🌫️ Thalum Borderlands – Lume Gate Threshold
Teleportation into Thalum was never precise.
The Lume storms shifted coordinates, fractured time-windows, and sometimes sent unlucky travelers days behind or ahead. Grim, Max, and Sparks rematerialized inside a half-buried ruin—once a checkpoint, now a skeleton of cracked stone and vines humming with soul residue.
Sparks emerged first, flickering mid-air with glitch trails behind her.
"This isn't the drop point," she muttered, static in her voice. "We're off by at least 2.3 sectors."
Grim rose slowly, scanning the terrain.
The wind here whispered. Not with sound—but with memory. Every gust carried weight, like echoes of battles that had never been recorded.
Max stepped forward, cloak flaring behind him. "Someone's watching."
"I know," Grim replied. His hand hovered near his sword.
But no enemies came.
Just the wind.
And beneath it… a thrum. Low. Rhythmic. Like breathing.
🔥 Thalum Wildlands – Lume Sink Valley
Hours later, they descended into what Sparks identified as a "Lume sink"—a hollow where pure energy once pooled but now lay dormant. A mistake, she said. They should detour.
But Grim felt pulled.
Not by instinct.
By memory he didn't own.
"I've seen this place," he said aloud, stopping at the edge of a stone basin marked with spirals.
"No, you haven't," Sparks replied. "It's been buried for centuries."
Grim didn't answer.
He stepped forward.
And the moment his boot touched the inner circle, the ground shivered.
🜂 The Heart of Flame – Undiscovered Cavern
The collapse was instant. The ground split, swallowing Grim in a roar of heat and light. Sparks screamed his name as she blinked between corrupted projections, her code scrambling to follow him.
Max lunged—but he was too far. He cursed under his breath and vanished into shadow.
Grim fell.
Not far. But deep.
He hit stone, rolled, and staggered to his feet in a dimly lit cavern where the air burned, but didn't sting.
There was no fire.
Just heat—and silence.
Until a voice spoke, ancient and cold.
"I wondered which of the four would return first."
Grim spun, sword half-drawn—
—and froze.
Coiled in the center of the chamber was a dragon.
But not just a beast of wing and flame.
Its body was stone and ember. Its eyes, molten memory. Its chest rose and fell like a breathing mountain, and its horns twisted like forged iron set in divine fire.
Grim couldn't move.
Not from fear.
From recognition.
The dragon's gaze pierced him.
"You carry their flame," it said. "But it is not whole.
And the one who bore it first… was not you."
Grim stepped forward slowly. "You know who I am?"
The dragon's laugh was low and echoing.
"You are Solace.
But you are also the echo of something greater—
The remnant of a twin line. One soul, divided. Rewritten.
And forgotten."
A silence deeper than death fell.
Then the dragon closed its eyes.
"Tell Sparks… the tether breaks soon.
And if the wrong flame is reignited… the world burns again."
🌑 Above Ground – Max and Sparks
Max stood over the broken earth, waiting.
Sparks finally recompiled beside him, her glow faint.
"He's not dead," she said softly.
Max didn't move. "No. But something else just woke up."