The throne was made of bone.
Not carved — fused. Spines and skulls and shattered flame sigils twisted together by voidflame. It sat atop the black dais of the fallen city of Gorrathal, once a holy sanctuary of the dragonblooded, now nothing but ash and silence.
Ravon Draak sat upon it.
He wore armor of molten obsidian, each plate etched with veins of darklight. A jagged crown rested upon his brow — not the regal circlet of Aurex, but a twisted thing forged from the horns of dead dragons and the gold of burned kings.
The Void Crown.
His eyes glowed not with ember… but with a deep, endless black.
He watched as his generals knelt before him.
"The Ember Pact has reawakened," said the bone-masked warseer. "Kael lives."
A flicker of heat passed through Ravon's gauntlet.
"Then the flame still remembers defiance."
He rose.
And the chamber shuddered.
Far to the south, Kael stood at the edge of a cliff, gazing out across the ruins of the next sanctuary — smoke rose in columns, and the screams of the dying echoed faintly on the wind.
He gritted his teeth.
"He's already moving."
Serenya stepped up beside him, hair swept by the breeze, a hard edge in her voice.
"He won't stop. Not now. You've awakened the Pact. That changes everything."
Kael looked at his hand — the sigil from the soulbinding still glowed faintly in his palm.
"Then we change everything, too."
In Gorrathal, Ravon descended the throne steps and approached a chained relic — a great mirrored sarcophagus humming with containment glyphs. Inside it floated a heart — black, shriveled, yet still pulsing.
"Do you hear him?" Ravon asked softly, gazing into the reflection.
"He awakens."
A voice replied from the shadow.
"The boy has inherited too much. He must be broken."
"No," Ravon whispered. "He must see what the flame truly costs."
He turned to his armies — thousands of Ashborn waiting in dead silence.
"We march on the Flame Vault of Iskar."
"Burn the sanctuaries. Break the names."
"Leave Kael no past to return to."
That night, Kael dreamed.
He stood in the same place where Aurex once fell — a field of blackened scales and broken sky.
But this time, he didn't see the god.
He saw Ravon.
Older now. Colder. With Kael's fire reflected in his voidblack eyes.
"You think you carry his will?" Ravon asked.
"You carry his mistake."
Kael gritted his teeth.
"Then I'll finish what he started."
"And I'll burn you."
Ravon smiled.
"Try."
The dream shattered in light and smoke.
Kael woke with fire in his lungs and one truth burning in his soul:
This wasn't just his journey anymore.
This was war.
And the final flame had been lit.
End of Volume One