{"ops":[{"insert":"The Fire That Crept on Silent Wings\n\nAt first, no one knew where the fire came from.\n\nIt began as a flicker on the horizon. A farmhouse burned. Then a watchtower. Then an entire village disappeared beneath a sky turned red. The people blamed lightning, war, angry gods, anything they could name.\n\nBut the fire kept spreading.\n\nAnd while the world stared into the flames, the dragons came.\n\nThey did not announce themselves. They did not roar from distant mountains. They crept in on silent wings, one by one, hidden among the smoke and ash. By the time anyone realized they were there, the sky was already full of them.\n\nThen came the first great beast.\n\nScourge of Valkas.\n\nAnd suddenly, every dragon that followed brought another wave of fire.\n\nThe fires multiplied. The dragons multiplied. The dead rose from the ashes only to become fuel for something far worse. What began as a single spark became an inferno that fed upon itself, each flame creating the next.\n\nAnd somewhere in the chaos, Tor Wauki the Younger simply smiled.\n\nBecause this was never a battle.\n\nIt was an ignition sequence.\n\nThe Thrumming Stone had awakened, and the Dragon's Approaches began to ripple through the world like a curse written into the very fabric of fate. One spell became four. Four became more. Five vanished into the ashes, and in their place came another dragon.\n\nThen another.\n\nThen another.\n\nBy the time the survivors understood what was happening, there was no longer anywhere left to run.\n\nThe world wasn't burning because someone started a fire.\n\nThe world was burning because the dragons had arrived.\n\nAnd nobody ever saw them coming.\n"}]}