The Fire Ember pulsed against Raine's palm, its heat seeping into her crystallized veins like molten truth. The Storm Plains had faded behind them, replaced by the howling winds of the Tempest Spirese-jagged range of mountains where the air itself was alive with the screams of forgotten storms. Kaios walked ahead, his silver hair flickering like a candle in the gale, his steps leaving no prints on the wind-scoured stone.
*'The Wind Ember isnt hidden,"* he said, his voice cutting through the tempest. *"It's imprisoned."*
Raine flexed her fingers, the Fire Ember's energy still dancing under her
skin. "By the Conclave?"
*"By the winds."* Kaios pointed upward, where the sky convulsed around a floating citadelits spires not of stone, but of solidified sound.
The structure pulsed like a heartbeat, its walls vibrating with trapped melodies. *"The Stormkeep. Where the Conclave harnesses the wind's voice to power their machines."*
A gust tore at Raine's cloak, carrying with it a whisper*"Run."*
She froze. The voice wasnt Kaioss. It wasnt human at all.
Kaios's hand clamped onto her wrist. *"Dont listen. The winds here are... aware."* His mismatched eyes darkened. *"And they're angry."*
---
The bridge to the Stormkeep was a nightmare of suspended harmonics, its planks not wood but coiled sonic waves. Each step sent vibrations through Raine's bones, tuning her to frequencies that made her teeth ache. Halfway across, the gale roared to life, and the bridge *screamed*.
The sound wasnt just noiseit was a memory.
*"Kaios!
The world dissolved into echoes.
---
*She stood in the Conclave's sanctum, watching as robed figures chained a writhing mass of air to an altar. The wind had a faceachild's, contorted in agony. Elders chanted, and needles of gold pierced the child's form, siphoning its essence into crystal vials. The last scream tore through the chamber*
*Then the child shattered into a thousand breezes, each one howling.*
--.
Raine gasped, back on the bridge. The vision had lasted seconds, but the winds grief lingered, sticky as blood in her ears.
Kaios's grip tightened. *"Now you see."*
The Stormkeep's gates loomed ahead,carved with runes that bled black smoke. As they crossed the threshold, the air stilledtoo still. The walls here were smooth, polished by centuries of captive zephyrs.
Then the whispers began.
*"Thief,"* hissed the rafters. *"Liar,"* moaned the floor.
Raines gloves crackled, the crystals reacting to the charged atmosphere."Where's the Ember?"
A laugh rippled through the halltight, cruel, and unmistakably *Elysas*.
The Conclave's agent stepped from the shadows, her emerald cloak fluttering as if tugged by invisible hands. In her grip, a dagger of condensed thunder crackled. *"Right where we left it."* She nodded to the ceiling.
Above them, suspended in a cage of dissonant chords, was the Wind Embera- shard of pure cerulean light, its glow dimmed by the oppressive harmonics.
*"Youre too late,"* Elysa purred. *'The Conclave already owns the winds."*
Kaios's snarl was barely human.*"You dont own anything. You just* steal*what you cant understand."*
Elysa's smile sharpened. *"And yet, who's the one in a cage?"* She flicked her wrist.
The Stormkeep *shuddered*.
The walls peeled apart, revealing the true horrorthe Wind Ember wasnt just imprisoned. It was *feeding* the citadel. Tendrils of blue energy snaked from the shard into the structure, powering the Conclave's machines. And wrapped around the Ember, like chains, were the remnants of the wind-child from Raine's visionits essence stretched thin, its voice a broken whimper.
Raine's blood turned to ice. "Youre *draining* it."
*"Were refining it,"* Elysa corrected. She raised her dagger"And youre trespassing."*
Lightning split the air.
Raine barely dodged, the bolt searing past her cheek. Kaios lunged, but Elysa was fasterher blade met his forearm, and time itself *stuttered*. Kaios' s scream was soundless as temporal energy ripped through him, his silver hair bleaching white at the tips.
*"Kaios!"*
Elysa twirled the dagger.*"Temporal disruptor. A little toy from our Rift experiments."* Her gaze slid to Raine'scrystallized arms.*"Speaking of experimentsyoute progressing nicely.""
Raine's gloves *burned*. The Fire Ember flared in response, its rage igniting the crystals along her skin. She didnt thinkshe *reacted*.
Her fist slammed into the ground.
The shockwave of fire and force shattered the floor, sending Elysa stumbling back. The harmonic cage trembledand for the first time, the Wind Ember *pulsed*.
The wind-child's voice echoed, weak but clear: *"Free... me.."*
Kaios dragged himself upright, his breath ragged. *"Rainethe cage is tied to the citadels core. Break one, break both."*
Elysa laughed. *"And bring the Stormkeep down on your heads? Try it."*
Raine looked at the Ember. At the child. At Kaioss bleeding arm.
Then she *leaped*.
Her crystallized fingers closed around the harmonic barsend the world*screamed*.
The crystals in her arms resonated with the cage's frequency, amplifying the dissonance a thousandfold. Pain lanced through her, but beneath it, she heard the wind-child's songa-melody of open skies and unshackled gales.
*"Hold on!"* she gritted out.
The Fire Ember answered.
Flames erupted from her palm, not destroying the cage, but *harmonizing* with it. The bars shuddered, then *sang*asingle, pure note that shattered the oppressive chords.
The Wind Ember *exploded* from its prison.
The Stormkeep groaned. Cracks spiderwebbed through the walls as the structure, deprived of its power source, began to collapse. Elysa's smirk vanished.*"You fools!*
Kaios grabbed Raine' arm. *"Move!"*
They ran as the citadel came apart behind them, the wind-child's laughter spiraling into the sky. The bridge disintegrated, but the Ember was therea- gust of pure force buoying them to safety as the Stormkeep crashed into the chasm below.
On solid ground, Raine collapsed, the Wind Ember cradled in her hands. It was warm. Alive.
And it *spoke*.
*'The water next,"* it murmured, its voice the sigh of leaves. **Where the drowned remember."+
Kaios exhaled sharply. *"The Abyssal Maze."*
Elysa was gone, swallowed by the storm. But her dagger lay in the rubbleit s blade still crackling with stolen time.
Raine picked it up. The metal seared her fingers, whispering of the Conclave's experiments, of Kaioss curse, of the Rift's true purpose.
She pocketed it.
The winds howled their approval, carrying a final warning:
*'They're coming."*
And in the distance, the sky *rippled*as if something vast had just opened its eyes.