đ The Vault Awakens
The moment Rael touched the six-pointed flame sigil, the glyphs along the archive wall began to spin â not visibly, but through layers of enchantment embedded in the soul-threaded stone.
Even Lady Sireya took a step back.
"This is not divine magic," she said, voice unusually quiet.
Rael didn't reply. He pressed both hands to the wall.
The seal flared, then slowly peeled away, like burning wax revealing an ancient iron gate.
Etched across its surface were words written in Old Ashen, a language so old that only a handful of flameborne bloodlines could read it.
Rael whispered the translation:
> "Here sleeps what was broken⌠and what was never forgiven."
The door creaked open.
And a gust of warm, scentless wind rolled out â not dead air, not rot.
Time.
---
đĽ The Descent Below
Stone steps spiraled downward.
As Rael walked, the torches along the walls lit with soulfire â not blue, not red, but white with orange flickers.
Each torch was inscribed with a single name.
> Talon of the Fourth Flame
Virex the Oath-Eater
Selene the Chainbinder
Rael Solvane
He paused at his own name.
Carved in before his rebirth.
Sireya stepped behind him. "You built this."
"No," he said. "I buried it."
---
đŻď¸ The Heart of the Vault
The spiral opened into a chamber shaped like an eye â circular, domed, with a massive floating crystal in the center, cracked and half-dim.
Around it: twelve empty thrones, each bearing the same sigil.
Only one was lit.
Rael approached slowly.
The air here was thick with remembering.
He raised a hand toward the crystal.
And then, a voice rang through the vault â one that shook the stone.
> "WHO RETURNS TO COMMAND THE FORGOTTEN FLAME?"
Rael didn't flinch.
He responded calmly:
> "Your King."
---
𩸠The Flamebound Spirit
From the crystal emerged a figure â semi-transparent, tall, armored in obsidian flame-plate, face masked. Its eyes burned faintly with reverence and pain.
Rael knew this spirit.
> Rhovan the First-Tethered. My oldest general. My bound shadow.
"Do you remember me?" Rael asked.
Rhovan knelt.
> "I remember your scream when they took your crown."
> "I remember the day they buried this vault in shame."
> "I have waited... through flame, silence, and centuries."
Rael stood before him. His voice cracked â just a bit.
"Then rise. I will need you again."
---
⨠The Crown Sigil Reactivates
At Rael's words, the central crystal pulsed, and one of the sigils embedded in his flamecore â the dormant Ashblood Crown Sigil â flared to life in his chest.
Flame didn't erupt violently.
It settled.
Coiled.
Heated him from within.
> The crown is accepting me again, he thought. Piece by piece.
The second throne in the circle flickered.
---
đ Sireya's Dilemma
Lady Sireya stepped into the chamber slowly, as if expecting to be incinerated.
"What⌠is this place?"
Rael looked around.
"A war room. A tomb. A prison for loyalty too old to be fashionable."
Sireya walked past the broken thrones. "If the gods learn you've awakened a flame-bound war vaultâ"
"They'll come harder next time," Rael said simply.
"You've stepped into the role they feared most."
Rael smiled faintly.
> "Good. I missed the crown."
---
đ Secret Mechanism: Memory Echoes
Rhovan raised a hand and gestured to a floating panel near the center crystal. Glowing runes arranged themselves into a spinning spiral.
> "Choose a memory to unlock," he said. "But choose only one per awakening."
Rael hesitated.
Then touched the rune marked:
> The Eighteenth Betrayal.
---
đ§ Echo Unleashed
The chamber dimmed.
Rael's body stiffened.
His vision was no longer in the vault⌠but in a burning throne room from his past life.
A trusted flame general knelt before him⌠then drove a blade through his back.
He felt the pain.
He saw the face of the betrayer.
> Master Veylor.
---
đ Cliffhanger: The Spy
Rael's eyes snapped open in the present.
The flame around him vanished.
He stood silently.
Then turned to Sireya.
> "There's a spy in the academy. One of yours."
Sireya stiffened. "You saw this?"
"I remembered it."
"And the name?"
Rael looked up toward the stone ceiling.
> "I'll let him reveal himself."
He walked toward the steps.
Sireya hesitated. "Where are you going?"
Rael's voice was steady.
> "To class."
---
đ§ End of Chapter 10