Ashes of the crown

POV: Ariya 🔥🌘💭

The forest felt off.

Ariya couldn't explain it — not exactly. The air wasn't colder, the trees weren't darker, and nothing visible had changed. But she felt it. Like an itch behind her ribs. Like the world was holding its breath.

Like she was being watched.

They'd been traveling all day, moving southward along the jagged ridges where the map from the temple had pointed. Kael walked at her left, scanning the cliffs. Lyra was behind, reading the runes again and again. Jax rode a stolen horse in lazy loops around them, juggling apples.

"Anyone else feel like we're being followed?" he asked, tossing an apple behind his back and catching it midair.

"Always," Lyra muttered. "It's kind of our whole thing now."

"Not that kind of followed," Ariya said. "It's like... something knows where I'm going even before I do."

Kael glanced at her, his jaw tightening. "You dreamed again, didn't you?"

She hesitated.

Then nodded.

"Yes. But it wasn't the flame woman this time."

"Who then?"

Ariya stopped walking.

The mark on her collarbone pulsed like a heartbeat. Warm, sharp, steady.

"A man. Wearing a frost crown. I couldn't see his face. Only his voice…"

She swallowed, eyes distant.

"He said, 'You're not what they told you. You're not what you think.'"

Silence fell over the group.

Jax lowered the apple.

Lyra's eyes flicked to the mark.

Kael stepped closer. "That's the third time this week, Ariya."

"I know."

"And every time, the visions get stronger. You're losing sleep. You're losing balance."

"I'm not losing anything," she snapped — sharper than she meant. "I'm remembering. Something. Someone. And it's like my own mind doesn't want me to."

Kael's face softened. "We're not blaming you. We just… we're worried."

They made camp early that night in a sheltered grove.

Ariya sat alone beside the fire, letting her hand hover over the flame.

The mark glowed again — not painfully. But it was changing.

No longer just a single flame.

Now, two.

A flicker of blue beside the orange.

"What are you trying to tell me?" she whispered.

The wind rustled.

And just for a second, she thought she heard footsteps in the trees — light, careful, almost… familiar.

She stood.

"Kael?"

But it wasn't him.

Nothing answered.

Just the quiet rustle of leaves.

Still, her heart beat faster.

Something — or someone — was coming.

Meanwhile…

Lira pushed her horse harder through the winding pass.

The flame orb pulsed wildly in her satchel now, practically screaming toward its destination.

"Hold on," she muttered. "Just a little further."

But she was being tracked.

She could feel the presence behind her — not Frostborn soldiers, not Corven.

Something else.

Something cold.

"Ruvan…" she whispered. "What did you wake up?"

The ground shifted beneath her — the faint sound of cracking frost echoed through the canyon.

Then silence.

Too quiet.

Back at camp…

Ariya stood, her eyes scanning the trees.

A shimmer of frost sparkled across a single branch — out of place.

She stepped forward.

"Hello?"

"Ariya!"

Kael's voice called behind her.

But she didn't answer.

Her fingers brushed the edge of the frost — and in that instant—

A memory slammed into her.

A stone room. A cradle. A lullaby sung in a language of ice.A woman's voice — soft, kind.And then fire. Screams. The seal. A blue crown burned into a child's skin.Her skin.

Ariya fell to her knees, gasping.

Kael caught her just before she hit the ground.

"Ariya?! What happened?"

Her eyes were wide, distant.

She whispered, "They lied."

"Who?"

"Everyone."