Orin reached for the shard.
The moment his fingers touched it, cold fire surged through his veins—not heat, but memory. Not his own.
He saw fragments. A towering Skyborn elder forging the anchors from the breath of dying stars. A great sea-snake coiled around the foundations of Vel'Serin. And the moment the Hollow Star first tore a hole through the sky, long before Orin was born.
The shard pulsed once, then dissolved into light and sank into his chest. The mark on his body changed—two stars now, joined by a curved arc of flame.
The second anchor was bound.
Across the Archive, Mira and Kaelen emerged from their own trials. Mira's jaw was clenched, her eyes wet, but she said nothing. Kaelen looked even more distant than usual.
"You saw something," Orin said.
Kaelen only nodded. "We all did."
The water trembled.
Seruin, the spectral guardian, reappeared—his form fraying at the edges. "You have touched the flame. And now… you are marked."
Orin stepped forward. "What do you mean?"
Seruin raised a hand, and above them, the waters tore apart. A shadow descended—a rift forming in the sea above, black and spiraling.
"The Hollow Star follows every anchor. Now that two are bound, its gaze sharpens."
The sea howled. The water around them shivered like breaking glass. From the rift above, tendrils of voidlight slithered down, latching onto the ruined pillars of Vel'Serin.
Kaelen swore. "It's trying to consume the Archive."
Mira drew her blade, its edge glowing in the ocean's gloom. "Then we make it let go."
They fought through the crumbling halls as the sea twisted around them, chased by echoes of the Hollow Star—beasts made of shadow and pressure, snapping at their heels.
Orin channeled the anchors' flame. His palms burned with light, and with a surge of will, he released a pulse of skyfire that repelled the nearest shadow.
"Through the breach!" Kaelen yelled.
They reached the exit just as the tidepass began to crack. The protective film flickered around them. The ocean was trying to crush them, to reclaim what had been stolen.
One last burst of energy—and they shot from the sea like arrows.
They landed gasping on the rocky shore, soaked and shivering, the Archive far below, lost to the deep once more.
Two anchors now pulsed within Orin.
The Hollow Star had noticed.
And the sky was no longer just watching.