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Mariam Akorede Student @ Adekunle Ajasin university Akungba
Ibadan, Nigeria
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In Literature, Writing and Blogging 3 min read
Ice and fire
<p>Chapter Fourteen</p> <p><br></p> <p>The Final Descent</p> <p><br></p><p>The war above had ended.</p><p><br></p><p>But the heart of the Hollow Flame still burned below.</p><p><br></p><p>And only the sisters could face it.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>The entrance to the Voidspire was a wound in the world.</p><p><br></p><p>A blackened chasm wrapped in flame that didn’t flicker and shadows that didn’t move. It pulsed like a dying heart. It was not a place. It was a presence.</p><p><br></p><p>Seren and Kaelara stood before it—wounded, bruised, but resolute.</p><p><br></p><p>Behind them, the allied armies tended to their dead and wounded. The sky, though clearing, still held a crimson stain.</p><p><br></p><p>“I feel it,” Kaelara whispered. “Calling me.”</p><p><br></p><p>Seren nodded. “It’s inside us both. That’s why only we can end it.”</p><p><br></p><p>They descended—hand in hand.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>The Spire’s Depths</p><p><br></p><p>Inside, the walls wept ash. Faces flickered in the smoke—people they’d lost, versions of themselves they had feared becoming. Whispers clawed at their minds:</p><p><br></p><p>"She’s stronger without you."</p><p>"You don’t belong in this world."</p><p>"Let go. Be free."</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>But they held on to each other.</p><p><br></p><p>Through fire that sang of destruction.</p><p><br></p><p>Through cold that tried to freeze their hope.</p><p><br></p><p>Until they reached the heart.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>There it was.</p><p><br></p><p>The Hollow Flame.</p><p><br></p><p>Not a beast.</p><p><br></p><p>Not a god.</p><p><br></p><p>But a void made of broken promises and lost balance. It wore their mother’s face, twisted and hollow, eyes burning with false light.</p><p><br></p><p>It spoke in a voice that sounded like Elenya's, only wrong:</p><p><br></p><p>“You were born to be me.”</p><p>“You are too powerful together.</p><p>But apart… you are mine.”</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>The flame surged.</p><p><br></p><p>It launched itself at Kaelara—tempting her with isolation, with peace through detachment.</p><p><br></p><p>It wrapped around Seren—tempting her with dominance, with peace through conquest.</p><p><br></p><p>Their hands began to slip.</p><p><br></p><p>But then—</p><p><br></p><p>Kaelara remembered the memory in the skyglass.</p><p><br></p><p>Seren remembered the hill where they were born.</p><p><br></p><p>And both remembered their mother’s last words:</p><p><br></p><p>“The void cannot consume what is whole.”</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>They didn’t fight it separately.</p><p><br></p><p>They stepped into the Hollow Flame—together.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>Unity</p><p><br></p><p>Frost met fire at the core of the void.</p><p><br></p><p>Their magic spiraled upward like twin dragons—burning through the illusions, the voices, the pain.</p><p><br></p><p>The Hollow Flame screamed as it was unraveled.</p><p><br></p><p>Not destroyed by hate.</p><p><br></p><p>But dissolved by harmony.</p><p><br></p><p>The balance they represented was never a weapon.</p><p><br></p><p>It was a truth.</p><p><br></p><p>And truth, once whole, could not be corrupted.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>The void collapsed.</p><p><br></p><p>The Hollow Flame ended.</p><p><br></p><p>And light—pure and clean—</p><p>flooded the spire.</p><p><br></p><p>When the sisters rose from the ruins, the world breathed again.</p>

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