The foundations of power are always built on something sacrificed — or something buried alive.
The ground beneath Aurorium shudders.
It begins as a subtle tremble, barely noticed by students during morning drills. By midday, statues crack, candles flicker in reverse, and glyphs carved into ancient walls glow backwards — as if time is unraveling.
Mistress Elien gathers Kael and Lia in haste.
"Something beneath the Academy is waking. Something old — older than Aurorium, older than even the Flameborne Kings."
She produces a black sigil-seal: the Serpent Rune, one of the seven Forbidden Emblems, outlawed by the gods after the First Ascension War.
"I stole this from the Crownwatch archives. It opens the Echo Gate beneath the Obsidian Vault. What lies beyond is… not supposed to exist."
Kael, haunted by Riven's departure and the truth of the Flameborne fragments, agrees.
"If Aurorium sits on the ruins of forgotten gods, then that's where we'll find the truth."
Elien leads them through the faculty's forgotten wing — once the Thronewing, quarters for god-kings before they ascended.
They pass:
Petrified stairs, carved from obsidian bones.
Time-chains, broken relics that once sealed divine prisoners.
A silent echo, repeating one word endlessly: "Nameless… Nameless…"
They reach a door shaped like a serpent swallowing its tail. Elien presses the Serpent Rune to its center.
The door opens not into a room, but into a spiral of time itself — memories folded into space, reality humming with pain.
Kael hears screams — not with his ears, but from the memoryflame inside him.
"This place remembers. It remembers me."
They descend into the Crypt of Echoes, a hollowed underworld beneath Aurorium where divine prisoners were once sealed after the Sundering.
Everything is silent — but not empty.
Spectral remains litter the corridors: echoes of kings chained in soul-iron, masks worn by executioners who never aged, and whispers in dead tongues that Kael can understand.
"This was… a prison for kings. For gods."
Lia points out inscriptions etched into living stone:
"These aren't names. They're… memories. Encased in rock. Preserved like relics."
At the heart of the crypt is a colossal chamber — circular, lined with ancient throne-shards. In the center coils an unfathomable shape, like a serpent of glass and void.
It opens an eye.
"You have come. At last, you burn with the scent of him… the Ashborn."
The creature is Thysseros, the Serpent of Echoes — last of the Voidborne, and one of the first beings imprisoned by the Flameborne Kings. It has no mouth, but its voice seeps into their thoughts.
"This Academy… this Empire… all of it stands atop my prison. I whispered to your gods. They sealed me here. They built schools over graves."
Kael, trembling, demands answers.
"What am I? What is the godflame?"
The serpent rises, towering above them:
"You are not a weapon. You are a vessel of refusal. The godflame is not power — it is remembrance. It burns away lies, even divine ones."
"The Ashborn used it to burn through the myths of the gods. He saw truth — and truth unshackled him."
Kael sees visions:
Vaelorian burning celestial records.
Gods screaming as their histories are rewritten.
The Empire kneeling not out of love — but terror.
Thysseros hisses:
"The gods fear memory… because memory cannot be unmade."
While Kael reels from the visions, the serpent shifts its gaze to Lia.
"And you… daughter of forgotten oaths. You carry the blood of the Godbinders."
Lia is stunned.
"My family… we were archivists. Nothing more."
But the serpent shows her a buried truth:
Her ancestor, Eleryn the Veiled, bound the gods with words — the original Godbinder who scribed the Names into silence.
Her family hid this legacy, erased it from records to survive the Purge of the Thirteenth Tongue.
Lia collapses to her knees.
"Then the prophecy… the betrayal… am I—?"
The serpent interrupts:
"The betrayer is not the one who breaks the chain. It is the one who restores it."
Thysseros offers Kael a deal.
"Unchain me. In return, I will show you the memory the gods buried — the true origin of the Bone Crown… and of Seralyth itself."
Kael hesitates.
Lia warns him — releasing a Voidborne could shatter what little order remains.
But Kael's flame roars — demanding truth.
He reaches out.
The Serpent begins to uncoil, and the world trembles above.
"So begins the Undoing of Silence."
As Kael touches the Serpent's binding, students and instructors above look skyward.
The stars fracture.
Aurorium's great dome splits with a thunderous groan.
Seven beams of light erupt from distant corners of the world — each marking the awakening of a Firstborn Flame.
And in the north, across the Broken Crescent Sea, the Crownless banners reach the edge of Empire.
They chant:
"He unchains. We remember."