Prologue

To you, my heir,

If you are hearing me, then you have crossed the threshold and the wards have recognized you. That means my fire lives in you. You may not feel it yet, but it is there, waiting. I have been waiting for you.

I do not know how much of our truth has survived beyond these walls, so I will tell you myself. Not the way history will twist it, but as it truly happened.

The mortal kingdoms grew too fast. They took the land in smoke and iron, and the great races fell back into the shadows. Wolves hid in the deep forests and mountains. Vampires locked their doors beneath the earth. Witches and wizards vanished behind illusions. My kind, the dragons, slipped into the veils between realms. Six clans. Six elements. Six prides too old and too stubborn to bend.

Retreat should have saved us. Instead, it starved us of trust. Old grudges sharpened until they cut open the future. I saw it coming. So did three others. Cillian Hawthorne. Selene Nerezza. Alaric Everley.

We built Obscura Arcanum together. Not for crowns. Not for thrones. For knowledge. For peace. For the hope that if our kind learned together, they might one day stand together. And for a time… it worked. Wolves sparred beside witches. Vampires debated mages over blood-wine. Dragons taught flame and sky to those willing to listen. I let myself believe it could last.

My own kin proved me wrong. They feared the mingling of magic. They called me traitor. The first blood spilled was quiet, hidden behind accidents, but I felt every death. When I would not yield, they brought the war into these halls.

I fought until my wings bled. I saw students die before they could cast their last spell. I felt the air shake with the roar of my kind turning against me. When I knew we would not win, I sealed myself inside this house and went to the Ember Reliquary.

It is more than fire. It is memory. I gave it my last breath, my last spark, my last hope. I left a prophecy for the one who would come after me. For you.

The bloodlines were never meant to stand apart.

Flame buried beneath ash.

Fang bound by duty.

Roses bleeding in shadow.

Stars lost to the dark.

Generations fractured by fear and pride.

But blood remembers.

When the Four stand whole, the ground trembles.

What was broken rises.

Power forgotten reclaims its name.

Unity or ruin.

Choice or fate.

Balance does not wait.

If I could not stop the war, then it must be you who ends it. Rise from the ashes of six. Find the heirs of my dearest friends, the ones who stood beside me when the world began to break. With them, fulfill the prophecy. Restore what was lost.

You are the future of Aurelian House. You are the future of the dragons. And the ember remembers.

I will be with you, always.

Seraphine Aurelian