Chapter 24: Shadows Beneath the Flame
The Vowbound left before dawn.
Ten of their best, cloaked in ash-gray and silver, with Andrew at the front—Ashren sheathed on his back, humming faintly as if it too sensed what lay ahead.
Their destination: The Cradle of Ash.
A ravine wrapped in scorched rock, the site where—centuries ago—the Veil had cracked for the first time. A forbidden place where mana warped unnaturally, and even light bent around the air like smoke.
Kaelira rode beside Andrew, silent.
Behind them, Selennia kept her distance—watchful, unreadable. The soldiers didn't trust her yet. Not fully.
But she didn't flinch from their suspicion. She wore her crown of thorns like armor.
On the second night, they made camp at the edge of the Withered Reach, a dead forest where no bird sang.
Mihai sharpened his blade near the fire, muttering something about "unnatural silence."
Kaelira stood alone, watching the tree line.
Andrew approached her, cloak wrapped tight around him, Ashren whispering faint echoes in his head.
"You've been quiet," he said.
"So have you," she replied.
"Selennia unnerves you."
"I don't trust her," Kaelira said plainly. "She's too polished. Too calm."
"And I don't like the way she looks at you. Like she knows something you don't."
Andrew didn't deny it. Because he felt it too.
"Do you think she's part of my past?" he asked.
Kaelira turned toward him, searching his face.
"I think you're starting to doubt yourself."
"And I think you need someone who reminds you who you are now. Not who you were."
Before Andrew could respond—Ashren pulsed.
His vision blurred. The air twisted.
And suddenly—
He was standing in a ruin of bone and fire.
A black sun hung in the sky.
Before him stood a woman clad in armor of smoke, her eyes burning silver.
"You forgot me, Andrew," she said. "You forgot everything."
"But I never stopped waiting."
"At the end of the world, you held me as I faded—and you promised…"
"If you were ever reborn, you'd come back for me."
Andrew staggered, the world spinning—
He snapped awake at the sound of steel.
Shadows were crawling from the trees.
Figures of half-flesh and cracked crystal, bearing Veyrux's mark.
Ambush.
The Vowbound scrambled to arms. Mihai roared into the fray.
Selennia conjured a shield of light, covering two scouts.
Kaelira stood beside Andrew, blades ready.
"You with us?" she asked.
Andrew drew Ashren.
It screamed to life, cloaked in shadow-aura and flickering silver.
"I never left."
He leapt into battle—cutting through the creatures with precision. Ashren didn't just slice—it revealed. For every enemy struck, he saw a flicker of who they once were:
A farmer.
A soldier.
A mage.
All twisted into weapons.
Andrew's fury grew, but his control held—barely.
Then, in the flames, one final creature approached—different.
Wearing a shattered crown.
A puppet king.
"You carry the flame of who you were…" the creature rasped.
"But will you carry the burden of what you did?"
Andrew slashed it down.
And as it fell, another piece of the past returned:
A throne of ash. His own voice commanding armies of shadows. The woman in smoke whispering his name…
After the fight, the camp was quiet.
Selennia approached him later.
"You saw something again, didn't you?"
Andrew nodded, slowly.
"Her name… I think it was Elen. She was with me at the end."
Selennia blinked once. Then turned away.
"She wasn't just with you, Andrew."
"She was the only person who made you hesitate."
Andrew watched her go, heart pounding.
"And what happened to her?"
Selennia's voice was soft.
"You buried her. With your own hands."