---
[Scene Opens – The Road Beyond Sol'Enra]
The trio departs the golden silence of Sol'Enra.
Naerys now walks in sunlight without guilt.
Elara, though wounded, pushes forward — her gaze sharper than before.
Arav leads, sword at his side, his arm still streaked with golden veins from the Wyrm's bite. A permanent mark of defiance.
They follow a fading map carved into the leather of the Eye Keeper's Book — it pulses red now, guiding them toward the Red Sea of Prophecy.
---
[Scene: Descent Into Bloodrock Pass]
The land shifts. Trees wither. Soil darkens to crimson clay.
Wind whispers in unknown tongues.
Naerys (low tone):
"It's not a sea… It's a wound. Torn into the world by those who refused their destiny."
They descend into Bloodrock Pass, where the mountains bleed.
Every raindrop is red. Every rock carries symbols — names etched in old blood.
They arrive at a cliff overlooking an impossible sight:
A sea without water, made of slow, thick red liquid. Still. Bottomless. Whispering.
Elara:
"That's not water."
Narrator:
"No… it was blood. The blood of those who tried to rewrite fate."
---
[Scene: The Oracle Boat]
On the shore sits a small black boat, no oars, no sails.
Inside it, a hooded figure waits — face covered in writhing script.
The Oracle Ferryman.
Ferryman (voice ancient):
"One child of flame.
One shard of fate.
One who was never meant to be.
The sea waits."
They board.
As they float forward, the sea begins to whisper names — thousands.
Some belong to the dead.
Some… to them.
Naerys (hearing her name in the sea):
"It's reading our stories."
Arav (tightening grip):
"No… it's judging them."
---
[Scene: Temple Beneath the Sea]
In the center, they reach a floating island.
A temple carved from bone, its roof a web of ribs. In the center lies the Throne of Threads — a massive loom where threads of fate are woven.
Behind it, suspended in blood, is the Scroll of the Unwritten.
Only a Bearer of the Broken Eye may read it.
Arav steps forward.
His eye shard glows — a red beam connects to the scroll.
Visions explode.
> A war not yet fought.
A brother reborn.
Elara in chains.
A girl with raven hair… with the mark of the Eye.
Naerys dying in fire.
A door that should never open — but must.
He staggers back.
Arav (whispers):
"This… this isn't prophecy. It's a warning."
---
[Scene: The Truth of the Eye]
The Oracle steps beside them.
Ferryman (to Naerys):
"You were not only hidden. You were chosen… to die in Arav's place."
Naerys (calm):
"I know."
Elara:
"No. We're not doing this."
But the sea pulses.
The scroll curls itself and drops to Arav's feet — blank now.
A voice rises from the water:
> "Write your oath… or suffer your fate."
Narrator:
"Every Eye Keeper must choose — record fate, or reject it and pay the price."
Arav takes the scroll.
With his own blood, he writes:
> "I will forge my own prophecy. And no god, no sea, no Eye will dictate who I become."
The sea roars — furious. The water turns black.
The temple begins to sink.
---
[Scene: Escape and Revelation]
Elara grabs Arav's arm.
Elara (yelling):
"Time to go, hero!"
Naerys tears a symbol into the boat's hull — it flares, forming a red winged shield.
They leap.
The sea explodes behind them as they race back across the bloodied waters.
But before they escape fully, a new vision burns itself into Arav's mind:
A city on fire…
Zia screaming.
And Kalo… with both Eyes in his palms.
---
[Scene: Aftermath on the Shore]
They land breathless.
Arav clutches the blank scroll — but it's not blank anymore.
One sentence now glows:
> "The Gate of Endings must not be opened."
Naerys (serious):
"Then we know where Kalo's going next."
Elara:
"And we know who must stop him."
---
[Closing Scene – A New Mark Awakens]
Arav's golden mark spreads.
His veins shine like cracks in porcelain.
Elara (eyes widening):
"You're changing again…"
He turns to her — the shard in his chest pulsing, the scroll fusing into his skin.
Arav:
"Not changing. Becoming."
---
End of Chapter 37
Next: Chapter 38 – The Twin Blades of Destiny
> Kalo moves to awaken the Final Gate. Arav must now face the truth behind the Eyes — and the original bearer who defied even death itself. In the ruins of Krael, two blades will clash — and one will break forever.