Three weeks had passed since the fall of Vaelus.
Brimhold was healing—slowly. Its towers were half-rebuilt, the Flaborn had begun training again, and whispers of hope echoed in streets once filled with screams.
But I hadn’t slept.
Not really.
Because the sky had changed.
Not visibly—but to a dragon, to a creature born from soul and fla—the sky felt wrong. Off. Like it had been touched by sothing too cold. Too still.
Sothing that watched back when I looked at it.
---
Visions from the Ash
Solin—the dragonling reborn from the Vault—had taken to silent ditation. Sotis he spoke, but always in fragnts. Other tis, he simply drew shapes in the dirt: stars, runes, gates.
He was young... and yet impossibly ancient.
One morning, he turned to and whispered:
> "The sky’s bleeding in the north."
"What do you an?" I asked.
His eyes glowed. "Another Vault. But this one is broken. Sothing ca through."
---
The Gathering at Emberwatch
Kaela, now promoted as the Flaborn Commander, called a eting at Emberwatch Keep.
Master Thorne was there—scarred but alive. So were the surviving drake-knights, war mages, and rune-tars.
"We’ve picked up storms—unnatural ones," Kaela said, pointing to a crimson map stretched across the war table. "From the northern cliffs near Coldspire. No dragons have returned from scouting."
"Because it’s not just storms," I said, stepping forward. "It’s sothing worse."
Thorne narrowed his eyes. "You’ve felt it too?"
I nodded. "Sothing’s opened another Vault—and let sothing through it."
---
The New Enemy
That night, a survivor arrived.
Burnt, broken, and barely breathing. One of the sentries from the northern watchtower.
He collapsed in our courtyard and wheezed three words before dying:
> "They... wear... dragons."
We burned his body with honour, but the words stuck.
Wear?
What could wear a dragon?
---
A Terrible Discovery
The next morning, Solin led us to a ridge overlooking the northern valleys.
There, in the distance, we saw it.
A creature—towering, skeletal, and grotesque—its body ford from the remains of three dragons. Wings stitched together with dark magic. Skulls fused like armor. Eyes burning with stolen fla.
It was alive. And it was hunting.
Behind it marched others—smaller, faster, so on four legs, so floating like wraiths, each one made from the dead.
Solin turned to us, his voice trembling.
> "The sky isn’t safe anymore.
They ca from the Rift between Vaults.
They feed on dragon essence.
They’re called... The Hollowed."
---
The Hollowed War Begins
We returned to Emberwatch and sounded the horns.
The Flaborn prepared for war again—but this ti, the enemy wasn’t a corrupted dragon god.
It was worse.
It was the unnatural.
These Hollowed didn’t just kill. They collected.
Every fla we lost beca part of their army.
Every soul stolen... beca another beast stitched into their growing swarm.
"We need allies," Kaela said grimly.
"Not just dragons," I added. "All kingdoms. All realms. Every Vault we can find."
Solin floated beside , glowing with celestial fire.
"There is one more you must seek," he said. "A fla deeper than yours.
Buried beneath the sea.
Hidden in chains of coral and grief."
---
A New Journey
We made our plan:
I would fly south to the Sunken Vault beneath the Aether Sea.
Kaela would lead defenses against any Hollowed scouts.
Solin would begin awakening the ancient Flabound Seals around the realm.
Before dawn, I left Brimhold once again—alone, wings stretched, flying toward waters that had swallowed empires.
The world was burning.
The Hollowed were rising.
And deep beneath the sea, a forgotten dragon stirred.
One who had been waiting for ...
The sea stretched endlessly beneath —no fla, no light, only shifting clouds and the occasional glint of moonlight off cold water.
It was not a place for dragons.
At least... not most dragons.
But I wasn’t like the rest.
And below , sowhere beneath those black waves, was a Vault built before the First Fla was even born.
> The Sunken Vault.
The place where fla drowned.
---
The Descent Begins
I landed on a jagged cliff overlooking the Aether Sea. Waves crashed violently, spraying salt into the air. Ancient stone steps—half-drowned by ti—led down into the surf. At their base, a stone gate jutted from the sea like the teeth of so long-dead god.
I took a breath and dove.
The sea swallowed instantly.
My fla dimd to a flicker.
Even my wings felt heavy.
And yet... the deeper I swam, the more I felt drawn—as if sothing below still burned.
---
The Vault Door
I reached it after hours of silent descent—a massive ring of black coral wrapped in golden chains, etched with runes that glowed faintly in the dark.
In the center, a carving: a dragon curled around a pearl.
The seal pulsed.
It knew .
As I touched it, the pearl glowed—and the golden chains slithered free.
A voice, ancient and soft, echoed through the water:
> "Only one born again may open what was drowned."
The Vault opened.
And I was pulled in.
---
The Drowned Fla
Inside, I erged into a world of glowing moss and drowned cities.
The walls were carved coral, pulsing with residual heat.
Flas burned underwater—sapphire and cold, flickering like trapped souls. Skeletons of old sea serpents floated in stasis. Forgotten weapons drifted in silence.
And in the center of it all—chained to a broken throne of glass and obsidian—was a dragon.
Her scales shimred like liquid moonlight. Her eyes were closed, her breath barely audible.
She was still alive.
> "Who dares..." she whispered, "...wake the Drowned Fla?"
---
The Dragon of Grief
I approached slowly.
"I’m Darian," I said. "Reborn from the last Fla Vault. The Hollowed have returned. We need your help."
Her eyes opened.
They were silver, ancient, and heavy with grief.
"I was called Thalyra once," she said. "Queen of the Aether Fla. Betrayed by my kin. Forgotten by the stars."
She looked past —to the waters beyond the Vault.
"I feel them... these Hollowed. Their hunger is familiar."
"They wear dragons," I said quietly.
She flinched.
> "Then my children have already fallen."
Her chains tightened. She hissed in pain.
"These bindings... I can’t break them. Not alone."
---
Unlocking the Deepfire
I stepped forward.
The pearl from the Vault gate hovered near her chest—glowing brighter now.
"I think this is the key," I said. "But I need your permission."
Thalyra stared at .
"You are Sovereign-born," she whispered. "But fractured. Your soul holds two truths: fire... and failure."
"I’ve made mistakes," I admitted. "But I won’t let another Vault fall. Not like before."
She nodded slowly.
"Then set free, Darian of the Last Fla."
I pressed the pearl to her heart.
Chains shattered in bursts of blue fire.
She roared.
---
The Deep Awakens
The sea above us trembled.
Thalyra rose—graceful, terrible, radiant. Her wings unfolded, sweeping through the water like tides of starlight.
"I feel my fla again," she growled. "I feel... purpose."
"Good," I said, smiling. "Because we need you."
From the far edges of the Vault, I heard it then—a chittering sound. A pulse of corrupted fla.
The Hollowed were already here.
---
The First Battle of the Deep
They burst in like a swarm—drake-sized monstrosities stitched from shark bones, broken wings, and drowned dragon fragnts. Their eyes burned black. Their screams were endless.
Thalyra t them with a roar, releasing a tidal wave of deepfire that boiled the water.
I joined her, spinning through the swarm with my claws ablaze, tearing through corrupted flesh.
Together, we danced through the dark.
Every kill made my fla burn hotter.
But every strike from them drained .
The Hollowed weren’t here to win.
They were here to stall.
---
A Greater Threat
As the last of the Hollowed was torn apart, the Vault trembled again.
This ti... not from battle.
From sothing waking.
Thalyra looked at sharply. "They found the Abyssal Seal. We must go—now."
"What is the Abyssal Seal?"
She shook her head. "The place where the First Fla failed. Where Vaelus buried sothing... that was never supposed to rise."
Suddenly, the sea cracked open with lightless fla.
A vast, shadowed shape moved beneath the world.
Even Thalyra stilled.
> "He’s unsealing the Rift Maw," she whispered. "We’re out of ti."
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