Chapter 6: The Riftwing Defiance
Silence followed the last echo of hooves and claws.
Twelve banners now circled the Black Pyre. Twelve kin gathered beneath the memory-rooted flame, waiting. Yet not all had submitted. One remained still, proud, unbent.
Threnyx Vaelspire.
He stood before the Pyre like a monument carved from ancient wind and war. His wings hung motionless, not folded, not flared—a posture of defiance. Korynth Shalevein remained at his side, eyes veiled behind war-feathers. Vaeryn Skeldr perched nearby, arms crossed, talons flexing.
Kael stepped forward.
The flame didn't react. Not yet.
"You came, Riftwing," Kael said. "But you stand apart. Why?"
Threnyx did not answer Kael. He spoke to the assembled kin.
"Sky-blood remembers what the ground forgets. We are not forged in Womb-fire. We do not owe our wings to a Bastard king."
A murmur passed through the warhost. Even Ironwrought's jaw tensed. Veck of the Veiled hissed through her threads.
"Then you reject the Codex?" Maelith asked coldly.
"I reject his claim to it."
Kael said nothing. He stepped closer. The Codex chimes dimmed.
"You don't have to kneel, Threnyx," Kael said. "But you will understand what you stand before."
"Show me."
The Codex pulsed.
Black Pyre flame leapt upward—not wild, but honed, a vertical stream that split sky from earth. Kael stepped into it.
Gasps. Even the Ashguard flinched.
The Pyre did not burn him.
It unveiled him.
Golden fire crowned his skull.
A Codex spiral spun behind his spine.
His voice echoed in the marrow of every hybrid present.
"I never wanted your loyalty. I only asked for your eyes. Now open them."
Threnyx drew a blade—silver-winged and old. Ancient Cryth-metal.
Kael didn't move.
But the Codex did.
A projected memory-field erupted around them: images of Kael's past—fighting Warden-kin, walking through the Codex storm, bearing the dead Echo Elite. His flame-bonded battle against JIRUUN. His refusal to ascend when he could have taken control.
Kael turned.
"Still not enough?"
Threnyx lowered the blade. His wings shifted.
"We follow not your name... but the fire you wear."
He placed his weapon in the trench.
"The Riftwings submit to the Second Flame."
The Codex chimed. Blue. Then gold.
A cheer rose from the Obsidian Legion.
The First Talons struck the ground in rhythm.
Ashguard drums began to pound.
Even Serrin, from behind Kael, smiled.
"You did it," she whispered.
Kael turned to the flame, eyes still burning.
"Not yet."
Next: Chapter 7 - The Challenge of the Captains