🌸 A Forbidden Place
The entrance to the Crown Garden Ruins was hidden beneath layers of illusion and sealed by three tiers of flame-runes, long declared lost.
Only two people alive could open them now.
Rael.
And Lumiera.
Together, they passed through the cracked arch, stepping into a sunken garden overgrown with vines and red ash blossoms. It was a place both beautiful and solemn — half buried under stone, the other half scorched by flame from a war no one in the Academy dared mention.
Luma stood still, breath catching.
> "This is where I died," she whispered.
> "Where you were killed," Rael corrected softly.
> "Same thing, isn't it?" she said with a bitter smile.
---
🔥 The Memory in the Roots
She moved forward, boots brushing petals and shattered relics. A lone tree — leafless, still faintly glowing — stood in the center of the ruined garden.
The Flame Tree.
Where Elarys had once made her final vow.
As she touched the bark, fire surged under her skin.
And the vision hit her.
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🩸 Flashback: Betrayal in Bloom
> She stood in royal robes.
Her hands were bleeding.
Therion's corpse lay at her feet.
She had just plunged the blade herself.
And across the courtyard—Rael, bound in shackles, bleeding from flame-brand torture, stared at her.
> "You killed him?" he rasped.
> "He gave them your name," she choked. "He sold the crown."
> "He was my blood."
> "And you are my soul," she said. "I choose you."
Then a flare of gold arrows struck her back.
Her scream echoed through the memory — and the garden.
---
đź•Ż Awakening
Back in the present, Lumiera stumbled away from the tree, tears in her eyes.
"I killed for you," she said. "I died for you."
Rael stepped forward, jaw tight. "And I burned the world for you."
Their gazes locked.
And then her hand glowed again — the silver fire now darker, almost violet, burning with runes Rael could not read.
> "What are you becoming?" he whispered.
She looked down at her hand, trembling.
> "I don't know."
But the tree behind her bloomed again — its branches igniting, not in destruction… but in rebirth.
---
🌕 The Tree of Oaths
Velisandre's voice stirred faintly in Rael's chest.
> "That tree only blooms when a soul reclaims what it lost."
> "And she is not just reclaiming memory… but power."
Luma looked up at the glowing petals above her.
Then turned to Rael.
"I remember everything," she said. "But I don't feel like her anymore."
"Because you aren't," he replied.
"You're something new."
---
🧿 The New Sigil
At the base of the Flame Tree, a mark carved itself into the ground.
Not the Crown sigil.
Not the Flamebound rune.
But a third crest — a flower made of silver flame, petals stretching around a central spiral.
> A lost crest.
A forgotten inheritance.
Luma knelt beside it, tracing it with reverence.
> "It's not Elarys' flame," she whispered. "It's older."
"It's mine."
Rael watched her in awe.
Then nodded.
> "Then let the world burn trying to take it from you."
---
🌑 Final Scene: A Throne Reborn
Deep beneath the ruins, hidden from even the gods, a stone throne cracked.
Its chains fell loose.
And ancient magic whispered:
> "The Flower of Flame has returned."
"The Heir of Ash and Bloom shall awaken."
"And her kingdom will not kneel."
---
End of Chapter 18