The Final Flamebearer
The monastery had not screamed as it burned.
It had sung.
Stone walls, ancient and pockmarked with the soot of centuries, bled fire from their veins. The great brass bells melted into rivulets, pooling at the foot of the altar like spilled sun. Every flame flickered with a rhythm—as if listening, as if waiting.
And in the heart of the inferno, where the air bent with heat and the shadows danced like mourning spirits, a lone figure carved the last line.
The monk stood with bloodied knuckles before the wall of prophecy. His robes were nothing but cinders clinging to bone. His voice had long since failed, scorched away by chants carried into smoke. Still, his hand moved—etching sigils into blackened marble with the tip of a broken ceremonial blade.
"Let them burn… or let them awaken."
His hand trembled.
The flame around him leaned in.
This was no ordinary blaze—it was wordfire, the sacred breath of truth stolen from gods, kindled by betrayal. And the book at his feet—the Codex of the Hollow Flame—seethed with every carved syllable.
It whispered. Not in words, but in memory.
A battlefield wreathed in silver smoke.
A prince with fire in his mouth.
A city screaming its own name before it vanished.
Brother Olyss closed his eyes as the floor cracked beneath him, revealing a pit of coals that glowed like the eyes of dying titans. He lifted the Codex in both hands, though it burned his palms to the bone.
"Forgive me," he rasped. "I could not destroy you."
And then, he let go.
The Codex fell into the fire—not to perish, but to wait. It landed not with a thud, but with a heartbeat. And in that moment, the flames pulled inward, spiraling like breath drawn in anticipation.
The monastery collapsed in on itself.
Ash blanketed the land for miles. The wind carried embers to distant kingdoms. And in the centuries that followed, all who sought the Codex vanished, their names reduced to cauterized pages in forgotten lore.
But nothing truly forgotten stays silent forever.
And the Codex… had begun to dream again.
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