The Voidspire was gone.
Where it once pierced the heavens, only a crater remained—silent, scorched, and still humming faintly with magic. The storm clouds had lifted. Light filtered through the smoke like a new dawn.
Kaito stood at the edge of the crater, blade buried in the ground beside him.
He did not smile.
Victory was never supposed to feel like this.
---
Kaelyra wrapped a shawl around her bloodied arm and came to stand by his side. "It's over," she said gently.
"No," Kaito replied. "It's changed. That's all."
Behind them, the Ember Host was tending to the wounded, burying the fallen. There were no cheers, no celebration—only silence. The silence of survival.
Isha approached next, tossing Raien's sigil ring at Kaito's feet.
"It vanished with him," she said. "But I found this where he stood. Proof enough he's gone."
Kaito nodded, but said nothing.
---
Three days passed.
They returned to the rebuilt citadel of Lumerra—once ruins, now slowly breathing life again. Civilians trickled back. Market stalls re-opened. Flags of old empires were lowered and burned. In their place flew a new banner—an open hand holding a broken sword.
Not for war. For remembrance.
---
On the fifth night, the council met.
Survivors from the Nine Realms, mystics, former generals, kings without thrones. All waited for Kaito to speak.
He stood without armor. Only a traveler's cloak, worn and stained.
"I will not rule," he said.
Gasps. Murmurs.
"You rebuilt the world," one elder cried.
"And broke it once before," Kaito replied. "Let the people choose now. I've guided the blade enough. It's time to lay it down."
Kaelyra stepped forward. "Then let us become guardians of the peace, not its masters."
And so, the Concord of Flame was formed—a council of many voices, sworn to keep balance, not power.
---
Later that night, Kaito wandered alone into the garden behind the citadel.
The stars were quiet. The air tasted like rain that had not yet come.
Kaelyra joined him, silently.
He turned to her.
"I still see him, you know. In dreams. On battlefields."
Kaelyra nodded. "So do I."
"Was I wrong… not to kill him?"
"No," she said. "You gave him a choice. That's all anyone can do."
They sat beneath a tree—an emberfruit tree reborn from ashes—and watched as fireflies danced in the dark.
---
Elsewhere, far beyond the shattered spire… something stirred.
A crack in space.
A breath in the void.
And a whisper:
"The blade has fallen… but the shadow remembers."