The wind above the Singing Dunes was altered.
It no longer sang with secrets.
It shrieked with alarm.
Kaela sensed it first. She came to a stop in mid-stride as they passed out of the destroyed Shrine, her sword arm jerking—not from terror, but from reflex. Yuuto observed her face cloud over like a thunderhead.
"What is it?" he asked.
She did not reply. Not in words.
She spun, and hurled him behind a stone pillar just as a jag of silver lightning tore through the air.
It hit where Yuuto had been—shattering the rock into molten splinters.
Yuuto leapt to his feet. "No warning at all?!"
Kaela drew her sword, gaze locked on the figure now drifting down from the dunes—floating. Cloaked. Hood pulled low. Not sand, not wind, not sky dared approach him.
The man stepped down with silence.
And smiled.
"I hoped for better," he said, his voice as slick as glass.
Kaela dropped into a defensive crouch. "You. Would be dead."
Yuuto blinked. "Wait, you know this guy?"
The man lifted his hand and peeled back his hood.
His face was deathly pale. Ageless. His eyes blazed with twin inverted Brands—glowing with the same light as Yuuto's mark, but cold. Controlled.
"Hi, Kaela. I notice you've exchanged regrets for wards." He looked at Yuuto. "And you. The First Brand. You don't understand what you bear."
Yuuto snarled. "Then tell me, discount Final Fantasy villain."
The man laughed. "My name is Ceyrion. I am the Warden of the Hollow Flame."
Kaela's voice shook—not out of fear. With anger.
"You were a Seeker. You vowed to the Flame."
Ceyrion advanced. "And I remained true to my vow. I am seeking the truth. And the truth is: this world is a dead body masquerading as alive. Your Brand is not salvation. It is the matchstick that will spark the end."
Yuuto's fists clenched. "So what—you're here to prevent you?
Ceyrion halted a few paces in front. "No. I'm here to give you an option. Come with me. Discover what the Starbrands actually are. And I'll teach you how to endure what's ahead."
Yuuto glanced over at Kaela.
Her tone was cold steel: "He incinerated my mentor alive for his denial. He poisoned the Ember Guild. His truth is corruption."
Ceyrion's brow went up. "You still believe the world can heal if you struggle enough? Sweet Kaela. You always were the devoted one."
Yuuto moved forward, flames burning along his arms. "You want me? Fight me."
Ceyrion was disappointed. "No. Not today. The fire's too young in you yet. And you're too bound by your fear."
He spun, cloak swirling abnormally. "But soon, the Ember Throne will arise. And the sky itself will burn to uncover what lies beneath."
He disappeared—not with magic, but with non-being. As if he just wiped himself out of existence.
Yuuto let out a breath, trembling. "Okay. So he existed. That wasn't just some over-the-top fever dream."
Kaela holstered her sword. "Ceyrion doesn't bluff. If he's in motion, something's changed."
Yuuto gazed out at the horizon. "He called me a matchstick. But if he's so afraid of fire. perhaps we light it."
Kaela gazed at him then. Not merely as a friend. Not even as a Starborn.
But as something more.
"Then we make our move. Together."
They walked west—toward the brink of the Skybound Continent, where ruins of an ancient flame-forge still lay dormant beneath the cliffs.
Behind them, the Shrine smoldered.
And far above, from an unseen mountaintop, a woman with silver hair and a blade wrapped in black cloth whispered a single name:
"Yuuto."