Fire in Her Eyes

The stairs spiraled downward into silence.

Stone by stone, torchlight by torchlight, Michael and Elisa descended into the buried heart of the Arderyn ruins. The air grew heavy with magic and memory — like the walls themselves remembered everything.

And something… watched them.

---

“I wasn’t always this angry,” Elisa muttered.

Michael glanced sideways. “You hide it well.”

She smirked, then her face softened.

“My mom used to say I burned too hot for one lifetime. That my blood remembered things my mind didn’t.”

Michael raised a brow. “Reincarnation?”

“She believed in it,” Elisa said, voice dropping. “And in fate. And in this place.”

They reached a chamber lined with glowing crystals and an old mural — a red-haired warrior woman wielding a flame-tipped spear beside a man with twin blades.

Michael froze.

“She looks like you,” he said.

Elisa stepped forward. “She was my mother’s obsession. She thought this warrior lived thousands of years ago… and that I’m her reincarnation.”

Michael whispered, “Then we’ve done this before.”

---

The floor cracked open beneath their feet — revealing a vault chamber pulsing with golden-red energy. A platform rose in the center. Floating above it: a glowing pendant, forged in the shape of a dragon’s eye.

“Elisa—” Michael warned.

But she was already walking forward, eyes drawn to it.

The moment her fingers touched the pendant, flames erupted around the platform, and visions struck them both:

---

🌀 FLASHBACK: The Fall of Flamehold

A great city burned.

Two warriors stood at its gates — Michael and Elisa, in past forms.

Betrayed by their own kind. Hunted for their power.

A dark figure — robed in shadows, face cracked with light — raised a sword made of screaming souls.

Elisa fell protecting Michael.

He roared, unleashing an explosion of fire and ice that wiped the city from the map.

---

🧠 Return to Reality

They gasped in unison, collapsing to their knees.

Elisa clutched the pendant. Her eyes glowed faintly. Fire sparked off her skin like embers rising from her soul.

Michael steadied her. “You okay?”

“I remember…” she whispered. “I remember dying.”

Michael’s grip tightened on his blades. “Then this isn’t just fate. It’s a loop.”

---

Suddenly, the vault walls lit up — and a holographic message appeared, projected in swirling fire.

A woman’s voice spoke in Latin:

> “Si hoc vis videre, tunc iterum fuistis renati.”

(If you see this… then you have been reborn.)

> “You are the Dracari — wielders of elemental soul. You were hidden in flesh to escape extinction.”

Michael and Elisa exchanged looks.

> “Seek the Shard of Balance. Without it, the fire and frost inside you will consume one another.”

Then silence.

---

Suddenly — BOOM!

The chamber shook.

A group of black-cloaked soldiers dropped from the ceiling — their faces covered, their weapons dark with smoke.

Michael drew both blades instantly. “Looks like someone doesn’t want us remembering.”

Elisa grinned, her pendant blazing. “Good. I needed to let off some steam.”

They fought together, like muscle memory. Michael slashed with elemental precision, his fire blade dancing with her flames. Elisa’s punches ignited shockwaves, her kicks sent tremors through stone.

One soldier lunged for her — but she caught him midair, eyes blazing red.

> “Ardebis.”

(You will burn.)

And he did.

---

The last body hit the floor.

Michael sheathed his blades slowly. “That pendant… it unlocked you.”

Elisa exhaled steam. “More like… reminded me. Who I was. Who I am.”

“And who we were.”

---

As they turned to leave, the pendant emitted one final pulse — casting a map in golden flame across the wall. A floating city above a sea of clouds.

“The Shard of Balance,” Michael whispered. “That’s our next stop.”