The forest east of Vale stretched for miles — blackened trunks, gray rivers, the quiet hum of a world pretending it hadn’t just burned.

Eiden and Mira walked beneath that silence. The rain had stopped, but the mist still clung to the air, cold and heavy. Their footsteps left prints that glowed faintly before fading away.

Mira broke the silence first.

“Do you think anyone else survived?”

Eiden hesitated. “I… don’t know.”

He wanted to say yes, but lies felt heavier than truth now.

They followed the broken path until the woods opened into a clearing. Ruined wagons. Abandoned tools. The bodies had long been taken — by rain, by birds, or by soldiers.

Only the smell of iron and wet earth remained.

Mira clutched her small satchel tighter. “The capital’s really that way?”

“Yes,” Eiden said, adjusting the torn strap of his cloak. “East of the River Trine. If we follow the old road, we’ll reach the outer rings before sundown tomorrow.”

Her voice was barely a whisper. “And then?”

“Then… we find answers.”

He didn’t tell her the other half — that answers usually came with chains.

---

By midday, the mist had thinned. They reached a broken signpost — half buried in mud, carved with the faded words:

“Sanctum Road — Passage Restricted.”

Mira frowned. “Do you think it’s safe?”

“No,” Eiden said, “but we don’t have another path.”

He stepped forward, but before his boot touched the next stone, the golden lines under his arm flickered — warning.

 Something was here.

He reached for Mira instinctively, pulling her behind him.

Then came the whisper of metal — a blade cutting air — and the world snapped into motion.

A figure dropped from the trees, cloak black as soot, mask silver and eyeless.

A Harvester.

Eiden’s heart stopped. His wound pulsed in memory.

The figure raised a curved blade, its edge glowing with faint red light.

“Eiden Vale,” the Harvester said in a calm, even tone. “By decree of the Empire, bearer of forbidden light — you are to be purged.”

Mira gasped, stepping back, but Eiden didn’t move. The golden runes on his arm began to burn, faint but steady.

He clenched his fist.

“I won’t run.”

The Harvester tilted its head slightly. “Brave.”

Then it lunged.

Steel met air — a blur of movement too fast for thought. Eiden dodged the first strike but felt the second graze his cheek. Blood fell. The world sharpened — sound, breath, heartbeat — all in rhythm with the pulsing light beneath his skin.

Solane’s voice echoed faintly through him:

“The ember remembers what you give.”

He raised his hand. The golden light flared — bright, wild, uncontrolled — and a ripple burst from his palm, sending the Harvester flying back into a shattered trunk.

The explosion tore through the mist. Birds scattered. The forest trembled.

When it cleared, Eiden was on his knees, gasping. His veins burned with fire. The Harvester staggered to its feet — armor cracked, mask split — and for the first time, it hesitated.

“You— you don’t even know how to wield it,” it rasped.

“Maybe not,” Eiden said through his teeth, “but it was enough.”

The Harvester stared at him for a moment longer — then slowly withdrew a small crystal, pressed it to its mask, and vanished into the mist like smoke.

---

Mira ran to him, eyes wide. “Eiden— are you okay?”

He nodded weakly. “Yeah. Just… tired.”

She stared at his arm, still glowing faintly, then at the direction the Harvester vanished. “They’ll send more, won’t they?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

The two of them stood in the clearing as the light shifted — day fading to gold, gold to dusk.

Above the trees, the sky turned crimson again, faint traces of the same divine mark flickering like a warning.

Far away, in the capital’s mirrored halls, the same Harvester knelt before a towering figure — a woman in robes of white and gold, her face hidden behind a veil.

“The boy awakened the First Ember,” the Harvester said, bowing low.

The woman turned slightly, her voice calm, distant.

“Then the prophecy begins.”

She raised a hand toward the sky.

“Find the others. Before the sparks unite.”

---