g, and the protective runes etched into the town's stone perimeter walls glowed a dull red-fractured, unstable, barely holding together. Liora stood amidst the d

st time, Liora didn't flinch from the tension between them. --- Later That Night – The Healer's Tent Liora couldn't sleep. Outside, the wind howled softly through the broken trees. Inside, the healer's tent smelled of lavender and old magic. Dalen sat by the fire, grinding herbs. His hands moved mechanically, but his mind was far away. "You knew this day would come," Liora said quietly. He nodded once. "Not like this. I thought I had more time to prepare you." "You should've told me." "I tried," he said gently. "In lessons. In stories. But I feared that if I told you the truth too early, you'd run-or worse, you'd try to awaken it alone." She wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "I still don't understand what I am." Dalen looked at her then, eyes tired but fierce. "You are the last ember of a dying flame. And if you go out-so does the hope of restoring what was lost." She didn't know how to answer that. So instead she asked, "What was my mother like?" He smiled faintly. "Bright. Fearless. Too much fire in her for the world to hold. She was everything the Flameborn were meant to be." Liora blinked back tears. "And my father?" Dalen hesitated. Then: "He wasn't one of us. But he loved her. That was enough." --- At the Edge of the Village – Kael's Watch Kael sat atop a half-broken watchtower, sharpening his blade in slow, methodical strokes. The night air was colder than it had been. Or maybe that was just his thoughts. He heard footsteps behind him and didn't need to look to know who it was. "You don't sleep either?" Liora asked. "Not when there's a hole in the sky and half a village burned down." She sat beside him on the edge, dangling her legs over the dark drop. The stars above were clearer now-the storm had passed, leaving only a crisp silence. "You grew up with the Wardens?" she asked. "Not exactly. My parents were hunters. Warden scouts took me in