Prologue

  "I remember this place... though it was so very long ago."

  My remaining eye settled on the deep scar that split the earth before me—a wound time had tried to erase. It hadn’t succeeded. Even buried beneath overgrowth and soil, I could still see it... feel it. That fissure marked the beginning. The first battle. The place where the old path ended—and this cursed one began.

  "I was never meant to carry this burden for so long." I raised my hand, palm open to the cold night air. A flicker of blue flame bloomed above it—soft, spectral, alive. I closed my fingers into a fist. The flame vanished. "And yet... here I am."

  The shadows stretched long around me, drawn in by the weak light of the campfire I had built. They pushed at its borders, watching. Waiting. They always waited, even now—after so many lifetimes. But the fire, faint as it was, still held them back. My tail swished in the dirt behind me, uneasy, restless.

  "This should have been passed on long ago. Someone else should have taken this weight." I stared into the darkness. "But there was no one. No one strong enough to face what was coming then. And now..." I shook my head slowly, the weariness clawing at my voice. "Now I'm not even sure I am."

  I leaned forward and reached into the flames. They parted around my hand without protest, wrapping around my fingers like silk. No heat. No pain. Just memory.

  "This was the place," I said softly. "The first battlefield. Our battlefield. Thalos and I. The last time I saw him as my brother."

  The fire began to shift and change, dancing to my will. The flames painted scenes in light and shadow—towering figures locked in battle, earth and flame colliding in a fury that scorched the sky.

  "Hours... days... weeks? I no longer remember how long we fought. Only that neither of us would yield. The earth answered his call even in betrayal... and the flame answered mine. It was not just a clash of power. It was a clash of belief. Hope versus despair. Creation versus corruption."

  My voice fell quieter, more solemn.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "But hope... doesn't burn as hot as it used to."

  I paused. The silence grew thick again, broken only by the soft crackle of the fire and the whisper of wind in the trees.

  "You didn’t come here to hear the ramblings of a tired relic, did you?" I looked up, meeting your eyes through the veil of flame. "You're here because something's happening. You feel it—just like I do."

  A gust stirred the branches. The shadows shifted.

  "It's always happening," I murmured. "It never truly ended. The cycle just changes its face. With time and technology, it's easier now—for them. For her. Easier to influence, to manipulate. To whisper lies sweet enough to become truth."

  I let the silence return for a moment. Then I smiled—a hollow, joyless thing that failed to reach my eye.

  "You don’t even realize it’s happening, do you? That’s what makes them so dangerous. That’s what makes her so good at what she does. This isn’t the first time, not even close. History only remembers the surface. The wars. The disasters. But beneath it all..." My smile vanished. "Beneath it, she’s always there. Seiryth. She Who Wears Faces."

  I tilted my head slightly, as if listening. "I came back because the Earth stirred again. You've seen the signs. Earthquakes in places where the land should sleep. Tides swallowing cities. Tsunamis more frequent than ever. But it’s not just the Earth, is it?"

  I closed my eye and bowed my head. A faint pain passed over me—like the echo of an old wound.

  "The ocean is quiet. Too quiet. And the wind..." My voice caught. "All I hear now is her. Whispering through the leaves. Crawling across the sky. You hear her too, don’t you?"

  You opened your mouth to speak, but I raised a finger to my lips.

  "Shhh. Just... listen."

  I lifted my hand and turned my ears toward the night, twitching slightly to catch every small vibration in the air.

  "There it is," I whispered. "That soft rumble. That low, crawling hum beneath everything. You don’t forget that sound. Not when the Earth speaks with a voice that once called you brother—and now calls you enemy."

  I opened my eye again and met your gaze.

  "It begins anew. The cycle. The great turning. But this time..." A deep breath. "...I don’t know if I can stop him."

  You asked me, quietly, who I meant. The wind stilled. The fire crackled in the sudden silence.

  "Right." I looked into the flames again, watching the stories they told flicker and fade. "To answer that... I’d have to go back. Farther than memory. Farther than my time. Back to when the Guardians still walked the world together."

  I stood slowly, joints cracking, armor creaking with age and strain. My shadow danced along the trees behind me.

  "Back to when we were whole. Before Thalos fell. Before Nyssara’s silence. Before Aeryneth vanished into the storm."

  Another pause. The night deepened.

  "It will make sense. Eventually." My voice was quiet now. Tired. But resolute.

  "And if it doesn’t... then maybe it’s already too late."