They emerged from the crystal chamber in silence. The fragment of the First Moon pulsed behind them, still spinning slowly in its cradle of light. Kaela's fingertips burned where she had touched it. The mark on her skin still shimmered, faint but steady, like starlight trapped beneath her flesh.
Seralyn hadn't said much since the sigils changed.
Now, as they stepped through the winding archways of Velcrath, Kaela broke the quiet.
"So," she drawled, "dreaming about kissing your enemies, huh?"
Seralyn froze mid-step.
Kaela didn't look at her, just kept walking. "Bold of you, considering I still haven't decided if you're trying to stab me or seduce me."
"Do you always run your mouth after nearly dying?" Seralyn snapped.
"Only when I survive," Kaela quipped, her voice too casual.
Seralyn caught up, eyes narrowed. "It was a vision. We didn't choose it."
Kaela arched a brow. "Didn't feel very accidental."
They passed under the skeletal arch of an ancient bridge, the runes carved along its spine glowing faintly as they stepped beneath it. The city no longer felt like a husk. It felt like it was aware, as if it had tasted their presence and now hungered for more.
Velcrath's ruins towered around them, casting long, ink-dark shadows. They wound their way through alleys overgrown with crystal moss, walls that wept memory, doorways that blinked when you weren't looking.
Seralyn's footsteps slowed. "Do you think the visions mean anything?"
Kaela sighed. "Everything means something. The question is, what do you want it to mean?"
Seralyn didn't answer. Instead, she stared at the place where their sigils had pulsed together, right after they touched the moon fragment. The same glow still flared faintly beneath her skin.
Kaela didn't press further. She didn't have time to unravel Seralyn's tangled emotions—hers were messy enough.
Then the silence broke.
Not with sound, but with absence.
The breeze stilled. The soft hum of Velcrath faded. Even their footsteps seemed to hush themselves.
Kaela's hand fell to her dagger. "Something's coming."
Seralyn drew both her curved blades. "I feel it too."
The mist coiled around them again, not thick but dense—like smoke that didn't rise, shadows that didn't need light. It moved in ways mist shouldn't, dragging with purpose, curling like tendrils.
Then came the voice.
Low. Insidious. Familiar.
Kaela... Seralyn...
Kaela hissed. "Mind-wraith."
Seralyn turned in place, trying to locate the source. "From the old echo mirrors?"
Kaela nodded. "This whole city feeds off what we try to forget."
Suddenly, Seralyn stiffened. "Kaela—"
The world spun. Seralyn gasped and fell to her knees. Her swords clattered against the stone.
From Kaela's perspective, Seralyn simply crumpled.
But Seralyn wasn't in Velcrath anymore.
She was in her old home, watching it burn. Screams rang out from every corner of her memory. Her mother's voice. Her brother's laughter, cut short. A blood-soaked hallway. She ran, powerless.
Then the voice came again. You let them die.
Outside the illusion, Kaela cursed. She knew the signs. Knew how fast mind-wraiths could destroy a person from the inside.
She didn't wait.
Kaela sprinted toward the heart of the mist, sigil glowing. The mist peeled back slightly at her power, but the core was darker, colder—alive.
Then the wraith saw her.
It struck without warning.
Kaela's own memories slammed into her like a wave. Her father's death. Her initiation into the Dread Coven. Her failure to save the others.
The wraith whispered in her ear, You were always meant to be alone.
Kaela roared and pushed forward.
She reached Seralyn just as the wraith's tendrils began burrowing into her chest, feeding on her heartbreak.
Kaela slashed downward, her blade glowing bright silver. The tendrils hissed and snapped away, retreating into the mist.
"Seralyn!" Kaela grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. "This isn't real. Wake up!"
Seralyn blinked slowly. Tears streaked her face. "Mother…?"
"No," Kaela said, more gently now. "It's me."
The wraith howled, fury and hunger combined. It dove again, this time slamming into Kaela.
She screamed as pain exploded across her ribs, flung backward by the impact. She hit a crumbling wall with a bone-jarring crack and slid down, dazed.
Seralyn staggered to her feet, blades trembling in her grip. The mist thickened around her, feeding off Kaela's blood.
The wraith turned its attention toward her now, but Seralyn didn't run.
"You want pain?" she snarled. "Come get it."
She raised both blades high. Her sigil flared.
Then she cut—not just through the air, but through the veil itself. The mist recoiled, unraveling in a blaze of violet light. The wraith shrieked, exposed, vulnerable.
Seralyn lunged.
One blade plunged into the heart of the shadow. The other sliced across its face, tearing the illusion open.
The creature screamed once more, then shattered into sparks.
Silence returned.
Kaela groaned.
Seralyn dropped to her knees beside her. "Hey—don't move."
"Too late," Kaela rasped. "Already did."
Seralyn pressed a hand to her bleeding side. "You jumped in again. Idiot."
"You needed help," Kaela muttered.
Seralyn's voice cracked. "You could've died."
"But I didn't."
Kaela's fingers curled around Seralyn's wrist. "You were worth it."
Seralyn stared at her, unreadable.
Kaela chuckled weakly. "Unless you were hoping I'd die."
"I'm not," Seralyn said, almost too quickly.
Then, softly, barely audible, she leaned down.
"Why do I care if you live?"
She whispered it like a secret she didn't want the city to hear.
Kaela didn't answer.
She was already unconscious.
But her fingers still held Seralyn's wrist.
And in the faint glow of the sigil marks across their skin, a new pattern began to form.
Velcrath, ever watching, approved.
And waited.