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The Ashen Cure
Author: YATES
last update2025-08-20 04:23:08

The night was thick with ash. Smoke curled through the shattered halls of what was once the Crimson Gate’s inner sanctum. Rey’s body still trembled with the aftershock of Kaelen’s weapon—the Dragonbane Plague. His veins burned as though molten lead flowed inside them, and each breath was a struggle between fire and suffocation.

Lyra knelt beside him, her hands glowing faintly with threads of healing light. But even her magic faltered against the black veins creeping across Rey’s chest and neck. His golden Flameborne aura sputtered, dim, as though choking under a shroud.

“Stay with me,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Rey, you have to stay awake. Look at me.”

He forced his eyes open. The world swam—walls bending, shadows twisting—but Lyra’s face remained sharp, her violet eyes steady despite the fear behind them. “It’s… spreading,” he rasped.

Lyra bit her lip. She had seen plagues before. She had seen poisons, curses, hexes… but this was different. The Dragonbane wasn’t just a weap
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  • Eyes of Sorrow

    The rebellion camp had finally quieted after days of restless movements. Crimson fires smoldered in the watchtowers, and Rey sat beneath the shattered banner of his ancestors, his hands clenched around the hilt of his blade. He had barely closed his eyes when it came.Not a dream—something heavier. A pressure, like molten iron poured directly into his skull. Darkness stretched, vast and endless, then coalesced into a single burning eye. Its iris swirled crimson and black, devouring the starlight.The Eye of Sorrows.Rey staggered inside the dreamscape, but his body remained locked in his bedroll outside. He heard voices—his enemies, his allies, his dead family—all screaming through the Eye.“Bow, Rey,” the voice of Solaria whispered, both honey and venom. “Or I will peel you apart from the inside.”Rey fell to his knees. The dream did not obey him—it bound him. He felt fire crawling into his veins, and then—he felt Seren.“Rey, don’t!” Seren’s voice came like a silver bell through the

  • The Ashen Cure

    The night was thick with ash. Smoke curled through the shattered halls of what was once the Crimson Gate’s inner sanctum. Rey’s body still trembled with the aftershock of Kaelen’s weapon—the Dragonbane Plague. His veins burned as though molten lead flowed inside them, and each breath was a struggle between fire and suffocation.Lyra knelt beside him, her hands glowing faintly with threads of healing light. But even her magic faltered against the black veins creeping across Rey’s chest and neck. His golden Flameborne aura sputtered, dim, as though choking under a shroud.“Stay with me,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Rey, you have to stay awake. Look at me.”He forced his eyes open. The world swam—walls bending, shadows twisting—but Lyra’s face remained sharp, her violet eyes steady despite the fear behind them. “It’s… spreading,” he rasped.Lyra bit her lip. She had seen plagues before. She had seen poisons, curses, hexes… but this was different. The Dragonbane wasn’t just a weap

  • Dragonbane Unleashed

    The chamber still reverberated with the thunderous echo of the Council’s verdict. Divine Rule. Solaria’s scarlet eyes glittered like twin suns behind storm-clouds, her monstrous wings stretching wide, throwing fractured shadows across the marble floor. For the first time in millennia, the Council bowed not to an emperor, not to a general, but to a queen they now regarded as divinity incarnate.Rey’s heart hammered in his chest, each beat like a war drum calling him to arms. He had stood frozen, watching the Council crumble beneath Solaria’s gaze. They had surrendered not just their power, but the will of the realm itself. His fists clenched. We fought, we bled, we rose against tyrants, only to be handed to a dragon in a woman’s flesh.But as the chamber emptied and the loyalists bent the knee, Rey felt something else stirring in the marrow of his bones. A coldness. A shifting. A shadow whispering on the air.“Do you feel that?” Seraphina’s echo murmured from the amulet against his che

  • The Ghost of Skavros

    The wind howled like an orphan through the ravaged cliffs of Skavros. Banners once proud, once gilded with the symbol of the Phoenix, now lay in tatters, dancing mournfully among scorched stone. Rey stood at the crest of the shattered ridge, the remains of his ancestral fortress silhouetted against a blood-orange sky. Emberclaw crouched beside him, silent, his molten eyes surveying the carnage below. “This... was your home?” Lyra whispered, stepping beside Rey. Her fingers brushed his hand, seeking warmth. Rey didn’t answer immediately. He inhaled the scent of the land—smoke, fire, dust, and decay—and it clawed at his lungs like ghosts demanding remembrance. A place of childhood laughter, of whispered lullabies from his mother Seraphina... now reduced to ruins. “Yes,” Rey said finally. “This is Skavros. The cradle of my bloodline. The heart of everything that was taken from me.” The Crimson Siege had bought them momentum. Flameborne banners now flew in rebel cities, and eve

  • The Crimson Siege

    The morning skies over the Flameborne camp glowed an ominous red—the kind of red that foretold bloodshed. Rey stood atop the rise overlooking Crimson Gate, his cloak flapping in the sharp wind, Emberclaw perched silently beside him. The sprawling city on the other side of the valley, once a bastion of the Empire's pride, now pulsed with anticipation, every watchtower bristling with archers and magitek cannons."It’s time," Zayne said behind him, armored and cloaked in war paint.Rey didn't answer immediately. He could feel it—something ancient in the stones of the gate, whispering warnings into his very bones.Lyra joined them. Her soul-purge ritual had left her changed. Her eyes glowed faintly gold, her voice deeper, her aura darker and more commanding. "We must move before nightfall. The rebels from the east are in position. The river flank is ready."Rey finally nodded. "Then let the siege begin."Part I: Thunder Before the StormThe Flameborne army descended like shadows—silent, p

  • The Emperor's Lie

    The sun was a dying ember above the horizon, staining the skies blood-red over the high cliffs of the Flameborne encampment. Tattered banners of resistance fluttered weakly in the wind, bearing the sigil of the reborn Drakar line: a phoenix wrapped in a serpent of fire.Rey stood at the edge of the cliff, Emberclaw sheathed at his side, staring into the valley below. Fires flickered across the land in distant villages razed by imperial scouts. He felt the pulse of every survivor beneath his skin now. The Phoenix Pact thrummed through his chest like a second heartbeat. Every wounded brother, every grieving sister, every hungry child... they were all threads in the tapestry of his power.Behind him, Lyra approached in silence, her steps cautious. She had shed the last of her empire-colored robes. Her silver armor gleamed faintly with dragon-vein etchings, symbols now etched into her very skin. She was Flameborne now—in body, heart, and spirit."You're too quiet," she said softly.Rey di

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