Ashes of the crown

POV: Ariya 🔥🐉🌌

The night after the ruins pulsed with memory, the forest didn't sleep.

Ariya woke with the mark on her collarbone burning — not with pain, but with urgency.

The fire in the camp had gone out. The stars above looked sharp, too sharp. Like they were watching.

She sat up slowly.

"Do you feel that?" she whispered.

Kael was already awake beside her, his blade unsheathed. "Yes."

Jax mumbled from a nearby log, "If it's not breakfast or a hot bath, I don't wanna feel it."

"Something's moving," Lyra said, standing, eyes narrowed toward the direction of the ruins. "It feels… ancient."

"From the temple?" Ariya asked.

Corven stepped into view, quiet as a shadow. "It wasn't just memory buried there."

He looked directly at her.

"You called something."

They barely had time to grab their gear.

The trees began to groan. Roots cracked. Wind howled through the branches in low, growling tones.

The sky turned the color of embers.

Then the earth split.

From beneath the ground where the temple had once glowed, a massive shape tore free from the soil — stone and bone entwined, covered in ash and fire.

Ariya's breath caught.

"That's—"

"A Flame Sentinel," Corven said, voice reverent. "An elemental guardian. They were meant to protect the First Flamebearer."

"Protect them from what?!" Jax shouted.

"From everyone else," Corven said. "Especially traitors."

"So why is it coming at us?!" Lyra cried.

"Because it doesn't recognize you," he said grimly, "not yet."

The creature roared — a deafening sound like boulders grinding against each other, mixed with the heat of a wildfire. Its eyes glowed like molten coals, and its claws scraped deep furrows into the dirt as it charged.

"Spread out!" Kael shouted, dragging Ariya back. "We can't take that thing head-on!"

"We don't have to fight it!" Ariya yelled. "I think it wants something — a test!"

"Ariya, this is not the time to guess!"

But she had no choice.

The mark on her skin was glowing so brightly now, it lit the forest around her like dawn. And the Sentinel was charging straight for her.

She stood her ground.

"ARIYA!" Kael shouted.

She raised her hands — flame rising from her palms, not like fire, but like memory itself. Golden, ancient.

"I am not your enemy," she whispered. "I am your heir."

The Sentinel paused — inches from her — its molten eyes narrowing.

A hush fell over the forest.

"Prove it," the creature growled in a voice that wasn't voice at all — more like thought given weight.

"How?" she asked.

"Survive me."

The Sentinel reared back and struck the ground.

A wave of burning energy rippled outward — hurling Lyra and Jax back, blasting Kael into a tree. Ariya alone remained upright, shielded by the flame coiling around her mark.

But it hurt.

Every part of her screamed as her body absorbed the heat, her limbs trembling, eyes burning.

"Come on, come on—" she whispered. "Show me how—"

Then, as if something deep inside her snapped into place, she stepped through the fire.

Literally.

The flames parted around her.

Her power sang.

She moved like wind through wildfire, appearing behind the Sentinel and touching its back — not with force, but with flame.

"I am not here to destroy," she said. "I'm here to awaken."

The Sentinel froze.

Then slowly… it bowed.

Lowered its massive, horned head.

"You carry the crown," it said.

"Not yet," Ariya whispered. "But I think I'm meant to."

"Then I am yours… until the end."

The creature shimmered — and shrank.

Its body collapsed into burning stone, cooling into a faintly glowing shard. It floated toward her and settled in her palm.

The mark stopped burning.

But her heart didn't.

The others approached slowly, stunned.

"Did that thing just… join your team?" Jax asked. "Do we have a pet dragon monster now?"

"It wasn't a monster," Ariya whispered. "It was a memory."

"Of what?" Kael asked, brushing dirt from his arms, glaring at the smoldering crater.

"Of who I'm supposed to be."

Later that night, when everyone was asleep, Ariya sat alone with the glowing shard.

Corven approached silently.

"Well done," he said.

"I didn't do it for you."

"No," he said, smile thin. "But you did it."

He handed her something — a scroll sealed in frostglass.

"For the next step," he said. "The next ruin."

"Why are you still helping me?"

"Because soon," he said, "you'll have to choose between the people you love… and the fire inside you."

And with that, he disappeared into the trees.