Chapter 4 - chapter 4:Shard of the Flameheart

Blistering deserts tested them eastward toward the Scorched Isles, mirages promising water that dissolved to bone-dry stone. Flameheart Volcano dominated horizons, spewing rivers of liquid ash, air shimmering with lethal heat-haze. Thorne's arm still blistered badly from Frostpeaks fractures; Lirael's salves of aloe-ichor and phoenix-feather ash proved miraculous salvation. Elias's transformations grew volatile—boar-eyes flashing crimson even by daylight—yet Lirael's touch grounded him like iron to lodestone. Whispers of love flowed freer around campfires; Thorne's gruff approval warmed their hard-won triad.Obsidian tunnels delved Flameheart's molten heart, birthing lava elementals in fiery swarms—golems of living magma, flames roaring from hollow eyes. Heat warped Thorne's axe-head red-hot; swings barely dented infernal flesh. Elias shifted mid-battle, boar-hide resisting hellfire as tusks toppled shrieking behemoths. A colossal guardian rose—magma heart pulsing like a dying star—engulfing Thorne in pseudopods, charring flesh to agony.Lirael hurled quenching vials of glacial essence; steam detonated violently, buying seconds. Elias charged blindly, tusks goring the pulsing core; obsidian rock rained like apocalyptic hail. Amid volcanic glass, the crimson shard gleamed triumphantly. Reverting gasping, Elias dragged Thorne's limp form free; Lirael staunched charred wounds with ash-mixed poultices, tears sizzling on blackened skin. "Hold on, damn you," she begged fiercely. Thorne rasped through pain, "Finish it... for all of us."Nights in cooled lava caves echoed their ragged breaths. Elias and Lirael consummated their bond fully—sweat-slicked, urgent, primal—drawing strength from shared vulnerability beneath earth's angry heartbeat. Maltherak's scorn echoed cavern walls: "Frail flesh falters before true eternity." Dawn saw Thorne stabilized on camel-back, healing slowly. Southward now, Shadowwood's eternal night beckoned—final trials looming.