The mountain groaned.
Not from wind or stonefall, but something deeper. Something that hummed beneath the skin of the world. A sound like a breath held for centuries, now finally released.
In the lowest hollow of Mount Veilspire, nestled deep within the Vault of Silence, she stirred.
The Sleeper.
Her body lay cradled in obsidian roots, fused into a crystalline womb sculpted by rites older than the Kingdoms. The Vault's prison chamber pulsed faintly, veins of rune-light etching sacred chains through the walls, feeding on blood, memory, and silence.
But tonight, the silence broke.
Hairline cracks spidered across the smooth curve of the obsidian sarcophagus. A rhythmic hum pulsed beneath it, steady as a heartbeat growing louder.
Inside, her eyes remained closed.
But her mind?
Awake.
She wandered a place that should no longer exist.
A garden of light and fire. The Celestial Glen. Floating lilies wept flame over river-stones. The air shimmered with impossible color. Trees whispered songs only gods could hear.
She walked barefoot among the embers.
She wasn't dreaming.
She was remembering.
A man stood beneath the Skytree tall, broad-shouldered, fire in his gaze, sorrow etched into every line of his jaw. A scar curved down the side of his neck she remembered trailing it with her lips.
He had a name.
Kael.
Not the one they gave him. Not the Warden. Not the blade of the Order. Just Kael, once hers.
They had stood here once. Before the betrayal. Before the sanctum burned. Before they took their daughter.
Her vision flickered.
A cradle of embers. A child glowing like starlight wrapped in fire-cloth. Liora. Her heartbeat.
And then steel. Screams. Chains of divine silver. And Kael backing away.
Not fighting.
Not even screaming.
Just watching.
Her knees buckled.
The dream shattered.
Reality surged back like a tidal wave.
The Vault screamed.
Veins of rune-magic burst like blood vessels. Flames danced along the walls, licking at the ancient chains and glyphs. The roots recoiled as if ashamed.
And then her eyes opened.
Twin orbs of searing light. Not golden. Not red.
Divine.
The kind of light that turned angels blind.
She exhaled.
Ash rolled off her skin in soft plumes. Her dark hair tumbled down her back like a silken curtain, threaded with dying embers.
She stood inside the broken shell of her prison — tall, barefoot, sovereign. Her body hummed with unchained power. Her soul was still fractured, still reeling from millennia of sleep and sealed memory…
But her rage was clear.
So was her name.
"Seliora," she whispered to herself. "That was my name."
She placed a hand to her chest, right where the Order had once carved their sigil to seal her. Her fingers flared with light.
The scar was gone.
She had returned.
Elsewhere… in the Sanctum of Obsidian.
Far from Mount Veilspire, the monolithic Citadel of the Obsidian Order loomed above the world like a thundercloud turned to stone. Its towers were carved from volcanic glass, its inner walls lined with mirrors that reflected no light only truth.
Within the High Council's chamber, six thrones stood beneath a dome of dark crystal. The Elders shrouded in robes blacker than night sat in silence as the Mirror of Eyes pulsed between them.
And then… it cracked.
A clean fracture down the center and screamed.
Blood gushed from the eyes of the youngest seer.
The others staggered.
"By the Abyss," High Oracle Vexan gasped, rising from his throne. "She's awake."
The air shimmered. A low, ululating hum built in the walls themselves.
The Speaker of Chains clutched her staff, knuckles white. "That seal should have lasted another century. There were seven layers of soulbinding—"
"They've fractured," rasped the masked Ascendant. "She remembered. And the Warden, Kael touched that memory."
"No…" hissed Vexan. "The child. The girl the Harbinger failed to bring in. She is the key."
A silence hung.
Then, like thunder, the Grand Inquisitor rose. Seven feet tall and covered in obsidian armor etched with divine runes, he spoke only one word:
"Purge."
The chamber flared with sickly green light.
"Send word to the eastern outpost," Vexan ordered. "Mobilize the Bloodwards. If she's heading north, she'll need allies. Find them first."
"And the Harbinger?" asked the masked Ascendant.
"He was given one task," Vexan replied coldly. "If he failed then we cleanse everything."
There was a pause.
He said "Shall we awaken the Eclipse Engine?"
Even Vexan hesitated.
He said "Not yet. Not until we know what she's become."
Back beneath the mountain…
The Vault's upper chambers collapsed as Seliora rose through the levels. With every step, ancient enchantments failed. Chains turned to steam. Statues wept molten stone.
No longer a prisoner.
No longer a whisper in the dark.
As she emerged from the mountain's broken peak, the sky above ignited.
The stars flickered.
She stood beneath them, face raised to the cold wind, eyes glowing.
"Kael," she whispered. "You left me once. But now…"
Her fingers curled.
"…you will burn with me."
The first storm clouds churned above, and far to the north, Kael's heart stuttered in his chest.
He felt it.
He felt her.