The black sands shimmered with heat, the air thick with ash as Kael and Elara trekked toward the star. The Great Veil loomed above, its ghostly faces silent but watching, their hollow eyes glinting in the fractured sky. The Living Veil Sea’s distant waves growled, red embers flickering like dying stars. Kael’s embered veins pulsed faintly, his phoenix flames itching to burn, but he kept them in check, Elara’s warning echoing in his mind: Every time you burn, it feeds. His tattered red scarf snapped in the wind, his orange eyes fixed on the star ahead, a beacon of hope in the dark.


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