They crossed the White Vale by dusk.
The snow behind them faded, replaced by rougher winds that howled through broken peaks. The terrain shifted—jagged cliffs and blackened stone. The wind tasted of ash.
The Stormlands.
Storms brewed not only in the skies above, but within the earth, beneath every step. Lightning flickered even when clouds were sparse. Thunder echoed from mountains with no name.
Here, the Core of Storm waited.
And something else.
Something watching.
---
Ruins of Aetherith
They arrived at the ruins of a city carved into the bones of the cliffs. Aetherith, once the cradle of storm mages, now lay in splintered stone. Towers cracked in half, sigils burned out. But the storm still danced above it—loyal, eternal.
"This was my father's city," Kael whispered. "He never spoke of it."
Aria touched the shattered walls. They hummed under her fingers. Not dead. Dormant.
Lior knelt beside a broken altar. "The air's too charged. I can feel it in my teeth."
"You're not wrong," Mira muttered. "The storm doesn't want us here."
"But we have to be," Aria said. "We need the Core."
---
The Gathering Sky
That night, they dreamt of lightning.
Each of them was caught in a memory—but not their own. Instead, they witnessed a massacre. A war above the clouds. Men and women wielding storm-fire, shouting words lost to time.
Then came betrayal.
A cloaked figure striking from within. The sky screamed. Towers fell. The Core of Storm was shattered, fractured into four pieces and scattered.
When they awoke, Aria was already standing.
"We need to find them. All four fragments."
Kael looked up, his voice hoarse. "And if the betrayer still lives?"
"Then we make sure they don't finish what they started."
---
Four Fragments, Four Trials
Fragment One: The Cliff's Edge
They followed a broken path to a lightning forked cliff. There, on a narrow outcropping, rested the first shard—glowing with thunderous energy.
But a stormbeast waited. A winged serpent, born of lightning and rage. Its eyes were whirlwinds.
Kael charged first, blade wrapped in flame. Lior distracted it with flashes of magic. Aria climbed the cliff face, fire pulsing in her palms.
In the end, it was Mira who struck the final blow—her dagger landing in the beast's eye just as a bolt of lightning surged through the sky.
The fragment pulsed in Aria's palm. One down.
---
Fragment Two: The Grave of Windcallers
Beneath the ruined amphitheater lay tombs. Bones of windcallers wrapped in tattered banners.
But the tombs did not stay closed.
Wraiths rose, voices echoing old chants. To pass, each of them had to speak truth:
"I am not what they made me."
"I choose who I become."
"I forgive myself."
"I still fight."
The wraiths bowed. The second fragment lit the room with a soft blue gleam.
Two down.
---
Fragment Three: The Unseen Tower
Only Kael could see it. The others wandered blind through the wind. The tower only revealed itself to those who had lost everything.
Kael walked alone.
Inside, he found memories carved into stone: his mother's hands, his brother's laughter, Aria's voice in the rain. He wept.
And then he climbed.
At the top, a shard of stormlight floated, untouched.
Kael touched it.
Three.
---
Fragment Four: The Mirror of Sky
A pool, too still to be water. It reflected not their faces, but their fears.
Mira saw her mother, begging her to join her in death.
Lior saw his village burning again.
Kael saw Aria dying, over and over.
Aria saw herself—crowned in fire, surrounded by ash.
They stepped through. Not around. Through.
Painful. But pure.
On the other side: the final shard.
---
Storm Reforged
The four fragments began to spin around Aria. The Emberheart and Ice Core glowed in unison.
"Three Cores," Lior whispered. "How is she still breathing?"
Lightning struck her.
She didn't fall.
The Core of Storm remade itself in her chest. The wind bowed to her. The skies whispered her name.
But with power came something else.
A memory.
A voice.
"Aria. My daughter."
She turned.
And saw her mother.
Alive.
---
Echo of the Betrayer
Her mother looked unchanged. Still dressed in silver battle-leathers. Still beautiful. Still wrong.
"You died," Aria whispered.
"I was taken," her mother replied. "By the storm. And I learned truths you weren't ready to hear."
Kael raised his sword. "She was in the vision. The betrayer."
Her mother smiled. "Yes. I broke the Core. Because the storm saw too much."
"You killed thousands!"
"I saved what I could. The Cores are not balance. They are chains. And your father helped forge them."
Aria's heart pounded. "Why show yourself now?"
"Because now, my daughter, you are the key to ending it all."
The wind screamed.
And Aria screamed back.