The fire burned low. The others slept.
Only Kaelira remained awake, eyes flickering with distant memory.
She closed them—and the past surged back, unwanted but familiar.
---
She had once stood atop the Citadel of Vex Aran, the seat of the high empire. The world hadn't yet torn itself apart. The skies were still whole.
Back then, Kaelira wore silver and obsidian—armor shaped by system-forged will. Her crown wasn't metal, but light, woven by her rank: Monarch-Class, Tier V – Echo Commander.
Below her, legions moved like clockwork—sentient constructs, Imperial Wielders, and Domain-bound commanders. She had command of it all. And it had made her dangerous.
> [System Directive: Expand. Enforce. Ascend.]
That was the law. That was the loop. The System only rewarded growth, conquest, perfection.
Until someone—an Emperor she had once followed—broke it.
He activated a Prime Node buried beneath the empire's heart. Something ancient. Something the system itself tried to erase.
It rewrote the rules.
It burned out every Monarch's connection, including hers.
---
Back in the present, Kaelira's hand curled unconsciously around the hilt at her side. Her gauntlet sparked. One memory refused to fade: the final scream of the system as it collapsed around her.
> [Directive Error – Crown Nullified]
[Status: Rogue Entity]
[Purge Order: Failed]
She lost everything.
The power. The certainty. The army.
All except one thing: the Ashdrake. A beast she had bound long before the collapse—now the only thing left loyal to her.
---
Darius stirred near the fire, watching her.
He didn't speak. But she could tell he was listening.
"You want to build an empire," Kaelira said softly, "but you haven't seen what it looks like when it falls."
Darius answered, "Then show me. Teach me how not to make the same mistake."
She looked at him—really looked—and something in her eyes shifted.
"You're not him," s
he said finally. "But the path you're on? It rhymes."
---