C49 THE FLAME'S INNER SHADOW

Elara drifted through unending blackness.

It wasn’t the kind of darkness that frightened — it was the kind that listened. Silent. Heavy. Alive.

Her body felt weightless, but her heart hammered as though it were still struggling to live. She struggled to open her eyes, to move, to breathe—but there was no air, no ground, only the whisper of something ancient stirring about her