They walked in silence for hours, the four of them threading through steam and scorched soil. The air got heavier the closer they drew to the Core Marker.
That night, they made camp in the shadow of an obsidian ridge.
Kaelira sat apart, feeding a controlled flame from her gauntlet—no wood, just heat curling from her palm like second nature. The Ashdrake coiled behind her, half-asleep, eyes slitted.
Darius watched her for a while, then finally broke the silence.
"You're not just a survivor."
Kaelira didn't look up. "No."
"You knew about the Nodes. About the Empire system. That means you were part of it before."
She said nothing for a beat, then replied, "Not part of it. Bound to it."
Rowan frowned. "That's… vague."
Darius stepped closer. "What were you?"
Kaelira's gaze finally lifted. The fire danced in her golden irises.
"I was one of the crowned," she said. "A Monarch. Chosen. I had a system like yours—but mine broke when the world did. When the last empire fell."
Darius sat across from her, his voice lower. "Why did it fall?"
Kaelira smiled, sharp. "Because we got too good at building. And someone—someone like you—cracked a core he shouldn't have. Opened a path that couldn't be closed."
He stared.
"You're saying I'm repeating it."
She didn't answer.
Instead, she fed another pulse into her flame and looked toward the horizon.
"You've got drive. Power. That system of yours is still green, but it's waking up things that were meant to stay buried. The moment you opened that second Node, it pinged systems all over this island."
Darius leaned forward. "So why help me?"
Kaelira met his eyes.
"I'm not. I'm testing you."
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