The second gate within the Trial Sanctum pulsed with quiet dread. Where the first had challenged Kaela's self-perception, the second radiated something far colder—something ancient, buried deep beneath conscious thought.
The council chamber had gone still since her return. Eylira had been the first to sense it.
"It's not just a challenge of the mind this time," she said, fingers resting on the glowing runes etched across the second gate's surface. "It's memory… but not yours alone."
Kaela stepped forward, her body still recovering from the internal duel of the first trial. The sigil on her forearm glowed faintly—evidence of her tether to Stage Four beginning to awaken. "Then what is it?"
Eylira looked up, her usually serene expression troubled. "It's a convergence. The gate will pull from all who enter—memories from bloodlines, battles forgotten, regrets unspoken. Not just your own history, Kaela. This trial wants legacy."
Brannic grunted. "Good. I've got ancestors who'll happily punch this place in the face."
Kaela gave a tired chuckle. "Let's hope they don't punch me."
Lucien was silent, standing just a pace behind her. His expression was unreadable. Not distant—restrained. She knew that look too well. Whatever memory the gate might unearth from him… it would be dangerous. And painful.
"Lucien," Kaela said quietly. "You don't have to come in for this one."
"I do," he said, tone low and final. "This is not just your trial. The Concord stands together. We rise together."
Kaela nodded. "Then let's go."
The gate opened like breath against ice—quiet, bone-chilling, and inevitable.
---
The Trial Realm II – The Memory Maw
They stood within a world of mirrors—endless panes of glass floating through a sea of darkness, each one glowing faintly with memory. Some cracked, others shattered completely. Some flickered as if resisting remembrance.
A voice greeted them, soft and ancient.
"To ascend, you must become more than a bearer of your past. You must carry the pain of others. Witness the truth of what shaped them. And survive it."
A mirror to Kaela's left rippled.
It showed her father's face—not as she remembered him, but younger, filled with arcane fury and desperation. She gasped. He was fighting someone—a council member from before her time. Her mother.
"No…" she whispered.
The mirror dragged her forward.
In the glass, Kaela relived the moment her father was exiled from an early Concord—when he chose forbidden arcana over unity, when he betrayed those closest to him for a spell that nearly burned through the veil itself. Her mother had stopped him—but barely.
Kaela staggered back, tears stinging her eyes. She had never seen it. Never truly known.
Another mirror flashed—this one for Brannic. He watched the fall of his original clan, consumed in a civil war they could've avoided if he'd stood up sooner. The guilt twisted his usually jovial face into something bitter and broken.
"Why show us this?" Brannic growled. "Why now?"
The voice answered. "Because these truths live in your soul. And your souls must survive entwined."
Lucien's mirror appeared next—and Kaela turned instinctively, but not before catching the glimpse of flames. Screams. A child's voice calling for help.
Lucien didn't move.
He stood rigid, hands clenched, silver eyes locked on the mirror. His expression didn't falter—but his body trembled.
Kaela stepped toward him. "Lucien…"
He didn't look at her. "This isn't your memory to carry."
"But I will," she said, voice fierce. "We carry each other."
Lucien's mirror burst into a wave of raw, uncontrolled magic—his past tearing open like a wound. Kaela was pulled in beside him.
They landed in a burning city—Ashros, one of the lost capitals during the Great Sealing War. Lucien stood over the body of a child—his brother. His family had been nobles who resisted sealing the Calamity. They paid the price. Lucien had been the only survivor.
Kaela watched it all, heart clenched.
Lucien turned to her, mask shattered. "I've never let anyone see this."
"I know," she whispered. "But now you don't have to hold it alone."
He fell silent. And then the vision faded.
-----
They returned to the mirror realm. The voice spoke again, but it was gentler.
"You accept not only your scars, but those of your kin. Then rise. Let the tether bind deeper."
Kaela gasped as her arm ignited with a second sigil—spiraling downward from the first, this one lined with veins of obsidian and flame. A second tether, fully awakened.
The others around her felt the shift—Lucien especially.
"You're closer now," he said quietly. "To Stage Four. One more tether."
Kaela nodded. "Then I'll break the next one, too."
But even as they exited the realm, she couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't over. That something in Lucien's memory still burned too fiercely.
Something unfinished.