Aelira's scream echoed through the dark.
Her back hit stone, breath knocked from her chest. The skeletal hand had vanished, but its touch lingered like ice on her skin. The mark on her chest throbbed—angry, alive.
She was alone.
No light.
No Kaeln.
Just her, the whispers, and the damp press of earth all around.
Then, a voice—not from memory.
A child's whisper. Soft. Near her ear.
"Do you remember where they buried your bones?"
Aelira froze.
"I don't understand," she whispered. "I'm not dead."
A giggle. Hollow. It echoed down the tunnel.
"A part of you is."
She stumbled to her feet, heart slamming against her ribs. Her fingers brushed the wall—rough stone slick with moss. Each step deeper felt like sinking into her own grave.
She followed the voice.
---
The tunnel opened suddenly.
A chamber. Vast and circular, lit by an eerie violet glow from cracks in the stone ceiling.
At the center sat a pool.
Black. Still.
Its surface reflected nothing.
Aelira stepped forward, drawn without thought. Her reflection didn't appear—but someone else did.
A woman with silver-black hair. Violet eyes. A scorched dress.
Saelwyn.
She stood inside the pool, hands outstretched, mouth moving—but no sound reached Aelira's ears.
Then the reflection spoke inside her mind.
"You died for truth. Now live for vengeance."
The water rippled.
And Aelira remembered.
Screams. Fire. The betrayal of her sisters. The last face she saw before the flames took her—Kaeln's.
Aelira staggered back from the edge.
"No," she whispered. "I'm not her. I can't be—"
But the mark on her chest flared white-hot.
Magic exploded through the chamber.
The pool boiled. The ground split. And from the darkness, something rose.
---
Aelira turned to flee—but the tunnel behind her had collapsed.
She was trapped.
The thing that rose from the water wasn't Saelwyn.
It was bone and shadow, a creature made of forgotten curses and sealed memories. It had her eyes—but none of her soul.
It lunged.
Aelira raised her hands. Her magic obeyed before her voice could.
Fire bloomed from her palms. Not summoned. Remembered.
The creature screamed.
It vanished into smoke.
Aelira collapsed, chest heaving, hands smoking.
"That magic isn't allowed here," came a voice behind her.
She turned.
Kaeln.
His face was pale. His sword drawn. His eyes wide with something between awe and fear.
"You shouldn't have followed me," she said.
"I didn't. The forest brought me."
They stared at each other.
Then Kaeln said it.
"You're awakening."
---
They found the hidden stairwell behind the pool.
It led upward—toward the breath of wind, the scent of trees.
As they climbed, Aelira asked quietly, "What did I become... when I died?"
Kaeln didn't answer for a long time.
Finally, he said, "A myth. A warning. A prophecy."
She stopped walking. "And now?"
He looked at her.
"A reckoning."
---
They emerged back into the forest.
But not the one they left.
The trees were darker here. Older. Watching.
A stone obelisk rose from the earth, carved with runes that pulsed in time with her mark.
Kaeln stepped in front of her. "We're not alone."
From the shadows, cloaked figures stepped forward.
Hoods low. Hands glowing with restrained power.
One of them pulled back their hood.
It was Nessa.
But her eyes... were gold.
Like Vyra's.
Like fire.
Aelira's blood turned to ice.
Nessa smiled, voice strange and wrong.
"We've been waiting for you, Saelwyn."
---
Aelira took a step back, instinct screaming. Her hand lit with a flicker of flame, but Kaeln grabbed her wrist.
"Not yet," he said. "They're not here to kill you."
Nessa tilted her head. "We need her whole. For now."
Kaeln stepped in front of Aelira. "You won't take her."
Nessa laughed. It wasn't her laugh. It was older, crueler.
"Still playing the protector? Haven't you done enough damage?"
The ground beneath them trembled.
Aelira's mark blazed.
More cloaked figures stepped from the trees, surrounding them.
Aelira whispered, "What do they want?"
Kaeln's grip tightened. "They want to finish what they started."
Aelira lifted her chin. "Then they'll see what they awakened."
And with that, the forest caught fire.