Dawn came silently to Blackreef Island.
Selena knelt at the water's edge, her fingers skimming the inky waves. Each crest turned to crystalline vapor upon touching her skin, scattering prismatic light across the shore. The obsidian ring on her finger pulsed warmly, as though resonating with some distant call.
"Seven days."
Calvin's voice rumbled behind her. His newly regenerated right arm gleamed in the morning light, dark crimson veins visible beneath the skin. He dragged a makeshift boat woven from crystallized seaweed, his hook dangling strange silver-scaled fish.
"The sea purifies itself," Selena murmured without turning, studying her reflection—the crystallization in her right eye had halted, revealing flecks of gold fire deep within the iris. "But not completely."
As Calvin pushed the boat into the shallows, the water shimmered like mother-of-pearl. "Northern fishermen say their children dreamed of stars last night." He hesitated. "A voice told them 'Magic comes home.'"
Selena stood abruptly as her ring flared. She whirled toward the empty horizon—where her phoenix sight alone detected a ripple in reality.
"He's still there," she whispered. "Lingering at the rift's edge."
Calvin's living hand gripped his hook, making dragon-scale patterns emerge on the metal. "Then we retrieve him. But this time—" He slapped the boat's hull. "—we travel properly."
The sea parted before the vessel, forming a luminous channel. As Selena moved to board, the beach trembled violently.
A silver dragon erupted from the waves.
Its scales were barnacle-encrusted, one wing tattered, yet its slit-pupiled gaze held undiminished majesty. When it landed, Selena's ring burned white-hot.
"Watchers." Its voice vibrated like undersea volcanoes. "You've opened forbidden doors."
Calvin stepped forward, the veins in his arm glowing gold. "Queen Dusklight... we thought you—"
"Dead?" The dragon's jaw twisted mockingly. "Dragon oaths outlast mortality." It loomed over Selena. "Surrender the ring. That power isn't for mortal hands."
Selena's right hand blazed with hybrid fire—golden phoenix flames threaded with the ring's black starlight. "This is Leon's legacy."
The dragon's pupils narrowed to daggers. "Fools! You meddle with forces beyond—" It suddenly extended its injured wing, revealing a festering wound pulsating with gray flames. "Three centuries ago, half my kin died sealing that rift!"
Calvin froze. "You're saying... the Corruption was never..."
"Chaos Prime is part of this world's magical circulation." Exhaustion seeped into the dragon's voice. "But like blood stagnating outside the heart..." Its gaze dropped to the ring. "Magic corrupts when severed from its source."
Memories cascaded in Selena's mind—Shadowglow's warnings, Leon's final choice—clicking into terrible sense. "So the Shadowkin were..."
"Conduits." The dragon bowed its head. "Once, dragons and Shadowkin maintained the flow. Until the Conclave discovered they could hijack it for immortality."
The sand collapsed into a perfect circle, its basin glowing with bioluminescent patterns—two interlocked rings: one dragon fire, one shadow.
"The balance is broken." The dragon tapped the design, making it disintegrate. "Find a new cycle... or..."
The fragments reshaped into a star chart above their boat. Selena's ring floated into its center, the obsidian shell cracking open to reveal a miniature Chaos Prime—no longer grayish, but with pure black-gold radiance.
"He turned himself into a relay station." Awe colored Calvin's voice. "The damn kid's rebuilding the circuit."
The dragon spread its ragged wings, making the sea boil. "Hasten, Watchers. Conclave remnants already scent the source." Its eyes locked onto Selena. "As for you... Phoenix-daughter, are you prepared for the true trial?"
Selena's right arm answered for her—the crystalline shell shattered, revealing new skin dancing with astral fire.
"Seems I am," she said, boarding the boat.
As Calvin rowed, the dragon took flight, leaving a glowing wake across the waves. Selena watched the approaching star chart, her ring pulsing in sync with—
Somewhere across the void, a sleeping heart began to beat.