Location: Temple of Silence – Vault of Forbidden Names
POV: Ashren Vale
Ashren had walked through blood. Through fire. Through the shattered bones of gods.
But never had silence terrified him more than it did now.
The Temple of Silence sat beneath the dead cliffs of Selenmor, hidden from every map, every legend. A vault where knowledge too dangerous for memory was entombed in runes older than light.
And within it—answers about her.
About the thing buried inside Seris Valen.
The Librarian of the End
An ancient entity waited in the vault's core. Not a man, not a ghost, but something in-between.
It called itself Threnos—a scribe of fallen stars.
"I warned the first kings when the Curse was born," it rasped, its voice like wind over a tomb. "They laughed… and then they died screaming."
Ashren spoke calmly. "What is the Curse?"
Threnos turned pages with fingers made of dusk.
"Before flame. Before shadow. Before blood or beast… there was Thamaris."
Ashren stilled.
That name. It struck something deep in him.
"The first hunger," Threnos said. "Not a god. Not a demon. A will. A need to consume creation. It was sealed—but never slain."
"And now it lives inside Seris," Ashren whispered.
A Love Entwined in Doom
Visions danced in the vault's air—Seris standing atop a burning peak, her eyes no longer her own. Whole kingdoms crumbling under her scream. Stars dimming. Magic unraveling.
Ashren clenched his fists.
"She can fight it," he said. "She's not alone."
Threnos stepped back.
"You cannot kill what predates death. But perhaps… you can replace it."
A Sacrifice Foretold
Threnos handed him a dagger.
No blade. Just a shard of starglass wrapped in runes too painful to look at directly.
"One vessel must die for the curse to die with it."
Ashren looked down at the weapon.
Then up at the vision of Seris.
His heart burned.
He made his choice.
Final Scene – The March Begins
Ashren emerged from the vault to find Caelis waiting with an army of the flame-bound, ready to face what was coming.
He didn't tell them everything.
Just enough.
"Whatever rises next," he said, "we end it together."
And behind him, the sky bled crimson.