen before."
He turned to the altar stone they'd brought back from the trial, now planted at the camp's center.
"I will begin the next Ritual. A calling—not just for strength, but for those meant to stand beside me as the Twelve Alphas of the Crimson Howl."
Seth blinked. "Twelve…? You're building a hierarchy?"
Kael nodded. "More than that. I'm creating the inner circle. The Ashborne."
> System Alert:
Pack Feature Unlocked: Ashborne Council
➤ Slots Available: 12
➤ First Ritual Required to Unlock: Calling of Ash and Echo
➤ Requirement: Alpha must select and awaken three core echoes from the past bloodline
➤ Location: Shrine of Boneflame (Locked)
Reward: Echo Resonance Skill Tree Access
Failure: Pack Loyalty -30%
Milla raised a brow. "Shrine of Boneflame? That sounds... charming."
Flam grinned. "And deadly. I like it."
Kael smiled faintly, the firelight catching the edges of his eyes.
"Then let's carve our path forward."