🜃 Previously…
Ash and Ira reached the ruined capital of Miraeth, where Ash unlocked forbidden memories of creating the Ashborn project with his sister Sarai — who was thought dead. Their reunion erupted into a deadly duel, interrupted by the Hollow Order. Ash awakened a third ring in his Eidolon seal, unleashing devastating power. As the last cultist died, he whispered a single name: Elarion.
☰ Day One — On the Road to Elarion
Ash awoke with frost in his lungs and fire in his veins.
The third ring on his palm still shimmered faintly, throbbing like a living thing. Beside him, Sarai sat cross-legged, repairing her cracked blade with runes of ash. Ira watched them both warily.
"We should have killed that last cultist faster," Ira muttered.
"Why?" Sarai asked. "Afraid of what comes next?"
"Afraid of what he already knew."
Ash stood, swaying slightly.
"What is Elarion?"
Sarai's expression hardened.
"A city that tried to house an Eidolon... and failed."
☰ Lore Fragment: Elarion
Elarion was once a shining city of learning and arcanotech — the capital of the Dominion's Mage Accord. It was home to the Hall of Lenses, a great tower designed to "focus" Eidolon power.
But during the Year of Splintering, an attempt to "bind" an Eidolon beneath the city failed catastrophically. Elarion fell into the earth, creating the Crimson Hollow.
Its ruins now lie buried, cursed, and lost. None who enter the hollow return unchanged.
☰ Flash Travel — Four Days Later
They reached the outskirts of Elarion after four days of silence, skirting leyline fractures and collapsed fault zones. Ash had not yet dreamed again — but the third ring still pulsed with hunger.
The earth itself seemed wounded here.
Red fog coiled from cracks in the ground. Lightning flickered without thunder. Birds circled in silence, unwilling to land.
Sarai spoke softly.
"Do you feel that?"
Ash nodded.
"It's like something is watching. From below."
"Not watching." Ira's voice was grim.
"Waiting."
☰ Elarion's Edge — The Crimson Hollow
They stood at the edge of a massive sinkhole — a perfectly circular chasm that swallowed the horizon. Broken towers jutted sideways from the walls like ribs. Strange cables — long-rotted — hung from skeletal scaffolding.
A crude lift, patched with bone and wood, sat near the edge.
"This wasn't here last time," Sarai muttered.
Ash knelt beside the lift's gears. "This is recent. Hollow Order design. They've been coming and going."
Tellen, returning from a scouting loop, drew a symbol in the dust:
OBSERVER WITHIN.
"Someone... or something's already inside," Ira whispered.
☰ The Descent
The lift creaked and groaned as they lowered into the hollow.
Below, Elarion's ruins stretched like a corpse — vast, beautiful, and broken. Faint lights flickered in the shadows, and a deep hum vibrated through the stone.
As they descended, memories clawed at Ash's mind:
A screaming orb of flame, bound in a crucible of mirrors.
A woman with crystal veins whispering "We were never meant to cage gods."
A seal — far older than the Eidolons — breaking from within.
Ash whispered:
"The Eidolon here… it's not sleeping. It's mourning."
☰ Inside the Dead City
They walked through fallen libraries, shattered wards, and silent machines. Runes sparked uselessly in the dark, and strange whispers echoed from nowhere.
Ash paused near a mural, half-collapsed.
It showed a city built atop a creature of light and fire — an Eidolon caged beneath. Its eye was closed.
Beneath it, thousands of souls burned like candles.
"They tried to use it," Ash said.
Sarai nodded. "Tried to own it. That's what broke Elarion."
Ira pointed to the mural's final panel: the eye opened.
And the city vanished.
☰ The Catacombs Below
Following broken guidance from Tellen, they descended deeper — into the cage chambers. Long tunnels lined with restraint sigils, shattered containment glass, and bone-strewn halls.
Sarai whispered, "We're not alone."
A hiss echoed behind them.
Figures emerged from the gloom — half-masked, half-melted.
Hollow Order scavengers.
One had no face — just a rune carved where skin once was.
"The Flame Bearer returns," it rasped.
Ash raised his hand, but the mark didn't glow.
"What do you want?" he asked.
The faceless one laughed.
"Not what. Who. You carry Him inside you. We want Him free."
Ira threw a knife — and the room exploded into violence.
☰ Battle in the Hollow
Flames lit the darkness. Sarai carved shadows apart with practiced fury, her blade singing with ash. Ira moved like a storm, covering Ash's flank. Tellen unleashed spectral pulses from a broken lensstaff.
Ash tried to summon power — but something inside him fought back.
A voice.
"You chained me. You must bleed to unlock me again."
He faltered. A blade sliced his shoulder. He cried out.
The mark pulsed once — and the third ring turned black.
A single word etched itself across his vision:
"RELEASE."
Ash whispered it aloud.
And the world cracked open.
☰ The True Flame
A wave of searing gold erupted from his chest.
Not fire — but memory.
Every living thing in the chamber froze. For a heartbeat, they were him — saw what he saw:
The creation of the Ashborn.
The broken pact at Miraeth.
A voice from beneath the world saying: "You are the ember of what was."
And then the scavengers combusted — turned to dust, screaming not in pain, but joy.
Sarai grabbed him, eyes wide.
"Ash — you didn't just remember. You broadcasted it."
Ira swore under her breath.
"Every Eidolon-blooded in Cendralis just felt that."
☰ Deeper Still — The Sealed Vault
They reached the final chamber.
A titanic gate of silver and obsidian, etched in runes that wept molten light. At its center was a lock — shaped exactly like the mark on Ash's palm.
Sarai stared in horror.
"This is no prison. This is a womb."
Ash stepped forward.
He heard voices — dozens, hundreds, himself a thousand times over, whispering through time.
"You put me here. But I remember. I remember her."
A name flashed across his thoughts.
"Eris."
He didn't know who she was.
But her name hurt.
He placed his palm against the lock.
The third ring hissed.
And began to open.
☰ Cliffhanger Ending
The chamber began to collapse.
Screams echoed from within the vault — not in rage, but recognition.
Sarai shouted, "Don't open it! You're not ready!"
Ash turned.
"Then help me remember. Because something inside knows me. And it's not a monster."
The vault split six inches.
Light and flame burst out.
And in the glow...
A girl's silhouette stood waiting. Eyes closed. Lips parted. And behind her… wings of fire.
The gate roared as the seal cracked further.
❖ END OF CHAPTER 4 — "The Flame Below Elarion"