🜃 Previously…
Ash survived the mirror trial, unlocked Eidolon magic, and faced an ambush from the Hollow Order. But as he journeys to Miraeth — the fallen capital — he begins to remember what should have stayed forgotten. Someone else, another Ashborn, awakens in the desert. And the seal on his palm is no longer dormant…
☰ Miraeth — Outer Wards, Dusk
The ruins of Miraeth stretched for miles. A hushed, skeletal sprawl of crumbling stone towers, shattered statues, and streets choked with ivy and silence.
Ash stood before the shattered outer gate, half-sunk into the earth. The air was thick with old magic, like breathing through soaked parchment.
Ira dismounted first, eyes sweeping the perimeter.
"No birds. No beasts. No wind."
Ash nodded. "Feels like a memory waiting to wake up."
Tellen, the mute scout, raised his star-compass. The needle spun violently before cracking in half.
They had arrived.
☰ The Curse of Miraeth
Twelve years ago, the City of Crowns was razed in a single night.
Witnesses spoke of fire that sang in seven tongues, of soldiers who turned on each other, of shadows that refused to vanish with sunrise. The king's death was never confirmed. But the city's heart — the Obsidian Spire — had melted to slag.
And the last figure seen standing at the spire's summit?
Ash.
Ash the Ashenborn. Ash the Flamebearer. Ash the Traitor.
Or so the legends claimed.
☰ Ghost-Lit Streets
They moved slowly through the fallen city.
Miraeth was not just ruins — it was memory petrified. Stalls still held rotted fruits. Armor still clung to rusted bones. The murals along the walls showed golden parades, sword dances, and a man on fire.
Every fifth wall was defaced with claw marks.
Every tenth wall bore the sigil of the Hollow Order.
"This place..." Ash muttered, touching a burnt doorway, "I built something here."
Ira studied the graffiti: "THE FLAME REMEMBERS."
"Or destroyed something," she replied.
☰ The Whisper Vault
Tellen signaled — he'd found something.
Beneath a collapsed shrine, they uncovered a spiraling staircase, hidden under rubble. The descent took them into a subterranean chamber of cracked obsidian — walls lined with faintly glowing runes.
A central plinth pulsed with sealed light. Around it were scattered bones, each branded with the Ashborn seal.
Ash froze.
"I remember this place."
"What is it?" Ira asked.
He stepped forward. "The Whisper Vault. We built it to house dangerous truths. Forbidden memories. Each seal holds a secret… and a cost."
"And you want to open one?"
"I think I have to."
☰ Memory Seal: The Burning Pact
Ash placed his marked palm on the plinth.
The air screamed.
A shard of light lanced from the vault into his forehead. He staggered as the room shifted.
And remembered.
☰ Flashback — 13 Years Ago, Miraeth
Ash stood before a circle of nobles in a vaulted war chamber.
"The Eidolons are losing control," he said. "Their power fractures the Veil. We cannot survive another Cycle unprepared."
A tall woman in violet robes stepped forward. Her name was Elyra.
"You propose heresy. Binding mortal souls to Eidolon flame? Turning men into weapons?"
"I'm not proposing it," Ash said coldly. "I've already done it."
Behind him, five figures stepped forward.
The first Ashborn.
One of them was his sister.
☰ Present — Vault Chamber
Ash collapsed to one knee, gasping.
Blood trickled from his nose. The vault glowed dimmer now — a memory taken back.
"You created the Ashborn?" Ira asked quietly.
"No. I perfected them." His voice was hoarse.
"We were volunteers. My sister... she insisted. She believed it would save the realm."
Ira looked shaken.
"That kind of power doesn't save. It corrupts."
Ash didn't answer. He was staring at something etched into the far wall:
ONLY THE TRAITOR MAY OPEN THE FINAL SEAL.
☰ Midnight — The Spire Reclaimed
The Obsidian Spire still stood at Miraeth's heart, though cracked and blackened. Once the seat of power, now a haunted husk.
Ash and the others approached cautiously. As they reached the steps, they saw someone waiting.
A woman.
Hooded. Alone.
Her blade glowed with broken runes.
Ira readied her weapon. Tellen vanished into the mist.
The woman stepped forward.
"You finally returned," she said. Her voice was soft, scarred by old pain.
"I wanted to be the one to find you first."
Ash blinked. His heart twisted.
"…Sarai?"
☰ Character Lore: Sarai Veyne
Second of the Ashborn. A tactical genius and combat prodigy. Ash's younger sister by oath, and one of the few he truly trusted.
During the Siege of Miraeth, she was presumed dead — caught in the spire's collapse. Her survival suggests deeper conspiracies.
She now serves none. Her only goal: uncover the truth and destroy whoever took their past away.
Sarai stepped closer.
"The Hollow Order marked me for death. But I remember everything, Ash. You didn't just betray Miraeth. You betrayed us."
Ash took a step forward.
"I didn't—"
She unsheathed her blade.
"Then prove it. Survive me."
☰ Duel of Ashborn
The clash was immediate — blades, magic, memory.
Sparks exploded as Eidolon flame met shadowsteel. Sarai moved with ruthless precision, her attacks surgical. Ash fought defensively, unlocking instincts buried under years of amnesia.
They danced atop broken memories — the spire trembled with every strike.
Ira shouted, "She's not trying to kill you!"
Sarai snarled, "Not yet!"
Ash blocked a downward slash — barely.
"Sarai, listen! I'm not the same!"
"That's the problem!" she cried.
"You left us. You burned the pact. You left me in the dark!"
He finally disarmed her with a burst of raw magic. She hit the stone hard — coughing blood.
Ash dropped to his knees beside her.
"I'm sorry."
She looked into his eyes.
"Then start remembering the day you murdered our king."
☰ The Spire Shakes
Tellen screamed from outside.
They rushed out — and saw a sky full of silver moths.
The Hollow Order had found them.
Ten masked cultists emerged from the ruins, chanting in tongues of ash.
A black ring of runes formed around the spire.
"They mean to bury this city again!" Ira shouted.
Sarai stood.
"Then we make them bleed."
☰ Final Scene — The Seal Deepens
Ash unleashed the mark.
For the first time, willingly.
The seal bloomed across his arm — three rings now. Light seared the air as his voice echoed with dual tones.
He whispered a name he didn't recognize.
And the world obeyed.
Stone split. Flame surged. The Hollow Order faltered.
But just before the last cultist died, he smiled.
"The Eidolon stirs. Soon, you will not be one man... but all of us."
Ash stepped forward, and incinerated him.
Then collapsed.
The seal flared once more — and a sliver of something deeper whispered to him.
"Miraeth was the first. The next is Elarion."
Ash passed out.
Darkness closed in.
❖ END OF CHAPTER 3 — "The City That Remembers"