In the capital, King Alaric watched the horizon glow a sickly, permanent orange. "It isn't hunger," the court mage whispered, hands trembling over a scrying orb. "It is retribution. We have stolen his marrow, and now he comes to reclaim the debt in ash."
Captain Elara of the High Guard led the final, desperate stand at the gates of Aethelgard. She didn't use a sword—she knew steel would melt before it touched him. Instead, she stood atop the battlements with the "Silence Shard," the last remaining relic of the Dragon-Binders. Rage of the Dragon
Elara didn't flinch. She drove the Shard into the stone at her feet, triggering a wave of absolute cold. For a heartbeat, the dragon’s fire sputtered. In that moment of frozen silence, man and beast locked eyes. Elara saw not just a monster, but a grieving king of a dead era, looking at the thieves who had desecrated his rest. In the capital, King Alaric watched the horizon
With a single, massive beat of his wings, he took to the sky, trailing embers like falling stars. He returned to the peaks, leaving Aethelgard alive, but broken—a kingdom of ash that would never forget the cost of waking the fire. We have stolen his marrow, and now he