*** The Lantern of No Flame***
The journey north began under a sky of shifting hues—green and violet streaked across the heavens like bruises healing in reverse. The land changed as they traveled, growing quieter, older, more watchful. Even the trees seemed to lean inward, as though listening to the whispers only Mira and her companions could hear.
They passed through villages where time bent strangely—where children spoke in riddles and elders dreamed of cities no map had ever recorded. These people welcomed Mira with reverence, offering stories in place of coin. One tale recurred more than any other: of a lantern that burned with no light, hanging beneath the ice of a glacier called Elan'kae.
"It is a gateway," said one seer, her eyes glazed with the Between. "A lock. A prison. A heart."
The glacier lay another fortnight's journey away. As they ventured deeper into the coldlands, a storm gathered—a storm not of weather, but of memory. Mira began to see flashes of the past: her mother's voice, the scent of old ink on Keeper scrolls, the moment she first touched the orb. And beyond those memories… visions of things she could not have seen. A woman in crimson robes, chanting in a forgotten tongue. A child with silver eyes, floating above the earth.
At last, they stood before Elan'kae.
The glacier towered into the sky like a blade of glass, veined with blue fire. No path led into it, and no sun touched its core. But at its base was a hollow in the ice—a tunnel that shimmered with inner darkness.
"This is it," Bram whispered. "The Lantern is inside."
As they stepped into the passage, the air grew warmer, not colder. Inside, torches lined the walls, unlit but flickering with some invisible energy. The ice here was translucent, showing scenes locked within like a mosaic: battles long past, ancient Keepers, the Tree as a sapling.
At the center of the glacier, they found the Lantern.
It hung in midair, encased in a cage of living ice. No flame burned within—but shadows moved. Around it, runes pulsed slowly, rhythmically.
Mira reached for it.
The moment her hand touched the cage, the shadows flared.
A voice echoed, not through the ears, but the soul:
"One has come to break the seal. One must stay to hold it closed. Choose."
The Lantern pulsed.
Mira turned to her friends. Lena stepped forward without hesitation.
"I'll hold it. You must go on."
"No," Elric said, stepping beside her. "Let me—"
But Bram held them both back. "It's not a decision for you. The Lantern knows who must stay."
The shadows moved again—and then stilled. The ice cracked. And the Lantern opened.
Light, for the first time, shone forth—not firelight, but memory. And truth.
What Mira saw changed everything.