🌒 The Sky Trembles
At first, the stars shifted subtly.
One winked out.
Another duplicated itself.
Then the sky cracked.
A jagged rift opened over Bloomfire — not in the clouds, but in time itself. Spirals of golden and black flame churned outward, distorting everything.
The moon became a sliver… then full… then gone.
The sun rose at midnight.
Old memories whispered from shadows.
The Crescent Flame War had begun.
And at its center—Caelen, cloaked in ash, wielding a sword that hummed with timefire.
> "Brother," he whispered across the Rift,
"Let's see what you protect… when your past betrays you."
---
🌋 Bloomfire in Chaos
Inside the Citadel, the Flamebloom Court scrambled.
> "We're slipping across timelines," Ashren shouted, clutching a fracturing compass.
"People are appearing before they were born! I just saw Bran as a toddler stealing his own spear!"
Bran kicked the door down. "It wasn't stealing. I borrowed it back!"
Nira laughed, even as her bombs began exploding before she threw them.
> "Okay, this is too fun—but also horrifying."
Lumiera's sigils flickered across dimensions, trying to stabilize the tower walls.
Dusk whispered as he stepped out of a shadow and into his own younger body.
> "Our past is hunting us."
---
🔥 Rael's Inner War
Rael stood in the center of the throne chamber, the Flamebloom Crown pulsing on his head.
The walls around him blurred — images of every moment he had lived:
Holding Caelen's hand as a child.
Watching Lumiera bleed during the Fall of Dreamhaven.
His first coronation… that never happened.
Suddenly, the Echo returned — inside him, thrashing against the seal.
> "This war weakens your grip," it hissed.
"Let me fight him. You need me."
> "No," Rael growled. "You want to burn him."
> "You want that too."
The Echo's smile twisted across a mirrored flame.
> "You can't protect a world that's already unraveling."
---
⚔️ The Brothers Meet
Outside the Bloomfire gates, Caelen waited.
Wearing a cloak stitched with broken time threads, he stood barefoot in the ash as Bloomfire's gates cracked open.
Rael emerged, surrounded by sigils. Fire licked around him — petals and flame swirling in one perfect storm.
They stared at each other.
No words.
Until Rael finally said,
> "You came back."
Caelen's eyes burned violet.
> "You never looked for me."
> "I thought you were dead."
> "I was. Until I found the blade that kills even memory."
Caelen lifted the Crescent Flame Blade.
> "This war isn't for power. It's for truth."
> "Then speak it."
> "You were never meant to be king."
---
🌌 The War Unfolds
As Rael and Caelen circled each other, the world fractured around them:
Past versions of Court members fought future enemies
The Flamevine Garden bloomed backward
The Oracle's voice echoed from every torch
> "Two kings born from one flame.
One must burn to anchor time."
Bran battled a copy of himself with more scars.
Nira dueled a version of her that had never laughed.
Lumiera stood in three places at once—watching three different Raels die.
She screamed—and all the versions snapped back into one.
---
đź’Ą Rael vs. Caelen
They fought.
Crescent Flame against Bloomfire.
Caelen's sword tore through time — letting him strike Rael before Rael moved.
But Rael had mastered more than flame.
He had mastered balance.
He redirected petals mid-air, reshaped sigils mid-cast, and whispered a name only Caelen would recognize:
> "Mother would've stopped us."
Caelen hesitated.
And Rael struck—not to kill, but to connect.
---
đź’” A Shattering
Then the Crown cracked.
The Flamebloom Crown — overwhelmed by time distortion, memory overload, and Echo pressure — fractured across Rael's head.
Blood streamed down.
The Crown fell… and split in two.
The Court felt it across every part of the citadel — a silence that screamed.
---
đź•Ż Final Moments of the Chapter
Rael fell to one knee.
Caelen dropped his sword, stunned. "What have you done…?"
> "I ended the war," Rael whispered.
> "You ended everything!"
Lumiera arrived, catching Rael before he hit the ground.
His eyes burned faintly.
> "I burned the flame… before it burned us all."
Above them, the sky began to still.
But time didn't fix itself.
Something else was coming through the Rift.
And the Echo—
Was no longer trapped.
---
End of Chapter 28