I didn’t dream.

Not the way I used to.

No nightmares. No memories.

Only fire.

It wasn’t burning me. It was me.

Heat curled around my chest like a second heartbeat. I opened my eyes—not in my chambers. Not in the palace.

But in stone.

Ancient. Cracked. Glowing from within.

I was underground… or under something far older.

“Is this real?” I whispered.

The walls didn’t answer but the crown did. A pulse then a voice—deep, burned into time.

“It begins again.”

I turned.

And saw him.

A man made of ash and gold stood in the center of the room.

Not real. Not solid. More memory than matter. He wore no armor. No crown. Just tattered robes… and eyes like smoldering coals.

He looked at me like he already knew me.

“You are late,” he said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“The first.”

Flames swept across the room in a silent ring. Visions flared:

A battlefield soaked in black fire . A boy impaled on a throne of bones . A woman in chains, her eyes silver, her mouth stitched shut .

“I was called Iskar,” he said. “First bearer of the flame. The crown chose me when there were no kings… only warlords and gods pretending to be men.”

I tried to speak—but my throat caught.

The images kept coming.

A betrayal.

A kingdom on its knees.

A sword made of sunlight shattered in two.

“They worshipped the crown,” Iskar said. “Until it stopped obeying them. So they buried me beneath the mountain and called me a monster.”

I stepped closer.

“Why are you showing me this?”

“Because the same fate waits for you.”

He turned—and I saw the mark across his back. Branded. Twisted.

The same symbol the assassin had on his chest.

The Broken Order.

“They are not dead,” Iskar whispered. “Only hidden. Waiting.”

The crown on my head pulsed with fear.

I staggered.

“You must remember,” he said, voice like thunder in my mind. “What they stole. What we lost.”

The flames roared higher.

“Wait—!” I shouted.

But the vision collapsed— And I woke. In my room. Breath ragged. Skin soaked in sweat but not alone. The mirror across from me no longer showed just my face behind me stood the ghost of Iskar. 

Watching.

Silent.

Waiting.