**THIRD PERSON POV**
Dust hung in the air like smoke after battle. Crescent Vale was unrecognizable. Roofs collapsed, trees scorched black, the ground split where the vault once stood.
Somewhere beneath the rubble, Sage stirred.
Her lungs burned as she coughed in the dust, the taste of ash and blood on her tongue. The world was muffled. Like sound itself had been swallowed. When she tried to move, stone shifted around her, heavy and unforgiving. Her fingers brushed something smooth and warm beneath the debris…the relic.
Its faint silver-blue glow pulsed, answering the mark on her wrist.
She sucked in a shaky breath. “Still here…”
The relic hummed, and a small wave of energy rippled outward. Stones lifted just enough for her to crawl free. She blinked against the dim blue haze that fi
