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16
Ice and fire
<p>Chapter Ten</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>Warning Signs</p>
<p><br></p><p>Peace, no matter how pure, never lasts untouched.</p><p><br></p><p>And even the softest nights carry omens in their shadows.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>The sisters lingered in the ruins of Kareth, weaving their magic together in quiet practice. Where frost met flame, strange things bloomed: crystals that shimmered with living fire, steam that carried whispers, glowing flowers that pulsed with both heat and cold.</p><p><br></p><p>They were beautiful.</p><p><br></p><p>And unnatural.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>It began subtly.</p><p><br></p><p>Kaelara woke one morning to find the air around her brittle—too brittle. Her ice was forming on things she hadn’t touched. Seren noticed too; her fire flared hotter when she wasn’t angry, sometimes licking her skin without pain.</p><p><br></p><p>Balance… was slipping.</p><p><br></p><p>Then came the birds.</p><p><br></p><p>Hundreds of them, all black as shadow and silent as smoke, circling above the ruins in perfect spirals. They never landed. They never blinked. They simply watched.</p><p><br></p><p>Kaelara stared at them with unease. “Have you ever seen birds fly like that?”</p><p><br></p><p>Seren narrowed her eyes. “They’re not birds.”</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>That night, the sky wept fire.</p><p><br></p><p>Ash fell from the stars like snow.</p><p><br></p><p>Seren stood in the open, fists clenched. “It’s a warning. The Hollow Flame knows we’re together now. It’s adapting.”</p><p><br></p><p>Kaelara knelt by a pool of melted frost. Within it, she saw something impossible—a reflection of her mother. Elenya, pale and burning at once, lips moving without sound.</p><p><br></p><p>Then, in a single breath, her voice echoed through the water:</p><p><br></p><p>> “The bond will grow, but so will the price.</p><p>Beware the hollow that wears your face.”</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>The pool shattered into ice and steam.</p><p><br></p><p>Kaelara whispered, “She warned us.”</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>They didn’t sleep that night.</p><p><br></p><p>The wind carried whispers that no longer belonged to the trees.</p><p><br></p><p>And far beneath, the Hollow Flame listened.</p><p><br></p><p>It was no longer simply waking.</p><p><br></p><p>It was planning.</p>
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