The dream returned to Elara that night.

She stood in a field of ash — nothing but gray, stretching endlessly in all directions. The sky was a bruised violet, clouds swirling like ink dropped into water. In the distance, a tower loomed, taller than anything she had ever seen. It pulsed — slowly, like a heartbeat — with light that matched the blood sigil on her arm.

And then she heard it again.

“Child of the Broken Flame… come home.”

The whisper coiled around her bones. She turned — and saw herself.

Or rather, a version of her: same face, same hair, same eyes… but the other Elara bled violet light, and her smile was cruel.

“You will burn them all. Just like I did.”

Elara screamed — and awoke gasping, drenched in sweat.

The mark on her arm was glowing again.

Kael had left a note on her desk:
“Meet me at the Glass Hall. It’s time you saw what the Academy’s hiding.”

By the time she arrived, dawn had broken through the mist. The Glass Hall was Eldoria’s oldest structure — a cathedral of mirrors and crystal spires rarely used except for state ceremonies. Students weren’t allowed inside unsupervised.

Kael met her at the door with a lantern and a key that shimmered with runes.

“I stole this,” he said, deadpan.

“Of course you did.”

Inside, the hall echoed with every step. Statues of fallen Archmages lined the walls, each one holding a crystal orb.

Kael stopped before the largest mirror — the only one covered in a velvet cloth.

“Elara,” he said quietly, “this is a Seer Gate.”

“A what?”

“It doesn’t show reflections. It shows possibilities.”

He removed the cloth. The mirror shimmered, then cleared.

Elara gasped.

She saw herself — but older, cloaked in black flame, standing atop the ruins of Eldoria. At her feet lay shattered towers, broken sigils burning in the sky.

Kael stood beside her in that vision, but his face was cold, hollow.

“I destroy everything…” she whispered.

“It’s one future,” Kael said. “Not the future.”

“But it’s possible.”

“Yes,” he said, “and that’s why the Academy fears you. Not because of who you are — but who you might become.”

They spent the rest of the day in the restricted archives, piecing together fragments of prophecy and bloodline records. What they uncovered chilled them:

• Elara’s lineage was never registered by her northern guardians.

• Her sigil matched a forgotten dynasty called the Ashborne Line — a bloodline believed extinct after they tried to seize control of magic itself.

• The Seer Gate once showed another Ashborne heir standing over the ruins of Eldoria… a hundred years ago.

Kael looked up. “They’ve been waiting for you. Or someone like you.”

“No,” Elara said, rising. “They’ve been trying to prevent me.”

That night, a bell tolled across the Academy — one that hadn’t rung in over a decade.

A Vault had opened beneath the school.

And something… had gotten out.