The city of Veyra was built on the bones of a creature that never lived. Its spires, jagged and black, rose from the earth like the ribs of some colossal beast, their surfaces etched with runes that pulsed faintly in the dark. The air here carried the scent of iron and ozone, as if the sky itself had been split open and bled. Kael moved through the streets, his boots crunching over shards of glass that littered the cobbled roads. He didn’t look up. He never did.
The vault was beneath the Temple of the First Flame, a place where even the shadows seemed to hesitate. Kael’s fingers brushed the cold metal of the door, and for a moment, he heard it—whispers, faint as breath on glass. The Luminara’s voice. It had been speaking to him since he was a boy, a thread of sound that only he could hear. He didn’t know if it was real or just the echo of his own mind, but the vault was the only place where the whispers grew louder.
He pushed the door open. The air inside was thick, heavy with the stench of old magic. Crystals hung from the ceiling like frozen tears, their light flickering in time with his pulse. At the center of the room stood a pedestal, and on it rested a single shard of glass, no larger than his thumb. It shimmered with a pale, inner fire, and Kael felt the pull of it as if it were part of him.
He reached for it.
The moment his fingers closed around the shard, the room erupted in sound. A thousand voices screamed, overlapping, drowning out everything else. Kael stumbled back, his vision blurring. The walls trembled, and the crystals above shattered, raining down in jagged shards. He hit the ground, his ears ringing, and for a heartbeat, he saw it—the Luminara, not as a creature, but as a vast, shifting light, its form broken and bleeding into the air.
Then the door slammed shut behind him.
Kael didn’t move. The whispers had stopped. The city outside was silent, as if holding its breath. He clutched the shard to his chest, feeling its warmth seep into his skin. Whatever he had just done, it had changed something. He could feel it in his bones.
He didn’t know how long he lay there, but when he finally stood, the vault was empty. The pedestal was gone, and the air smelled of burnt sugar and fear. Kael turned toward the exit, his heart hammering. He had to get out. He had to find Mira.
She was waiting in the alley behind the temple, her coat pulled tight around her. Her eyes were sharp, assessing him as he approached. “You took it,” she said, not a question.
Kael nodded. “It wasn’t there anymore. The vault… it’s gone.”
Mira swore under her breath. “Then we’re out of time. The Luminara’s breaking, and you just helped it along.” She stepped closer, her voice low. “You think you’re the first to take from it? Everyone who has ever touched that shard ends up here, broken or dead. But you… you’re different. You heard it, didn’t you?”
Kael didn’t answer. He didn’t know how.
Mira’s expression softened, just slightly. “Come on. We need to find the others. If the Luminara dies, this whole city dies with it.” She turned and disappeared into the shadows, leaving Kael to follow, the shard burning against his palm like a brand.
The streets of Veyra were alive with tension. The air was thick with the scent of rain and something else—something metallic, like blood. Kael could feel the city watching him, its bones creaking under the weight of whatever was coming. He didn’t know if he was running toward salvation or destruction, but he kept moving, his hand tight around the shard.
Somewhere in the distance, a bell tolled. Not the city’s bells, but a different sound, ancient and terrible. Kael didn’t look back. He had no choice.
