Fragments of a Fallen Star

The stench of burnt flesh still lingered in the air, thick and acrid, clinging to the damp stone walls. 

Kael didn't want to look at them. He didn't want to see the charred remains of those who had once toiled alongside him.

They were all dead. In an instant. Ten Soulless now burnt to a crisp. They had been fighting for their lives, for the lives of their comrades, and yet none of it mattered.

Kael stood there, his body aching from the blast, his mind too numb to truly process what had happened. The cavern, once echoing with the sounds of a desperate battle, had fallen silent. Only the crackling of dying embers filled the air, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

Though they never spoke, they were still people. People who had fought beside him. People who had bled beside him. People who, like him, had been born into this life of harsh labor and desperate survival.

They were gone now. Gone where, he couldn't know. The only way to truly understand death was to face it yourself.

Their charred bodies littered the ground, their once-human forms unrecognizable, disintegrating into the very dust they had spent their lives mining.

Kael took a step forward, his foot dragging through the ashes. He felt the weight of their absence pressing on his chest, suffocating him. His gaze drifted over the bodies.

Elysia, lying motionless, just outside the ring of flames. His heart skipped a beat. Was she...?

No. He couldn't afford to think like that. Not yet.

Kael lifted a pickaxe, laying just outside the perimeter of the flames. It burned to the touch, but Kael used that pain to focus his thoughts. 

He was still standing. The only one left still standing. 

If he wanted to survive, he would have to defeat the beast himself. 

The gem pounded like a second heart against his chest, and energy surged throughout his body. 

He approached the beast, which was still stumbling from its injured leg. When it spotted Kael approaching, it roared.

"It's just me and you, beast. You've caused enough destruction. I'll give you a painful death for this."

He charged.

*******

Elysia was drowning in a pool of darkness.

The cold grip of it was suffocating, wrapping itself around her mind and body like a vice, pulling her deeper into oblivion. 

The sounds around her were distant, muffled, a series of faint murmurs that she couldn't quite decipher. Her thoughts were sluggish, disjointed, like pieces of a puzzle that wouldn't fit together.

Every breath she attempted to take was met with resistance, a brutal, choking sensation. Her chest heaved, desperate to draw in air, but it was like the very air itself had turned to stone, pressing in on her from all sides. 

Everything was spinning. 

Her body felt disconnected, floating in an endless void, torn between the agony of trying to breathe and the strange pull of the darkness that seemed to offer a kind of relief. It was almost soothing—this numbness, this peace.

But it would be over soon. She could sense it. Then the pain would be gone. 

In her final moments, as the world around her faded into shadow, Elysia thought of her family. Or rather, the family she imagined she once had. 

A father with hair graying at the temples and a smile that lingered on his lips, a gentle laugh that would fill the room. A mother whose voice was always soft and soothing, her hands warm and always offering comfort. A brother—loud, full of energy, always ready to pull her into mischief, a partner in crime.

Those things she believed she once had, before she'd woken up in this nightmare with no memories of her past. 

No one else could remember their lives before, but she felt confident that her family was out there somewhere, just waiting for her to return home. 

Maybe now, she finally could.

Just let the darkness take you. 

"ELYSIA!" A voice called out, breaking through the muffled sound barrier. "Hey…hey…are you alright? Elysia? Can you hear me?"

Elysia could feel her head being picked up, and the warmth of someone's breath on her face. 

Using all of her strength, she opened her eyes.

And she was back in hell. 

Fire burned around her, casting the cavern in orange and red hues. 

Ryker knelt over her, looking down with concerned eyes. "Elysia?"

She tried to speak, but her throat was raw, the words refusing to form. Her lungs burned as she gasped for air, every breath like sandpaper.

"Out of my way," Lucian said, getting down next to her. "You've been burned pretty bad. Besides that, and what looks like a nasty cut on the back of your head, I think you'll survive."

Tuck stepped into her view. "We'll guard the two of you while he gets you fixed up."

"D…" Elysia coughed as soon as she tried to speak. Her throat felt as dry as sand. "Are…are the others…?"

"All dead," Lucian responded, not looking up from his work. "Except Kael. That idiot's still fighting."

"Duskborne?" How the hell is he still alive? 

Ever since the newborn had arrived, things had been changing too fast for her in the mines. For over a year she'd been leading these people to many successful exchanges with the officials.

But now? Everything was going wrong. 

Her head spun, but she couldn't look away from the devastation. The others were gone. Kael was the last one left. And everything, everything they'd worked for, was slipping away.

The world was falling apart.

Kael Duskborne was her last hope.