The morning mist hadn't cleared before the screams began.
Far away — far enough that Elliot didn't hear them in real-time — but something inside him did.
He woke with a start, chest tight, a bitter taste in his mouth. Kaelith stirred beside him.
> "What is it?"
He stood too fast. "Something's wrong."
> "Another vision?"
He didn't answer. He didn't have to.
The sky was bleeding light in the distance. A column of white flame, thin but endless, split the clouds like a judgment.
Kaelith stood too, gripping her sword.
> "Where is that?"
Elliot's voice broke:
> "The monastery."
---
They reached it by dusk.
The place where Elliot had first trained — the ancient monastery of silent monks who had taken him in as a boy, before the Flame had fully awakened — now stood hollow.
Not destroyed.
Just... emptied.
The air was too still. Too quiet.
Every torch still burned. Every scroll still shelved.
But the people?
Gone.
Not dead. Not dust.
Just absent.
---
They found only one soul left.
A boy.
Eight years old.
Sitting in the prayer hall with his knees tucked to his chest, rocking slightly. Eyes wide, red from weeping.
Kaelith dropped to her knees beside him.
> "Hey. It's alright. You're safe now."
He didn't speak.
Not until Elliot knelt too.
Then, barely audible:
> "He... didn't blink."
"Who?" Elliot asked.
> "The angel. The silver one."
The boy looked up. And what he said next, Elliot would never forget.
> "He said, the vessel lives... but the fire was meant to die."
> "Then he made everyone quiet. Forever."
---
Elliot's body shook with fury. Not heat. Not magic.
Pure, human rage.
Kaelith put a hand on his arm. "Elliot... breathe."
But he was already standing.
Already walking toward the center of the courtyard.
And when he stopped, he raised a hand — and called fire.
---
Not the white-blue fire of gods.
Not Vaelion's echo.
But a new flame — red-black and gold-veined, rising like smoke under pressure.
His own.
And he screamed into the sky:
> "YOU WANT THE VESSEL?!"
> "COME AND TAKE HIM!"
---
Somewhere far above, Myrren turned his head.
Expression unreadable.
He did not speak.
He simply began to descend again.
---