The air changed.
It wasn't hotter—just heavier. As if every breath Kael took had to ask permission first.
The shard in his pocket pulsed again. He followed the pulse, deeper into the cracked artery of the earth. The tunnel twisted—walls rippled like dried blood, the ground steaming beneath old scars.
Then, the path split.
One side pulsed faintly red. The other was pure shadow, cold and waiting.
Kael stepped toward the red.
His feet sank into ash that whispered beneath his boots. Each step felt louder than his breath. Time stretched thin.
Then, silence.
The chamber ahead bloomed open without a door. A vault of obsidian and ember veins flickering beneath its surface. And in the center—
A gate.
Half-formed. Burned on one side. Frozen on the other.
Kael didn't move closer yet.
Instead, the air moved for him.
A ripple formed before the gate.
A figure emerged. Not tall. Hooded. Robes black and gold, woven like smoke over bone. No face visible—only the shimmer of flame beneath the hood.
They didn't speak.
They didn't need to.
Kael reached into his cloak and produced the shard.
The moment it touched the air, the figure nodded once.
Then vanished.
---
The gate groaned.
Not like a door—but like a wound healing in reverse.
Kael approached.
He didn't question what he was doing. The logic had burned away back in the ruins. This—this was instinct. Echo. Flame echoing memory.
He placed the shard at the center of the gate.
Cracks spread. The surface shimmered, warping.
A doorway appeared—not into stone, but into something else.
Not glowing. Not humming.
But alive.
---
A whisper reached him—not from the gate, but from below his feet.
"Only those who've forgotten the fire… may reignite it."
Kael stepped through.
And the world turned red.
---
Outside the Flame Vein
Far from the tunnel, back in House Virdane, whispers had started to spread.
A servant claimed to see Kael vanish behind the ruins.
A nobleman loyal to House Tharnex scribbled down a report.
And deep in the shadows of Veiled Hollows, something stirred at the scent of ash rekindled.
---
Kael's entry into the Vein begins the process of Class Revelation, but it remains unnamed.
There is no system prompt.
No fanfare.
Only heat, and the memory of something older than system itself.