The Hollow Spire glowed gently in the ash-dusted dusk.
Silver lines pulsed along its surface, as though it were breathing—alive not with magic, but with memory. The marrow-bound book remained on the cracked throne, quiet for now. But it had stirred something older than any throne.
And the Council felt it.
---
Meanwhile: Deep Beneath the Capital
A quiet room of stone and metal. No windows. No time.
A man in a crimson coat stood before a wall of fire-lit glass. His eyes were covered with a dark band of cloth, yet he saw more than most.
"Begin the burn."
Council envoys behind him knelt. "The Ember Ward has been prepared, Lord Myrek."
He nodded slowly. "Then light the path. And send the Suppressor."
They bowed lower.
"No more roots."
---
Back at the Spire
Elric watched Tharan mount his pale horse again.
The old tutor gave one last glance toward the spire—neither warning nor farewell—then rode back across the ash-plain without a word.
Lira exhaled. "So that's it? He just leaves?"
Sylas shook his head. "That was the warning."
Cai spoke from behind them, voice thin. "He's not the fire. He's the match."
---
Hours Later: Inside the Spire
Roran and Marin worked to catalog what had surfaced from the marrow book's reaction—new names, flickering echoes in the stone, half-formed diagrams.
But Sylas wasn't helping.
He stood outside near the edge of the glowing runes, staring at the treeline.
He wasn't alone.
Serenith stood beside him, quiet.
"You're still hiding," she said softly.
"I stopped hiding the day Elric read the marrow book," Sylas replied.
Serenith nodded. "But you haven't decided who you are yet. He has. You haven't."
Sylas glanced sideways. "Did you come to push me back into the grove?"
"No," she said. "I came to tell you that the Council just awakened something worse than the Root. Something they buried deeper than memory."
He stared. "What?"
She looked out at the horizon.
> "The First Patient. The one who bore the Root… before it was a tree."
---
Dawn: The Ember Ward Arrives
They came without sound.
Ten figures. Cloaked in heat-slick red, faces covered with silver-etched veils. No horses. No smoke. Just presence.
The villagers near Redhollow fell to their knees in fear—not out of command, but because their minds began to stutter. Thoughts slid sideways. Names evaporated.
At the front of the line walked one figure taller than the rest.
A woman.
Her skin was gray like cooled ash. Her eyes burned not with flame—but with memory twisted wrong.
She raised one hand.
And the stone beneath the Hollow Spire's base cracked.
---
Inside
Elric gasped, stumbling as a surge of dizziness hit him like a wave.
The marrow book shook on the throne.
Sylas grabbed his shoulder. "They're suppressing thought. That's what Ember Ward does. They scorch memory from outside."
Elric steadied himself.
"Then it's time to burn back."
---