The sea behind them churned with restless waves, but Harrow’s Watch was silent now - its darkness broken, its corridors cleared of the evil that once whispered through stone and shadow. As Lyra, Kaelen, and Admiral Everen stood on the deck of the Stormbreaker, watching the island shrink into the horizon, none of them spoke for a long while.

  The wind had shifted.

  Not just the sea breeze, but something deeper...an undercurrent in the air that made Lyra’s skin prickle. She knew that victory, though hard-won, came at a price. And though they had driven Maldrak back and sealed the rift in the depths, it felt like a wave receding before the storm’s next surge.

  Kaelen leaned beside her against the railing. "You’ve been quiet," he said, voice low. "Thinking about what he said?"

  She nodded, staring into the darkening horizon. "He didn’t just mean the darkness is eternal. He meant… it’s coordinated. We’re not just fighting scattered corruption anymore. This is becoming war."

  Behind them, the ship’s crew moved efficiently, but more somberly than before. Some had seen the Leviathan. Others had felt the rift tearing at their minds. All of them were changed.

  Everen approached, her coat flapping in the wind. "Council sent word while you were unconscious. There was an attack. Not here. Not in the mountains. In Emberwood."

  The name fell like stone in Lyra’s chest. "My home?"

  Kaelen stood upright. "What happened?"

  "A raid," Everen said. "Shadowbeasts came through one of the old mines nearby. Half the village was evacuated. But the Heartwood, the Emberwood tree itself...it was burned."

  Lyra didn’t speak at first. Her throat closed. The Emberwood tree had been old even when she was a child—rooted in the village square, its red-gold leaves a symbol of hope and heritage. The place where Seraphina used to read, where Lyra had learned her first time-spell beneath its shade.

  Kaelen gently touched her hand. "We need to go there."

  "No," she said, steadying herself. "We have to go there."

  ———

  Two days later, the ruins of Emberwood came into view.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  What had once been a quiet village tucked beneath golden canopies was now charred and gray. The homes, though mostly intact, were scorched. Smoke still curled from blackened timbers. The Emberwood tree was gone - only a hollow ring of ash and roots remained in the cracked stone of the village square.

  Lyra stepped off her horse in silence, her boots sinking slightly into the soot-covered ground.

  A young girl, no older than ten, peeked out from behind one of the homes. Others soon followed - villagers who had returned to sift through the ashes. Many bore signs of loss.

  One woman, an herbalist Lyra remembered from childhood, approached with a limp. Her eyes widened as she recognized her. "Lyra Emberwood… We didn’t think you’d come back."

  Lyra’s voice caught. "I should’ve been here. I’m sorry."

  The woman shook her head. "You saved so many. We just… we didn’t know the shadow could reach this far inland. The mine was sealed long ago, or so we thought. But they tunneled through the stone like it was paper. And the tree…" She looked away. "The tree burned for three days."

  Kaelen stepped beside her. "What’s beneath the mine? Is there anything magical? A rift?"

  The woman hesitated. "Not magical… not exactly. But something’s always been down there. Deep stone. Older than Eldoria, they used to say. The mine was abandoned after the echoes started—strange voices, knockings, tools moving when no one was near. We thought it was haunted. Now we think it was warning us."

  Lyra’s jaw set. "Then we go down."

  ———

  The mine was deeper than Lyra remembered. Much deeper.

  They descended with torches and lanternlight, the air growing colder and wetter the further they went. Kaelen walked ahead, blade drawn, while Lyra used the Heartstone to probe the shifting currents of magic that slithered through the walls.

  And then they reached it.

  A chamber carved from obsidian and streaked with glowing red veins, like blood through black glass. In the center, resting atop a jagged altar, was a stone—a new one. Smaller than the Heartstone. But it pulsed, faintly, with a rhythm that made Lyra’s stomach twist.

  Kaelen held up his sword. "What is it?"

  Lyra stepped forward slowly. "A fragment."

  She closed her eyes and listened. And for the first time, the Heartstone didn’t resonate in harmony. It recoiled. Whatever this was, it wasn’t made to heal. It was made to command.

  "It's part of something bigger," she whispered. "A dominion stone. A relic of control. Someone planted it beneath Emberwood years ago...maybe centuries...and waited for the darkness to awaken it."

  Kaelen cursed under his breath. "Then that raid… it wasn’t about the village. It was about activating this."

  "Yes," she said grimly. "And if this is just a fragment… then there are more."

  She lifted it with gloved hands and placed it into a lead-lined satchel. The moment it left the altar, the walls of the chamber groaned, and the magic in the air seemed to sigh, like a held breath finally exhaled.

  "We need to get this to the Council," Kaelen said.

  "No," Lyra said. "We need to get ahead of them."

  She turned, eyes fierce. "They’ve marked Emberwood. That means they know who I am. They’re not just hunting power anymore. They’re hunting me."

  Kaelen didn’t speak for a long time.

  Then finally: "Then let them come."

  And in the dark, under the bones of her childhood home, Lyra realized this was personal.