Chapter 10: The Second Flame
Dawn in EchoWomb was never bright. Not here. Not beneath a sky wrapped in Codex threads and bio-mist, where light filtered down like memory, fractured and unsure of its shape. But this morning, the Pyre glowed differently.
It did not burn high. It did not rage. It waited.
The warhost gathered around it in silence. Where once the banners of twelve stood firm, now thirteen fluttered. Green. Frayed. But there.
The Codex shifted. Not in sound. In presence. Glyphs spread across the trench walls, crawling like moss, unfurling like truth. Runes formed above the Pyre—some new, some so old even Talym hesitated to name them.
Serrin stepped beside Kael, her Codex shard pulsing in response.
"It's starting."
Kael nodded. He wore no crown now, no armor above what the Codex had already fused to his form. Just the weight of every eye.
The Arena Unfolds
Roots cracked.
Stone buckled.
From the center of EchoWomb, a spiral trench began to open—slow, controlled, alive. Layer by layer it coiled downward, walls etched in radiant code. Platforms emerged at each cardinal point, a dozen in total. At the heart: the Duel Ring.
Ashguard and Forgebinders stood in readiness. Vexle deployed stabilizing pylons as Crate directed memory-filament reweavers into position.
From the highest ledge, Talym addressed the warhost.
*"This arena is not ours. It is not Kael's. It belongs to the Codex. And it remembers all who bleed in it."
He raised a Codex rod. Glyphs flared in the sky.
"The Tournament of the Second Flame begins now."
The Banners Speak
Maelith stepped forward first.
*"Obsidian Legion burns in truth. We stand for it. We fight for it."
Ironmark followed.
*"Ashguard is iron. It bends only to meaning."
Threnyx said nothing. He simply extended one wing and placed his talon on the Pyre's edge. The flame responded.
Whisper-Vow laid a memory-thread across the flame. Veck whispered three names into it—the names of traitors executed in silence.
Elaras Greenfold approached last, a root-fragment in her hand. She placed it on the flame. It didn't burn. It bloomed.
The Codex pulsed gold.
Trial One: Test of Inheritance
Talym read from the Codex:
*"This is not a test of strength. It is not a trial of victory. It is a revelation. You will not be judged by who wins. You will be judged by what the Codex learns."
Zhaer Kryndross and Korynth Shalevein stepped forward.
The ring sealed behind them.
Codex tendrils erupted from the arena floor, threading into their backs, tapping memory cores, emotional anchors, genetic scars.
Suddenly the arena changed.
Zhaer stood in a burning trench.
Not EchoWomb.
Home.
Ash rained down. He turned—his old squad. The one he executed. The one he had to betray to hide VyrmClaw's lineage.
Their faces blurred. Their screams real.
Korynth watched from his side of the ring. His memory rose—a sky battlefield, Cryth-Wings falling. Threnyx wounded, calling for aid. Korynth had abandoned the flight.
Their weapons drew. Not to kill. To exorcise.
Blades clashed. Screams echoed. The arena flickered with layered pasts.
Zhaer broke first.
He dropped his weapon, bared his neck.
"I did it to protect something bigger than us."
Korynth hesitated.
Then sheathed his blade.
The Codex pulsed.
"Two truths bleed. One grows."
Zhaer was lifted by the Codex tendrils, returned to the platform.
Korynth stepped back into the Riftwing fold, unspeaking.
Aftermath
The crowd was silent.
Then a chant rose.
"Inheritance... Inheritance... Inheritance..."
Kael watched them.
Not just Zhaer and Korynth.
All of them.
Serrin leaned in.
"You chose to be judged, and now they choose to be witnessed."
Kael didn't respond.
He only looked to the flame.
And waited for the next name.
Next: Chapter 11 - Test of Echo