The moment her fingers brushed the seal, Elara's vision blurred.
She fell through light — not flame, not shadow, but memory. Ancient, living memory.
When her feet touched ground again, she stood atop a battlefield scorched beyond recognition. Towers lay crumbled in the distance. Stars burned unnaturally close in the sky, bleeding light as if mourning what was lost.
Rows of warriors stood locked in combat — flame-born and shadow-marked.
At the center of the chaos was a woman, cloaked in fire and grief.
Isolde.
Younger, yet unmistakable.
She stood at the Gate, surrounded by wounded allies, her face streaked with ash and tears. Beside her was a man — the one from Elara's earlier vision. Her father?
He gripped her hand, pressing something glowing into her palm — a shard of starmetal.
"It's not just a key," he whispered. "It's a cage. If we seal it, we seal them — but we seal ourselves too."
Isolde nodded, fighting tears.
"I'll stay behind," she said. "I'll anchor the memory. One day, someone will come. Our daughter."
Flame surged around them as the Hollow Star — a colossal, shape-shifting being of endless shadow — descended like a black comet. Its voice was like the unraveling of time.
"You think light alone can undo what I've woven?"
Isolde turned, face defiant.
"No. But love can."
She thrust the shard into the Gate. Magic exploded outward — light and shadow twisting violently.
The battlefield dissolved — the warriors gone. The Gate fractured, casting parts of itself across the world, and the Hollow Star was pulled, screaming, into a place beyond space.
And then—silence.
Elara gasped, stumbling back into her body. The shard floated in her palm, warm and humming with power.
Her companions stared.
"You were gone for minutes," Kael said.
Elara looked at the shard, her voice low. "It's not just a seal. It's a promise. A sacrifice."
Lysar nodded grimly. "And there are more."
Elara tucked the shard close to her chest. "Then we find the rest — and we finish what they started."
As they turned to leave the chamber, Seris stopped them, tense.
"Someone's coming."
Boots echoed in the tunnel.
From the dark emerged a young woman, pale-haired, robed in twilight-blue — eyes sharp and knowing.
"I'm not your enemy," she said.
Kael raised his blade. "Then what are you?"
She smiled faintly. "I'm the one who can lead you to the second shard. But only if you're ready to see the truth about your flame."