The silver cords fell away like threads of moonlight turning to ash. The Oracle stood slowly—graceful, yet terrible in the way still water hides great depth.
The moment the last chain touched the floor, a wind not of this world swept through the chamber. Scrolls unraveled. Books snapped shut. The light dimmed—but did not vanish.
"You've broken a silence kept for ten thousand years," she said, her voice no longer gentle. It had weight now. Presence.
Kael stepped back. "Are you free?"
"No," she said simply. "Freedom died the day the first throne was carved. But I am… moving again."
Selene gripped her blade. "What now? Do we run? Fight? Serve?"
The Oracle looked to her. "You follow. Or you fall."
Nareus whispered to Elira, "She was once mortal, like us."
Elira's gaze never left the Oracle. "She's not anymore."
The Oracle raised her hand, and the walls of the chamber shifted. Stone dissolved into dust, revealing a hidden stair spiraling downward.
"The throne awaits below."
Kael swallowed hard. "I thought it was east. In the capital."
The Oracle turned to him. "The one they built is a reflection. The true throne—the source—lies beneath this world. Beneath you."
He felt it then. Deep under his feet. A heartbeat in the earth. Slow. Immense. Old.
"What happens when I reach it?"
"You will understand why the cursed are chosen. Why memory is a weapon. And why every king becomes a corpse inside the throne."
The group hesitated at the stair's edge. The dark below was not natural. It pulsed.
Kael looked to his companions.
Selene gave a curt nod.
Elira reached for his shoulder. "We don't walk behind you. We walk with you."
Nareus added, "Someone has to write the truth."
Kael looked down. Then stepped forward.
One step. Then another. Into the deep. Into the cold.
The Oracle followed, her eyes glowing with futures no one had asked for.
Above them, the city of Vael'Aran began to shake—ancient statues cracking, moonlight flickering.
The world was starting to remember.
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End of Chapter 28
The veil is torn. The throne lies not in castles or kingdoms, but beneath the bones of the world. Kael descends now—not to seize power, but to face it. The end has begun to breathe.