Echoes of Ruin
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The flare shifted as it traveled, flashes of deep blue, ash gray, forest green, ember red, obsidian black, and radiant gold.
Six colors. Six founders.
It pulsed once as the circle closed, then sank into the ground, leaving only a faint shimmer in its place.
There would be no visible wall. No towering barrier of fear.
Just a heartbeat.
A protective echo that recognized, responded to, and remembered us.
I called it The Emberbound Circle, because that’s what we were. Bound not by blood or title, but by fire. By the trials we’d survived, the vows we’d made without speaking.