ncient glyphs-half-erased by erosion and time-still glowed faintly in the ashen light. Asha, Kael, and Lirien advanced in silence, accompanied by tw

hey move like fire beneath the earth. They never repeat their settlement. They never leave ro

elcome us now?" Asha asked,

replied without turning around. "Be

spoke

slightly, as if the world still breathed beneath their feet. Kael walked more slowly, his right arm now almost completely cover

flames stopped in mid-dance. In the center, a structure of molten rock served as an altar: a black, burnished spi

n Fire," Maeka announced. "Do not approach the al

white as the whitewash on the ceiling. His robes were embroidered with oxidized copper threads that

who remembers?" h

"Bearer of a Heart fragm

g moment, as if wanting to read he

r. Here we do not ask permissio

that old man did not resemble the temple's oppressors, nor the ash judges who sentenced with f

le to stand upright. "He is... changing. The obsidian is co

ied him without touching him. Then he

curse. It's

t mean?" Asha

ies. What you carry in your chest," she said, pointing to the ash shard Asha protected with a leather bandage, "is not just a heart. It's a key."

opped?" Kael aske

es," Ezkhar replied. "B

around the altar. One of them, a young woman with ash

he said. "But if we interrupt it wrong,

. His eyes were sti

will,"

d with a ritual knife he cut his palm. The black

he said. "Because we do

er of the circle, where the altar spire seemed to pulse, as if responding to h

her side,

g, it could soli

sha said, more to hers

tar. The air was filled with a metallic scent, as if time itself were rusting. Kael breathed heavily. His

r shard puls

synchronizing," Ezkhar

formed in the stone beneath Kael's feet. Not a cra

the altar, but

him now, he'll b

outed. "He's not a reli

s barely moved, but Ash

N

ntertwined, merging, like living ro

nce

ll to h

held him with both arms. Kael's body trembled, but his eyes were open. There

she wh

dded

still

a lump in

slower, as if each st

ving. For now. But

it?" Ka

re no longer just protecting the shard.

t a shadow of d

hether to feel rel

at should I do to preven

, and for the first

en all the Hearts are reunited can balance be r

at the shard hi

s was just t