Chapter 38: Palace of Embers
The city of Ravengarde had changed.
Once built on flame and stone, it now stood in ashes and silence.
Banners of Zerath fluttered from every wall.The gates bore Serana's sigil — not Kael's.
And from the center tower, where Kael once declared war on the heavens…the Flame of Reclamation was now nothing more than a cold crater.
Kael moved through the city in silence.Ashendawn on his back.His flame wrapped in cloth.
He did not come with an army.
He came with a reckoning.
The Throne Room
The doors were open.
Serana waited.
Armor white.Hair unbound.Eyes… tired.
Kael entered without a word.
She smiled.
"Still alive. I suppose the gods really did favor you."
The Confrontation
Kael stood before her.The same place they once stood together —when she had sworn her loyalty to him in fire and blood.
"You opened the gates," Kael said.
"I did."
"You killed the council."
"I did."
"You sided with Zerath."
"…No."
Truth Revealed
She stepped down from the throne.
"Zerath promised peace. Promised order. Promised you would burn the world."
Kael said nothing.
"I didn't betray you to destroy you, Kael. I betrayed you… to save you."
[Serana's Secret]
She received visions from a broken shard of the Soul Mirror.
In those visions, Kael destroyed the world. Not Zerath.
She believed she could delay that future… by giving Kael something to fight for.
Herself.
"I became your enemy," she whispered, "so you'd stop becoming the thing I saw in the visions."
Kael stared at her.
Then drew Ashendawn.
"Then I'll show you the truth.Of what I am.And what I'm not."
Duel of Flames II: Serana
The second great duel began.
Kael vs. Serana.
Not imposters.Not copies.Not fragments.
But two souls torn by purpose and fate.
Steel met steel.Flames clashed.Walls cracked.
Serana fought with perfect memory —every lesson Kael had ever taught her,every move they'd ever practiced…used against him.
The Ending
Kael disarmed her.
She fell to her knees, blood on her lips, eyes burning.
"Do it," she said.
"Prove the visions true."
But Kael didn't move.
Ashendawn hovered over her throat.
And then—
He lowered it.
"I don't need to prove anything to a future that hasn't happened yet."
He turned, leaving her alive.
And with that—
Ravengarde was reclaimed.
[Ravengarde Restored]
Public opinion split.
Serana imprisoned, not executed.
Title regained: High Flamekeeper
Ashendawn leveled up: Flame Memory unlocked (lets Kael revisit key moments in others' lives).