The God's killer

Shadows Beneath the Flame Rekindled 🔥

Chapter 25: Shadows Beneath the Flame

The fire crackled at the heart of the camp, but the warmth it offered was thin a veil, not a comfort. Around the circle sat the ancient allies Kael and Lira had gathered, each marked by power and pain, yet none more conflicted than the one they watched in silence.

Kira, Flame-Warden, stood apart, her gaze fixed on the stars. Once, she had burned half a continent in rebellion. Now, she was quiet. Watching. Waiting.

Lira sat by the edge of the flickering glow, her eyes distant. The divine shimmer beneath her skin was brighter now, threading like silver veins across her bare arms. Her breath was steady but Kael, sitting beside her, noticed the tension she carried.

“She doesn’t sleep,” Kael murmured to Kira.

“She’s dreaming,” Kira replied. “Just not here.”

In the Dreamscape

Lira stood alone in a vast field of ash. Ruins of cities from lifetimes past rose like broken teeth across the horizon. In the sky, stars flickered and died, one by one.

From the darkness came whispers her name in languages long buried, in voices she once knew: gods, warriors, lovers, enemies. One voice cut through clearer than the rest.

> “You chose him. Even when the heavens turned.”

It was her former self a figure of light with violet eyes and golden armor, standing on a battlefield drenched in divine blood. Her past incarnate.

> “You turned on your kin, Lira. You severed fate. Do you remember why?”

Lira reached forward, aching for the memory. But just as her fingers touched the light

A blade of pure shadow pierced the dream, splitting the vision with a shattering sound. Blood red tendrils spiraled into the dreamscape. A foreign presence was invading her mind.

She opened her eyes with a scream.

Reality: The Assassin Moves

Kael caught Lira as she jolted upright, her chest heaving. He looked around. No danger visible. But the aether screamed. It wasn’t just a dream. Something had entered her.

Then he heard it: the soft crunch of leaves, too measured to be natural.

Kira’s sword was in her hand instantly. “We’re not alone.”

From the shadows between trees, Veyr emerged not attacking, not yet. Cloaked in living shadow, blades floating behind him like wings of obsidian, he regarded Lira with the tilted head of a hunter who had studied his prey for days.

“I gave you time to remember, Lira,” he said, voice distorted by magic. “I wanted you to know what you lost.”

Kael stepped forward, Ashbringer blazing into his palm. “You’ll find her memory far deadlier than her ignorance.”

The assassin didn’t flinch. “You shouldn’t be alive, Kael. But I suppose the gods were too afraid to finish it properly.”

He blurred, vanishing.

Steel rang. A blade clashed against Ashbringer then another struck from Kael’s blind side. Only Lira’s sudden burst of light stopped the third strike from reaching his heart.

Kira shouted a warning, unleashing a surge of flame that set the trees ablaze. But Veyr was gone again.

From the shadows, his voice echoed.

> “I will cut away her past, Kael. And when she forgets you, she’ll kill you herself.”

Whispers of Betrayal

Later, after the fire was contained and the assassin vanished into the night, tension thickened in the camp.

“Why didn’t you warn us?” one of the twin rangers hissed at Kira. “You knew something stalked us. You felt it!”

“I thought it was one of ours,” Kira muttered, avoiding Kael’s eyes.

“She hesitated,” the oracle said. “Because she wasn’t sure who she wanted dead.”

Kael stood. “Enough. This is what they want to divide us.”

But trust was already eroding. The twins slept back-to-back with arrows nocked. The oracle’s mutterings grew darker. Even Kira avoided Lira’s gaze.

Lira walked to the lake alone. The stars above had shifted.

Kael followed her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind, but she didn’t speak.

“Do you remember now?” he asked softly.

“I remember dying for you,” she whispered. “And I remember what it cost.”

Kael rested his forehead against hers.

“We’ll rewrite it this time,” he said. “Together.”

But in the distance, a hawk watched from the treetop. And in its eyes glowed the divine light of Xeruun.

The gods were watching.

And Veyr wasn’t done.